The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

For the two-thirds of the series I’ve seen, it hits the mark exceptionally, save for a few elements where the plot demands unconvincing character choices. For those who've waited years for answers, The Ones Who Live is equal parts sad, sinister, and satisfying.

While “The Ones Who Live” isn’t exactly review proof, if you’ve been pining away for these two, nothing anyone says will stop you from sucking the marrow out of this carcass. The less emotionally invested but curious, though, may also be pleased to see what these two look like now.

With so many other spinoffs telling new stories, too, The Ones Who Live doesn’t feel like the future of The Walking Dead franchise, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s more like a reunion to finally bring fans some closure and answers. Which sometimes, that’s more than enough.

The latest spin-off’s success will depend entirely on how truly invested the fandom is in Rick and Michonne’s relationship. Nothing new is being offered, in fact the new iteration seems to have gone to some trouble to keep the kind of overarching storylines and not quite credible threats to the couple’s existence and happiness that weighed down earlier attempts.

"The Ones Who Live" is just good enough to keep its universe fresh ... for now.

The story takes a while to wind up, and by the time it does, we’re already more than halfway through the show. It’s hard to imagine how this series will wrap up in a way that feels as epic as its action-packed opening. That said, by Episode Four, we’re really cooking again, as stars and executive producers Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira rediscover the fire that made their characters—and the “Richonne” ship—so compelling.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is basically a love story wrapped in the usual TWD post-apocalyptic shell. But what we hope is that the love story breaks through that shell and shows us something we haven’t seen from the franchise before.

Originally announced as movies that would feature Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” became a series instead, and as conceived and constructed, the least impressive of the zombie drama’s recent spinoffs. While Lincoln’s involvement as the original star looks like a coup, that’s poor compensation for questionable decisions regarding how to showcase him.

For fans who are still deeply invested in Rick and Michonne’s story, the series is likely to deliver the closure they’ve been craving, but this describes a fraction of an audience that is already itself a fraction of the fan base this show had at its peak. After the successful storytelling and well-established worlds of “Dead City” and “Daryl Dixon”, it feels even less necessary.

Whenever The Ones Who Live seems to be finally getting to the heart of this new chapter of an expansive story, the world comes rushing back in. There could be something poetic about this if handled more deftly, but the show chooses to make explosive sacrifices to spectacle without any indication of what will play out.

TOWL doesn’t add anything inventive to the TWD lineup and it’s weak at reinventing the wheel.