Starting off as the 24th(!) overall season of this long-running TV franchise at the time of its release, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon understandably treads very familiar ground: general paranoia and distrust, humanity divided into survivalist factions, a search for a cure. In its early episodes, though, this series gets a boost from its uniquely historical setting—which creates a feeling of these characters stuck in a previous century—as well as a strong focus on religious faith in the time of the apocalypse. Still, this spin-off continues to go through the same action-horror motions, sticking to what's expected at the expense of any suspense or meaningful development for its stoic title character.

But in some respects, it's fun to have Daryl be the wandering Mad Max-esque figure through whom the story is coursed through—because that means more prominent roles for some supporting characters, especially Clémence Poésy's nun, Isabelle. In the first two episodes watched for this review, we already get a rich sense of the weight she carries. Through brief flashbacks to the day of the outbreak from her perspective, we begin to understand her journey as one wherein the spiritual has become intertwined with the personal, all tinged in guilt and a desire for redemption.