The season premiere of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is written by David Zabel who's the showrunner of the show, whilst Daniel Percival directed the episode, titled "L'âme Perdue". Timeline wise, TWD: Daryl Dixon is supposedly set before Dead City and after The Walking Dead. Melissa McBride was originally supposed to serve as a producer alongside Norman Reedus and thus returning as Carol Peletier. It changed to her leaving and changed again to her having a small part. I think the reason was because of the tv series being shot in Paris, meaning being away from home for months or how long the production would need her to stay. We could have gotten a show of an iconic duo, but here we are, with Daryl Dixon taking reins in his own show. Norman Reedus gives us a terrific performance and overall a great job, joining him are; Clémence Poésy as Isabelle, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi as Laurent, Laïka Blanc-Francard as Sylvie, Anne Charrier as Genet, Romain Levi as Codron and finally Adam Nagaitis as Quinn.
Daryl Dixon's arrival to France sets off a violent chain of events that inadvertently puts a young boy at the heart of a growing religious movement in danger.
Some history to know if you haven't seen the series finale of TWD: World Beyond, it shows mutated zombies in France and makes it known to the audience that the virus started there. But down to the episode and its story, the narrative and story is close to The Last of Us with Daryl having to protect and get this pre-teen to a specific spot to possibly save the world. You could call it unoriginal, good reason for it, but it's a plot which works. Mostly. You see, the character of Laurent isn't well written at all and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi doesn't impress me the slightest, and the whole character comes across being out of place and not a child which he's supposed to be. We don't know much about him other than he's looked upon as a Messiah destined to lead humanity to a renewal and is highly intelligent. If we look at highly intelligent people in our world, Einstein for an example, we have one who is super intelligent but lacks traits of someone who's an extrovert and thus comes across a bit weird at times. Maybe Laurent is like that? Someone not meant to be likeable, that's fine by me, but I hope the actor does a better job for the rest of the series. After seeing everyone else and their performances, its sad to see him dragging the show down, for now it's fine though but that can quickly change.
Great establishing shots, the production and art design were fantastic. The mise-en-scene was also quite great, loved the cinematography but then again that's have always been something The Walking Dead have been good at. Everything around the filmmaking were great in my opinion, if there are anything worth criticizing then it's the writing in some minor ways. The set design, costume and makeup department, lightning, composition, and so on. Everything is brilliant. I found the direction to be quite great actually, mostly the visual storytelling. It's a mystery how Daryl Dixon got to France, we don't get every single answer in this episode and I'm fine with that. We know he went on a journey to find Rick and Michonne, we also know he didn't succeed, but how far did he come? Did he actually find the location they are located in? We'll probably find out soon. This series is completely different from The Walking Dead, a new continent and locations to see. I'm really interested in seeing this story unfold. Something I really liked was when Daryl meets two survivors who he trades with and then a group comes, his instincts tells him not to trust this group who seeks to harm these survivors, but in the end it was the ones who he traded with who were the true "bad guys" in the scene. The thing is, these people were probably kind and good people but the things you do to survive in a world like this can make good people into bad ones, we never learn who they were except for that scene. They could easily have families who they sought to provide for. This scene also establishes the threat of The Guerriers or The Cause who are the antagonist group of the show, they are a breath of fresh air, Anne Charrier as Genet is another character and performance which could turn out great as the villain feels like the morally grey Elizabeth Kublek from World Beyond which was one of that shows only highlights, these two women share many traits. Something I loved about the episode is consequences and how someone's actions can change into something worse or good, this time it's Daryl's actions who lead someone from The Cause to hunt him, Codron. I read a criticism towards the weaponry, muskets and so on, I believe it's mostly for style but also a reason for it. I believe they use it because cartridges and shells for modern firearms are too hard to make. Whilst with a musket the only thing you need is gunpowder and iron melted and formed like a round bullet. That's my reasoning, but I also think it's for style. With that said, in the end of the episode when we get to see Genet, we get to see the antagonistic group's higher-ups and they are better armed. They act and are more like a military than an militia like the ones we saw in the earlier parts of the episode.
Aaron Pruner of TheWrap gave it a positive review and noted Clémence Poésy's "standout performance" and concluded that it "is a surprisingly gorgeous, soul-stirring, and riveting watch. Norman Reedus said they were making art with this show. And you know what? He wasn't lying." I agree with this review, her performance surprised me in how human it was, it was a great performance and a well written character I wish we could see lots of more. Norman Reedus knows a show needs a great supporting cast, after all, he was one of those important ones in the supporting cast. Reedus is also really good in this episode, letting him speak much more and well, to truly act and giving us the opportunity to see him act more than his facial expressions and mannerism. About the "art", yeah, this is an spectacular episode and possibly the best The Walking Dead have looked in a couple of years.
