One would think that Stephen King is so busy writing novels, short stories, poems, essays and columns that he wouldn't have time for anything from a visual medium. But the Master of Horror is a big fan of TV and movies, and he's always good about sharing his thoughts on what he's watching. Understandably, King watches a lot of genre TV, and he made quite the claim about the coolest monster hunters on the small screen.
Now, that wasn't "quite the claim" because Stephen King happened to misspell the name of Norman Reedus' redneck warrior Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, although I'm sure some fans had a fist to shake at the author for the typo. It's simply the fact that he narrowed it down to two, since TV has arguably never had as many monster-fighting characters before. Horror is alive and well on the boob tube, and there is no shortage of supercool weapon-toting badasses putting evil down.
Really, though, namechecking Daryl was kind of a no-brainer, since The Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows on TV, with Reedus hovering around the top of the fanbase's favorite elements of the series. Even though a crossbow isn't a wonderful weapon for the post-apocalypse, it's visually appealing and makes him look smooth as hell when popping bolts off in zombies' skulls. And being able to ride away from a situation on a motorcycle never lost anyone any cool points.
Similarly, The Strain's Vasiliy Fet is the kind of guy you might not necessarily hang out with on a normal day, but is a goddamn blessing to have around when the world has been taken over by vamp creatures. He's brawny, he's solid with the weaponry, and he's got a wicked sense of humor to go along with it. Sadly, we might not get to see him as long as we've seen Daryl, but he still stands above most as a force against dastardly creatures.
But in sharing this opinion on his Twitter page, Stephen King just invites jerks like me to get wicked pissy while hollering out others that stand up to the monster-fighting test. "But what about Ash vs Evil Dead's Ash, Mr. King?" I would ask. "Or the Winchester brothers on Supernatural? Aren't they all cool enough for you?" And accordingly, he would then ignore me and go about continuing to wow millions of readers with his extensive imagination.
You can currently catch Fet doing his dirty deeds on Season 3 of The Strain, which airs Sunday nights on FX. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead is gearing up for Season 7 to begin on AMC on Sunday, October 23. For all the other TV shows on the way, monster-filled and not, check out our fall premiere schedule, and don't forget to keep an eye out for the Stephen King-adapted projects coming to TV and theaters over the next year.
