Merle may be gone, but never forgotten as the Walking Dead returns tonight!

darryl and merle

So my wife got me interested in the show… not exactly hooked, but interested. What I will say that did get me highly interested was Michael Rooker’s character Merle Dixon.

merleThe character himself was  complex  and dynamic: He goes from terrible racist, left for the walkers because they had no choice, and then whacks off his own hand to survive, then turns up later as a real bad ass who then redeems himself as a hero. That’s great dynamic. But before all the hoopla he had a similar role minus the zombies:

Sherman McMasters in Tombstone

tombstone

From vile Cowboy A-hole to stand by your pals and hunt down the bad guys who called down the thunder, Rooker’s character may have not said a whole lot but he got the job done!

But then again my favorite A-hole role of Mr. Rooker’s has to be Mr. Svenning from Kevin Smith’s second feature film “Mallrats”.

mallrats

While he was never redeemed as a hero he was kind enough to not beat Jason Lee’s “Brodie” to a pulp for the whole stink palm, chocolate pretzel thing, which IMO he had every right in the world to do. But I digress.

mini merle dixonSo today as we all get ready for a night of “The Walking Dead” I for one am looking forward to a marathon of Michael Rooker movies. So may I suggest a morning full of good strong cowboy coffee followed by some popcorn and chocolate pretzels. And if nothing else “The Walking Dead” with all its twists and turns and making me suffer through the whole Governor’s side story that I could care less about, the show did bring to attention the cool cat and solid actor that is Michael Rooker.

Now, Go Play! Jim -02/09/2014

Author: Jim Bumgardner

Jim's Toy Box features programming that is inspirational, uplifting and motivational all the while offering encouragement to those who wish to make the most of this life in preparation for the next.

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