Every 'The Walking Dead' spin-off ranked from worst to best

• "The Walking Dead" ended its 11-season run in 2022, but it inspired multiple spin-offs with one more on the way.

• lnsider ranked the five current "TWD" spin-off shows, including "Daryl Dixon," from worst to best.

• "TWD: World Beyond" is easily the worst spin-off. "Dead City" is the best by default.

5. "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" was often a slog and a laborious chore to get through.

Originally meant to serve as a bridge to the canceled "TWD" Rick Grimes movie, the two-season spin-off followed a group of kids a decade into the apocalypse as they searched for the kidnapped father of two girls.

Painfully slow-paced with uninteresting teens who couldn't hold their own against the dead, the series disappointingly failed to connect the larger "TWD" universe in more meaningful ways or to the flagship series' final season.

The show felt like a placeholder for Rick Grimes' return to the "TWD" universe as it frustratingly dangled clues about the Civic Republic Military (CRM), the mysterious group who took Rick Grimes on season nine of "TWD" without ever delivering anything of substantial interest.

Often, "World Beyond" largely felt like a bait and switch, never fully exploring some of its most interesting characters and the CRM.

The most interesting aspect of the show came in the form of scientists searching for a vague cure to the zombie breakout that was barely explored. Not even the return of Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis from "TWD" could save the show's slightly better second season.

"TWD" creator Robert Kirkman wound up being right when he predicted back in 2015 that a spin-off about a bunch of scientists working to find the cure and learn the origins of the walker apocalypse "would bore" him to tears.

You can read our full finale review here. 

4. "Tales of the Walking Dead" was largely a disappointment that should've been better.

The "Walking Dead" anthology series had the potential to be a great spin-off. Each of the first season's six episodes explores different individuals' or duos' responses to the zombie apocalypse during specific points in time.

When the concept for "Tales" was first pitched, it appeared the series may jump on the opportunity to revisit and tell more stories with former "TWD" characters killed off years ago like Glenn (Steven Yeun) or Abraham (Michael Cudlitz, who has since directed episodes in "TWD" universe). But that didn't happen.

Only two episodes, starring Terry Crews and Samantha Morton reprising her "TWD" villain, Alpha, are worth watching.

Overall, "Tales" was a wasted opportunity to better connect with the larger "TWD" universe.

Even without fan favorites returning, the show failed to introduce any new characters who were related to or loosely connected to the flagship series or "Fear the Walking Dead."

It's currently unclear whether or not the series will receive a second season.

You can read our review here.

3. "Fear the Walking Dead" had a great run for a few seasons, but it's devolved into one of TV's worst shows in recent years.

It's difficult not putting "Fear TWD," the first "TWD" spin-off, higher on this list.

However, "Fear" often feels like it was two different shows from different showrunner regimes.

The first three seasons of "Fear," which followed Madison Clark's (Kim Dickens) family as they escaped Los Angeles during the early days of the apocalypse, were largely great. When original showrunner Dave Erickson left and the show took a different direction by killing off Clark, the show's ratings took a nosedive.

The show became overrun by a few characters from "TWD," who competed for screen time with the already bloated cast of "Fear."

Often, the OG "Fear" crew was sidelined for "TWD" characters or newly introduced "Fear" heroes and villains.

Despite a surprisingly good season six in which the show focused on smaller-scaled enclosed episodes due to the pandemic, "Fear" stumbled again in season seven, becoming nearly unwatchable at times.

This was largely due to silly decisions which often resulted in characters unnecessarily putting themselves in danger years into the apocalypse.

The series also started reimagining its main characters each season so that many of them appeared unrecognizable. (Fans often point to Alicia, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, painting trees for nearly an entire season when discussing where "Fear" went wrong.)

Despite bringing Madison back in its final seasons, largely at the behest of fans, the show has oddly kept her separated from much of the show's original cast so far and failed to reunite her with her daughter before the actor left the series, something which bummed Dickens out a bit.

It always seemed like this show would line up with "TWD" at some point, but it doesn't seem the case now with six episodes to go.

"Fear" probably should've wrapped up a few seasons ago before some of its stars (Colman Domingo) became too big to appear regularly on the series anymore.

2. "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon" is better than the worst seasons of "Fear the Walking Dead," despite being a bore.

Not even a Melissa McBride cameo in its season one finale could save the "Daryl Dixon" spin-off from being a snooze fest.

Early on, Norman Reedus' spinoff felt like a rip-off of HBO's "The Last of Us" due to the introduction of a child born from an infected mother. Daryl was tasked with getting the miracle boy, Laurent, to a safe space across France.

However, after six episodes, it's unclear what the show is trying to say with its wonder boy — or in general — and it's incredibly frustrating as a viewer. Laurent appears to have some sort of powers that keep him safe from the dead (they left him undisturbed in one episode), but he may not be immune to the zombie virus.

The "TWD" Universe loves luring viewers in with vague, interesting ideas but then never saying much about them definitively.

Not even the answer to how Daryl wound up in Paris was intriguing. It turns out he just messed with the wrong people. Yawn. He should've been sent off to France because he got too close to saving the long-lost Rick Grimes.

"Daryl Dixon" is No. 2 on this list because its highs are better than the worst seasons of "Fear TWD." Daryl's finale fight against a few fast-paced walkers actually made it look like the series' protagonist was in real danger (even though viewers know there's no season two without Daryl).

These fast-paced variant walkers, originally introduced on the final season of "TWD," should've been more ingrained in the series to set the spinoff apart and liven the stakes.

Let's hope season two is better now that McBride will be a season regular, something the actor should've been all along if production hadn't moved abruptly to France.

1. "The Walking Dead: Dead City" is the best "TWD" spin-off by default, but that's a low bar.

Frenemies Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie (Lauren Cohan) team up to save her kidnapped son, Hershel, in a dilapidated New York City in the latest "TWD" spin-off.

The largely unnecessary "TWD" continuation often leaves more questions than answers  —Where is everyone else? When does this show even take place? — but Morgan and Cohan's performances and chemistry inject some life into the floundering AMC universe.

The show contains a bit of an absurd retcon by introducing a character from Negan's past (a very good and creepy ?eljko Ivanek) as the series' antagonist, but it works thanks to a believable moment in episode three.

For the majority of the first season's six episodes, I wondered why anyone would bother kidnapping a teenager, and specifically this teen, this far into the apocalypse. Food's already scarce so it makes little sense to waste resources on another mouth to feed. Maggie's kid feels completely random and contrived simply for the means of continuing the "Walking Dead" universe.

So I was pleased the series delivered a believable response to this quibble. Though everything neatly comes together by the season's penultimate episode, a large reveal ultimately feels a bit too dragged out for it to feel rewarding.

This first season isn't better than the introduction of "Fear." "Dead City" didn't introduce many memorable new faces. Everyone's pretty disposable. But "Dead City" ranks higher on this list because the series seems more thought out as a whole compared to every other spin-off.

Having Morgan and Cohan as executive producers on the series likely helped keep Maggie and Negan true to character, a pitfall that stained "Fear" as it entered its later seasons.

The end sets up a likely second season which, if it happens, should continue to follow the complicated dynamic between Maggie and Negan.

Read the original article on Insider