The remains of the Supernatural series finale are barely at rest and yet star Jared Padalecki is raising a whole other cult favorite TV series from the dead with Walker, the reboot of the cheese-tastic Chuck Norris classic. Sadly the boring, trope-ridden pilot episode does not bode well for the overall series, even with the likable star and terrific supporting cast.
Following the unexpected death of his wife, Texas Ranger Cordell Walker leaves his two kids, the chip-off-the-old-block son August (Kale Culley) and angsty teenage daughter Stella (Violet Brinson) to go deep undercover for two years. Upon his return he finds difficulty reintegrating himself with his parents, ADA brother and even his own kids, all while trying to return to his Ranger work. To make matters worse, Walker’s belief that there’s more to his wife’s death than originally thought still burns in him — although the episode doesn’t bother to actually deal with the topic or supply any real weight to his suspicion.
The pattern continues on in Walker‘s predictable pilot episode full of eye-roll inducing moments and does not waste time getting to them. Early on, the mysterious death scene for Walker’s wife (played by Jared’s real wife Genevieve Padalecki) follows all the 80s revenge thriller beats, complete with a culminating shot of the hero dropping to his knees, arms flexing and screaming dramatically into the dark night sky. Darth Vader would be proud.
From there, the episode lets loose some of that Padalecki charm and world-weary heart that helped endear the character of Sam on Supernatural to so many, giving this character some development as Walker returns home to get his shit together. A cute introduction sets the stage for his upcoming work partnership with one of the (fictional) first women in Texas Ranger history, Micki Ramirez (Lindsey Morgan), in one of the show’s better scenes.
The show then shifts into family drama territory more suited for a reboot over on CBS than the younger-skewing CW. Walker’s parents are one-dimensional rancher stock characters brought to life only by wonderful character actors Molly Hagan (iZombie) as his thoughtful mother and Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files) as his gruff, traditional father. It doesn’t take a Ranger’s perception to figure out the relationships and character arcs of everyone in the Walker family and how they’ll react to Cordell’s return, adding yet again another layer of by-the-numbers storytelling.
The drama with Walker’s kids (mostly Stella) kills any plot momentum in grating scenes meant to show complicated familial relationships, but instead feel copy-pasted from any other angsty CW show. There is hope for the future in supporting characters like Walker’s Ranger Captain and former colleague Larry James (Coby Bell) who is a stern, confident but still approachable boss for the Ranger duo. The aforementioned partner Ramirez is also a consistent bright spot throughout, even though she unwittingly gives Walker the corny catch-phrase “Respect.”
Lastly, aside from having no Chuck Norris in sight, the worst part of the first episode of this bland retread is just how darn slow and forgettable the whole thing feels by the end credits. It becomes easy to understand why Walker would want leave his life for two years at a time rather than deal. Unfortunately, despite its relationship with star Padalecki, The CW just seems like an odd fit for Walker and the safe, predictable story structure would be better suited for a different network with a more forgiving demographic and longer attention spans.
Score: 2 out of 5
Walker premieres Thursday, January 21 at 8pm ET on The CW.
29 Comments
Horrible review. You can’t judge a show by the pilot, the writer should know that by now or it this their first time watching TV?
If the PR team wanted reviews of the show to be based on more than just the pilot, they could’ve provided additional episodes. Since that wasn’t the case here, one can conclude that the PR team is comfortable letting the pilot episode serve as an accurate representation of the series as a whole.
Actually, that is how people judge a show. Shows get picked up as a series, on the strength of the pilot. Also, most people decide whether or not to watch future episodes, according to how much they enjoy its pilot episode. You may like the show and disagree with the review. But, this show is billing itself as a version of a very well liked previous series. That series was an action series. This one is much slower, low-key, and oh so full of angst. The only similarity to the previous series are some names and character assignments. It’s a completely different show. I guess, it’s okay, if you like this kind of show. But, it’s a huge letdown, for anyone hoping to see anything close to the action of the original “Walker Texas Ranger”. The only thing it’s missing is teenaged vampires whining about their feelings every 5 minutes.
Thank you.
I have watched 7 episodes of Walker and it is still a snooze-fest. I love Jared Padalecki and I think he should run while he can and find a better show and writers suited for him. This show will just bring him down.
The review is right on point. The show sucks!
Well, it’s way past the pilot now.
And the “new” Walker is a pathetic mess. Boring. Tedious. Annoying. Did I already say boring?
Padalecki is so much better than this.
Rebooting Walker as anything other than “the good guy wins, the bad guys don’t” that made the original cheese-fest popular was a complete mistake.
This show blows, the woke bs ruins everything. They just can’t help but inject it into everything… it feels so fake because it is forced!
First impressions is key here in hooking an audience. That being said…. the show is boring as watching paint dry. I love Jared, and had high hopes for his career but this is horrible. The show is dry and long winded. Complete disappointment.
OMG this episode was SO BAD I couldn’t believe it. BTW, neither Gen nor Jared look old enough to have kids that age either (did they have them when THEY were still in high school?) The writing is utterly unoriginal and they crammed way too many characters into one episode. I couldn’t figure out WTF this show is suppose to be about, is it a cop drama or a family drama? It’s like they just decided to start shooting without an actual clear cut vision or script. I wanted this to be good but it just wasn’t.
I’m really trying to get into it since I enjoy Jared’s acting but the show just isn’t grabbing me. I’m giving it the 3 episode review to decide if I want to keep going or quit all together. It’s crazy how one or two characters can ruin a show and right now, those characters are his brother and his daughter. They are both super angsty to the point where I feel like fast forwarding every time they appear on screen. Their reactions are ultra annoying and honestly would only make sense if Walker was behaving the way he was due to his wife leaving him or divorcing him but instead she is DEAD and these two jerks are acting like he should just get over it and, cut their grieving out and get back to normal. I get that his children miss their mom, but trying their brother/father out for it every time he tries to make up for it, whining about how he’s here but not here in both the first and second episode, it’s really getting tedious. The third episode will be the dealbreaker for me. If both of those characters are still yelling the same crap and tossing cold shoulders at a guy whose wife was murdered, I’ll just go back to re-watching Supernatural for Jared’s acting cause this show isn’t it. I just can’t stand angsty characters and they always throw one of these sour characters in the mix, this one has two which makes it even worse.
I agree, it’s insane the way everyone actually gets ANGRY at him because he can’t just “forget” his dead wife, the odd mysteries surrounding how she died and get back to move along with his life.
His daughter…..good GOD there is NOTHING redeemable about that whining, annoying daughter of his AND that was some preposterous “plot twist” about how his brother tried to get custody of Jared’s kids (while Jared was doing undercover work). I mean it’s not like the kids were living on the streets or that social services was getting ready to put them in foster care.
The storyline is so generic and the writing so boring that it makes everyone involved look like they can’t act. The reality is – the dialogue is just THAT bad and would even make Meryl Streep look bad.
I never watched the original version of this show, but I can’t imagine it lasted for as long as it did by being this dull. Seems to me like they should fire the writer and try to take things in a new direction (hell they need to PICK a direction).
It’s too bad they didn’t devote a portion of the first season to following Walker’s home and work life BEFORE his wife died. That way you’d be able to see firsthand the drastic life changes to him and his family rather than just slipping us a few flashbacks now and then. The way they’ve set it up, I find I don’t have any real feelings invested in him or his loss because they didn’t really show who he was before he fell apart.
I agree. Love him in Supernatural but this show is really dreck and I’m on like the sixth episode. I’m rewatching all 15 seasons of Supernatural because it’s so good; the contrast is cringeworthy. I watch each Walker episode as it airs and find myself going… What?? even… And honestly, I am trying. Tonight my husband couldn’t try any longer and was like “When does the new Stranger Things start up again?” Kinda says it all.
I agree. Love him in Supernatural but this show is really dreck and I’m on like the sixth episode. I’m rewatching all 15 seasons of Supernatural because it’s so good; the contrast is cringeworthy. I watch each Walker episode as it airs and find myself going… What?? even… And honestly, I am trying. Tonight my husband couldn’t try any longer and was like “When does the new Stranger Things start up again?” Kinda says it all.
Keeping it short and sweet.
The storyline just basically sucks. And makes Walker look like a person that doesn’t have his act together.
Could have had someone else play the partner she doesn’t really fit the role very well.
I have to admit that I did not even once watched Supernatural as the genre isn’t for .e at all. But good god, that guy is a professional actor with a long running TV series under his belt already? You gotta be kidding!
His acting is so wooden, you could carve a comb out of it. That goes for the whole cast on my opinion – this looks more like an amateur theater troupe than a TV series with a supposedly seasoned cast. The script can’t be good enough either, as nobody even seems to try and deliver anything remotely related to a “story”. I don’t get it, who in their right mind would greenlight something like that?
So sad, won’t be around for long.
I’m sorry this is just horrible. The lead couldn’t act his way out of a Depends commercial.
This is embarrassing, The Rangers are a professional division that deserves to be shown, with the history and toughness. But here we are showing how “Woke and new age we are. I get it call it a “Cop” show, but dont degrade the Rangers by making it a “cop” show! Im ashamed of you CW!
This review was too kind! I think I agree with most people here: it’s just awful for so many reasons.
I normally try to give shows a chance to find their footing but as soon as they push all the woke BS, and it is utter BS, then you know the philosophy of the writing team and can predict it’s not going to get better. We know this because those who are stupid enough to buy into wokeness demonstrate the lack of independent thinking required to be creative, not to mention a general lack of basic intelligence. So, you’ve got a bunch of writers (or people in charge of the writers) that blindly follow the idiocracy of the woke doctrine of envy that has infected a noisy minority that keep trying to shove their woke religion down everyone’s throats. Of course this show is garbage because it’s made by people who have garbage thoughts.
I just finished my second and last episode. I’m SICK of the woke, and this show is JUST SO BORING!
Fail!
Walker is a complete suckfest from the start. First of all, Chuck Norris left some pretty big shoes to fill as Cordell Walker. Jared was a solid pick but nowhere near as manly as Norris portrayed Walker. Secondly, the show could do without the gender and sexual preference politics. I tune in to watch Walker kick ass. I DGAF about sex, hetero or homo, leave that sh** out. Put in more fighting, shooting and blowing sh** up. More chicks fighting is a plus. A good car chase is a bonus too.
Amen!
Been watching the show. It’s not good. I can’t blame the actors, must be the directing and writing. It’s so weird.
The show and Jared’s acting skills both leave much to be desired.
woke rubbish
I was expecting a good action filled reboot of Walker but instead I got a bunch of candya$$ SJW crap that makes the new Walker seem like a wimp. Seriously I am so fed up with Hollywood and all this Social stuff being shoved down our throats. We quit watching Walker, SWAT and Rookie because I don’t need a bunch of hollywood do-gooders trying to push their views of politics on viewers.
Want to see how a good entertaining action show looks like? Watch SEALS.
The writers basically turned this story into a bedwetters dream. They should stop at the pilot and recast and re-write.
I just started watching the Show in mid September 2021 with high expectations. After the first episode, I thought, Wow booooring. I kept on shouting ” Your a Texas Ranger GO FIGHT CRIME, KICK SOMEBODY, DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING. Alas it was not meant to be. My take:
The problem with Walker is lack of SIMPLE DIRECTION. it tries to do too many things and thus loses the easy wins it should have by default by doing nothing well. The Melodramatic Family Drama that has already been ground into the dust by other series that have done a better job at seeming original must come to a stop if the show wants to climb up in the ratings.
Here is the fix. Walker’s daughter goes away to boarding school.
His parents take on a supportive family role offering needed social advice and secretly aid him as he fights crime.
Walker is left to build upon a rocky relationship with his new partner the fictional first Latino Women Texas Ranger.
The show becomes a buddy cop show as the characters individual arcs join into a dynamic duo. P.S her live in boyfriend or husband I forgot, could also be useful as a crime fighting addition to Team Walker.
P.S
The writers gave themselves too many backstories. This is usually done to give more plot options in the future. In this case, introducing them so early in the story just causes confusion before you can get into the main character WALKER. Here are a few that come to mind perhaps you can post any that I may have missed.
1. Daughter and he are at odds. He is not as good as Mom was at keeping things together.
2. His wife died and he is mourning.
4. His wife’s death is a murder mystery that he wants to solve.
5 He has a drinking problem that he must get over.
6. His daughter is an angry cop kid who acts out always needing his attention but he has little time.
4. His new partner dislikes him because he may get in the way of her success,
5. His parents have taken care of his child and he occasionally disagrees with their decisions regarding his daughter which causes tension between them.
6. He is a lone wolf?
7. His old partner is his New Boss
8. He is a crime fighter.
9. His undercover pasts has secrets that he covers up.
10 His daughter finds out about a love interest of his.
ALL OF THIS AND MORE IN THE FIRST PILOT.
Well you sure can judge it now. Still thus broken show with a star that for whatever reason can not smoothly deliver a single line. Every line is broken shuddered and paused. I absolutely loved Supernatural but this is just painful to watch. Season 1 second halfs story line does not even make sense. Family rival neighbours move back but the none blood related husband that has come in after the fact is the one leading the charge for his married into family’s old grudge he had nothing to do with. It’s so unnatural it hurts. Do not even get me started on the contrived love triangle with his partners current and former squeeze. Oh sure now her whole world is just turned upside down please what unrealistic rubish.
They make thsi walker like a bumbling,insecure, idiot. Nothing tough about him. No cd parker or Alex Cahill, and what happened to trivette or trivit as walker called him in the first episode he was in. Last but not least not uncle Ray no talk of Indian reservatio n and no cds bar and grill. I could go on and on but yall get the point.