RIP Glenn Rhee, long live Steven Yeun

Steve Yeun seems to console Lauren Cohen, who plays his onscreen wife Maggie during Talking Dead's special 90 minute show after The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere that saw the end of Glenn Rhee.

IT HAS BEEN a week since Glenn Rhee was killed in The Walking Dead's Season 7 premiere and the fan furor refuses to die.

The character of Glenn Rhee, played by Steven Yeun, was among the last of the original group of survivors in the zombie apocalypse setting in The Walking Dead and was much beloved by the show's fans.

Killing off the fan favorite was more than just a turning point in the storyline, it was doing away with one of the few fully developed and complicated AAPI characters that has ever been on American television. Glenn exposed millions of viewers to an AAPI character that they could identify with, someone they could cheer for and care about.

Since Glenn's death last week, fans have been grieving the loss of one of the character they invested a ton of emotional capital, not to mention their Sunday evenings. A columnist in Arkansas wrote an obituary that was widely circulated.

Written by Andrea Bruner, it starts out, "Glenn Rhee, husband, father-to-be, warrior and friend departed from this world October 23rd. He was 32."

The fan meltdown and subsequent uproar was so great that series creator, Robert Kirkman felt compelled to explain the plot-turn to Entertainment Weekly.

"It’s just that there’s a lot of material that comes from Glenn’s death in the comics,’ Kirkman said. "And while we do try to change things up to keep things interesting for the audience, and for me, this is one that there’s so much that comes from Rick.

"There’s so much with Negan, because that character is someone that he killed, and definitely Maggie is someone that kind of gets put on the trajectory that affects a great number of stories and a great number of characters moving forward.

"So it was kind of essential that that part of the scene at least remained intact, unfortunately," he added. 

The Walking Dead cast says goodbye.

I don't buy that. Kirkman's explanation might carry more weight if he hadn't already substantially diverted from the comic storyline by allowing two (white) characters to continue to live, long after their comic counterparts died: fan favorites Carol, played by Melissa McBride and Daryl played by Norman Reedus. 

So, like so many before them, the producers thought the Asian guy was dispensible so we have to live with the results. It is what it is.

Steven Yeun has been trying to make sure that he is very much alive. He has a movie thriller, Mayhem, coming out in which he plays the hero, a guy who has to fight his way out of a dangerous situation. Hmm, sound familiar?

He is also signed up for another sci-fi project  Okja, directed by Boon Joon-Ho (Snowpiercer). which has an absolutely crazy pollen. It stars Seohyun An as a girl who befriends Okja, a genetically manufactured pig, the plot follows her mission to retrieve her now giant pig after he is kidnapped by the corporation that created him. It sounds like dystopian Clifford: The Big Red Dog.

Yen also scored a cover of Entertainment Weekly. Writes Fusion:

As far as as our research has turned up, Steven Yeun is one of three male Asian actors(and one of two living ones) to have an Entertainment Weekly cover all to himself since the magazine’s launch in 1990. As far as Asian actresses go, Mindy Kaling graced the cover back in 2013, as did Lost‘s Yunjin Kim in 2010. (We’ve reached out to EW for confirmation and will update with their response.)

Yeun has definitely appeared on EW covers before—and technically, he’s been featured on a cover by himself, as one of six different “collectible covers” of the same Walking Dead special issue, released in February of this year. The other five covers were of his Walking Dead costars....

Steve Yeun’s EW cover isn’t just a big deal because it pays homage to one of the most beloved characters in modern television—it’s a disruption, a declaration that your heroes can be Asian, too.

In the meantime, Yeun may have found a new job as late-night host Conan O'Brien. Yeun is a funny guy. He's a frequent guest on Conan, traveling with him to Korea for a couple of shows last year. Watch Yeun's guest stint from last week.

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Walking Dead: Is Glenn dead or alive?

Glenn Rhee played by Stephen Yuen will be back, but in what form?

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

THE FATE of Glenn Rhee is driving fans of The Walking Dead crazy. Is good guy Glenn  who has never killed a living human being, who has transformed from a pizza-delivery guy to action hero, dead or alive?

You know what they say about nice guys.

The producers and writers are clearly playing with the audience's emotions for the last two weeks since we saw everybody's favorite Asian/American survivor of the zombie apocalypse fall off a dumpster into a horde of zombies. The last scene of Glenn screaming and zombies ripping out intestines is ... uh ... gut-wrenching keeps playing over and over in our minds.

Last week as we tuned in a special 90-minute episode expecting to find an answer, we get an episode about Morgan's backstory and his "Yoda." Most aggravating, though, acute observers noted that the credits for the the actor Stephen Yuen, who plays Glenn, were left out!

Last week, the producers stirred up more questions when they felt it necessary to issue a note to viewers of Talking Dead, the show dedicated to the Walking Dead goings-on, reassuring fans that we had not seen the last of Glenn.

So much angst and speculation has been put forth by fan and TV reviewers, the producers and probably laughing and rubbing their hands with glee with all the interest being generated.

"I think it's fun to allow people to speculate on it. There will be some resolution to the debate. I can't wait for that moment because it'll be very intriguing," said executive producer Greg Nicotero. Yeah, right! Nicotero probably tortured his pets when he was a kid.

Here's a new promo about tonight's episode:

Is tonight's episode (Nov. 8) going to provide an answer? I wouldn't be surprised if the creators keep the audience guessing as long a they can. 

UPDATE (Nov. 9): As expected, the Nov. 8 episode of The Walking Dead didn't provide any answers. The producers have left us hanging again and again, we'll probably tune in next week to see if Glenn is alive. In case you need reminding, here is that infamous scene:

Asians on TV: Updates galore on survivors Glenn, Josh, Amy and Tim

Wait until next week to find out about Glenn
WELL, that was a disappointment. After building up the cliffhanger on the fate of Glenn in The Walking Dead, we instead were treated to a 90-minute backstory on how another character, Morgan Jones, attained his bo-fighting skills. 

The last show we had of Glenn was gut-wrenching.

Don't get me wrong, Sunday's episode was fascinating and the actors in the "Here's Not Here" episode reminds us how high-calibre the talent is in this show.

If you remember the ending of last week's episode, the character Glenn Rhee, apparently the only Asian to survive in th zombie apocalypse, appeared to be the lunch of a herd of zombies. 

Fandom was aghast that one of their favorite characters was meeting an untimely demise contrary to the comic book storyline.

Hints and clues from the production team seem to point to other possible scenarios in which our hero, Glenn, miraculously survives. 

RELATED: Did Glenn just die?

Now we apparently have to tune next week to see what happened to good-guy Glenn. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the creators still don't answer the question, "Did Glenn survive?" There's so much time-jumping this season, we might have to wait until the end of the season before we get an answer.

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Two Filipino/Americans in The Voice's Top 20

Tony Atlas

SURVIVAL, seems to be the theme this week.

Amy Vachal, whom we have written about earlier,  and Filipino/American Tim Atlas, a native of San Jose, California lost their Knockout rounds last week on the reality singing contest The Voice. 

However, both were picked up by other coaches. 

Amy, who hails from New Jersey by way of Brooklyn, N.Y., was stolen by coach Adam Levine and Pharrell jumped at the chance to have Tim  join his team.

While Amy has received comparisons to the soothing sound of Nora Jones, its hard to pinpoint the indie-rocker Tim Atlas. He has a sound that is uniquely his own ... and a growing fan base because of his smoldering good looks, which could serve him well if he continues into next week's competition.

Amy Vachal

The competition gets more intense and more competitive in the Top 20. The two will compete Monday or Tuesday and the coaches will decide who will continue. The following week will start the Live Rounds during which viewers get to vote for their favorites.

RELATED: Amy survives Knockout

Neither of the singers have thus far demonstrated any of the high notes or emotion-generating styles that audiences seem to favor in these competitions. Both are low-key easy-on-the-ears performers favoring ballads.

Tune in 8 tonight and 9 tomorrow on NBC to see if either of these Asian/American singers survive.

If either, or both, of the competitors make it into next week's live rounds, we'll have to call on the demonstrated power of the Asian/American community's social networkers to generate votes to support them.

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Will Josh survive the antics of his 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'?

Continuing our survival theme: Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez), the Filipino/American character in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - the best new television show nobody is watching - is the recipient of the unwanted affection of the title character, Rebecca Bunch played to perfection by Rachel Bloom. 

It's a musical comedy in which the performers break out into song and dance. Rodriguez has not been able to show his musical talents until this number in which he plays all four members of a boy band.

Rodriguez is from Daly City, California, a city noted for its high percentage of Filipino residents. He majored in theater arts and was in the cast of Here Lies Love, the smash Broadway musical about Imelda Marcos, the wife of the Philippines dictator.

Watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Monday nights on the CW.

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SHOCKER! Did Glenn just die on 'Walking Dead?'

Warning, warning, warning! Another spoiler! Do not proceed if you haven't seen Episode 3, "Thank you" of Season 6 of The Walking Dead.

The last time we saw Glenn ...

I'M STUNNED! I'm at a loss of words. I'm in denial.

Did Glenn - the only Asian/American survivor of the zombie apocalypse just die on the popular television show The Walking Dead?

The last image we have from last Sunday's episode 3 is Glenn screaming with zombies gorging on what appears to be our hero's intestines. It was ... well, gut wrenching. 

Glenn, as portrayed by actor Stephen Yeun, is "everyman." He was a nerd who has transformed into an action hero. He, and his wife Maggie, reminded the viewers that a trace of humanity and hope remained in the world inhabited by zombies. He believed in giving people (even those who tried to kill him) a second chance. He, of all the characters of Walking Dead, kept his humanity and never killed anyone (not counting zombies.) Never!

But ... here I am talking about Glenn in the past tense. There's some ambiguity. In the Talking Dead, which normally follows the show, they traditionally show all the characters that die on the Walking Dead. The segment is called "In Memoriam." Conspicuously absent was any mention of Glenn. To me, that is a huge oversight. Every other character who has been killed off received a lingering last "so-long" photo "In Memorium:"

Adding to the confusion, the producers felt the need to issue this statement to Talking Dead viewers:

“Dear fans of The Walking Dead, this is a hard story to tell and when we were planning to tell we knew our friends at the Talking Dead would be talking to you about it and knowing you’d all be talking, and feeling and commiserating, I knew we should say something about it lest our silence say something we didn’t mean to say or not say. So I’ll say this: In some way, we will see Glenn, some version of Glenn or parts of Glenn again, either in flashback or in the current story to help complete the story.”

Die-hard fans based in Georgia where the show is taped have sent out photos showing Yeun on the set, in costume, weeks after last week's episode was shot. Are they shooting flashback scenes? Or, did Glenn somehow survive the bloody ordeal.

So what happened? A dream, a hallucination? The character who was with Glenn in his apparent last battle killed himself and Glenn, being the good guy he is, tried to keep him from falling into the zombie abyss. Unfortunately, the momentum took Glenn down, too. How could our hero survive this? Did the other character fall on top of Glenn and that's his guts we see the zombies eating?

Or, are the writers just toying with our emotions? Is he dead? We don't know. Rumors of the character's death has been circulating for two seasons.

Tune in next week, which is a 90-minute episode, when poor Maggie hears the bad/good news. Is it too late to mount a #SaveGlenn movement?

UPDATE: The 90-minute episode didn't provide any answers. We have to wait another week to find out what happened to Glenn.