This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.
You hate to say this, for several reasons, but it can’t be avoided: Television’s worst big-league villain this year was Negan on The Walking Dead.
Here’s a guy who wraps a baseball bat in barbed wire, names it after B.B. King’s guitar, uses it to terrorize the living world into submission and somehow ends up being tedious and redundant.
Advertisement
It’s harder to explain than a zombie apocalypse.
The Walking Dead needs great villains and despite that zombie apocalypse premise, they aren’t built in. Zombies are useful adversaries, but in the end they’re no more interesting than a swarm of mosquitoes or a plague of locusts.
The show needs human bad guys, and it’s had some good ones, not only including The Governor, but some of the lesser, subtler bad guys inside the survivor cell on which the show focuses.
Negan started out with considerable promise, because he’s played by a terrific actor in Jeffrey Dean Morgan and because he became a fine villain in the comic book on which the TV show is based.
When we met him on TV, fan anticipation was palpable. But the TV show has never pretended or claimed to be the comic book, and just as some minor or dead comic book characters have become central to the TV show, some characters who shine in the comic haven’t transferred well to television.
Advertisement
Negan seems to be one of them. Unfortunately, a big one.
The problem, to oversimplify only a little, is that he’s one-dimensional. He sneers, he struts, he intimidates. He’s the ultimate bully, mocking his victims because he knows he has a mob behind him.
But that’s all he does. As the first half of the season has moved along, he’s never developed a second trick. At the end he was still fondling Lucille, his baseball bat, killing people because he could and swaggering away taunting the survivors.
The point, obviously, is that he represents something close to pure evil, and that in a world without law or rules, sometimes those who manifest the lowest depths of human morality can rise to the top.
But after a while, just being pure evil isn’t enough. If he’s going to dominate the storyline for half a season, plus however long he’ll be around from here, he needs another dimension.
Advertisement
It could be a hint of vulnerability, a whiff of self-awareness, or even a different level of evil. We just need more than what we’re getting, which is that every time Negan shows up we know he’s going to threaten a child or demean a woman or just kill an innocent person with demonic glee.
After a while, it’s numbing. We can’t hate him more, and he gives us no reason to consider any other response.
In an odd way, even though Negan has driven much of the action in the first half of the season, the show stops when he shows up. There will be an extended segment that ends with someone humiliated or dead, and the show can’t move forward until that’s over.
The problem doesn’t lie, it should be stressed, with Morgan. He was great on Grey’s Anatomy, Magic City, The Good Wife and elsewhere, and there’s no reason to doubt that if he had the right material, he could be great here.
Advertisement
He just isn’t given much to work with. A baseball bat and a God complex. It’s a start, but it’s not enough.
The Walking Dead has lost a few fans since the season-opening episode in which we finally learned whose heads Negan smashed with Lucille.
Ratings-wise, that modest slip isn’t enough for anyone at AMC to worry about. But it should give a moment of pause on the creative side, because The Walking Dead can do and has done better.
It may be based on a comic book, but it doesn’t need a traditional comic book villain, someone whose only role is being so evil that we will all stand up and cheer for the good guys finally to vanquish him.
Advertisement
That can be an element and a result, but we need more along the way, and The Walking Dead in the Negan storyline has been giving less.
It’s too bad Negan and Lucille can’t be sent to the minors for a little while to improve their game.
: ?�3�÷
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
It's Another Trump-Biden Showdown — And We Need Your Help
The Future Of Democracy Is At Stake
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Your Loyalty Means The World To Us
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
The 2024 election is heating up, and women's rights, health care, voting rights, and the very future of democracy are all at stake. Donald Trump will face Joe Biden in the most consequential vote of our time. And HuffPost will be there, covering every twist and turn. America's future hangs in the balance. Would you consider contributing to support our journalism and keep it free for all during this critical season?
HuffPost believes news should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay for it. We rely on readers like you to help fund our work. Any contribution you can make — even as little as $2 — goes directly toward supporting the impactful journalism that we will continue to produce this year. Thank you for being part of our story.
It's official: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden this fall in the presidential election. As we face the most consequential presidential election of our time, HuffPost is committed to bringing you up-to-date, accurate news about the 2024 race. While other outlets have retreated behind paywalls, you can trust our news will stay free.
But we can't do it without your help. Reader funding is one of the key ways we support our newsroom. Would you consider making a donation to help fund our news during this critical time? Your contributions are vital to supporting a free press.
As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.
Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?
Dear HuffPost Reader
Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.
The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you'll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.