I usually don't review new TV shows after watching only two episodes but I don't see myself watching this show any further. The Walking Dead is now on it's ninth season and has slowly been declining in quality since season seven. The show has gone on just a bit too long at this point and really needs to wrap things up but I would rather watch a declining Walking Dead TV show than one that started only two weeks ago and is already as low as it can go in terms of story and quality.
The Walking Dead has always been a franchise that's aimed primarily towards adults weither it's the TV shows or the Comics The Walking Dead has always been filled with high levels of violence, gore, zombies, harsh language with interesting and likable characters and storylines that have always been serious and thought provoking.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond is what can only be described as the "Teenage" version of The Walking Dead this may sound like a bit of rush to judgement after watching only two episodes but there's a big difference between a TV show that begins with a slow start and one that can't even get the basics right.
The first issue I have with this show is that the main characters are all teenagers which would be fine if they had any kind of personality or interesting character development. Instead each character in this "New world" is given one trait that defines their entire personality you get the typical cast of clique characters. The serious and moody main girl, the rebellious girl who breaks the rules, the nerdy guy who dresses funny, the fat kid who gets picked on and a handful of side characters who's only reason for existing is for the main characters to interact with and spout out exposition dialogue to explain how the world works and advance the plot.
My second issue with this show is that almost every character is written to fit some kind of diversity quota for example. Three of the main characters are gay and not just gay but are in some way persecuted for being gay or "different" There's absolutely nothing wrong with being gay but that doesn't mean there needs to be a gay character in every single scene. In the two episodes that have been released there's been more scenes of characters discussing who their partners are or what sexual orientation they are than scenes that explain plot points, world building, or even scenes with ZOMBIES! In a TV show about zombies!.
My third issue goes back to the main characters being teenagers again this can be done right when the characters are interesting and have actual character development. The story centres around these characters and their journey through a world infested with Zombies as well things like water, food and medicine shortages while also having to traverse a broken world where nowhere is safe and the over abundance of plants and nature has man made structures dangerously unstable leaving cracks and holes where zombies may lurk where one wrong step could lead to you falling down a hole. Sadly that's not what is focused on in this journey instead the characters just discuss their individual teenage melodramatic problems while showing us flashbacks of uninteresting past events.
My forth issue is the laughable excuse for Zombies and violence in this show there's one particular scene where a mother and daughter walk through a crashed airplane and come across a zombie tangled up in the planes electrical wires while around him are the bodies of people he has killed and eaten. Now on paper that sounds like it would be a blood filled scene but it just looks incredibly silly like a scene out of a low budget horror movie with bad special effects and makeup also we never get to see how they make it out of the plane alive they just jump cut to the other side like it was a minor inconvenience to a scared mother and child.
The Walking Dead TV show has some of the best looking zombies ever put to screen complete with blood, guts and decapitations in most episodes. There's also some scenes that were very controversial for the time including a scene that showed characters getting their throats cut execution style without cutting away from the gore. Another famous scene from The Walking Dead was one of Negan smashing in Glenn's head with a baseball bat until his head was split open again without cutting away from the gore.
To go from an adult TV show filled with such violence and gore aswell as likable characters and thought provoking storylines to a TV show that even a fifteen year old would call boring is such a massive step down from such a memorable and genre defining TV show like The Walking Dead.
I don't recommend watching this show even the current generation of teenagers would find this show tedious and boring.
