AMC’s Best Walking Dead Series Is Changing In 2027

With so many shows set in The Walking Dead‘s post-apocalyptic landscape, it’s only natural that some are better than others. The Walking Dead: World Beyond and Tales of the Walking Dead are an acquired taste, while the main series and Fear the Walking Dead vary in quality from season to season.

After The Walking Dead ended in 2022, AMC switched from a typical cable format to a more prestige, streaming-style format with shorter seasons, and that approach has yielded results. Both Daryl Dixon and Rick and Michonne’s The Ones Who Live could stake a claim to being The Walking Dead‘s best series. As far as Rotten Tomatoes is concerned, however, it’s Rick and Michonne who come out victorious, with 88% on the Tomatometer and 76% on the Popcornmeter against Daryl Dixon‘s 74% and 52%.

In 2027, however, the title of ‘The Walking Dead‘s best series‘ could very easily change hands.

Daryl Dixon Season 4 Can Swing Opinion In Its Favor

The overall Rotten Tomatoes scores for The Ones Who Live and Daryl Dixon don’t tell the full story. On one hand, The Ones Who Live consists of a mere six episodes, so it’s more like a movie than a typical TV series. Almost like it was originally designed as a film…

By contrast, Daryl Dixon has taken a long-form approach and improved over time. AMC’s first two seasons, both set in France, scored around the same on Rotten Tomatoes as the show overall, but after relocating to Spain in season 3, its fortunes vastly improved. Daryl Dixon season 3 has 83% and 60%, sitting a lot closer to The Ones Who Live. If its final run continues the trend, Daryl Dixon could finally hit the same heights as Rick and Michonne.

Season	Tomatometer Score	Popcornmeter Score
Daryl Dixon (series)	74%	52%
Daryl Dixon season 1	70%	53%
Daryl Dixon season 2	71%	43%
Daryl Dixon season 3	83%	60%

Daryl Dixon season 4 is strongly set up to be the show’s best outing yet. The story flows so much better now that Daryl’s mission is simply ‘get home’ rather than ‘annoy the people of France, adopt a kid, something something.’ And after season 1 was pure Daryl and season 2 leaned toward Carol, the series has now found a more pleasing balance between the two protagonists.

The supporting characters are stronger too, and with Daryl Dixon season 3’s finale not killing them all off for once, season 4 will have the benefit of a cast filled with familiar faces.

With season 4 confirmed as Daryl and Carol’s last ride, this final run of episodes also has nothing to lose. Nothing to hold back, nothing to leave for next season, and no future storylines to set up. Everything is pointing toward Daryl Dixon season 4 being the best yet.

The Walking Dead’s Best Episodes May Come After Daryl’s Spinoff Ends

Danai Gurira and Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead season 9

For the first time in many years, The Walking Dead‘s next steps aren’t clear, with Daryl Dixon season 4 the last entry in AMC’s undead diary at the present time. One would imagine that The Walking Dead will continue in some shape or form, with another season of Maggie and Negan’s Dead City still not ruled out, but after a long conveyor belt of regular releases, the franchise’s broader plan remains hidden.

Several potential projects have been whispered about, including a Walking Dead comedy series that appears to have stalled completely, but none spark excitement quite like the rumors of an upcoming crossover. Franchise lead Scott M. Gimple has acknowledged the possibility of bringing all shows in The Walking Dead‘s universe together, and breadcrumbs can be found in more or less every series finale so far: Morgan looking for Rick in Fear the Walking Dead, Silas joining the CRM in World Beyond, Rick coming home in The Ones Who Live.

If these threads ever were brought together into one show, perhaps with all the heroes convening at the Commonwealth to take on the mysterious villains at Designation 2, the resulting series could easily seize the title of The Walking Dead‘s greatest series, even surpassing Daryl Dixon and The Ones Who Live.