The Smashing Machine Isn’t the Rock Acting Challenge We Were Led to Believe

This article contains The Crushing Machine spoilers. A writer attempts to get an answer out of Mark Kerr, the imposing final fighting hero portrayed by Dwayne Johnson, first in The Smashing System. The writer wants to know how Kerr will react to a loss of a game, but Kerr finds the issue absolutely puzzling. Johnson fumbles his […]

The Smashing System wasn’t the Rock Acting Challenge We Were Led Believe first appeared on Den of Geek.

American actor Andrew Lincoln is largely known for his role in one of TV’s biggest franchises for more than ten years, as evidenced by AMC’s wildly popular monster series The Walking Dead. He played the best nice guy Rick Grimes, a determined and selfless leader who stood ready to defend his people from both living and dead on that display. The artist is set to return to broadcast in a very different type of role then that Rick’s work on the prequel series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Sit has generally wrapped up his story ( not to mention given him a sort of happy ending that his figure has more than earned ).

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If the early reviews from across the pond are anything to go by, viewers will soon have the chance to see Lincoln stretch himself in lots of wild ( and potentially quite improbable ) ways. Coldwater, a six-part thriller, aired earlier this Fall on British network ITV on Showtime. Its subject matter is both uncomfortable and uncomfortably timely, and it is a tale of isolation, manipulation, toxic masculinity, and male rage. And Lincoln’s portrayal seems about as far away from Rick Grimes as it &#8217 can get.

In Coldwater, Lincoln portrays John, a typically cowardly husband and father who relocates his family to a new neighborhood and is drawn into the grip of a charismatic weirdo who is overly eager to exploit his numerous ( many ) worries about middle age, his marriage, and the world as a whole. What will appear to follow will reportedly involve a lot of domestic conflict, violence, and murder, in a sort of wildly unbalanced analysis of the modern masculinity crisis. ( I’m fairly certain there may also be a serial killer involved )? Given how long Lincoln occupied what was essentially the Platonic ideal of a hero, this is all sort of painfully ironic. But I’m here for it, if only because it’ll be so nice to see this particular actor playing a role he’s been playing ( or stifling it depending on your perspective ) for so long.

Lincoln’s entry into the world of British drama Coldwater wasn’t his first move, because that’s where he actually got his start. After years of watching him kill zombies in a cowboy hat, it’s possible many regular Walking Dead viewers won’t realize that he is actually American. He’s similar to his countryman Hugh Laurie and House. He has appeared in everything from period dramas like Wuthering Heights to the supernaturally infused Afterlife across the pond. ( And of course, in Love Actually, he frequently appears in meme-d as the best friend with cue cards. ) However, it can be challenging for any performer to decide what to do after leaving a crucial role behind, and that’s exactly what Rick Grimes did for Lincoln. So it’s exciting to see that he’s undoubtedly not treading water. We’ll have to wait and see for ourselves whether that means Coldwater will be worthwhile to watch.

Ewen Bremner, Eve Myles from Torchwood, and Indira Varma from Game of Thrones are among the familiar faces in the series ‘ early 2026 U.S. release.

The first post on Den of Geek was Andrew Lincoln’s new British Thriller Sounds Like a Real Swerve From The Walking Dead.