Of all the many spin-off shows constantly branching off from the world of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live sounds like it should be the best of the bunch. It brings back the character who started it all: Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, who was yeeted with explosive force from the series years ago. He wasn’t the first, as Steven Yeun’s Glennmet a far more brutal and definitive end, nor would he be the last. However, when the main run of the show came to a rather disappointing end, the tease of what Rick had been up to felt the most promising. When paired with the journey of Michonne (Danai Gurira), who set out in search of him, there was a possibility that it could breathe some new life into the unfolding saga.

Indeed, The Ones Who Live begins promisingly. More engaging initial episodes and a handful of new characters suggest we could be getting something closer to The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon than what Fear the Walking Dead ended up becoming. Instead, the longer it carries on, the more it becomes like The Walking Dead: Dead City before falling even below that. Throughout the first four episodes of the series provided for review, it ends up far more shaky and scattered the more we get into it. While not the lowest of the low of where the flagship show ended up, as that series was defined by just adding in more characters with little depth to them, The Ones Who Live still has a long way to go to get things back on track while moving at a sluggish zombie-like pace. What was once supposed to be a miniseries, though may now expand to more, has its work cut out for it.

What Is ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ About?

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live picks up with Rick and Michonne basically how we left them in the final scene of the main series. Details about what this looks like should best be left somewhat vague, but the basics are that they’re each in a bit of a tough spot. More than just the fact that the world is still overrun with zombies, which long ago became only a threat when the series needed them to, another force is impacting the trajectory of the world that is left. Known as the Civic Republic Military, or CRM, they are in charge of several cities that rely on the labor of others like Rick to keep them safe. He does whatever is asked of him while always eyeing a way to escape back to his family, willing to bear whatever personal cost to do so. While The Ones Who Live initially could be gesturing at commentary about the exploitation of prisoners, this soon settles into business as usual for The Walking Dead when it shifts to being about more haphazard infighting that our characters will get caught in the middle of. Meanwhile, Michonne is out wandering in search of Rick and encounters some new faces along the way. However, as this is The Walking Dead, don’t get too attached to anyone as they can quickly and unceremoniously become chunks of meat.

The core relationship between Rick and Michonne is a smart one to build a show around and, again without giving anything away, this does result in some emotional payoffs. Both Lincoln and Gurira are solid actors with great chemistry, making one almost wish there was a chance for them to have a story that strips away all the noise, more similar to the one Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) is currently navigating. Instead, the series increasingly seems to find reasons to trap its main couple in the machinations of a narrative that is just far less interesting than their relationship. There is a moment in the third episode that demonstrates a willingness to take a bolder leap to get back to this, with the score providing a bit of a playful tone in the moment, but this is short-lived. Instead, much like the challenge the duo eventually must face, the series is almost always running away from something without providing much of anything for the story to head towards.

What should have been a series built on Rick and Michonne navigating a new world together often takes the opposite approach, moving from the outside in while losing sight of its best elements as it does. While being very cautious about spoilers, there is promise when the fourth episode initially takes a more intimate approach. There is even a second where it feels like we could be getting something like the standout element of The Last of Us, which found romance at the end of the world, but that soon evaporates. Where other post-apocalyptic shows have devoted entire episodes to delving deeper into the more emotional elements, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live seems scared to linger for too long. There are glimpses of this, but the show can’t ever hold on to them. Some of the narrative rationalizations Rick provides are borderline nonsensical, straining credulity. The exasperation Michonne feels in one key scene is mirrored by the viewer, as we too wonder where this is going.

‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ Keeps Turning in Circles

Whenever The Ones Who Live seems to be finally getting to the heart of this new chapter of an expansive story, the world comes rushing back in. There could be something poetic about this if handled more deftly, but the show chooses to make explosive sacrifices to spectacle without any indication of what will play out. Perhaps this is the battle that any zombie series must face, but there is little sense that this one knows what to do — other than continually cycle through the same motions just when you hope it might break free of them. Although it takes a step through an interesting new narrative door, there will always be a clunky-looking CGI helicopter that shows up on the horizon to create ultimately empty chaos. For a series about what comes next after the world as we know it has well and truly died, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live is lacking in life when it needs to revitalize itself, and the franchise, most.