The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live doesn’t just bring back Rick Grimes. The massive zombie blockbuster also delivers a better version of the original finale.
Today the time has finally come: Rick Grimes is back! More than 5 years after his departure from the zombie series The Walking Dead, his story is now being continued in the spin-off The Ones Who Live every Monday on MagentaTV. And fans shouldn’t miss it.
Anyone who was less than convinced by the finale of the original series can look forward to a huge surprise. Because there are some striking similarities between The Ones Who Live and season 11 of The Walking Dead. And the new Rick Grimes series does everything better.
Warning, spoilers follow:
The Ones Who Live is 4 times bigger than The Walking Dead finale
I got to preview the first 3 episodes of The Ones Who Live and was completely blown away by the unexpected mix of military thriller and post-apocalyptic love story (you can read more about it here). Spending time with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) again promised to be an exceptionally emotional experience. However, I kept getting a feeling of déjà vu while watching
You can watch the trailer for The Ones Who Live here:
Don’t worry: the new spin-off series is by no means a brazen copy of familiar The Walking Dead story arcs and is visually and narratively different from anything we’ve seen in the original. However, the setting of The Ones Who Live has some striking parallels to the final 11th season of the parent series: The Civic Republic is the new Commonwealth.
In season 11, the Commonwealth was presented to us as a “hidden” community with around 50,000 inhabitants, which keeps outsiders away and has its own military. The Ones Who Live also leads to a “secret” city, but one that is four times larger with 200,000 inhabitants. It’s amazing how similar these two communities are. But The Walking Dead finale doesn’t come off well
The Ones Who Live is The Walking Dead finale 2.0
The rigorous recording process, the menacing military presence and political intrigue under the guise of security: numerous scenes in the Civic Republic are reminiscent of the events from the final season of The Walking Dead.
For example, when Rick strolls through a market for the first time in episode 3 as part of his introduction to this new world, there are clear parallels to Eugene’s first visit to the Commonwealth. Only here there are onion rings instead of ice cream
(Rick vs Daryl Who’s the cooler soldier?)
Here are a few more examples of parallels between the Commonwealth arc and The Ones Who Live:
instead of Daryl, it’s now Rick who rises through the ranks of the military
the story of Rick and Michonne is reminiscent of the “forbidden” love of Eugene and Stephanie
In the Commonwealth, rioters are forced to eliminate zombies; in the Civic Republic, new arrivals have to perform this forced labor.
Also interesting: In the comics, the Commonwealth has a huge stadium, an event arena for major events. For budget reasons, this was turned into
in the series
, however, it was only a small wrestling ring set up in the city. In episode 3 of The Ones Who Live, Rick now finds himself at a secret night-time meeting in a huge crumbling stadium. A nod to season 11?
The Commonwealth never gave me the impression of a real, bustling city. The Civic Republic (known as Philadelphia before the zombie apocalypse) alone makes The Walking Dead look old. It gets even worse when we look at the soldiers of the respective communities
Compared to The Ones Who Live, The Walking Dead finale looks like a low-budget production
One criticism of the Commonwealth storyline was the portrayal of the military in The Walking Dead. While the soldiers in white armor still looked cool in the comics, the shiny white plastic armed forces in the series looked rather cheap – especially in direct comparison with the soldiers and armor of the Civic Republic Military (CRM). The CRM is not only better dressed, but also much more fearsome and powerful.
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The Ones Who Live is The Walking Dead at blockbuster level and the similarities to Commonwealth make season 11 look like a low-budget production in retrospect. The spin-off is not only a fancier, but also a better variation on the finale.
The Civic Republic is considerably larger, the CRM’s Steitmacht more threatening and powerful. Unfortunately, The Walking Dead finale loses a huge amount of meaning in retrospect as a result. 177 episodes culminated in the battle to preserve the largest community the characters have ever seen. The impact fizzles out when the spin-off now proves to us that even more gigantic communities and even greater threats exist that the zombie flagship never showed.
Don’t get me wrong: the series finale of The Walking Dead was an unexpectedly intense highlight for me, bringing the story to a surprisingly emotional conclusion. Season 11 as a whole, however, was often underwhelming and, compared to the comic book original, a Rick-less compromise with too little budget. The Ones Who Live now has everything the finale didn’t: visual expressiveness, a tighter story… and the Rick Grimes we deserve.
