Greg Nicotero, the makeup artist and executive producer of The Walking Dead, was shocked when The Last of Us premiered on HBO. The spin-off centered on Daryl Dixon, the character played by Norman Reedus, was underway and he had realized that, although the stories were not the same, they did have blatant similarities. They could not turn back due to the advanced nature of the production process to distance themselves from the characters of Joel and Ellie. And, when it premieres on AMC, the public can see it: Daryl Dixon's main plot is very The last of us and, at the same time, it is the best that The walking dead has offered us in years.
To understand this similarity, you only need to read the starting point. Daryl Dixon begins with this character adrift, arriving on the French coast. There he discovers that the old continent is just as devastated as the United States and that, for example, other variants of walkers have been developed. There are zombies that, when you touch them, your skin burns, as if sulfuric acid had been thrown at them, and some statements suggest that there will be more surprises. But, when the archer comes into contact with a nun (Clémence Poésy), he receives an unexpected request: transfer a young man (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) to a safe haven.
The coincidence is hurtful for the series that came last. Scott Gimple, the director of the creative universe of The Walking Dead, and David Zabel, the creator of the spin-off, should have foreseen and avoided the situation: The last of us is based on one of the most popular video games of this millennium and, Therefore, they had to know how the story of HBO's big zombie bet would begin. It is true that we have seen these types of stories a lot, but the painful thing is that they are set in the same horror subgenre. But, once the similarity has been mentioned, it must also be recognized that the conflict is explored in different ways.
Ellie helped the protagonist to regain humanity, to feel attachment to other people again and allowed a dead paternal instinct to be reborn after the death of his daughter. Science through, she was salvation. For Daryl, however, Laurent's appearance means recovering hope and faith from a more religious perspective. It is refreshing, in fact, to experience this conflict for Daryl, one of the few characters in The Walking Dead to have his own identity beyond wandering among human debris.
As a viewer, knowing their experiences, one can assume that it is foolish to give wings to hope and the idea of the rebirth of humanity. He, in fact, doesn't even believe in God. But, faced with the nun's theories, there is also a reality that she must accept. Since he fights to live another day, why doesn't he allow himself to be permeated by the crazy idea of standing before the Messiah? What can he lose?
Daryl Dixon may carry over some of the flaws of the original series. He has lazy photography, he has difficulty presenting tense situations or memorable action and above all it shows that he has less budget than he should. He doesn't look. However, he offers incentives to see if there is light left in such an exploited universe. The change of scenery is appreciated, Daryl Dixon is presented as a solid pillar and, above all, Zabel's script knows how to present the new characters.
In a fictional universe characterized by interchangeable secondary characters, always frustratingly underdeveloped and functional, Daryl's spin-off captures attention with the arrival of the nun Isabelle or the introduction of Genet (Anne Charrier), in addition to the central religious theme. Should we have faith in TWD or is the creative apocalypse too far along to pin our hopes on it?
