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Las many of them I had to remove Living Deadaudience by the time Negan bashed in the heads of two long-running characters whose identities and deaths had been mercilessly teased by the producers throughout the sixth series and even a bit in the seventh. What had been increasingly obvious for a long time now became impossible to ignore: this was a show that had long since abandoned any thematic interest or narrative purpose in favor of simply coming up with worse and worse ways for people to die. I almost went back to watch Carl die in season eight because, man, I hated that kid, but that felt like it was going to lose me a lot of moral ground, so I had to settle for just knowing that the -it’s finally done.
The separation began in 2015 with Fear the living dead (which soon became chaotically boring as well). Many more followed, including anthology series and ones focusing on specific characters, but none quite caught on. Many hopes are pinned on the revival of Andrew Lincoln (who played franchise hero Rick Grimes until the ninth series of the original’s eleven) and Danai Gurira (as Michonne, the incredible of the apocalyptic warriors and the love of Rick’s life), who combine to form the core of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
The series picks up five years after Rick is supposedly killed but secretly rescued-kidnapped by the Civil Republic Military (CRM) and covers (in a slightly confusing flashback for anyone who dropped out early) what he’s been up to since then. Mainly, it seems, trying to escape and get back to Michonne, cutting off her own arm and burning it into burning zombie guts in the process, all to no avail.
He is protected by and tricked into joining the CRM by Lt. Col. Okafor (Craig Tate), who wants to change the military from within by recruiting the free-thinking, independent types it is currently trying to keep out. On a disastrous mission and after many laborious unsent letters to Michonne are read to us in gruff voices, who does Rick run into but… Michonne!
The next episode fills in her backstory for the past five years and – be warned – even introduces, albeit temporarily, some lightness of spirit via new character Nat (Matthew Augustus Jeffers). There’s even a joke in the third episode.
Other than that, however, everything seems to be business as usual. The walkers are stabbed in the face, found soaked but alive in the swamps, and gather in hordes to thwart everyone’s plans. Rick is tortured. Katani Michonne. We meet communities of survivors with their own arcane rules that certainly don’t look like anything you’d find in a post-apocalyptic setting because they just don’t make sense. Obstacles are carefully placed in people’s path – just to get around them. Sometimes they find hordes of pedestrians waiting there, and they are truly sorry; sometimes they are free to continue on their way until they find themselves at the mercy of yet another fearsome community.
The success of the latest spin-off will depend entirely on how invested fans really are in Rick and Michonne’s relationship. Nothing new is offered, in fact the new iteration seems to have gone out of its way to retain the kind of overarching storylines and not-quite-believable threats to the couple’s existence and happiness that weighed down previous efforts. And it still doesn’t let Rick take a shower when he comes back from his excursions covered in undead blood, even though he’s in a very well-functioning urban environment now and those things should be available.
But at least Carl is gone. I’ll watch to the end just for that.
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