After spending over a decade as part of one of TV’s biggest franchises, British actor Andrew Lincoln is understandably known by many viewers through AMC’s megapopular zombie series The Walking Dead. On that show, he played ultimate good guy Rick Grimes, a dogged and self-sacrificing leader determined to protect his people from a variety of threats, both living and undead. But now that his run on spinoff series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live has basically wrapped up Rick’s story (not to mention given him a sort of happy ending that his character has more than earned), the actor is set to return to television in a very different kind of role.
Showtime has picked up the six-part thriller Coldwater, which aired earlier this Fall on British network ITV, and if the early reviews from across the pond are anything to go by, viewers are about to get the chance to see Lincoln stretch himself in lots of wild (and potentially quite improbable) ways. A story of isolation, manipulation, toxic masculinity, and male rage, its subject matter is both uncomfortable and uncomfortably timely. And Lincoln’s role sounds about as far away from Rick Grimes as it’s possible to get.
Coldwater finds Lincoln playing John, a generally cowardly husband and father who moves his family to a new neighborhood and falls under the sway of a charismatic weirdo who’s all too eager to take advantage of his many (many) anxieties about middle age, his marriage, and the world at large. What follows will apparently involve no small amount of marital strife, violence, and murder, in a sort of wildly unhinged take on the modern masculinity crisis. (I’m pretty sure there’s also possibly a serial killer involved?) Which is all sort of painfully ironic, given how long Lincoln spent playing what was essentially the Platonic ideal of a hero. But I’m here for it, if only because it’ll be so nice to see this particular actor do something so different from the sort of role he’s been doing (or stuck in, depending on your perspective) for so long.
Coldwater isn’t Lincoln’s first foray into the world of British drama; that’s actually where he got his start. Much like his countryman Hugh Laurie and House, it’s possible many regular Walking Dead viewers may not be aware that he is not actually American after years of watching him kill zombies in a cowboy hat. Across the pond, he’s starred in everything from period dramas like Wuthering Heights to the supernaturally-tinged Afterlife. (And of course, there’s his constantly meme-d turn as the best friend with cue cards in Love Actually.) But it can be difficult for any performer to figure out what’s next after leaving a career-defining role behind, and that’s absolutely what Rick Grimes was for Lincoln. So it’s exciting to see that he’s definitely not playing it safe. Whether that means Coldwater will be worth watching is something we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves.
