Daryl Dixon Delivers The Walking Dead's Best-Rated Season in Years
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Daryl Dixon is "frais," as the French might say. AMC's new Walking Dead spin-off, which stars Norman Reedus and is shot and set in France, is officially "certified fresh" on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. After airing two of the first six episodes, season 1 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon currently sits at 90% approval from critics with an audience score of 89%. Daryl Dixon's critical response is so far higher than Maggie and Negan spin-off The Walking Dead: Dead City (fresh at 81%), and is the best-reviewed season of any Walking Dead show since Fear the Walking Dead season 6 (89%) in 2020.
Daryl Dixon's 90% score is on par with the best-reviewed season of The Walking Dead — season 5, which aired in 2014/2015 — and is just above the acclaimed season 9 (89%) and season 3 (88%) of the original series that ended last November after 11 seasons and 177 episodes. It's also better critically reviewed than the original show's season 1 (87%) and season 2 (80%), season 4 (81%), season 6 (76%), season 7 (66%), season 8 (65%), season 10 (77%), and season 11 (80%).
That makes the David Zabel-created series the best-reviewed Walking Dead spin-off, scoring higher than all eight seasons of Fear the Walking Dead, the first season of this summer's Dead City, both seasons of the limited series The Walking Dead: World Beyond, and the episodic anthology Tales of the Walking Dead. ComicBook's review called Reedus "magnifique" and praised the series for "delivering what Walking Dead fans want — and something entirely unexpected."
AMC already renewed The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon for a second season, officially announcing the season 2 pickup at San Diego Comic-Con in July.
"This next chapter in the Walking Dead Universe continues to thrive with a terrific inaugural season for Dead City and highly anticipated new journey for fan-favorite character Daryl Dixon coming in September," Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, said when renewing both series for second seasons over the summer. "We can't wait to bring Dead City fans back to the epicenter of Manhattan for more zip-lining action with Maggie and Negan. And, ahead of its debut, we're thrilled to double down on Daryl as we bring the apocalypse to France, transforming Notre Dame, Pont du Gard and other iconic locales into an apocalyptic landscape unlike anything we've seen before."
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon debuted September 10th on AMC and AMC+. New episodes air Sundays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on AMC+ and 9 p.m. on AMC. Visit our guide for all the ways to watch The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon online or on cable.
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