Smallscreen Features

Michael Rooker, Norman Reedus bring it, The Walking Dead, some thoughts

By April MacIntyre Nov 15, 2010, 17:09 GMT

An actor like Michael Rooker is a pot of gold for writers who can serve up the intense physical performer with great lines and scenarios that capitalize on his speciality: Maladjusted white man. Courtesy of AMC

The Walking Dead: Episode 3, Tell it to the Frogs

An actor like Michael Rooker is a pot of gold for writers who can serve up the intense physical performer with great lines and scenarios that capitalize on his speciality: Maladjusted white man. 

Enter Norman Reedus (Boondock Saints) as his equally vile brother Daryl, and you've got yourself some badass bookends ready to upset the new social order of greater Atlanta, post viral apocalypse.

Our lawman Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) has a sweet homecoming in “Tell It To The Frogs” as he and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) have their reunion, but Lori is guilt-ridden to say the least, and now wary of Shane, who gave her false impressions that Rick was a goner. 

But Shane (Jon Bernthal)  is dripping with sex appeal and is much more juicy to Lori it seems than her steadfast husband Rick.

Such is the mercurial nature of sexual attraction and who turns us on, regardless if it is right or wrong.  Shane's definitely got it going on, and his alpha male nature is catnip for Lori, regardless if Rick is there or not.

In the second episode, Rick is plucked from certain zombie doom by a ragtag group of Atlanta survivors that had been trapped in a department store.  Diversity is displayed in the fold, and the quintessential "white angry man" is represented by Merle Dixon, a sociopath who doesn't play nice in the Crayola coloring box of humanity. Merle is handcuffed to a pipe and left behind in a series of events that has the group making a break out of dead dude central.

Shane has a mixture of emotions when he sees Rick arrive with the group, he missed his pal but the hot sex with Lori has left town (for the moment) and he knows it.

Another "angry white man," bully Ed is the camp's problem man who beats up his wife and is a lazy ass to boot.  Now, Shane’s the perfect regulator to keep Ed in check, as he steps into the role of alpha male for this group sequestered in the mountains. Again, standing up for women and protecting them nets unspoken primal attraction for all the camp females.  Shane's the kind of guy who won't be denied some sexual congress for very long.

The guilt of ditching Merle takes the more principled Rick and equally guilty T-Dog, Glenn, and Daryl on a recon back to Atlanta to reclaim Merle.  Before they do this, Greg Nicotero, the brilliant makeup designer for this series, has a zombie cameo as a walker who is ripping apart an unlucky deer.

But, as the episode ends, the recovery party finds Merle has cut off his hand to get away.  The bad blood continues...