‘Walker’ Didn’t Deserve Cancellation

The big picture

• Walker
  's current season will be its last, leaving fans disappointed by the show's cancellation.
• Cordell Walker faces mounting challenges, including a shorter final season that affects character arcs.
• The CW's future without Jared Padalecki is uncertain now that the network has been canceled
  Walker
  and other shows.

For fans of the recent CW Walker, Texas Ranger Reimagining, we have some bad news for you. Unfortunately, the show is currently airing its fourth season Walkerthe last, like the Jared Padalecki the production has finally gotten the ax for its home network. This comes a year after his series of western spin-off prequels, Walker: Independence, was canceled after its own first season. With only a handful of episodes in the neo-western cop drama, Cordell Walker and his supporting cast deserved better.

“Walker” needs more time to properly conclude

Every season of Walker has launched with a new mystery throughout the season. In season 1, our hero was solving the murder of his wife, Emily (Genevieve Padalecki), while the second season focused on the Walker/Davidson family feud, and the third pondered the terrorist militia group Gray Flag. With season 4, Walker has ventured into the darkest corners of procedural television by introducing the Jackal, a serial killer who has been on the loose since before the show began. With Walker diving headfirst into this case and slowly losing his mind to his opponent, this has been our hero's toughest hour yet. on paper, end Walker with a plot that stretches its titular character to the limit is a great idea. It infuses meaty character drama with a compelling (and seemingly impossible) murder mystery, but it also opens the door to dark places Walker might not be able to easily return from. It sounds simple enough, but there are many other factors in this program that need to be considered as well.

While taking down serial killers is part of the job, Walker may have written itself into a corner that the unfortunate cancellation verdict may not be able to extricate the series from. If Captain Larry James (Coby Bell) once ruined his marriage by obsessing too much with the Jackal, what kind of damage could Walker do to his family, especially Geri (Odette Annable) or their children, doing the same? With only a few episodes left, it doesn't look like there'll be enough time to patch things up if things go south (at least not in any significant way), and while the impromptu series finale will hopefully surprise us, there are many other loose ends that Walker has not yet fully addressed. liam (Keegan Allen) has been teetering between two different trajectories all season, torn between his desire to run the horse rescue and resume his former legal pursuits. He's been directionless for most of the series, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon. Similarly, Stella (Violet Brinson) has no idea what her future holds, having been so consumed by this necklace theft plot that she hasn't been able to spend any meaningful time at college. And they are not the only ones.

Beeline (Molly Hagan) and Bonham (Mitch Pileggi) have noted on several occasions that they may be looking to retire elsewhere now that the grandchildren are about to leave home, and Auggie (Kale Culley) could follow in the footsteps of the Walker family by pursuing a military career. These two ideas are important decisions that deserve your due diligence, and while we've spent enough time with Auggie to see his arc, the heads of the Walker family haven't had much to do all season. There's also the strange, unspoken tension between Cassie (Ashley Reyes) and Trey (Jeff Pierre) that was explored at the end of Season 3 and barely mentioned in Season 4. Their near-romantic chemistry has yet to be fully realized, but with Cassie dating Detective Luna (Justin Johnson Cortez) maybe that's not a problem. Of course, there are also fans still waiting for the return of Micki Ramirez (Lindsey Morgan) after his sudden demise at the start of Season 2, though that's becoming more and more unlikely the longer the show has been on. All that to say, there's a lot to it Walker having to end without an intentional final season; the CW would have been wise to give us one, even if it was a little shorter than usual.

Cordell Walker still has some work to do

Walker Season 4 is already a shorter number of episodes than usual due to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Most seasons of the show run between 18 and 20 episodes, while Season 4 was given 13 in comparison. While that's still nothing to scoff at in an era of streaming where 6-10 episodes reign supreme, for a CW series like Walker, limits what the show can do and how well its character arcs will work. In the case of Cordell Walker, our favorite Texas Ranger still has some growing to do, and without a proper fifth and final season, all we can do is hope the show can at least start the process. In the original Walker, Texas Ranger, Chuck NorrisCordell Walker was largely the same man, and while he certainly had his challenges, his personality never changed. The same has not always happened with the interpretation of the character of Jared Padalecki.

If we've learned anything about Padalecki's time WalkerIs this his erratic behavior can sometimes get the best of him. Whether he's seeing visions of his dead wife or trying to take on an entirely different personality while undercover as a criminal, Walker has a lot of things he's working towards, often while out in the middle of a shootout. These mental spirals often lead Walker to make impulsive and often dangerous decisions, many of which have followed him home. His best friend, Hoyt Rawlins (Matt Barr), was killed as a direct result of this election. With the Jackal case now at the forefront of his mind, Walker is making those same flawed decisions, and by abandoning his son's advice to get professional help, he's likely to make everything worse. Whenever he finally reaches that boiling point, it will undoubtedly affect everyone he loves, including Geri.

Since the first season, the show has built up the romantic tension between Walker and Geri, but between the grieving Emily and Hoyt, the timing never quite worked. But now, with the two finally in a committed relationship, it looks like Walker might finally get the happy ending he's been looking for since his last happy ending was stolen from him. Sure, it's come a long way since then, though Cordell Walker still has some issues to work out before Walker may officially come to an end. After all this time, she hasn't quite learned how to separate her work from her family, nor has she been too successful at patching things up with her own children. Considering there are less than five episodes left Walker before the final call, it doesn't look like he'll learn these lessons in record time, though perhaps the showrunners saw the writing on the wall and prepared for this sort of thing.

The CW might not survive without Jared Padalecki

Since the CW launched in 2006, Jared Padalecki has been part of the network. For the first fourteen years, he was as Sam Winchester supernaturalbut in 2021, he rotated from Vancouver to Austin to take over Walker like Texas Ranger Cordell Walker. Padalecki has been as vital to the CW as a network as DC Comics' superheroesand with both on this year's blog (Superman and Lois has also been canceled after its upcoming fourth season), is a wonder that the network hopes to be.

Either way, it's still a tragedy to watch a show like Walker to go. Not only is it a fun series with plenty of character drama and mystery to keep us invested, but it also has a particularly family-oriented perspective that most procedurals in this specific niche lack. Action dramas often lack a strong family component Walker it does, and that's part of why the show is so beloved. To be fair, ratings for Walker have steadily declined over the years, though that's not exactly unfounded for a show on the CW. However, after canceling both Walker: Independence and now the flagship series too, this hasn't been the best year for the Walker family.

Now that Walker is done, many expect Jared Padalecki to take on a role the boysmeeting with many of his own supernatural cast mates and crew, but this author expects something else. While the original Walker, Texas Ranger it ran for an impressive nine seasons, eventually ending with a made-for-TV movie that continued the narrative. Although this project ended in a deadlock, maybe Padalecki's Walker I might come back for a movie or a made-for-TV special to properly close this chapter in Cordell Walker's life. If the series finale leaves us wanting more, it may be the only way to get the full closure we've been waiting for.

Walker airs its final season on Wednesdays on the CW and can be streamed on Max.

Look at Max