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Melissa Mc Bride as Carol and Norman Reedus as Daryl
I wish he'd get his hair cut!
It's been a long while coming, but finally The Walking Dead's two most favourite characters have had their time in the sun with a joint episode all of their own. The Daryl & Carol phenomenon must be somewhat irksome to The Walking Dead's original writer Robert Kirkman, for he is not at all responsible for their conception and subsequent popularity with tv audiences.
Ok he did think up the character of Carol Peletier , but his Carol was a very different and unsympathetic character from the one we see played by Melissa McBride in season five. Redneck Daryl Dixon ( Norman Reedus)was not one of his original characters either, yet the two peripheral roles, both losers and survivors of domestic abuse, have been catapulted into Strong and popular leads thanks primarily to the acting talents and chemistry between McBride and Reedus
Their time together on screen has been somewhat patchy and brief, yet both actors have managed to portray a fractured friendship between two very damaged souls that shows depth, feeling and a thankful absence of sentimentality.
Put quite simply, the pair WORK.
It is this real sense of connection that has had fans of pair vociferously declaring that if they are killed off, riots will ensue.
Consumed had Daryl and Carol returning to Atlanta in search of Beth, and the episode has a certain pace of its own as Daryl gets to understand some of Carol's motivations since she went all " kick ass" in season 4. It was also interesting to be back in the city after so much country based adventures
We are coming full circle so to speak !
( I adored the fact we see the pair enter Atlanta down the same road Rick rode in series 1and just as the pair pass the department store where Merle lost his hand..there stands the tank where Rick was trapped )
I like that the tables have been turned a little within their developing friendship and it is refreshing that the country boy is now Providing emotional support to the earth mother. As Carol reminds him in one of their quieter moments that....."you're a man now"
That's why the tv audience has taken both to their hearts,
We have watched two monosyllabic damaged people grow up like real people.
Quite a feat for an action based, zombie killing apocalypse tv show eh?
Consumed was the best episode to date!
Ps Winnie's still sulking..she's refused any physical contact and only reluctantly came for a walk at 10pm
It's now 11 hours since we heaved her sorry arse into the bath
She's a gay man in a bulldog body