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.

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.

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.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live might be the best of all the spinoffs. I was initially hesitant about watching these spinoffs considering the last few seasons of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead was so up and down (and the other spinoffs have been downright awful) but I've actually really enjoyed all three of the new spinoffs much more than I anticipated. This one, Daryl Dixon and Dead City are all really good. This is the one everyone's been looking forward to for years now. They originally announced a 3 movie deal about continuing Rick Grimes story that was suppose to happen back in 2020 but it never came. Then they changed it to this spinoff and I love it. Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira return to their roles of Rick and Michonne. I'm pretty sure this is only a one season show but I hope they continue to do multiple seasons of this like they are with the other two spinoffs because I don't want to say goodbye to Rick and Michonne again.