The Walking Dead does not do well with its female characters. That can partly be attributed to creator Robert Kirkman's less-than-progressive views on a woman's role in the world (namely: they're weaker and should probably be in the kitchen, because he is in fact a time traveller from two hundred years ago), but also because that tends to be what happens to women on TV dramas. It's even happened on AMC before. Skyler White was the one blip amidst the otherwise flawless Breaking Bad. Walt's long-suffering wife was put in the unenviable position of having to be the reasonable one, who didn't think the meth business was the best thing for her cancer-stricken Chemistry teacher husband to be messed up in. To the audience she represented something else. Namely, stalling the story. The exact same thing happened to Lori Grimes. She was the impetus for the Rick-Shane-Lori love triangle nobody asked for, she stopped anyone from ever having fun, and then the writers screwed with us by putting her in a car crash in season two...only to survive and then be killed of unceremoniously in season three.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
