Now that The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live season 1 has premiered, Rotten Tomatoes has calculated an official score. With 27 critics weighing in, the spinoff has received a decidedly Fresh 90% score. This is tied with The Walking Dead season 5 for the best score of the entire franchise, which includes seven shows with 25 total seasons at the time of writing.

The Walking Dead The Ones Who Live Official Trailer (Trailer)Does The Walking Dead Need Rick In Order To Succeed?

Although Gurira is one of the most important long-running characters on The Walking Dead, she didn’t join the show until season 3. Rick was the central character through whom viewers first experienced the zombie apocalypse in the show’s first episode, as it followed him waking up from a coma several weeks after the zombie virus had swept the United States. The fact that he was present in both seasons of the Walking Dead universe shows that have received the strongest scores raises the question as to whether he may be a key ingredient in the show’s success.

This theory is held up by the fact that, of The Walking Dead seasons featuring Rick, the lowest their Rotten Tomatoes scores have ever gone is 65% (for The Walking Dead season 8). To compare, the franchise’s overall low is 46% for The Walking Dead: World Beyond season 1. However, not every season that has earned a strong Rotten Tomatoes score features Rick, as several are spinoffs that occurred before he made his first spinoff appearance by joining the Ones Who Live cast. Check out the highest-rated Walking Dead seasons below:

Of the 12 seasons that have earned more than 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, Rick has been a part of the main cast of seven of them. While that may show that seasons with Rick have a higher chance of connecting with audiences, it may simply reflect that the character was present during the heyday of the show’s popularity. The Negan and Maggie spinoff Dead City being on the list alongside The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live may instead prove that, of the show’s new spinoffs, critics favor those that center important character reunions.