AMC’s The Walking Dead has been on the air for ten years now. And within those ten years, not once was any of the cast nominated for The Emmys. I know it is easy to say that they all have won awards from different award shows and I am not disputing that at all. But the talk is always about The Emmys when it comes to the mainstream attention of award ceremonies and year after year, The Walking Dead gets snubbed for unknown reasons.
There are a few years where they are nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects categories, as well as Outstanding Sound Editing. But the focus on these awards have to be put on the cast. We would have thought that The Walking Dead would have at least had more than one nomination per year. But that always go to the shows like Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, etc. Those are really good shows, but the cast on those shows are not as diverse as The Walking Dead.
Andrew Lincoln who stars as Rick Grimes, has been on the show for nine seasons. He has had Emmy worth performance scenes during his time on The Walking Dead. The first I can remember is way back in season 4 of the show where he tried to convince The Governor to not take over The Prison, and to not kill Hershel. If those judges in that council room did not feel that sadness during that scene, then I do not know what were they thinking at the time. Another scene where I believe Andrew Lincoln should have gotten an Emmy for is his breaking moment the entire time when Negan made his introduction. That esculated even further on the season 7 premiere when Negan broke Rick Grimes infront of everyone. The tip of the iceberg here, is when Negan tried to force Rick Grimes to chop off Carl Grimes’ arm off and while Rick was crying and pleading for Negan to stop this, a snot bubble came out of Rick Grimes’ nose on contact, and without the use of CGI. Andrew Lincoln is a great actor and he knows how to get a reaction out of the viewer in particular scenes whether if he is speaking, or not.
I will also bring up Melissa McBride. She has been on the show as long as Andrew was and she is still on The Walking Dead as she is here for her tenth season. This season alone, Carol has been the center of this season due to her feud with Alpha that has lasted for most of the season. But it is not just the feud that put the spotlight on Carol, it was also everything that surrounded it too and how Carol had to go through a rocky road to overcome the damage Alpha and The Whisperers inflicted on Carol. Melissa McBride had a lot of good scenes that she acted out this season. Some of my favorites were when she interrogated that Whisperer after he spit his food on her, Her conversation with Daryl on “Lines We Cross”, her conversation with Kelly, and also with Lydia.
But it was more than that too as Melissa McBride’s potential has really risen after the second season of The Walking Dead as she did great Emmy worth performances on earlier season episodes such as “The Grove”, “The Same Boat”, “Wildfire”, “Cherokee Rose”, and even “The Well.” Each season, Melissa McBride has broght in something different out of Carol and Carol is a very good and more complexed than her comic book counterpart. Carol can just be in one room talking with any of the characters, and you will get more out of her than you usually would with other characters.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays as Negan, should have recieved a lot of nominations from The Emmy’s the second he appeared on screen. I know that there are fans that do not like Negan, but Negan really fits Morgan and I could not see anyone else playing as him. From his debut until season 8, he was very charismatic, and also dangerous. But from season 9 until recently, Negan has went a complete change and showed his genuine side as he seeks his redemption. You do not see that often from major television villians in that scale. Of course, we do not have to forgive what Negan done, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan brought that character to life. He has had many great performances as Negan, but my favorite has to be the season 7 premiere, and also the season 9 finale. On those two episodes, it is night and day to see Negan as he was then as a ruthless leader, to the caring person he became at the end of season 9.
Norman Reedus is another person I would have considered for a nomination of an Emmy especially for his work from season 9, to current. Norman Reedus’ performance on the last two seasons has been the best for the Daryl character. Daryl is still a badass, but I felt that these last two seasons, we finally got more of a human side of Daryl and I honestly wanted to see that from Daryl for a while. While Norman and Melissa had great scenes together for this entire decade and built a chemistry, he has also built a great chemistry with Lauren Ridloff, Cassady McClincy, and Cailey Flemming these past two seasons and his chemistry with all of those names really shines on screen whether if it is good momnents, or scary-situational moments. Even though Daryl was given more words than ever these last two seasons, Norman Reedus made sure those lines have substance when he acted out those lines.
I know that there are many other actors that (In my opinion) deserves an Emmy nomination because this show brings out the best out of the cast. You cannot find a strong cast like this on The Walking Dead anywhere else. I know for sure that The Emmys is very selective and we will never know the answer why, but The Walking Dead will never be overlooked in the eyes of the fans that care about the franchise. It is just a shame that the powers that be will never reconize the cast for any consideration to be part of The Emmys.
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