The writers of The Walking Dead: Dead City seem determined to prove one thing: Women in this zombie-strewn universe are the worst. Just about every single one of the female characters in Dead City, barring Maggie, is awful. Maggie is annoying, sure, but she’s not terrible, cruel, petty, vengeful, spiteful or a psychopath.
The same cannot be said for the various female leaders of New Babylon and the Burazi, the two main factions vying for control of New York City and its burgeoning zombie-methane trade. We have the Dama, a woman so evil it’s almost a shame she can’t grow a mustache to twirl. It’s like the writers researched every cliche villain characteristic and wrote it into one character.
The leaders of New Babylon are hardly any better. Lucia Narvaez is a Major in the Federation army, but unless I’m terribly mistaken, seems to routinely outrank Perlie, ordering him around even though he’s a Colonel. Lucia accuses Maggie of desertion at one point in this week’s episode despite Maggie not actually trying to desert. She wants to execute her for her crimes along with 20 other people because she’s taken the place of 20 conscripts. That seems a teensy, tiny bit excessive but she tells Perlie it’s because “the law” demands it, or something. She’s very big on the law, which apparently has no due process in this society whatsoever. Just feelings.
Lucia probably gets her penchant for stupid cruelty from Governor Charlie Byrd, the governor of New Babylon though, to be fair, the show has done almost nothing to give Byrd a personality. She’s just responsible for the awful way New Babylon does things. This show has done a really top-notch job at getting me to pretty much despise everyone, though I have to admit a certain fondness for the Croat. At least his brand of evil maniac is kind of funny and endearing.
I’ve talked before about how unrealistic it is to have just about every single faction in the zombie apocalypse run by women. The devolution of society into violent factions ruled over by violent warlords would mean a general rolling back of all the good, progressive change we’ve seen in modern times. In a country where electing a female president has proven all but impossible, how likely is it that the Commonwealth, the Whisperers, New Babylon, the Burazi, the Pioneers (in Fear The Walking Dead) Madame Genet (in Daryl Dixon) and so many other groups would be led by women? I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t be, I’m simply pointing out that in this kind of full societal breakdown and collapse, it’s highly unlikely that just about every single community and faction is led by a woman.
The fact that all of these women are written incredibly poorly only makes matters worse. Negan was over-the-top and it took me a long time before I started liking his character, but at least he had personality. He was distinct. The Governor was charismatic and ruthless and hid his madness well. Pamela Milton of the Commonwealth was . . . so basic. The most basic middle-aged white lady ever written into a zombie apocalypse. Charlie Byrd of New Babylon is almost as forgettable and bland. The Dama is as evil as she is cliche. At least Alpha was a great character, even if the Whisperers are kind of goofy when you think about it. At least Alpha had layers. She was sadistic but there was some meat beneath her zombie mask. So many of these characters are just generic, flat and one-dimensional.
The point is, this franchise keeps elevating women to positions of power without bothering to write compelling personalities and backstories and motivations for them. It feels lazy and tokenistic and unrealistic all at the same time. Rather than write great female characters, they just give them all power. Out of all the newer female characters in The Walking Dead, only a couple come to mind that are actually likable: Isabelle, Princess . . . and I’m drawing a blank beyond that. Neither were in charge of anything. Neither were written as a “girlboss.”
But Lucia? It’s like they got her off the boat from Fear The Walking Dead. I just hope they kill her off sooner rather than later. Then again, they usually keep the annoying ones alive. Like Sherry. Or Morgan. (Obviously, male characters aren’t handled much better and I’m not sure any female TWD character can rival Morgan when it comes to the Worst Characters list, but they’re also rarely leaders now, so a lot of the “annoying leaders do stupid and/or evil things” stuff falls on the women these days).
Speaking of killing off good characters, the Dama kills off the best new character the show has introduced this season just to . . . punish Negan? The best part of this episode outside of watching the New Babylonians get firebombed was Victor and his violin. Negan’s former prison guard and one of the few new characters who is actually likeable and seems decent, played by an actor who is actually good at his job (and trust me, a lot of the acting this season is just bad) really stole the show for me. So of course they killed him off right away. For some cheap shock value. I’m very annoyed but not in the slightest bit surprised. Gee, I wonder if Negan will kill the Dama now? This is all so painfully predictable. There are rules!
Also, why would you kill a guy who can play such beautiful music? He’s a huge asset for morale and for the future of the arts in whatever society they’re trying to build. The Dama saying Bach was trying to “bring back the past” and that she doesn’t want to do that is just silly nonsense. She’s this big art lover. It makes no sense for her character to kill their one classically trained musician just to piss Negan off. But hey, this is from the same people that killed off Carl to boost ratings. What do you expect?
Other than that, we get the Battle of Blackwater Bay, basically. The stupid, incompetent morons running New Babylon decide it’s a good idea to take a ferry across to Manhattan, er, the Dead City, despite Maggie warning them that it’s a bad idea, that they’re heading into a trap and so forth. The Croat has set up a bunch of buoys with methane bombs on them and the New Babylon ferry crashes right into them. At least Stannis had no idea what Tyrion had cooked up for him in Game Of Thrones. Here, it’s just pure stupidity and arrogance that gets the New Babylon forces into hot water. If the Dama wasn’t such an evil old hag, I’d be rooting for Negan and the Croat at this point.
As it stands, I’m not rooting for anyone. I’m rooting for Negan and Maggie to get the hell out of dodge. Go somewhere else. Start a farm. Maggie’s farm. Or Maggie could go find her friends at Alexandria or the Commonwealth. Negan is in a tighter spot given that the Dama (allegedly) has his family. But really, why are these characters here to begin with? What is the point of this goofy conflict? I don’t want anyone to win.
Thankfully, whenever the heroes of The Walking Dead show up somewhere, that community’s days are numbered. My money is on mutually assured destruction. All these ridiculous, unlikable jerks are going down in the end, just like they did in France after Daryl Dixon was through with them, and in every other community Rick and Carol and the rest have visited. And good riddance.
It seems as though Hershel Jr. is following the example set by his elders. He’s clearly working with the Croat and the Dama to sabotage New Babylon. I suppose it will all blow up in his face when the truth comes out.
Overall, this was a bit better than the first episode, but between the unlikable characters and the retread of the same faction-vs-faction plot that every TWD show uses over and over again, I’m just beyond caring what happens to any of these people. The heroes have plot armor galore, so we never really worry about their fates. And since I don’t care what happens to any of the other characters, there’s basically no tension at all. They’ll kill off the ones we like (Isabelle from Daryl Dixon or Nat from The Ones Who Live or John Dorie from Fear) and make us trudge along with the worst of the litter. What fun.
P.S. The Dama also captures historian Benjamin Pierce, who is played by Keir Gilchrist from Atypical and other shows where he’s quite good. He’s fine here, but I just find that even good actors end up at their worst on The Walking Dead. Lennie James just won a BAFTA Best Actor award for his new show after spending years annoying everyone as Morgan in Fear The Walking Dead. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS. Colman Domingo has gone on to do some genuinely great work after finally getting free of FTWD. Same with Alycia Debnam-Carey and her new Netflix series. The list goes on and on. It’s great to see these actors doing so well, but what a shame that their talents were wasted for so long.
P.P.S. This show has the same problem modern Marvel movies have. All this is going down and the Commonwealth and CRM are just around the riverbend but apparently don’t care and aren’t getting involved. The more these franchises try to connect everything, the less sense it makes when you leave out major players and organizations for no good reason. Also, can’t the French send some ships to help? I mean, we got a good look at Lady Liberty this episode. Send those French freighters over! Bring back Daryl!
P.P.P.S Carol is another example of a once-great female character that the writers seem determined to undermine and destroy at every turn. There was a time when she was genuinely badass (just ask the Termites) but for so long now, and certainly in Daryl Dixon’s second season, she is just impossible to like. She lies constantly. Makes terrible choices. Everyone treats her like she’s this legendary hero but she’s almost guaranteed to ruin your life. They try to make her a badass but it’s always cringe. Just total character assassination at this point.
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