In my review of the finale of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, I open with a statement that I think a lot of my readers will agree with: “Gimple-speak ruins everything.”
Thus began a rather scathing takedown of the highly-anticipated Rick and Michonne spinoff. We’d all waited years for this reunion and to learn more about the mysterious and powerful CRM, only to get one of the worst seasons of The Walking Dead ever made. No, it wasn’t as bad as the last few seasons of Fear The Walking Dead, but I’d lost hope for that show long ago. I was actually excited to see what happened with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira).
The crushing disappointment at what we were given after all this time (both our time and the in-universe fictional time that had passed) was enormous and painful. I am certainly a harsh critic when it comes to AMC’s zombie empire, but my criticism comes from a place of love. I want these shows to be great, and I am constantly baffled at the low-effort nonsense that goes into each new offering.
“This could have been so much more. It deserved to be so much more. Fans deserved more. Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira deserved more,” I wrote at the time. “Too neat, too convenient, too poorly written, too rushed. I am Jack’s crushing sense of disappointment.”
Now you can experience that same feeling. All six episodes (a disappointing number in and of itself) are available today on Netflix. And perhaps you will like it better than I did. I am, it appears, in the minority in my sense of betrayal at how badly they dropped the ball. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 88% with critics and an 80% with fans, which is rather puzzling to me.
And sure, it was nicely filmed. There are some fun action set-pieces. The cinematography is, at times, quite good. Lincoln and Gurira and the supporting cast do a pretty good job. It’s just filled with so many plot conveniences, rushed storylines and that hideously botched ending that I can’t ever recommend it. Of course, these are all things that every TWD show engages in with gusto. Nobody talks like real people. Nobody makes sensible, logical choices. They kill off the best characters shortly after introducing them and hold on to the worst characters for far too long.
Before you accuse me of wanting “plausibility” in a zombie apocalypse show, I’ll turn your attention to this post I recently wrote about what The Walking Dead could learn from Netflix’s other new show, American Primeval, and how it pertains to small details in The Walking Dead, like costumes and makeup and the importance of creating a believable and immersive fictional world.
What did you think of The Ones Who Live? Or are you only now watching it thanks to its release on Netflix? Either way, chime in on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
P.S. I have been much-criticized for saying that I don’t much care for the romance between Rick and Michonne, and that it felt rushed from the start and that their chemistry never clicked for me. But even though all that’s true—and my opinion—that’s not what actually hurt The Ones Who Live. It was everything else. The bad scripts. The logical leaps. The shortcuts. The weird, stilted dialogue. And it was just way, way too easy for our heroes to overcome such enormous obstacles. Barely an inconvenience!
