Sometimes an actor fully embraces a role they were assigned. For any of us Walking Dead fans, the first person who comes to mind is Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. The entire cast of The Walking Dead is super talented, but at the end of the day, Morgan’s portrayal of Negan is something that really only comes once in a lifetime.
However, since watching television and movies is my job, I've watched the actor in some of his other projects. And while I’ve grown up in a world where I know Morgan as Negan, there’s another show that he did recently that truly showed just how great an actor he is.
And that’s Sterling Point.
Sterling Point is a teen drama mystery, and Morgan is the standout
If you’ve been online the last few weeks, chances are you have heard of Sterling Point. The series follows a teenager, Annie (Ella Rubin), who learns she was left on an island after her estranged grandfather passes away. So, during the summer, she flies up to Muskoka, Canada, to investigate and uncover her family's secrets.
The premise itself makes it sound a lot like it’s completely focused around the mystery of this island, but the show is much more than that. There have been a lot of teen dramas in the last decade or so that are just too much, if you catch my drift (Riverdale, Outer Banks, etc.), no matter how good they may have started.
Sterling Point doesn’t feel like that, as it seems to cater more to the modern-day teen than the polished look we’ve seen in many television shows. It’s sweet and has some really compelling moments with some complex backstories, and I have to give it its flowers for that.
We’re not here to talk solely about Sterling Point. We’re here to talk about Morgan in the series. I don’t think you’re ready for it because what you know Morgan as in The Walking Dead universe is really not this character.
Morgan plays Joe, a marina owner in Sterling Point who is the father of Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), a teenager who comes into contact with Annie and sparks a relationship with her later on in the season. But Joe isn’t really just the father of Ellis. He's so much more than that.
While the show focuses a lot on the stories of the young adults/teenagers in town, Joe’s story intersects with theirs pretty consistently, and it’s refreshing to see Morgan in a role like this.
Morgan plays a regular dude, which is so nice
I know that sounds really basic, but trust me when I say seeing Morgan in a normal role like this is like whiplash in the best way.
I’m not even talking about him as Negan. While in the zombie universe he's been responsible for some insane moments, Morgan has typecast himself into a bubble for a bit with the roles he took outside of The Walking Dead.
A big one was his part in The Boys, where he played Joe Kessler, who was a jerk. He voiced a literal murdering alien in Invincibles. He’s walked himself into a world where he portrays the worst people in humanity, and we haven’t really seen him in a role where he’s, like, a normal guy with normal problems.
In fact, Morgan himself even spoke about how he loved that aspect too in an interview with The Seattle Times, and how much of a blessing it was not to have to play someone like Negan again for once.
“The fact that I’m still playing Negan is pretty crazy to me…The opportunity to play just a father—not someone wielding a bat and killing people—a father that’s going through the issues of raising his son, trying to keep his marriage together, then having all this stuff fall into his lap and trying to juggle that, was very appealing to me.”
And he really does do a great job. Sure, as a fan of The Walking Dead, it is hard mentally to separate him from Negan, since it’s not like they changed his looks or anything. But he does a great job, and it made me want to see him in more simple, normal roles. Someone get this man into a rom-com or something.
Sterling Point became the biggest show on Amazon when it was released, and at the time of writing this, it’s still in the Top 10, only behind Reacher (which just released new episodes, so that’s understandable). It’s renewed for season 2, and I personally can’t wait to see what happens next and to see Morgan shine in something that’s not just him waving a bat around.
You can watch the first season of Sterling Point on Prime Video.
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