The thing is that I really like the portrayal of Rick on this show but he just isn't being given enough to really actually DO here.
They say he's the 'leader' of the group, but I just don't feel it. I don't see him taking control of situations at all.
Like when Laurie started pissing and moaning about not being able to use a gun, it would have been cool to see Dale go to Rick and say 'this might be a problem because...'
It may not have been in Dale's character, as he seems to be a guy that would rather do things 'his own way' and just hope everyone else picks up on the clues.
So maybe have Rick pick up on it on his own. I don't care if he's 'occupied' with other stuff. Just write a little scene where he notices the divide between Dale and Laurie, the reason why, and actually handles the situation.
That's just one example. It could be anything, really. Any dispute the group's having. If he's going to be 'the guy' on the show, then he needs a moment where he actually gets to fucking BE 'the guy.'
Otherwise, he's just another character. And too much of the source material depends on Rick to lead the group. If they keep mining the original story for the bulk of their material, there's no way around this, IMO. It's just hardwired into the framework of the original story. The wild departures from the original plot and trying to tell a story about a broader base of characters has only exposed, perhaps, a weakness of the source material in that the characters all grow in Rick's shadow.
Which is fine. It's natural for the source material, and I never really had a big problem with it. But it's clearly at cross purposes with what the TV show is trying to do, and they can't borrow so much of the source material and then ignore this basic fact.
I still say Laurie should be younger. It would have made for a far more provocative series of developments. She's being written very young and naive about the world. Would have been perfect for a 22 year old girl just starting to live her life. But it just all seems wrong, given Laurie Holden's particular style of acting.
I don't think Kirkman's writing it in as much as he's just starstruck. Toys, boardgames, video games, TV show, ratings buzz, everyone on his jock. Kirkman envisioned this all from a simple independent comic book that was originally supposed to be a spinoff of the public domain Night of the Living Dead.
And now it's grown into a multi-media juggernaut.
It must be incredibly surreal for him right now. He might be getting lost in all of this. Or maybe he's frustrated by the direction of the show and is playing the 'good soldier.' Perhaps he doesn't want to rock the boat. After the Darabont blow up, there may be an AMC mandate to avoid any internal negativity. I can't psychoanalyze the guy, and I shouldn't even be trying. But from the outside, I see it as one of these two scenarios.
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