Teens vs. zombies, except no fun.
There are so many obvious things wrong withWorld Beyond, AMC’s blandWalking Deadspin-off for the youth.
The main characters are nice, brilliant, and boring.
Carlos Serrao/AMC
But they’re both smart junior chemists who love their dad.
They learn quickly from each other’s different perspectives, which suggests great parenting and blah writing.
Iris and Hope are teenagers with scant pre-apocalyptic memories, beyond the stray misery flashback of their late mother.
Nothing in the first two hours ofWorld Beyondsuggests the awesome possibilities of life in a calamity reality.
The main characters live behind walls on the old Nebraska State University campus.
InWorld Beyond, everyone has lost everything, and I don’t think I even spotted one single tattoo.
The campus colony has an alliance with the Civic Republic, a shadow coalition with helicopters and assault rifles.
An envoy named Elizabeth (Julia Ormond) flies in for handshake diplomacy.
He’s a scientist working on some mysterious something.
Hope worries her dad’s lost in the lion’s den.
You don’t get much sense of rich character dynamics ahead.
Iris asks Silas what kind of music he likes.
Different kinds, he says.
I get that Silas is shy, but that vagueness extends throughout the whole ensemble.
Sadly, she also has to describe herself as a strong, silent key in."
Here for the cool kills?
Been there, done that.
Really, was anyone asking for this?
Teenagers already have their ownWalking Deadshow, which is calledThe Walking Dead.
Was that all-ages appeal disturbing or hilarious?
Meanwhile, here’s another brownish-gray stroll through a grim forest of woe.
World Beyondis officially a two-season limited event."
That’s either a cool new storytelling model or a pre-cancellation.
I can’t decide if the connection’s quintuple-down mentality is desperate or savvy.
That’s a lot of eggs in one basket, years afterDead’s ratings peak.
But the core fandom is loyal.
And there are moments inWorld Beyondthat reflect some essentialDeadappeal.
Elton’s a sixth-extinction nerd who thinks humanity was always doomed, zombies or no.
His fellow survivors dream of normality: reconnection, repopulation, civilization rebooted.
Elton estimates 15 years until the last human dies so at least nobody onWorld Beyondever has to turn 30.
That prediction stuns Hope.
We’re the last generation?
Or the endlings, Elton says, As the last of a species is called."
Never underrate how theWalking Deadexperience reflected (created?)
Will the same thing happen here?
I worry the whole content strategy evolution toward Civic Republic-y continuity has strangled the franchise’s best instincts.
It’s too much world-building in a universe built on world-demolishing.
Still, theWorld Beyondpremiere fixes one major problem in the bloodiest way possible.
It won’t take long to see how much worse things get.Grade: C
Related content:
