I'm trying to DL the first episode of season four of AMC's The Walking Dead. As expected it's going slow. Today is a holiday in Canada and combine the express bandwidth of holiday usage with the popularity of a show almost no one gets here as part of their tv package and you get a slow download. Still, it has given me some time to meditate on the finer points of the program. The show is nominally about Rick. At least it has been for the first three seasons. He was the POV for most of season one, the triangle between him, his wife, and his best friend took most of season two and season three was about the birth of his child, death of his wife, and the problems of acting as pater to an extended family (members of which are occasionally eaten by zombies). Still, aside from the inimitable Michonne, my favourite character is Glenn.
Aside from Sandra Oh on Grey's Anatomy I'm having difficulty thinking of another major character played by an asian actor in a role where their asian-ness is irrelevant. There are probably others but I can't think of them. Glenn's asian-ness is completely unimportant. Steven Yeun handles the character of a young, socially awkward teenager perfectly. When Andrea got separated from the group at the end of season 2 I thought, "Oh well, Andrea's dead." Who cares? When she returned with Michonne, Michonne was the reason I cared. Her whole drama with the Governor (a ridiculous villain unworthy of the show) was filler. But Glenn's drama with Maggie is interesting - and not because Maggie is a better character than Andrea. The seduction sequences were some of the best and most interesting scenes of the whole show. Glenn played cringe-worthy awkwardness perfectly.
The Walking Dead is not great at female characters. It's a hard thing, given the show's premise. When life becomes a protracted battle with zombies the men tend to take center stage. Even Hershel, who doesn't fight (and could have been a female character, matriarch of her family) is more interesting than any of the female characters have been. That's not a great example because Hershel is an interesting character and very well played.
Lori was annoying. Andrea was interesting but only after her sister got eaten. Carol is a minor character but very well handled and one of the people I'm most interested in. I hope they don't slot her into the spot as Daryl's love interest they've been preparing for her. She and Daryl are great additions, the kids from the other side of the tracks.
The one thing about the show I feel obliged to point out is the characters aren't very well layered. Rick is a small town sheriff. Daryl a red-neck. T-Dog was the black guy. Only Hershel, young Carl, Michonne, and Carol interest me in terms of how they will develop. The rest will just react to the events. But then, I thought that about Daryl's drama with his big brother and that turned out to be one of the high points in season three.
It will be interesting to see how the influx of characters in the last episode of last season will change the number of important characters. I suspect only one or two will gain significant places in the show. I'm going to check out how my DL's going.
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