I can’t wait to see Rick suffer again on The Walking Dead

The past few years of The Walking Dead have been… strange. Although I obsessively followed the zombie series in its early years and analyzed it in minute detail, the franchise collapsed for me after the parent series’ finale. Now all my hopes rest on the imminent release of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. The reason is simple: Rick Grimes can finally suffer again.

I’ve been waiting for the big return of Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead universe for over 5 years

Rick Grimes is probably the most famous character from The Walking Dead cosmos. It all started with him, long before The Walking Dead came to television as a series. Already in the scary black and white images from Robert Kirkman’s comic book, the former sheriff fought for survival. He was first brought to life on camera by Andrew Lincoln in 2010.

Few characters have accompanied me in my series watching for as long as Rick Grimes. Despite other greats like Carol and Daryl, he was always the heart of the series for me – at least until he was seriously injured in a helicopter horizon of uncertainty disappeared. With the 5th episode of the 9th season, Lincoln said goodbye to the zombie apocalypse in order to be able to spend more time with his family.

You can watch the trailer for The Ones Who Live here:

Over five years later, he’s once again a full part of the franchise (after a brief cameo in The Walking Dead finale). Together with Michonne actress Danai Gurira, he leads the sequel series The Ones Who Live, which continues the TWD legacy after Dead City and Daryl Dixon. The perfect time to get into this End-time suffering festival to return. Because hardly anyone suffers as beautifully as Andrew Lincoln.

The Walking Dead is always at its best when Rick Grimes is having a really bad time in the zombie apocalypse

Sweaty, starving and at the end of his strength: it’s not uncommon for Lincoln to be with The Walking Dead during its nine seasons mournful eyes looked into the camera. Unkempt beard, dry skin and bruised cheeks that spoke of the last fight with an undead. Rick’s suffering was revealed not only through the outward appearance of the character, but also through the inner tremors in Lincoln’s chest.

In The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes had to endure incredible things to protect his family – first Lori and Carl, later Michonne and Judith. Of course, it’s hard to say that he lost more at the end of the world than other characters. The thing is, we don’t have any other characters the weight of every decision felt like it did with Rick, whose actions were constantly questioned.

At the beginning there is still a lot of the sheriff in him, who is almost predestined to defy the end of the world as the leader of a group of survivors. As the series progressed, The facets of the character became more profoundwhich gradually emerged – in the spirit of Kirkman’s template, which is based on the uncomfortable question of how people behave and change in extreme situations.

Rick Grimes is both hero and anti-hero – and Andrew Lincoln pulls off the balancing act with flying colors

At a time when major drama series primarily told of anti-heroes à la Walter White who followed in the footsteps of Tony Soprano, The Walking Dead achieved something with Rick’s characterization exciting balancing act: He is a classic hero and a modern anti-hero at the same time, especially when he is given morally impossible tasks correct and incorrect are two very relative terms.

Does he kill the tyrant Negan or does he show mercy to fulfill his son Carl’s last wish? And that despite the fact that Negan has killed so many of his comrades-in-arms. The Walking Dead has brought Rick Grimes into situations with downright bestial friends no easy way out gives. In each episode his values, ideas and beliefs were put to the test.

The great luck: Lincoln took us all along on this journey exhausting character development taken. From week to week, trust in the next world after all the death and destruction had to be renewed, if not completely rebuilt. Where most zombie stories in the cinema come to an end after two hours, Rick’s torments dragged on for years.

Andrew Lincoln conveyed the emotional and physical tour de force of The Walking Dead like no other

Despite grueling conflicts with the nightmarish Whisperers and the powerful Commonwealth, Rick’s absence from the final two seasons couldn’t be concealed. Never again has the series united so well in one character the struggle for survival on a small scale (his family) and on a large scale (society). Any day could be for Rick in The Walking Dead another world will endinto which he had put all his strength.

And then there’s Lincoln, who brought an incredible presence to the series. He expresses Rick’s suffering in trembling words, broken gestures and an inner turmoil. With his performance, he juxtaposes Kirkman’s introductory question with an extremely tough person who gasps, screams and cries. And kills. How long can this Rick last? When will it finally fall apart?

Lincoln’s acting goes emotionally deep and physically to the limit, which, together with the – at least initially – grainy 16mm footage, significantly increased the raw nature of the series. Rick’s suffering and how it comes across to Lincoln gave The Walking Dead a for nine seasons shocking realitywhich is absolutely necessary to tell such a story convincingly.

I can’t wait for that feeling to return in The Walking Dead.

The first season of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live starts on February 25, 2024 on MagentaTV and includes a total of six episodes that will be published weekly.