10 Most Underrated Actresses Currently Working In Television
6. Melissa McBride (The Walking Dead)
It takes equal amounts of gumption and heart to play a character as potentially polarizing as Carol on The Walking Dead. Sure, she's gotten to be a fan favorite in recent seasons, but it was very touch-and-go there for a long while.
Remember how much you sympathized with her in Season 1? How much you desperately wanted her to punch her husband right in the throat? And remember how much you hated her in Season 2, when she constantly blamed everyone else for her daughter going missing? And then in Season 3 you rooted for her again? But then Season 4 rolled around and you kind of hated her again?
And so it was, back and forth, from season to season or even episode to episode, our love-hate relationship with Carol growing more passionate and connected as time went on.
That was the work of the incredibly talented, chameleon-like abilities of Mellisa McBride, who plays the subtle humanity of Carol so well that you can practically hear her inner monologue in most episodes. Because of that, she can add and remove just enough layers of her personality to adapt to whatever the storyline might be that week, while maintaining an actual character arc, which so many of the others on Walking Dead seem to be lacking.