HBO Max’s DMZ is too good of an idea to abandon like this

polygon.com:

DMZ bears the unfortunate distinction of suffering from one of the most severe pandemic disruptions on a show that’s made it to air. Originally planned as a proper ongoing series for HBO Max, the series halted production in March 2020 after filming the pilot, resuming in late 2021 as a four-episode miniseries. According to showrunner Roberto Patino, this lead to DMZ becoming a smaller, more personal story. Under these constraints, it’s miraculous that DMZ has arrived with a focused, coherent story to tell. It’s just not a particularly satisfying one.

Loosely adapted from the Vertigo comic by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli, DMZ follows Alma “Zee” Ortega (Rosario Dawson), a medic in a New York City fractured by a second American civil war. In this alternate near-future, the country is divided into the Free States of America and what’s left of the United States, with Manhattan declared a “Demilitarized Zone” — effectively a no man’s land abandoned by both governments, where those who could evacuate left and those who could not are forced (or choose) to fend for themselves.

Nearly a decade ago, on Evacuation Day — when Manhattan became the DMZ and many residents tried to flee the city — Alma was separated from her son on her way out, losing him in the DMZ as she made it to safety. In the intervening years, she’s been looking for him everywhere, and the series immediately begins with her learning from a reliable source that he may still be in the DMZ, and thus goes on the perilous journey to find him.

DMZ establishes both its status quo and Alma’s motivations quickly and poorly. Viewers who wish to understand what led to the collapse of the United States and why Manhattan is a demilitarized zone will be unsatisfied; the