THE WALKING DEAD:
DARYL DIXON THE BOOK OF CAROL (2024)
Label: Acorn Media International
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Cert. 15
Duration: 333 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.001)
Directors: Greg Nicotero (E1),Daniel Percival (E2,5,6), Michael Slovis E3,4)
Cast: Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Clémence Poésy, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Anne Charrier
The Walking Dead spin-off The Walking Dead; Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol actually improves on a fantastic first season, starring main series breakout character Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus, Bikeriders), the lovable scruff of a redneck, still in France battling rotters, still trying to find passage back to the U.S., teamed-up with warrior-nun tuned love-interest Isabelle (Clémence Poésy, Heartless), and growing increasingly fond of the 12-year-old Laurent (Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Show Me More), who certain factions believe to be the Messiah, having survived a bite from a walker, and who they believe is destined to save humanity. Of course these various faction want to use him for him for their own purposes, some altruistic, some quite a bit more nefarious. These factions include the Marion Genet (Anne Charrier, Paid) lead totalitarian paramilitary group Pouvoir des Vivants (Power of the Living), and the Losang (Joel de la Fuente, Red Sparrow) lead Union de L'Espoir (Union of Hope), a religious based resistance network working against Pouvoir, who are headquartered at the Mont-Saint-Michel settlement.
This season, as the title clearly implies and where the season one finale teased, another TWD series favorite returns tot he fold, that being Carol (Melissa McBride, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) who starts of in Vermont looking for clues to Daryl's whereabouts. We get a great introductory scene of her kicking some ass, discovering that Daryl's been shipped off to France, and then dupes a kind-hearted survivor named Ash Patel (Manish Dayal, TVs Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), by cold-heartedly using his own loss of a child, to convince him to drop everything and fly her across the Atlantic to France to find her daughter Sophie in a single-prop plane.
As with the first season the locations in France offers plenty of pleasing visuals and interesting looking locations, the action is fantastic, the threats are numerous, and we get a new walker variant called "Ampers". These nasty bits of undead work have been engineered the Pouvoir des Vivants, these being highly aggressive and fast-moving undead that are a new lethal breed, unlike anything we've ever seen in the TWD series. My favorite set piece is a season finale detour into The Chunnel where the bat guano and fungi have created an eerie bioluminescence, not only on the walls and ground, but the undead down their also have their own cool-looking bioluminescence. Also, the psychoactive properties of the massive amount of bat guano down their causes our Daryl and Carol to hallucinate, each having a bit of a psychoactive-assisted therapy session that helps them deal with their own deep-seated issues with grief and loss. The real key to this season is the re-teaming of platonic bad-asses Daryl and Carol, who are both lethal forces on their own accords, but when combined they are the chocolate and peanut butter of deadly duos, and while it take half of this six episode season to finale get them together it is worth the wait. Season three has already been greenlit, so dig in and enjoy, and know there's another season, set in Spain, on the way!
Extras spread across this two-disc set include the 42-min Show Me More: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol; six Episode Insiders segments totaling about 47-min; the 46-min San Diego Comicon 2024 Panel; and a 3-min Pre-Premiere Look at Season 2. These featurettes are chock full of behind-of-the-scenes peaks of how the undead sausage was made, on-set interviews with cast and some great insights into the characters and story arcs. The 2-disc set arrives in an oversized, dual-hub keepcase, with a Reversible Wrap featuring two key art designs, each highlighting either Daryl or Carol.
Special Features:
- Show Me More: The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol (42:22)
- Six Episode Insiders
- San Diego Comicon 2024 Panel (46:00)
- Pre-Premiere Look at Season 2 (3:25)
- Reversible Wrap with two key art designs
