Behold.
Superman takes a lot of flack for being boring, and that's a valid criticism of a guy who, when asked about what powers he has, could reply with, "Most." Add that to the blandest narrative possible and you have a show that lasted for 218 episodes, with enough substantial story to maybe fill four. Will Clark Kent finally become Superman? Who cares? Now let's see if he can solve this whole magic crystal plot before audiences start to figure out that it's utterly meaningless.
And then you have shows like The Walking Dead, which distribute character traits seemingly on a whim. Whoever makes it to the set earliest gets their pick of what motivates their dialogue and decisions that day. Some people get a lot of them while others are simply left being "that guy with the backpack who seems pissed." The latter category includes the show's main character, Rick Grimes, who, in the initial "Personality Aspect & Quirk" draft got stuck with "unsure about being a leader" and "father."
Wikipedia
Don't forget "boring."
Now, those things could possibly be compelling. And, in the show's best moments, there is the hope that, maybe, when the cast can finally escape the single set location that the season's budget has allowed them to be plunked into, things will improve. But since the narrative tends to solve every problem both philosophical and physical with "Yeah, we'll probably shoot at it," any passion that you may have had for keeping up with the whole thing deadens. Unless there is some magical turnaround where Rick Grimes is saddled with a backstory and a few more internal issues, he is going to spend the rest of The Walking Dead with close-ups of his face wearing that same concerned "Carl?" expression.
Wikia.com
Pictured: The least likable child on television.
The people behind The Walking Dead are always banking on the zombie carnage saving the other aspects, and I might get my horror fan card revoked for saying this, but at a certain point, it's hard to care about all the head splitting. Everything that's ever promoted The Walking Dead as a show and comic has always made a gigantic point to tell us just how much of it is about the characters, yet they still haven't figured out a scheme to create more than two good ones. And with the "Oh, shit!" response to the zombie carnage waning, the longer the show goes on, the more that they're going to need to invent some kind of machine that pumps out a leading role with more than three attributes. Perhaps they could call this machine "Adequate Writing."
Heh. Good one, me.
The real Californication was in David's heart the whole time. For more wisdom, check out Daniel's Twitter.
For more on famous main characters, check out 4 Movies That Followed the Wrong Character and 5 Iconic Characters That Were Only Supposed to Be Bit Parts.
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