Is the return of Rick and Michonne to the Walking Dead universe worth it? According to critics reviewing The Ones Who Live, the answer appears to be yes.
Now that the dust has settled, The Ones Who Live has scored an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is higher than both Dead City at an 80% and Daryl Dixon at a 71%. Those two had audience scores that almost matched, so if that trend holds, The Ones Who Live might get similar marks from fans.
If we want to go all the way back and compare it to the base show, that has a 79%, but that’s after 11 seasons of going up and down, up and down. I’d say an 85% is pretty solid for a series that seems long past its expiration date, but it does seem to continue a tradition where the spin-off series are actually a lot better than you might imagine. I wasn’t in love with Daryl Dixon, but Carol returning for season 2 should be great. I really did like Dead City quite a lot, and am interested to see how that story continues for here. And I’ll watch the Ones Who Live premiere later tonight.
Here’s what some of the critics are saying about The Ones Who Live so far:
- RogerEbert.com: “Each time Lincoln and Gurira are on screen it becomes clear that while the spinoffs have been entertaining, they were missing the kind of sincerity these two actors bring to the table.”
- Comicbook.com: “The Ones Who Live plays out as a conspiracy thriller against the backdrop of the post-zombie apocalypse. Part Prison Break and part World War Z, this is The Walking Dead on the scope and scale of a zombie movie blockbuster.”
- And here’s one of the negative ones from CNN.com: “While there’s an initial kick in seeing the charismatic stars reunited, the life quickly drains from that promise, again resembling a franchise that simply doesn’t know when to quit.”
The six episodes of The Ones Who Live will run through the end of March, and while it’s still being set up as a limited series, it’s unclear if that’s true or not or if like Dead City and Daryl Dixon, it may end up getting a second season with Rick and Michonne returning, even if they do manage to escape the CRM and reunite with their family by the end of this, which is the entire point. And if they don’t do that then yeah, you can bet a second season is coming.
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