Yeah, there’s been more Walking Dead than American Horror Story lately. The light of my life has laid hands upon Skyrim, and I’m holding off on watching new episodes without him.
Daryl’s my favourite character[1], although I think that’d change if we saw more of Glenn. Stupid situation or not, something to be said for a guy who manages to lasso a zombie while being in serious danger of being dropped on it. And is not charging merrily forward on the “OMG sex” bandwagon (pet peeve; have had too many people drop the “if a guy does not immediately jump at offers of (straight) sex, there is something wrong with him” line lately). And sticks his neck out for utter strangers on a pay-it-forward theory. And (practical or not) cares about how the formerly living dead are treated…
…
…okay, now? Now I’m annoyed we haven’t seen more of Glenn. Daryl’s cool, and Rick’s decent, but Glenn’s kind, and while I can understand that not being hugely valuable I think it’s important. (How much has he been around this season?) It’s not like it’s a case of people just needing to do anything they have to to get over the next hill; there doesn’t seem to be any greater social structure or network left. If people who are scrabbling for their lives aren’t kind, it’s not as if people who aren’t scared and in danger will pick up the slack. If people who are scrabbling for their lives aren’t kind, then no-one is kind, and that is a sad sad world.
I confess, in a fit of being horribly unjaded and sympathetic towards people who have had their lives fall apart, I like most of the characters. Actually all of the group from last season except Carl and T-Dog and Sophie, who really seem the least fleshed-out; they’re watercolour sketches. (Also I’m disappointed we haven’t seen more of the Greenes yet.) I’d probably be a lot less sympathetic if I had to deal with the characters (see: Shane), but I like watching them. It’s easier to put up with and watch their human failings from the safety of my living room.
Andrea makes me the most uneasy–I can see how she’s gone from having something to prove to having explicitly failed to prove it and, having been guilted out of a clean and relatively painless suicide, has sort of given up on these silly things like “group bonding” and “relying on others”. She’ll still learn from them, which is practical, and I think she might still feel mild affection towards some of them, but in a really fundamental sense she seems to have checked out, and it makes me sad.[2] And I get being upset–furious–at being guilted out of a clean and painless and easily-managed death.
At the same time… well. A solid chunk of her is looking to kill herself. I’m trying to figure out where to stand between the “ohgod I’ve been there, no-one can blame you for wanting this but that doesn’t mean a sane you would want it, please please don’t” and the “you know, even us stressed and crazy people can actually manage to make real and valid decisions about what we want to do with our lives”, and…
Been on both sides of that. Like I said… uneasy.
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[1] “Copperhead Road” ninja.
[2] Actually, looking back on last season, it also annoys me that the characters who chose to kill themselves were two women and one of those edumacated guys.