Friday, July 19, 2024

Daryl Dixon in France ... Très Bien

As someone who is always late to the party, I only recently completed my watch of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the fifth spin-off of the franchise. Composed of only six episodes, the show dropped for audiences in September-October 2023, and received generally strong reviews from critics and audiences alike. My own response is similarly positive, and for some of the same reasons.

At the top of my list is the removal of the very American title character (played by Norman Reedus) into a French setting, which begins with Dixon waking to find himself washed ashore on a beach where he is almost immediately confronted by a “burner,” a new type of super-strong and super-speedy zombie with acidic body fluids that burn whoever they touch. Of course, Daryl is touched but he prevails and begins his journey inland, toward Paris and onward to Normandy beach where he ends the six-episode first season torn between catching his scheduled ride across the Atlantic back home, or saving a child who seems to be in danger of being swarmed by zombies.

Between the two beaches Daryl is caught up in the contest for power that is taking place between two groups: the bad guys being the fascist-identified Pouvoir des Vivants (Power of the Living) paramilitary organization headed by Madame Genet (played by Anne Charrier) and her team of mad scientists, and the good guys being the “resistance” guerrilla group Union de L'Espoir (Union of Hope) and brave Catholic clergy who inspire them.

Daryl is dragged into the fray by Isabelle (played by Clémence Poésy), a nun who persuades Daryl to protect a teenage boy named Laurent (played by Louis Puech Scigliuzzi) whose odd ability to psychically control the new superzombies endows him with a messianic aura. The boy is a John Connor-like figure whose youthfulness makes him vulnerable... for now.

A majority of the online reviewers pointed out that the cinematography was possibly the strongest element in this spinoff, and I am pretty much in agreement with them. The locations were obviously “exotic” when considered in contrast to the backwoods persona of Daryl Dixon and the North American forested settings that much of the original series was filmed in. Suddenly the incredibly stereotyped American icon (representative of the ironic knowledge that comes not from formal education but from the school of hard knocks—and Daryl has gotten a lot of knocks) is set within a background that represents a more ancient European cultural history. The contrast is beautiful.

Given that I viewed the series on a low-quality streaming service from China which offered a sometimes hazy screen, a mismatch between image and audio, and the constant interruption of advertising banners, it says a lot that the visual beauty of the Parisian and French countryside settings could still pop through the haze.

But like the zombies that are ever present in the background of all Walking Dead narratives, so too we could see behind the magnificence of French art and architecture the shambling undead European history of violence in both physical and philosophical forms.  

Daryl has been plucked from his homeland and plunked down in the midst of this ancient empire of clashing ideals, kidnapped as fresh blood for the experiments being carried out by the mad scientists of the fascist Pouvoir des Vivants organization that is trying to create a new army of superzombies. (There’s nothing new here for fans of the Nazi zombie subgenre. Move along, now.) Of course, the indomitable Daryl Dixon breaks the chains that bound him, becoming both the white whale destroyer and the sole survivor of the shitwreck, er, shipwreck.

While he’s in France, however, Daryl has a chance to root his personal history into the soil of the larger European history. His grandfather had volunteered to fight in the Second World War, and the elder Dixon’s grave is part of the veterans’ memorial that Daryl will visit when he finally arrives at Normandy. This is a noticeable and important theme, the grandson inheriting the pain that is born of the ancestor’s choices. Apparently the Dixon kin passed along a resentment of the grandfather’s decision to volunteer in a war they did not see as their own. Similarly, Daryl does not see himself as belonging to the ongoing struggle in France between the fascists and the liberal humanists, both groups seeing themselves as inheritors of a noble past.

The art that features so beautifully in this show also highlights the schism between the two ideologies. Madame Genet reveals that in the “Before” she was a night watchman in the Louvre — “just me and the art: thousands of eyes followed me around.” Those eyes of history have transferred to her a grandiose vision of a future in which the individual is less important than the whole, the nation. Hers is a prototypical form of fascism born from the myths and legends of supernatural inheritances. The fall of the world to a zombie plague is merely another opportunity to re-invigorate the fascist idea of a nationalist utopia. Inspired by the eyes of the historical artwork figures, Genet takes upon herself the goal of resurrecting the ancient warrior history of fiefdoms and kings. And like so many villains, she is given some of the best lines: “We are the future for the future; we do the hard things.”

The supernatural is also a part of the resistance movement that is built upon the leftover representatives of the Catholic Church and their belief that the life of every human is sacred in the eyes of God. Theirs is a simple goal of re-establishing the political structures that guaranteed the ability of every person within the society to choose to do good for everyone, not to be forced into obedience. They carry on the hope that humans will make the right choices because the spark of divinity, of love, rests within the human spirit.

Surrounded by the latter group, Daryl cannot help but be pushed into conversations about serious ideas. While he starts off arguing that “this isn’t my fight,” he eventually displays an awareness that he is following in the footsteps of his grandfather who sacrificed himself as a player in yet another clash of ideologies, the ending of which would impact human societies around the world. Daryl’s grandfather understood that and volunteered to fight fascism. Daryl would eventually come to the same choice, actively supporting the Union de L'Espoir movement by protecting the teenaged messiah figure.

Placing an adolescent at the center of the plot helps to highlight Daryl’s own mixed feelings and gradual shift in ideological commitment. Daryl carries within himself the pain that came of an abusive father whose brokenness can be traced directly to the grandfather’s decision to leave his family and serve a larger goal. Now Daryl can confront his grandfather and forgive him. The suggestion, of course, is that Daryl’s presence upon the European continent is a continuation of a Divine intervention, of God placing him into as a chosen warrior within a larger fight between ideologies.

Whether Daryl follows his grandfather’s footsteps and continues to battle the spread of fascism within the homeland heart of Western culture, or steps onto the boat that will take him back home is something we will only find out if and when there is a second season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Closing Note

Daryl Dixon is both the highest critic and fan-rated show in the entire Walking Dead series, which is made up of six shows of varying lengths. Here they are in order:

The Walking Dead (11 seasons) – 79% critic score, 78% audience score

Fear the Walking Dead (8 seasons) – 73% critic score, 59% audience score

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2 seasons) – 46% critic score, 35% audience score

Tales of the Walking Dead (1 season) – 74% critic score, 57% audience score

The Walking Dead: Dead City (1 season, renewed for 2) – 81% critic score, 79% audience score

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (1 season, renewed for 2) – 90% critic score, 89% audience score.

Source: Paul Tassie, reviewer at Forbes Magazine.

Friday, June 7, 2024

Shark Snark

The puns that are dropping online to accompany the social media splash caused by the new Netflix horror film “Under Paris” are clever, and maybe one of the best things about the amateur review space that is YouTube, Facebook, and other assorted sites of rapid-fire response.

My favorites for this action film about man-eating sharks snacking on marathon swimmers in the Seine River include:

“This film is in-Seine,” “Talk about the Chomps-Élysées!” and “Le Fins.” Mind you, the film has only just dropped, so we have more time to chum the waters with bloody bad puns.

None of this low-hanging fruit in any way serves as bait for you if you are hoping to hook a review that will help you decide whether or not to watch this French-language shark film.

Having said that, “Under Paris” seems to have made something of a splash with an awful lot of social media users. It might just be that there is so little to talk about in the genre. And of course, now that Summertime is almost upon us, it is open season for shark snark cinema.

Sadly, I'm going to contribute nothing to the discussion except to say the opening (pre-titles) scene is visually effective. This is the first shark attack, and it takes place beneath the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” where ocean-dumped plastic trash goes to die. Or never die.

I couldn't conceive of a more unappealing setting for the inevitable slaughter that you know is going to happen when a freakishly large shark shows up for the feeding frenzy that follows the death of a baby whale — with its mouth full of plastics — that has been caught in a net beneath all the human trash.

The most horrific-yet-stunning moment of this opening scene is when one of the super-shark’s victims rises gasping from the water, a stark blue sky highlighting the reflective glow of all that unrecycled trash.

Unfortunately, that's also the film's high point as a work of horror. What follows is plenty of clichéd tropes, including the foolish activist, the stubborn police team, and the arrogant but incredibly deaf politician who puts personal pride before public safety.

The denouement is also pretty entertaining, but mostly because it goes in a direction that is pretty unexpected. Unfortunately, it is also low-hanging fruit insofar as it panders to the zeitgeist, calling forth a final image that viewers will automatically associate with our fears about our ongoing environmental meltdown.

Indeed, today’s news broadcasts are reminding us of that all the official governmental attempts at reducing the levels of carbon dioxide being spewed into our atmosphere are failing miserably. The tons of earth-warming carbon dioxide in our planetary atmosphere is at all new highs. The United States is already experiencing extreme temperatures, and technically the astronomical start of summer is still over two weeks away.

India is having it much worse, with temperatures in parts of Delhi reaching almost 53 Degrees Celsius (that’s an astonishing 127 Degrees Fahrenheit) a few days ago. (CNN)

Worldwide we can all expect extreme storms as typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones take on new orders of violence. And have we all already forgotten the annual forest fires that have become almost everyday news events? Tragically there are fires happening in continents worldwide that we in the “industrialized” (I hate to say “developed”) world are not likely to hear about given the parochial tendencies of our news outlets and our societies.

Given this real-world unfolding of crisis, it feels a little exploitative of this newest shark flick to cull from our (unspoken) terrors with a  image of Paris flooded and finned just so viewers can leave a “thumbs up” at the Netflix app when the credits start to roll. Even so, it’s a moment that is awash with surprise, and that alone makes it worth waiting for.


Articles Referenced

"There is More Carbon Dioxide than Ever in the Atmosphere." NPR News. 7 June 2024.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/06/nx-s1-4992290/carbon-dioxide-record-high-atmosphere

“India’s Scorching Heat and Lack of Water Leave Delhi’s Poor to Suffer Worst of Climate Crisis.” By Esha Mitra. CNN Website. Online.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/01/india/india-scorching-heat-climate-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html