The Rick series just makes the original’s ending look ridiculous

Today the time has finally come: Rick Grimes is back! Over 5 years after his exit from the zombie series The Walking Dead, his story is now continued in the spin-off The Ones Who Live every Monday on MagentaTV. And fans shouldn’t miss it.

Anyone who was unconvinced 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 makes everything better.

Warning, spoilers follow:

The Ones Who Live is 4 times bigger than The Walking Dead finale

I was able to see the first 3 episodes of The Ones Who Live in advance and was completely overwhelmed by the unexpected mix of military thriller and post-apocalyptic love story (you can read more about that here). Being able to spend time with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) again promised an exceptionally emotional experience in advance. However, when I looked, it kept creeping up on me a feeling of déjà vu.

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

Don’t worry: the new spin-off series is by no means a blatant copy of well-known The Walking Dead story arcs and is visually and narratively different from anything we saw 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.

The Commonwealth was presented to us in season 11 as a “hidden” community with around 50,000 inhabitants that keeps outsiders away and has its own military. The Ones Who Live also takes you to a “secret” city, but with 200,000 residents four times larger is. It’s amazing how similar these two communities are. But The Walking Dead finale doesn’t fare well.

The Ones Who Live is The Walking Dead finale 2.0

The strict admission process, the threatening 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 tour of the Commonwealth. Only here they have onion rings instead of ice cream.

Here are a few more examples of Parallels between the Commonwealth arc and The Ones Who Live:

Also interesting: In the comics, the Commonwealth has a huge stadium, an event arena for major events. For budget reasons, however, this only became a small wrestling ring set up in the city in the series. In The Ones Who Live, Rick finds himself in episode 3 for a secret nighttime meeting in a huge, crumbling stadium. A swipe at season 11?

The Commonwealth never gave me the impression of a real, living city. The high-quality and impressive scenery of the Civic Republic (known as Philadelphia before the zombie apocalypse) alone makes The Walking Dead look old. Things get even worse when we consider the soldiers of the respective communities.

Compared to The Ones Who Live, The Walking Dead finale seems like a low-budget production

One point of criticism of the Commonwealth storyline was the portrayal of the military in The Walking Dead. While the soldiers in white armor in the comics still looked cool the shiny white plastic forces of the series are 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 scarier and more powerful.

The Ones Who Live is The Walking Dead at blockbuster level and the similarities to the 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 of the finale.

The Civic Republic is significantly larger, and the CRM force is more threatening and powerful. Unfortunately, this makes The Walking Dead finale lose an enormous amount of significance in retrospect. 177 episodes culminated in the fight to maintain the largest community the characters have seen to date. The effect is lost when the spin-off now proves to us that even more gigantic communities and much 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. However, season 11 as a whole was often underwhelming and compared to the comic book a Rick-less compromise with too little budget. The Ones Who Live now has everything the finale didn’t have: visual punch, a tighter story… and the Rick Grimes we deserved.