One of the most amazing things about AMC s The Walking Dead has been its unreal ratings performance in the key 18 to 49 year old demographic. A show like CBS s NCIS may draw higher ratings over all than The Walking Dead but its audience skews older in a way that s less attractive to advertisers.
(Spoiler Alert for The Walking Dead up to Episode 504)
Which brings us to Beth the focus of the episode entitled Slabtown. For a show that s all about demographics Beth is the major millennial in a cast that skews decidedly Gen X and even beyond.
Let s look at the numbers. While I realize that the actors may be playing younger (or even older) here are their actual ages Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick is 41 Norman Reedus aka Daryl Dixon is 45 Melissa McBride who plays Carol is 49 as is Michael Cudlitz who plays Abraham. Chad Coleman who plays Tyreese doesn t make his age public he s probably in his mid 40s as well.
Danai Guaira who plays Michonne is 36 as is Josh McDermitt who plays Eugene. Lauren Cohan (Maggie) is 32 and Stephen Yeun is 30.
Which leaves Emily Kinney who plays Beth as the cast s primary touchstone for the twentysomethings. We saw Beth s first drink decidedly not Peach Schnapps last season. If it wasn t for the end of days she d probably be in college now. Playing Walking Dead drinking games with her friends at Georgia Tech.
(FWIW Kinney is actually 29 but Beth is supposed to be much younger. Christian Serratos who played Ned s first girlfriend in Nick s Ned s Declassified before landing the role of Rosita is 24 and Alanna Masterson who plays Tara is 26 but at least as this point they re not really central characters. Sonequa Martin Green is 29 in real life but as Tyreese s formidable younger sister Sasha she plays much older.)
More than anyone in the cast Beth tries to hold onto life as it was. She sings the same old songs around the campfire with Maggie for Herschel. (At least she had the good taste to work up a Tom Waits tune.)
And she tries to act her age. When her boyfriend was eaten by walkers at the beginning of last season she tried to treat it like he just broke up with her so he could date the prom queen. And her rather half hearted suicide attempt in season 2 was depicted as two parts Sylvia Plath and one part Kurt Cobain rather than (as Andrea framed it) a way to take arms against a sea of walkers and by opposing end them. Rick had Hamlet covered Beth was nothing more or less than the group s Ophelia.
Last season that changed a little. Beth saw her father beheaded but that seemed to actually toughen her resolve. The one time babysitter learned to pull her weight in walker kills.
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