DARYL DIXON: THE BOOK OF CAROL
***
Directed by Greg Nicotero, Michael Slovis, Daniel Percival. Starring Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Clemence Poesy, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Anne Charrier, Joel de la Fuente, Laïka Blanc-Francard, Romain Levi, Manish Dayal, Francois Delaive. Horror TV, Certificate 15, 6 hours Released on Blu-ray by Acorn Media on December 16th 2024
The first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon successfully overcame TWD fatigue – unlike rival spin off series Dead City – by giving us more of what we want set against a striking, fresh (and French!) new locale. It was an atmospheric, tight six episode initial run, affording a long overdue showcase for Norman Reedus’s understated, grizzled charisma while introducing an appealing selection of new characters, notably Clemence Poesy’s “Union of Hope” nun Isabelle Carriere and Louis Puech Scigliuzzi’s Laurent, believed to be the new Messiah and humanity’s best choice for survival / rebirth.
By its very nature (and title), The Book of Carol has the responsibility of continuing the European story arc of its predecessor while pivoting around Melissa McBride’s Carol and her own unresolved trauma as she sets out to reunite with her old friend. While it’s arguable as to whether any show should feature a pair of protagonists with awkwardly rhyming names, the biggest drawback of the new season is in sidelining the character we’re tuning in for, essentially rendering Daryl a guest star in his own series.
In the first of season two’s French-named episodes, “La Gentilesse des Étrangers”, we find Daryl torn between missing his home country and friends while maintaining a close bond with Laurent. Meanwhile, Carol suffers flashbacks to the season 2 episode of The Walking Dead, “Pretty Much Dead Already”, in which she discovered the terrible fate of her daughter Sophia. This reveal was a genuinely jolting moment in the early days of the parent series though here becomes an overplayed, contrived means of giving Carol a season-long emotional story arc to pay off in the last episode of the season. Melissa McBride was often great in The Walking Dead, but the version of her character in The Book of Carol doesn’t gel with the Carol we knew at the end of that series – and is dismayingly one-note. Other than a humorous moment in which she tosses a tape of Charlene’s camp ballad “I’ve Never Been to Me” out of the car, Carol isn’t much fun to be around.
While Marion Genet (Anne Charrier), leader of the “Power of the Living” group, strives to weaponise Walkers and Laurent is imperilled as the perceived “Chosen One” who, to some, proves God isn’t dead, secondary characters often follow a familiar Walking Dead pattern of seemingly innocuous survivors who turn out to pose yet more danger. Among the possible new friends-or-foes are a pair of Climate researchers in Greenland, an old married couple and a comically ridiculous Scottish duo spouting unlikely dialogue like “We’re British, don’t shoot!” and “God save the Queen!” Carol is partnered with the underwritten Ash (sincerely played by Manish Patel), who exists mostly to share the bond of grief over a lost child.
Whether at risk of becoming an unwitting sperm donor, mourning those who have fallen or poignantly connecting with Laurent over baseball and The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Reedus is terrific – but he does more for the show than the show does for him. Similarly, Clemence Poesy proves sadly wasted this time around, while Scigliuzzi is still appealing but also underserved.
There are pleasures along the way. The variations of Walkers continue to impress, including some striking bioluminescent zombies in the final episode, lurking in the claustrophobic confines of an atmospherically realised Channel Tunnel. Episode 3, “L’Invisible”, opens with a stunning prologue at the Louvre, revealing Genet’s past life before the world went to Hell and capturing a vivid sense of dread and panic at the start of the outbreak: murmurings of national walkouts, a couple saying their last “I love yous” and people seeing their loved ones ripped apart in front of their very eyes.
The action is solid: standout set pieces involve our heroes trapped in cars or fleeing from huge crowds of supercharged Walkers. The fourth episode, “Le Paradis Pour Toi”, plays out more like a season finale with two major deaths (one of which is satisfyingly gruesome), though this inevitably makes what follows something of an anti-climax. The make-up effects are typically superb, though Carol’s flashbacks and some unearned moments of sentimentality feel as contrived as the guano-induced hallucinatory visuals of the final episode. It’s not as glum and unsatisfying as Dead City, but you’ll yearn for much more Norman and, sadly, far less Carol.
Acorn’s Blu-ray offers plentiful extra content for behind-the-scenes junkies. “Show Me More” (42 mins) and six individual “Episode Insider” featurettes (each running between six and eight minutes) give you an entertaining peek behind the curtain with Reedus, McBride, Poesy, Scigliuzzi, Greg Nicotero and showrunner David Zabel, among others providing production info. There’s a look back at the keynote “Pretty Much Dead Already” episode of The Walking Dead, that show’s series finale and the evolution of the Daryl-Carol relationship, alongside discussion of the challenges of finding an American farm backdrop in France, shooting at the Louvre and creating the Chunnel for the finale.
You also get an entertaining panel discussion at the San Diego 2024 Comic-Con (46 mins) featuring Reedus, Zabel, McBride and Nicotero. Key themes of The Book of Carol are discussed and developments teased, with Reedus (who apologises for weariness due to being at a Taylor Swift concert in Frankfurt the night before) on good form. The highlight, however, is Greg Nicotero celebrating 40 years of making zombies by recalling how he was hired for George Romero’s 1985 Day of the Dead and sharing a lovely “lesson” he learned on the iconic filmmaker’s Land of the Dead.
Steven West
