Streaming columnist NICK OVERALL writes that the return of Sheriff Rick Grimes puts some much needed bite back into The Walking Dead franchise.

This week The Walking Dead tries to revive itself with a new spin off that brings back its iconic main character.

Sheriff Rick Grimes has returned to screens in The Ones Who Live, a new series streaming on Stan.

Andrew Lincoln’s character left The Walking Dead at the end of season eight, dropping the show’s ratings faster than the sheriff’s iconic revolver does for zombies.

Since then the once beloved series hobbled its way to a lacklustre ending in 2022 that served only to set up tonnes of new spin offs in the form of the expanded Walking Dead universe.

There’s now been Fear The Walking Dead, Tales Of The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Talk about done to death!

All of these entries trying to cash in on the Marvel superhero formula have varied in quality and popularity, but if there’s one that might just be able to bring the franchise back from the grave then The Ones Who Live is certainly it.

The six-episode series picks things up right when Grimes left the group of survivors in the original series.

We now see his new life as a member of the Civic Republic Military, a post-apocalyptic army that’s trying to restore order to a ruined world through whatever means necessary.

It turns out this army sees a lot of potential in the hardened sheriff, keeping him as a prisoner to do their bidding in a crusade against the undead.

But Grimes only wants to escape to reunite with his katana-wielding love interest Michonne (Danai Gurira) and his daughter Judith. 

Most of this six episode mini-series focuses on how these fan-favourite characters try to find their way back to each other against impossible odds.

The return of Grimes puts some much needed bite back in The Walking Dead franchise, but it still feels like this spin-off still had to abandon some of its story ambitions so it could fit in with an endless list of sequels that are in the works. 

Walking Dead fans are sure to get a kick out of it, but each instalment in this bloated universe feels like it’s one step closer to being dead and buried for good.

THESE days it feels hard to come by a rom-com that doesn’t result in serial eye rolling.

But Netflix has broken the mould with “One Day”, a new mini series that’s both laugh inducing and heart breaking.

Each episode of this 14-part show takes place on the same day across 19 years, charting the broken love story of Emma, a disciplined, aspiring writer and Dexter, a smooth-talking heartthrob who first meet on a drunken night at their university graduation in Edinburgh in 1988.

Forming an unlikely friendship, the two agree to meet each other on July 15 every year.

Viewers watch as both of their lives head in very different directions and yet how the two always find their way back to one another.

Playing Emma and Dexter are Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall, both relative newcomers to the screen but who imbue a remarkable authenticity in their own characters and a palpable chemistry in one another’s. 

Part of what makes “One Day” feel so special is that it’s a story about friendship as much as it is romance. This all hinges on its two leads who pull it off with flying colours.

It’s based on the 2009 best-selling novel of the same name by David Nicholls, which also got a film adaptation with Anne Hathaway in 2011, which is mediocre to say the least.

A story spanning almost two decades feels so much more at home in a TV streaming format.

Each episode is condensed to around 25 minutes, making for an easily bingeable diamond in today’s rom-com rough.