Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, the Rick and Michonne spinoff, spoilers follow, but they're minor.
"I tried," pleads Rick Grimes at the start of his new series, The Ones Who Live. "Please know I tried."
But has he tried hard enough? Has this long-gestating show, six years in the making, actually been worth the wait?
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The Ones Who Live has been marketed as the series that brings Rick and Michonne back together after so many years apart, but they still remain separated at the beginning, so Rick's words here are more for us than his long-lost love.
To be fair, Rick has tried pretty hard to find Michonne. Since Jadis snatched Grimes off that bridge back in The Walking Dead season nine, Rick has fought to escape, time and time again. Yet not even the mighty Rick has managed to break free of the CRM's control.
Related: How to watch The Walking Dead in chronological order
Even as he continues to rise up the ranks, Rick's unwavering focus has always been on getting back to Michonne and their daughter, Judith. The CRM is fully aware of just how formidable Rick can be though, so extra measures have been put in place to keep him from going off the rails, including an actual leash used by soldiers to control Rick while they're out and about on zombie-killing missions.
It's not just danger and rebellion and a love of drama that the CRM senses in Rick, however. A key officer sees something extra special in Grimes, believing that if harnessed right, his strength could actually benefit the CRM as a whole and even course correct the future of humanity itself.
As wild as that might sound, The Walking Dead's appeal as a franchise really did hinge on Rick Grimes back in the day. Unfortunately, it's been a while since Andrew Lincoln's character took centre stage, and let's just say the years have not been kind to Rick, both in terms of what happened to his character, but also when it comes to interest in the journey itself. The beard is still on point though, thankfully.
Back in 2018, The Walking Dead announced Rick's impending return in a movie trilogy that will reveal everything that happened after his departure from the main show. But then a real-world virus changed everything, forcing this post-apocalyptic story to move from cinemas back to the small screen.
Watching The Ones Who Live now, it's hard not to lament this shift even more than we already did. Because if there's one thing this new show lacks, it's the kind of cinematic scope that a big screen budget could have brought to the table.
That's not to say Rick and Michonne's show looks cheap. Far from it, in fact. Like Dead City and Daryl Dixon's spinoff before it, AMC has pumped way more money into this series than they did for the main show in its waning years, creating a few impressive set-pieces that help differentiate The Ones Who Live from what came before.
Still, it's not quite enough because there's a lack of ambition when it comes to the narrative itself, which is particularly damning for this spinoff in particular given how long fans have waited to see Lincoln back on screen.
Once upon a time, the return of Rick Grimes would have been a major TV event, one worthy of transcending TV even for a shot at the big screen. But when it comes to the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead, a lot of viewers are simply post-caring.
The events depicted here have been teased for years now across the main show and also World Beyond, a CRM-focused spinoff where Rick's return might have actually made more sense. The Ones Who Live does give us some much-needed answers, especially when it comes to the CRM and its true intentions, but is anyone looking for said answers anymore beyond The Walking Dead's diehard fanbase?
To make matters worse, the answers we do get aren't of the earth-shattering variety that Rick and Michonne's show needed to make an impact now in 2024. Such a long wait demands a far more satisfying payoff than the one provided here.
To be fair, reveals alone don't make a series. The Ones Who Live should also stand on its own two feet, even if it's hard to imagine many newcomers shuffling into this world so late in the game. The problem is that much of the four episodes we've previewed so far is just fine. Not great, not terrible. Just fine.
Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira are entirely innocent though, of course. They're both just as strong as they've ever been in these roles, anchoring the show with a power and determination befitting of the hardships their characters have long suffered on this quest to find each other. In fact, watching Lincoln and Gurira return to this world instantly reminds us why they were so important to this franchise in the first place, especially during some standout moments in episode four.
Thankfully, their enduring chemistry helps pull us through some of the show's weaker moments, including imagined meet-ups between Rick and Michonne early on, which are pretty cheesy and borderline cringe at points.
Other new characters introduced in this series are more of a mixed bag, especially Lost's Terry O'Quinn. His Major General Beale, technically the biggest villain this franchise has ever faced, doesn't really compare so far to the Negan's and Governor's of this world, unfortunately. Come back to us when you've decapitated one of Rick's besties or smushed in the skull of another.
There are some thrilling moments that do impress though, involving hordes and helicopters and even chlorine gas, that keep the momentum up and remind us that this was once supposed to be a grand cinematic event.
Still, this show isn't the game-changer we were hoping for. In fact, Daryl's spinoff is far superior with the kind of innovation we would have expected more from Grimes, the former face of The Walking Dead. Perhaps if Rick's show had led the charge, a lack of comparisons would have worked in its favour, but as it stands, Daryl is now the leader in more ways than one.
Rick's made some effort with his comeback, sure, but he's going to have to try a lot harder if he wants to compete with his replacement. And if this comeback does just end up being a limited series, as is the plan right now, then The Ones Who Live might not be a show you'll want to relive anytime soon.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live will air on AMC in the US from February 25th. A UK broadcaster has yet to be confirmed.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
