The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live might just be my favourite of all the spinoffs. As one who stopped watching The Walking Dead original series years ago, I caught up on the last seasons as I heard there were spinoffs being made and one was about Rick Grimes. The acting was superb, the chemistry of Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurita stands out, and the plot was well designed. All the episodes felt like individual movies and were edge-of-seat viewings. All the cameo and new additions to the cast (Beale, Thorne) made this spinoff just that much more special. I could do with a season 2 for personal hunger to see more of these two, but I accept that there's a beauty in letting it rest here.

Before someone reads this and assumes I'm some hater who didn't give this series a chance, I've watched this universe for nearly a decade now and sat through it's highs and lows, have read all the comics, and even gave a chance on most of the shows spin-offs whether bad or not. Which in some cases is actually kind of important considering the effort the writers had to emphasize the CRM lore in a lot of them. While I did enjoy some of the great moments of this universe I'm also not scared to call out when it tries to insult the audience with its unrealistic, out of touch, and dare I say season 8 level Game Of Thrones writing. That said I'm unbiased and simply one person that has liked and disliked this universe just giving my opinion.

The Ones Who Live started off well, making the presence of the CRM felt immediately and doing justice to the near decade Rick had been gone from his family. The series subverts expectations a bit in the early half but not in a way that's done poorly. I don't think it's without flaws but nothing that takes me out of the experience. Episode 4 takes a slow change in pace but one I thought was necessary at the time for Rick's development. But then the final 2 episodes came and I realized how poorly they treated the time they were given, ESPECIALLY in the finale. Little did I know the entire 7 year build of the CRM from season 8 of TWD till now was going to be thrown out the window.

I've seen some fans cope about how this series was meant to focus on the love story of Rick and Michonne which is completely fine. But using that as an excuse for the butchering of the CRM as if they hadn't spent all this time building them up is an absolute JOKE. Throwing away the ENTIRE storyline and doing absolutely 0 justice to their buildup is such an insult to the investment people had in them as villains. An investment that was put into place by the show itself. Making the CRM out to be the most dangerous threat in the entire Walking Dead universe, then completely dropping the ball with them just for some cliche generic ending you'd get from a modern day Disney movie.

Scott Gimple has been criticized in the past for his AWFUL decisions with TWD. So much so that he had to step down and give the reigns to Angela Kang for the final 3 seasons of the main show, even if that didn't really end well either despite a great 9th season. Gimple being the lead producer and writer for this series was something I was extremely skeptical about, but I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt considering he did write some of the best TWD episodes we have today. He also was working on this story for plenty of years, so surely he treated it with a lot of care and would be prepared to make the best of it, right? No. Absolutely not.

Gimple has always had a HUGE problem with writing dialogue. In many instances in his material, the characters have these corny lines that try too hard to be wise and clever that it inhumanizes them, ESPECIALLY in life or death moments. He wouldn't dare take this problem to this series after being off of the main show and taking part in ruining Fear The Walking Dead in many aspects as well, right? No, he brought it here too.

You have a character that is fixated on one thing for YEARS, then all of a sudden become this in-touch grounded person out of nowhere for the sake of making the audience feel sympathy for them? Not to mention in nearly every action scene these awfully corny dialogue pieces that a human is NOT going to say in a LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION. Minor details here but honestly it's not that big of a deal considering this is the most formulaic Disney Junior like writing I've seen in an adult drama in a very long time but whatever. A character in a very intense moment says "LoVe iS DeAd" and another character says "LoVe DoEsNt DiE" and I cringed out of my mind. HUMANS DO NOT TALK LIKE THIS!!!! FOR GODS SAKE THIS ISNT A FORMULAIC DISNEY SHOW SCOTT GIMPLE!!!

I'm not trying to bash on people's experience if they enjoyed the show, but it absolutely pains me to see so many people that are blinded by the nostalgia of these characters, ESPECIALLY getting blinded by fan service and undeserved emotional moments to make up for how forced of a finish this was. I'm almost convinced these fans who loved the ending would watch The Long Night episode from Game Of Thrones and be jumping with joy and have 0 problem with it. Because that's the type of writing we got here in the final act of this series that had so much more potential than this.

Either way if you enjoyed The Ones Who Live, all power to you. But don't write off the people who disliked it as haters and completely dismiss anyone who doesn't think this ending is anything close to "perfect" because I'll be damned if this is what a perfect television ending looks like. If you read allat, thank you. Even if you disagree. Shoutout to the performances from Danai, Andy and others. Scott Gimple, shame on you.

I didn't plan on leaving a review at first, but after reading some of the bad ones I felt compelled. Comments like, "this is not believable" made me go, well, this is based on a comic book in a fantasy world about zombies, so yeah...could be feasible; or comments like, "it started off strong...," or "rushed." Truth is the first time I watched this I shared some of these sentiments, but was ultimately glad for the closure.

I had been waiting for the Rick Grimes (RG) story since he was seen flying off in that helicopter. I quickly added it to my watch list as soon as the trailer dropped. I really didn't have much to look forward to especially in this political climate and found myself circling back around for another go.

Back to this being based on a comic book, which I read until the series seemed to go so far off it's own way. This did both the job of putting me back to a time when escaping into these stories was just that an escape. These days it feels like we're living in such unreal times this gave hope that something could change no matter how small you are or how insurmountable it feels.

I have tried watching the various spinoffs. Usually feel flat. Even found myself not watching the main series once RG was gone. The show had lost it's heart even with us knowing he was out there somewhere. It felt the same watching the Darryl Dixon series. It was only the hope that we'd get some more RG that kept me watching until Carol showed up. RG is a true lead. We followed him making insane choices, even being a dictator for a tiny bit.

Anyhoo, I guess it depends on where and when you're watching. Last year I would have given this a 6. Today it feels like, yes, we need to engage our moral compass and do something where we're not committing genocide for survival. Yes, even you can make a difference and that difference can have a huge effect. And yes, do this now, quick and in a hurry or we will BE the walking dead. So 8 it is...for parallels today and the hope and closure it gave.

Incredible take on Michonne's turbulent journey in her quest to find and rescue Rick Grimes from the CRM (Civic Republic Military).

Writers of this anthology series (collections of shorter works) made a good move shortening the stories. The pervious approach to the main Walking Dead series was a little long winded, I thought. This miniseries was direct, in your face, no nonsense drama. Great written lines. Character dynamics, cinematography, sound effects, emotional scenes done to perfection.

The Echelon Briefing scene in Final Episode 6 blew me away. So much raw tension! The plot in that scene gave me flashbacks of the zombie game, Resident Evil 2. In the game's plot, Umbrella Corporation with the backing of the US goverment contained the outbreak of the T-Virus in Racoon City by deploying an experimental thermobaric missile. Organized killing, ruthless efficiency at the highest level. In my view, the CRM is a modern day equivalent of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) during WW2. Just bone chilling. I hope there is a season 2 in the future.

This could literally be just six episodes from The Walking Dead, making it perfect for anyone craving more TWD seasons. And best of all, we finally get Rick back after all these years. But I have to admit, at first, I wasn't sure if we got back the Rick we wanted-or if it would have been better not to bring him back at all. What we're given is a Rick so deeply consumed by his mental struggles that there may be no way back.

However, there's light at the end of the tunnel. After watching a couple of episodes, I thought the whole miniseries was a horrible mistake, but it improves significantly toward the end. I'd even dare to say it reaches the level of The Walking Dead in some respects. Part of that is due to the return of some familiar characters from the original series-it was so good to see them again.

From the very beginning, it's obvious they wanted Rick to resemble his comic book counterpart more closely, both physically and mentally. As a result, he undergoes certain changes and experiences that I honestly didn't like. If they spent all those original TWD seasons deviating from the comic book version of Rick, why suddenly make him more like the comic book Rick in this miniseries?

My three main complaints about The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live are Rick's physical appearance, his mental state, and the fact that this will clearly not have a second season. I don't think they ever intended multiple seasons, but it feels like they just wanted to keep their unspoken promise and bring Rick back after his unexpected departure-perhaps to set up a cinematic movie that may never happen.

While I personally prefer the other spin-offs over The Ones Who Live, this is a must-watch for TWD fans. It's the only spin-off that truly feels like a direct continuation of the original series and takes place within the same TWD universe. If the first episodes had been as strong as the last ones, this could have easily been an amazing spin-off. As it stands, it's good-but not amazing.