The CW recently premiered Walker, which is neither a reboot nor a remake of Chuck Norris\’ famed Walker, Texas Ranger. Instead, the show is a reimagining of Walker as a gutless millennial who spends most of his time talking about his feelings. In other words, it perfectly resembles the world Democrats have tried so hard to create… and perfectly epitomizes the strength of character and decisiveness of action that Democrats had to neuter to get this far.
I was a huge fan of Chuck Norris\’ original show, just as I have been a fan of most of Chuck Norris\’ career. In his heyday he was one of the most engaging action movie stars alive, churning out films like The Octagon, Good Guys Wear Black, Invasion USA, and many more. At some point he stopped making R-rated action movies and started making family-friendly movies featuring children and dogs.
Walker, Texas Ranger was sort of a hybrid of these two approaches — an actioner that went light on the dogs and fantasy hallucination sequences, but featured largely bloodless karate fights and car chases. Along the way a host of actors hailing from the same action era showed up to fill out the villain-of-the-week roster. If I remember correctly, Marshall Teague (who was featured in Patrick Swayze\’s action classic Road House) not only played a villain, but came back with his hair dyed blonde to play another villain.
Along the way, Chuck Norris\’ Walker became a cultural phenomenon. When the network for which Conan O\’Brien worked acquired the rights to the show, O\’Brien had a lever placed on stage that he would pull to trigger random clips from the program. Some of these, out of context, were utterly hilarious. O\’Brien pulls the lever… and Chuck Norris kicks a woman in the stomach. It was all in good fun, but underlying it was the acceptance of a very important premise: Bad people sometimes need to be put down, and the way to put them down is with necessary, legally justified violence.
When I wrote for a major action novel series, I was told by a fellow author that there were certain rules for the protagonist. He never shot the wrong person, he never questioned his mission, and he never allowed innocent people to be put in danger. Walker was a paladin figure straight from this mold, a product of an era in which we all took the righteousness of self-defense for granted. Sadly, this is a world that Democrats have worked steadily to dismantle, replacing the forthright, confident, self-assured Walker with a whiny man-baby who can\’t seem to stop moping about how sad he is.
In this, Jared Padalecki\’s portrayal of Walker perfectly represents the epitome of the Democrat nu-male. The show features no martial arts; it is not an action show at all. Instead, it is a \”family drama\” centering around the various characters\’ feelings. It involves a lot of hand-wringing, a cast carefully selected for diversity, and utterly no joy, interest, or action whatsoever. Whenever things pick up on screen, it is almost as if the show considers these moments regrettable but unavoidable.
In this way, the CW\’s Walker reminds me of Supergirl, a show CW did not originate but which it acquired. Never has there been a more perfect fit for a network whose shows seem to center exclusively around maudlin twenty-somethings with crippling self-esteem issues. As I did with Supergirl, I wanted to like Walker… but like Supergirl, Walker is completely unwatchable.
Don\’t get me wrong; I like Jared Padalecki and was fond of his portrayal of Sam on Supernatural. Seeing Chuck Norris\’ most famous television character become an absent father struggling with his grief just isn\’t my idea of a good show. Gone are the moral absolutes, to be replaced with whining and complaining. Missing are the action sequences, supplanted by people having very dramatic verbal confrontations. This isn\’t a television show at all, really; it\’s a series of interventions the characters keep trying to have with each other, only to be stymied by the fact that somebody, somewhere, expects them to manage a 40-minute narrative between commercial breaks.
Disappointing as the show is, it\’s hard not to see it as the logical outcome of the corrosive influence of Democrats on our culture. Democrats prefer moral confusion and ambiguity to moral clarity. Democrats prefer weakness to strength. Democrats prefer victimhood to victory. Democrats believe violence never solves anything… unless they are using violence to silence opinions they do not like.
Jared Padalecki recently concluded 15 seasons on Supernatural, easily one of the best long-running action-dramas on television. It\’s sad to see him reduced to this. As desperately as I wanted to enjoy this program, I simply can\’t. The Republican in me is repelled by the cloying weakness of the characters… and the Chuck Norris fan in me is appalled by the fact that not a single person gets kicked in the face.
