Top 5 TV: ‘Walking Dead’ Loses a Star, ‘Doctor Who’ Gains a Stark
With Halloween on the horizon, this upcoming week will be the last before our mass media starts turning sweeter, warmer, and more holiday-friendly. Until then, enjoy one more healthy serving of human misery, you sickos. Because this past seven days of televised entertainment? It was wonderfully harsh — if you like that kind of thing. The Walking Dead (apparently) just killed off one of its most likable characters. Carrie is off her meds (again) on Homeland. And the Cubs… well, no, let’s not talk about that. Some things are just too horrible.
That’s why our Top Five TV this week is especially bruised, battered, and blood-spattered. We did take some pleasure — just for a moment, mind you — from a surprise barrage of new episodes from the funkiest superhero cartoon currently on the American airwaves. But a month before Thanksgiving, we’re also offering up our gratitude for a sitcom heroine with an unhappy secret, a dangerously strict lawman, and an angry lady who’s been stuck as a teenager for half a millennium. Keep the parades and Santas off the screen for a few more days. Right now, we’re happier in the dark.
5. The Walking Dead says goodbye and “thank you” to Glenn… maybe (AMC)
For a large number of longtime Walking Dead-heads, last night’s episode was a rough one, since one of the original survivors — the clever and capable Glenn Rhee (played by Steven Yeun) — fell into a ravenous zombie horde. The last image we saw of him was his horrified face, as the undead gorged on entrails. As for the small number of fans who weren’t disturbed by Glenn’s demise… well, they’re mostly convinced that he’s not dead, and that the guts on the screen belonged to Nicholas, the weakling he was trying to keep safe. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple has purposefully avoided clarifying what did or didn’t happen, saying in a written statement that, “In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn, or parts of Glenn again, either in flashback or in the current story, to help complete the story.”
Either way, this is a huge deal for AMC’s mega-popular hit. If one of its most popular characters is really gone, it sends a hard message about the cost of trying to be kind in a world of monsters. And if he ends up somehow avoiding being eaten (which happened before in Season Four, when he was left behind at the prison and presumed dead), that could be one narrow escape too many for a horror drama that’s supposed to have real stakes. Most likely: Glenn has in fact expired, and Gimple is withholding the final reveal for greater impact later this season. Until we know for sure, the debate among the TWD devout rages on. Do we hold out hope? And if so, exactly what outcome are we hoping for?