The Ones Who Live” – Love in the time of zombies

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Sheriff Rick Grimes woke up in a hospital bed. The bouquet of flowers on his bedside table had faded, the hospital was devastated, and there were corpses lying outside. He had to make sense of an end of the world that had apparently occurred while he was in a coma with a gunshot wound. Dead people now shuffled through the city streets, hungry, afflicted by a mysterious resurrection virus. The series “The Walking Dead” started with these pictures in 2010.

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Frank Darabont created the most successful horror series of all time

Frank Darabont, director of the prison dramas “The Condemned” and “The Green Mile,” created the most successful horror series to date. His apocalyptic story was essentially a human tragedy, the “biters” were just the creep garland. The good knight Rick (Andrew Lincoln) became the leader of a group of survivors and went on an endless odyssey with them – until he was presumed dead in the ninth season.

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Now he’s back – in “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live”, the third sequel to the parent series with its most popular characters after it ended two years ago. He was forced to become a citizen of the Civic Republic, which had kidnapped him. Never has a new attempt at civilization in the franchise been more advanced or larger. There is electricity, water and its own military with special forces. Everything is top secret. Anyone who is taken in on the Hudson River is never allowed to leave again.

Why the Civic Republic kidnapped Rick Grimes remains a mystery

“I tried,” Rick says in a dialogue with his absent lover Michonne at the beginning of the six episodes (three of which are available for viewing). His attempts to escape cost him a hand, after which he gave up.

For the time being, the mystery of why the Civic Republic was so crazy about Rick back then remains unsolved. However, this pseudo-state only appears to be a good place to stay, because not only walkers are killed, but also living people who get too close. During one of these attacks, Rick’s helicopter is knocked out of the sky. And on the ground the encounter that fans have been waiting for takes place. The stunned Michonne, who has been searching for him for an eternity, meets her husband among murderers: “I don’t belong,” are his first words.

I do not belong to it.

Rick Grimes’ first words to Michonne

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The first spin-off after the end of the parent series, “Dead City”, had its sharpest antagonists become heroes: Maggie came to New York with Negan, the murderer of her husband Glenn. Audience favorite Daryl Dixon – the character does not appear in the comic book by Robert Kirkland and Tony Moore – ended up in France in the follow-up series named after him.

Both series were quite successful attempts to give new impetus to the aging franchise. The great lovers are now reunited with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira). A pink-gray “shock novel” about love in the age of zombies – this much can be said – does not come out of it.

Apart from a few frightening and overwhelming images and some touching memories of Rick’s childhood, “The Ones Who Live” offers little that is surprising until the halfway point. The first two episodes (three of a total of six were offered for viewing) summarize the past years of the two protagonists until they meet again. Promising characters are built up – especially the short explosives specialist Nat (Matthew Jeffers) – which the creators Scott M. Gimple and Gurira unfortunately do not treat with much care.

Again it’s about the evil system that needs to be overcome

And when Rick and Michonne stay within the walls of the would-be republic in the third episode, the story of the evil system that needs to be overcome shines through, a story that is very familiar to TWD fans. In between shuffle the great-looking, lazy, always hungry Lazaruses. Zom business as usual.

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And yet, to be honest, they seem a little worn out. Anything that could make “The Ones Who Live” a unique gem in the TWD series network will probably have to wait until the second half of the season. The fact that the former shining light Rick has lost some of his rays and appears nervous and broken could lead to a dark climax. What he says to Michonne at the end of the third episode will not be revealed.

But her look is no longer quite as loving afterwards.

“The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live”, miniseries, six episodes, by Scott M. Gimple and Danai Gurira, with Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, Pollyanna McIntosh, Matthew Jeffers, Lesley-Ann Brandt (from February 26 on Magenta TV )