The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

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.

Film: The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Lived Year: 2024 Directors: Bertie Ellwood, Michael E. Satrazemis, Michael Slovis and Amber Templemore Writers: Scott M. Gimple, Danai Gurira, Nana Nkweti, Gabriel Llanas, Matthew Negrete and Channing Powell Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira and Pollyanna McIntosh

Review:

This was another off shoot of The Walking Dead. I was a fan of season 1, aside from the ending. I thought that season 2 and what followed was good for a solid stretch, but I lost interest after the Saviors came. Even when the Whisperers showed up, I was there. The problem for me is that it got too repetitive. Upon competition of watching this, I learned that this was the movie they were going to do. It then shifted to a trilogy and they ultimately decided to do it as a mini-series. Since this is listed as a film on Letterboxd and it doesn't look like they're going to continue it, I'm doing a review.

Synopsis: the love between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). Changed by a world that is constantly changing, will they find themselves in a war against the living or will they discover that they too are the walking dead?

What we're getting here starts with what happened to Rick. We see when he was taken on the helicopter to the Civic Republic Military. He's depressed so he's trying to find a way to escape. He was brought here by Jadis Stokes (Pollyanna McIntosh). He started with Pearl Thorne (Lesley-Ann Brandt) who was in a similar place to him. She sees what the CRM can do for her and buys in. Rick gets to meet Major General Beale (Terry O'Quinn), who changes his mind. There's also Donald Okafor (Craig Tate). He's the first commanding officer for Rick and Pearl. He knows that the CRM is doing horrible things and wants to change it from the inside.

We then see that Michonne has never given up and is still searching for Rick. I love how these two come together in this series. She almost dies multiple times. It also becomes dangerous for him if their superiors learn the truth. There's also a complication that if the CRM finds out about Alexandria, they will wipe it out. Even more so if Rick and/or Michonne flee back to it now. There are layers under this as well.

Since this is a mini-series that I'm assuming is concluding Rick and Michonne's tale within The Walking Dead universe, I'm going to leave my recap here. There are years and seasons from the start to where we end up here. What I like about this is the heart that is brought in here. Lincoln can showcase even more Rick's psyche and how every decision he's made wears on him. The thought of not getting to go back to Michonne, Judith and he doesn't even know about RJ until Michonne finds him. The thought of Carl keeps him going, but that is wearing thin on him as he can't remember his face. Seeing him deal with depression, the fear of the CRM wiping out Alexandria and then seeing the love between him and Michonne was good. It caps things well for the character.

I'll also commend Gurira. I love how difficult she is and won't listen to things that she doesn't agree with. Rick sets up a plan for her to escape, but she can't leave without him. I forgot that she made a promise to Judith that she would bring her father home. It tugs at heartstrings that if they don't get out alive, these children are orphaned. There are good people around them, but it isn't the same.

Let me then shift to the villains here. My issue with the show is that we get great groups and leaders like the Governor, Negan and the Saviors as well as The Whisperers. I know the last season had the corrupt government. This group that we're seeing here is the CRM who were introduced in The Walking: The World Beyond. We know their corrupt already. This feels on par with the last couple seasons of the OG The Walking Dead. I guess you truly can't top government corruption as the villain. I like Jadis as someone who is a grey character. The true villain though is Mjr Gen Beale. He seems nice, but there is that dark side underneath. Part of that is credit to O'Quinn. I also like that he has blind followers like Pearl under him. I don't find this as exciting or tense though as earlier villains.

There is one last thing for the story that I wanted to tell. Beale does give what the CRM scientists believe to be the timeline for the walking dead. I thought that was an interesting concept to toss out there. It makes me wonder though if this is going to be like the novelization of Night of the Living Dead, where anyone comes back after that and if precautions need to be taken.

I've already been discussing acting performances so let me say that Lincoln, Gurira, McIntosh and O'Quinn are great. I'd also say that Brandt plays a solid character that gets introduced. I love how she complicates things late in this series. I liked the appearance by Seth Gilliam as Gabriel Stokes and how he softens Jadis. I also liked Matthew Jeffers, Breeda Wool, Cailey Fleming and Antony Azor to round this out as well.

All that is left then is filmmaking. The cinematography here is good. They know how to capture the world we're in and the framing helps there. We get different locations around the United States since the CRM has that capability. Also, how these ties in with events from other storylines as well. I love the effects. The zombie make up is great. There is CGI that I don't love, but it at least looks good. This has the budget there. Other than that, the soundtrack was fine for what was needed. More credit to the sound design, especially for the zombies.

In conclusion, if you know me then you know that I'm burned out on all the Walking Dead. It doesn't capture that spark for me anymore. I still enjoyed what they did here. This would be a good send-off for the Rick and Michonne characters if that is truly what we're doing here. I like the story that this tells and how it wraps up things from the show. The acting is great with special credit to Lincoln, Gurira, O'Quinn and McIntosh. This is well made from the cinematography, framing and the effects. Just slight issues with CGI here and there. If you love these shows or a completionist like me, then I'd recommend it. If you've fallen off, I can't blame you for avoiding this.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

First and foremost I would like to start off by saying that this new spinoff series in particular was quite extravagant in its own way because of the simple fact that this new spinoff series in the franchise had some incredibly insane stunts performed that I never ever would've thought could be pulled off so with that being said it was quite eventful and was insanely action packed. But this first season in particular made me realize that not only are they fighting for they're survival living in the dark world of the walking dead but they re also fighting for they're sanity. Because realizing that being in a world where I've seen the different kinds of people places and settings and the way certain groups that were encountered throughout the seasons of the walking dead made me realize that living in that there is so much more to living in the world of the walking dead then people understand. People go batshit crazy and loose they're minds,yeah they've survived the apocalypse for the most part but how many people can say that they've come out of the apocalypse the same person that they were when they first started out in the city of the dead..?

Seeing Rick and Michonne together for their own show was probably a dream for a lot of TWD fans.

The first episodes were amazing! Episode 1 & 2 were the best in the show and showed exactly everything it needed to.

Episode 3&5 were good but less good, these were mainly episodes to build the show, they were necessary and still fun (a solid 8/10)

Episode 4 was AS GOOD as the first 2 episodes it gave us an episode I didn't know I needed in this show until I saw it.

Episode 6 (and the last episode ) was the worst in this show, from what I feel was way to short for the finale.

It was around 50 min. Of rushing to get the ending the showrunners wanted this show. The last episode should have been made into 2 episodes or even 3.

This episode was barely a 6/10.

I gave the show an 8/10 and not higher because the last episode kind of ruined the experience for me.

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.