Tales of the Walking Dead premieres Sunday, Aug. 14 on AMC.
The Walking Dead universe continues to branch off -- even as the mothership series heads toward its final eight episodes -- with new anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. Conceived, over the years, based on questions from both fans and the writers' room, by Walking Dead head honcho Scott Gimple and Dead writer Channing Powell (who serves as Tales' showrunner), Tales introduces a tonal shift with its first outing, "Evie / Joe," giving us a somewhat lighter look (think Syfy's Z Nation, even) at the zompocalypse. It's disposable fun while also inadvertently demonstrating how much you can get done, character-wise, in a single episode when it's all you've got -- something the main two shows should have embraced more over the years.
That's not to say "Evie / Joe" is exemplary television, but you will learn a hell of a lot more about Terry Crews' Joe and Olivia Munn's Evie over the course of this one story than you've learned about Gabriel, Aaron, or a handful of other Walking Dead mainstays over the course of seasons. Even Walking Dead episodes that focus on only one or two characters still keep things vague, terse, and (especially in the back half of the series' run) haughtily poetic. Anthology shows often showcase just how much story and character development you can shove into an hour, if you have to. That doesn't mean some things don't come off as ham-fisted because of the crunch, but there's also middle ground available.
The playful tone of "Evie / Joe" doesn't necessarily promise a loopier vibe for the other five Tales episodes (there's an Alpha origin episode coming up, starring Samantha Morton, that'll surely be grim) but you can bet they'll be eventful. This format forces you to throw everything at viewers to keep them coming back, given that they'll only be seeing new characters over and over. It's hard not think, here, of the six extra Season 10 episodes they made as a bridge (and also for Covid reasons) and how little they mattered (Negan's backstory excluded).
"Evie / Joe" takes a quirky look at a few folks who were uniquely prepared for the end of the world: doomsday preppers. Those with underground bunkers, a back stock of food, specialized survival skills, and other "X" factors that allowed them to squirrel away when everything went to hell. The story takes place a little over a year after the fall of everything, when people are just staring to go stir crazy and poke their heads out of their respective bubbles.
At first glance, the beats of "Evie / Joe" are straight out of a traditional rom-com as our two leads both meet on the road toward separate romances. They butt heads, bust heads, learn from each other, grow fond of one another, and -- you know the drill. The episode actually uses the theme of loneliness well, taking sheltered souls and pushing them to blossom. It's just a shame that, by the end, we don't get a full leap across the rom-com finish line.
Crews and Munn are both pretty good here, displaying their comedic chops mostly, with smatterings of drama here and there. Again, other Walking Dead cast members definitely have a right to feel jealous given how much both Evie and Joe arc during this single chapter. Also, between the two of them, they can ride bikes, set traps, and kick undead ass with capoeira. Meanwhile, he's got a hardened heart and she's into "new age hippie bulls*** (the enemies-to-lovers rom-com trope planting seeds).
"Evie / Joe" isn't a morally or ethically challenging episode at all. It strays away from the jagged edges of both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead and embraces the simple silliness of tracking down someone you flirted with online before the world ended. And because the episode's "here for a good time, not a long time" you can more or less predict how it'll all wring out because you know, ultimately, Evie and Joe are going to continue hanging. We don't know yet if these separate tales will wind up merging in a shared universe-sense by the sixth episode, but it'd be cool to see these two again.
There's not much to Tales of the Walking Dead so far, just based off this premiere, but it's nice to have an element of the franchise unburdened by the larger story. So much of The Walking Dead: World Beyond was bogged down down by fans wanting hints as to where Rick went because the show was, to its detriment mostly, about "the group behind the helicopter that took Rick." And the new spinoffs all have legacy characters out in front. Yes, Tales' third episode (it seems) has Alpha, but for the most part this series has the opportunity to nicely nestle into a place, perhaps, where viewers' curiosity about something new can power the engine -- and curiosity about seeing a few famous faces, too. Oh, and the desire to hear some actual Walking Dead-verse f-bombs.
from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/mXexDny
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