While this format is uneven by its very nature, I’m especially encouraged by the shifting tones these stories attempt, from whimsy to the usual gory suspense with a side of existential despair. Dare I say that at its best, Tales even evokes Rod Serling‘s classic The Twilight Zone in its imaginative expansion of genre and mastery of short-form storytelling. [15 - 28 Aug 2022, p.5]
If you still like The Walking Dead, you’ll likely still enjoy Tales of the Walking Dead just fine. But if you’re looking for something transcendently smart like Black Mirror, or even just off the wall weird and unexpected like Shudder’s Creepshow, you won’t find that here.
If it was composed of quirky stories like the first episode, I'd say this has a reason to exist. But ends up taking the form of a mixture of stories, including character backstories that are largely uninteresting, inferior versions of stories that might occur on the main show. I don't see this being renewed.
There's still some milk left in these dead cow's teets - so AMC is going to milk its prime moneymaking cow until the udder is crumbling to dust, which will be long after TWD is running out of sob stories and ill-conceived "mankind at its ugliest" storylines. Next up: The Afterlife of TWD - Where Walkers go to When They Get Their Brain Thrashed In & "100 Ways to Cook Humans - Amazing Recipes for the Discerning Walker"
Viewers who had previously given up on the franchise might appreciate the anthology format, with its emphasis on stand-alone stories (no fighting the same villain for multiple seasons here!). The show also delivers the usual zombie action, so long-time viewers should also be satisfied.
As with most anthologies, your mileage may vary with Tales Of The Walking Dead, depending on which episode you watch. But the performances are entertaining enough to make up for some fractured storytelling and weird, overly positive vibe.
[“Blair/Gina” is] the episode that most feels like an expansion of what The Walking Dead can be, instead of a mere rehashing of it. If only more of Tales took advantage of that freedom.
“Tales of the Walking Dead” offers a mixed bag of standalone stories, but a talented cast and a few wild storytelling experiments don’t quite manage to breathe new life into the franchise.
The latest extension of "The Walking Dead" "universe," if you can really call it that, Tales of the Walking Dead possesses the chance to explore and play with this world-gone-mad scenario, but mostly squanders it. Telling a self-contained story in each hour, think of it as a zombie-fied bonus effort that doesn't kill much more than time.
Again more of the same
The spin-off is basically just the same warmed up again. The new characters are ok, but far from the original series. The stories of the old doomsday, which is inhabited by zombies, are so drained that it hardly entertains anymore. Just let Walking Dead rest in peace and do something new.
I like Terry Crewes, who doesn't, but he's just Terry Crewes in everything. That's why we like him. Olivia Munn is hit or miss, and in this it's a miss. I get what they're going for, a zombie black mirror akin to the Warld War Z book, but this first one is meh. We've seen all these kind of gotcha tales before, and there are no surprises here. Nice to see someone has a brain and preps. The most frustrating dynamic of TWD for me was always how much time they spent melodramaticizing the apocalypse. Everybody always felt poopy about the zombies and cried a lot instead of being better prepared. Unfortunately I foresee a lot of one-offs with fun ideas, but little depths. Case in point.
I did enjoy the Navy sub story on FTWD. THAT could've been a spin-off series.