Still Walking

This is going to seem very left field, but I asked Alexandra Maiorino what she thought of the sixth episode of the 4th season of The Walking Dead and she gave me this wonderful, concise paragraph, which spells out the show's major gender issues rather eloquently. Sorry we've never touched on the show before, but I thought it was worth your time. I don't 100% agree, I even kind of liked the episode, but this is a wonderful counterpoint to my surface enjoyment:

I honestly felt like that one was a waste of my time.  While I think David Morrissey is wonderful, I really don't care about the Governor or his dead-daughter issues. He's definitely the bad guy and I don't appreciate being asked to sympathize with him again. Wasn't half of last season spent on the Governor's man-pain and how similar it is to Rick's very important man-pain? I can't see why the writers are trying to get the audience to buy the idea of redemption for the governor directly after telling us, through Rick's decision, that what Carol did is unforgivable. It undermines my faith in the writers this season and makes me worry that the rule is still "If you are male, then your internal struggle is compelling and important and nuanced no matter what terrible things you do, but if you are female and you step out of line, you need to die/get lost." I'm so hoping I'm wrong about that, but 2 Governor-centric episodes placed so they put off daryl's reaction to rick's decision (killing that wonderful dramatic tension, by the way) don't inspire much confidence. I didn't mind the women so much except for the fact that one of them sleeps with the governor, making him the man on the show who has had the most on-screen sex, which I didn't need to see - and he's only been here for one and a half seasons. I do, however, mind that there is yet another precious little blond girl the audience must now care about; by my count, that makes 6 little blond girls who have been featured in some way on the show, not counting beth. I just think it was one of the worst times to show a full episode away from the prison, focusing on only one character.  I suppose I wouldn't have minded if they did that with carol, but the only female character who has ever gotten that kind of narrative attention - the kind where the story follows them even when there isn't a more important male character to focus on - is Andrea, and I don't want any of that bullshit for the show's most well developed and last original female character.  The idea that we are supposed to divert our attention to just the governor for two full episodes right at an important turning point (hopefully) in the prison dynamic is ridiculous, even without the absurd notion that the governor's personal turmoil is deserving of audience sympathy.