Showing posts with label TWD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TWD. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2013

Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 310: Home

You know there's good hallucinating and bad hallucinating. Good hallucinating is when you know you're losing it so you see phantoms and hear your little voices and talk on the phone to dead people but you keep that your little secret and you don't let anyone know. Even when your special ghost people show up in front of other people you just play it cool and pretend you don't see them. I mean if the small kid in "The Sixth Sense" could do it then c'mon Rick dude, SURELY you can pull this off too. And you don't have to explain why all of a sudden you've got frosty breath syndrome that that kid did....
  Bad hallucinating on the other hand is when you have one-sided screaming conversations with your hallucinations in front of everyone and/or go bolting outside of your secure compound leaving all the gates open behind you. At that point, you've become a huuuuge liability and if I were part of your group I would seriously have to consider taking you out into the woods for a one-way nature hike. "Sorry guys... Rick got attacked by a rabid flying squirrel and fell off a cliff... there was nothing I could do."
  Credits roll and we cut to a short and very pointless conversation between Andreea and the Gov. Arghh.... as IF he's going to step down instead of being the same old crazy, sadistic tyrant that we all know and want to kill. All the leadership on this show is NUTS right now my friends, NUTS. He's trying to side-track her so he can go on a rampage against the prison and it's Andreea so of course his little ploy works.
   Then we cut to Daryl and Merle just kind of floating around in the woods and Daryl is having second thoughts about leaving the group. YES!!
  And back in the Prison Glen is showing some real leadership and he may actually be sane! Hope that doesn't mean he gets popped or eaten soon. It's so nice to see someone making a rational plan. I liked the idea of sneaking up on the Gov and taking him out but that's just me. So they have to decide whether they run or stay and fight. To me trying to make a stand without Daryl is madness. But leaving with an infant and a one-legged guy is also crazy. That doesn't leave them a whole lot of options. What's up with Maggie. She didn't get raped and they got out of Woodbury alive. This isn't Sweet Valley High babe, it's the Zombie Apocalypse. You had to take your shirt off. We get it. But I mean COME ON. It's not like you had chop off your own hand or have someone cut a baby out of you with no anesthesia. In the Z.A. you take your licks and you move on. And I mean with the responsibility of the group now resting on his narrow shoulders Glen is going to need the love of a good woman not to mention a good shag now and then.
  Then we're back to Merle and Daryl and Merle is being a blathering idiot as usual. They come upon a group of people getting attacked by walkers and Daryl stages an EPIC rescue. How much do we love watching Daryl in action? I love it when he stops shooting the crossbow and just starts stabbing people in the head with arrow. What a stud.  AND he scores the Zombie Kill of the Week by slamming one of their heads in the trunk of the car. Wow. The whole thing is just awesome until it's over and Merle - who manages to get off about 20 racial slurs AS he's fighting a zombie battle - wants to loot them. He really has no redeeming qualities. Daryl gets to see Merle with fresh eyes and realizes that his place is back with his true family at the prison. We're left hoping that he gets there in time.
   Back at the prison Glenn is off on a personal vendetta and Rick has, indeed become the mayor of crazy town. I love his comment that he's got "stuff out here" and he doesn't know how much longer he'll be out there. The way Hershel deals with him is so gentle. Season 3 Hershel has totally redeemed himself from season 2 in my books. So glad he didn't get eaten when I wanted him to. We cut to Carol who is having a nice conversation with Axel when his head explodes and all hell breaks loose. Major points to Carol for having a casual conversation with someone one minute and using their dead body as a human shield seconds later. Major deductions to Carl and Beth for attempting to take cover behind a open metal bleachers AND for failing to hit the dude in the guard tower even though he didn't take cover once! Remember at the end of season 2 where there was the shoot-out at the farm and this group was cranking out head-shots with no misses? Geez, what happened to them....
    The gov attacks them with gunfire AND a trojan-horse van of Zombies and I gotta say that the take home message of the whole battle is that the samurai sword is really the Z.A. weapon of choice. Look what happens to Rick when he runs out of bullets. He's left trying pistol-whip the suckers and fight them hand to hand. But Michonne strolls into the area full of Zombies and you just want to yell at everyone to stay safe behind her. She just takes them out so fast and never has to even get close. They need to bust out the yellow pages, find the nearest martial arts  mega-store and hook the whole group up with that business.
   And just when Rick was about to achieve epic fail status, Daryl returns! Points for all the awesome moves dude, but deductions for bringing Merle back with you. I feel very satisfied at the end of this episode that even though dark clouds loom on the horizon the whole little gang is back together and together they can face what's coming.
Q: What happened to Sasha and Tyreese and that whole gang? Surely they didn't take Rick at his word to get out when 1.) He was clearly insane when he said it and 2.) Everyone else wanted them to stay. They're gonna need them if they plan to fight the gov. Maybe they were just napping back in ca cell somewhere.

I will not get to see Next week's episode until March. I will be in Disney World, and you know... Zombies and Disney don't mix. (Zombies are SO unmagical...) Who wants to guest-blog next week's episode for me?

Monday, February 11, 2013

Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 309 "The Suicide King"

My husband perfectly summed up the episode. It finished and he turned to me and said "Their situation is not improving."
   We all waited for so long for our favorite show to come back on and I was SOOOO excited, but now that the first episode of the second half of the season has aired I'm just frustrated. It was a good episode - it's just that things are not happening the way I want them to happen. Granted what I WANT to happen is for all the Zombies to rot away, the Governor to get a massive gangrene brain infection and die, Rick to shake himself off, stop hallucinating and be normal again, the prison group to absorb the mis-led population of Woodbury, migrate down to Orlando, re-open Disney World and hug it out. And I get that would make for a pretty lame show but still, can NOTHING good happen?
    I was really hoping the episode would pick right up with Merle and Daryl and it did so we were gripped right from the start. They started battling it out and I don't know WHAT Merle thought he had up his sleeve (certainly not a hand...) but it was not looking good for the Dixon boys until Rick and the gang showed up and saved the day. The best part of the whole thing was the way Daryl re-claimed his cross-bow with a mighty double-handed snatch. Like "Thanks for showing up and saving me but get your hands off my woman boy!" We had to re-wind and watch that twice... classic.
   They get out with all team members including Daryl and Merle and only then are the lives of the Dixon boys TRULY in danger because they bring them back to Glenn and Michonne and for a second there it seems like Glenn is ready to polish Merle off himself. They start screamin it out in the middle of the woods and I'm thinking that 1.) In the Z.A. everyone should use their library voice when they're out in the woods and 2.)it's a wonder Daryl ever learned to talk because Merle never shuts up EVER, when Rick cold-cocks the guy and we finally get a little peace.
    There's no way the group is admitting Merle and there's no way Daryl is leaving his brother for a second time so off goes Daryl into the sunset with Merle. They head back to the prison but Glenn is so upset that he almost cashes it in because he's so worked up that he yanks open a truck door and a zombie practically falls into his lap. Opening ANY door without peeking behind it to see what lurks is standard operating procedure for the Z.A. ladies and gents. I don't care if it's the door to a bird cage, you CHECK first. One more reason for everyone to stay calm and serene when they can which is totally incompatible with co-habitating with Merle. Yikes.
   They get back to the prison and Carol takes Daryl's exit pretty hard. Now you and I both know that he's not gone for good. He's too awesome, he has too big of a fan base (have you checked out the Pinterest boards DEDICATED to Daryl Dixon people?? I'm not making this up...) and he just makes for excellent TV. The question is how long are we gonna have to sweat it out without him? One week? The rest of the season? Will he come back just in time to save the day when Woodbury attacks? Will Merle still be with him? Start speculating people, I want to know what you think.
    Back at the prison the group gets patched up and spends lots of time admiring the baby who has already lived much longer that she did in the comic. This may or may not be a spoiler. Has ANY TV show in the history of TV ever killed off a newborn? I think not. So she may be with us for a while. Taking out an infant is a pretty big offense, the writers may have to work up their courage. Michonne gets a nap, and Rick should have taken her lead on this one because the next thing you know he's meeting the newcomers fresh off a rescue mission and stressed to the max and the hallucinations begin. You know, when your leader is coo-coo for cocoa puffs, it's time for new leadership. Hershel can be the brains and the heart, and Glenn can be his arm. It could work! But instead they have Rick who has clearly gone off the deep end and I'm not sure a nap is gonna fix it people. He may need chocolate and peanut butter mixed together AND a night of feel-good movie classics to be right again, and let's be honest... where is gonna find all THAT In the middle of the Z.A.? Geesh, at this point they may be better off with Carl leading the group. So I don't know what's going to happen next but you'd think that SOMETHING positive has to be around the corner soon. That's all I got. Did you notice that I didn't discuss Andreea and the Gov? I can't even go there right now...

Monday, November 26, 2012

Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 307: When the Dead Come Walking

   The worst is when you've found a great place to hole up and ride out the Zombie Apocalypse - just you and the carcass of your late little dog - but then a gang of maniacs come tearing into your cabin, stab you through the shoulder and chuck you out your front door to be consumed by the Zombies that are pursuing them. I ask you, is nothing sacred these days?!?

Oh the humanity. I've said it once and I'll say it again, if we're going to overcome Zombies and survive as a species we gotta work TOGETHER people. Merle is a dirty rotten punk, the Governor is just evil and Daryl is never going to be able to found the Republic of Awesome with Michonne if he keeps pointing his crossbow in her face. But let's begin at the beginning.

We finally get to see the Woodbury interrogation chambers and I was scared out of my mind for Glen and Maggie. They don't get enough props from me because their storyline tends to be sweeter and milder than the survival stuff we so often focus on but they are 2 of my favorite characters and I would be very, very bummed out if anything bad happened to them. Merle is 100% pure distilled 8th grade bully. He reacts more than he thinks and he lets his emotions run totally away with him. I mean throwing a zombie into the room with Glen tied up inside was BOGUS by any standard. Even if you're on the side of the bad guys what's gonna happen with Glen dead? Now you have nothing to hold over Maggie because he's the only thing she cares about and Zombified Glen is certainly not going to spill any secrets so you've totally lost your upper hand. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Can we pause for a moment and talk about stark, raving, zombie defense talent? Glen is duck-taped to a chair and he defends himself, fights against and neutralizes a zombie using tactics that can only be described as Daryl-worthy. Glen just went up about 20 places in the Billboard Hot 100 and I was a little blindsided. I may have underestimated our mild-mannered Korean friend. His scream of aggression at the end of the fight was pure visceral emotion. Go on with your bad self, Glen.... we're lovin' it.
The scene with the Governor and Maggie was so awful that I actually got cold watching it and had to go grab a sweater. That dude is EVIL and >spoiler alert< he's a brutal rapist in the comic so I was petrified that Maggie was going to be his first victim and they had switched things all around for the show. Thank goodness this did not happen but I'm not ruling it out for the future. Wish Andrea could see THAT side of him in action. She'd never get to re-join the crew at the prison having willingly shagged one of their attackers. But it may be too late for Andrea. The Dark Side is strong in her.
       Sooooo utterly disappointed in the quality of experiments being conducted in the Zombie Research Laboratory. Really dude? I'm all about science and innovation but by the end of it I was really hoping for nerdy lab tech guy to get chomped. That would have made things so much more interesting. I have so many great experiments that I want to conduct on Zombies. Can we please throw one in a freezer and see what happens? Maybe the act of freezing bursts cells in the brain and once they thaw they can't reanimate. Useful things to know because we've already gone through one winter so Canada could be a Zombie Free Zone. Imagine that! But instead we're seeing if they have residual memory. What a waste. Who cares if they do? They can't be turned back into people no matter what and you'll still have to kill 'em so this knowledge helps no one. I need to run the ZRL, that's all there is to it.
       So finally on to our prison posse. For one horrible moment I thought Rick was going to let Michonne die on the wrong side of the fence. I was screaming "Rick - she's got FORMULA man...why? how? Don't you want to know?!?" But it was Carl who saw the light and saved the day. Right on little guy. They drag Michonne inside and are very mean to her right from the get-go. Hard to watch because we know how much this group needs her and how much she needs the group, but ironically this is a response that Michonne is comfortable with. You show her an apparent Utopia where everything is hunky dory and she can't leave fast enough. Tell her that after you help her with her leg she'd best be on her way and she's OK with that. Good instincts to have for the Z.A. people... take note.
    They may have gotten vital info from her a little quicker if they had been nicer, but finally they find out about Glen and Maggie and they all start working together. I had a horrible moment when I thought moustache guy and Beth were going to be on the away team (bloodbath!) but cool heads prevailed and a hard-core squad set out to raid Woodbury. Seeing Daryl and Michonne working together in the same little squad made me so happy I was jumping up and down on the couch and that's when the show came to an abrupt end and I fell to the ground with a scream of rage. As usual I totally lost track of time and got blindsided by the cliffhanger. Curse you Walking Dead!!!
2 questions:
1.) Is it me or did Michonne have new clothes when they set out for Woodbury and why are all her duds so utterly cool? Can we get a "Michonne" line at Target or something? Maybe the tag line could be "You can move comfortably while killing the undead without sacrificing your style." I would totally buy that.
2.) Does anyone else watch the little iTunes extra "Inside the Walking Dead" where it turns out that like all of the cast including most of the Zombies are all British? What on EARTH is up with that? Are we so hard up for good American actors that we now have to train Brits to pull off a southern accent (they do a really good job BTW). But how weird is it to watch the episode and then hear the cast being all "Just chuffed to bits to be making this show. Quite smashing.... Jolly good old chap.." and on and on. FREAKY.


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 306: Hounded

 I know, I know, I'm late in getting this out. But I live in AFRICA dude, and sometimes the internet goes out. No one is more frustrated about this than me....
To sum it up quick:
Michonne has discovered that WEARING Zombie can be just as effective as leading Zombies when it comes to camouflage. And she's leaving people Zombie-gram's. LOVE her more every episode.
Andrea is a dirty Ho.
Daryl has added pediatric grief counseling and CSI analysis to his list of accomplishments.
Rick is coo-coo for coco puffs.
Glen and Maggie are pretty much screwed.
Carol's alive!

Merle is hard-core. He's just devious and vicious, and mean like a junk-yard dog. No wonder Daryl has issues. Can you imagine growing up with Captain Sadist as your older brother? We really saw his true colors in this episode. You're not going to cross with Merle and win unless you're the Governor or you kill him. And something tells me that he's going to go quickly down hill from here as he tries to get info out of Glen and Maggie. He also get's the best line of the episode:
"How do you say your last name?.... I'm gonna keep calling you 'Neil'."

Rick's plight is just painful to watch. He gets a phone call and then the chick hangs up on him?!? Was anyone else like "*69 those suckers!" I was, before I realized that there was no way that Rick was receiving actual calls. Oops. But mid-way through the episode he got all cleaned up and showered and I breathed an audible sigh of relief and contentment. And then things got radically better. This is the same principle I try to instill in my manky little 6 year old.  "I know you don't want to stop playing and jump in the bath, but you're feel great afterward, I promise." One thing that I noticed in the prison scenes is that the group is getting SMALL. Especially once Glen and Maggie take off. It's like Hershel, Carl, Beth, the new replacement token black guy and that's it. Because Rick and Daryl are almost always off doing something. Where's the mustache guy? Is he on sabbatical already because he's put in sooo much work this season or what?

Next can someone please explain to me why Andrea has to shag every single narcissistic, megalomanic, psychotic man in the post zombie world? It's a real thing with her. She may actually need counseling to break the cycle. Her scenes with the Governor were actually PAINFUL to watch in this episode. So much hair-flipping, eyelash batting insanity it's crazy.  She is going down a very dark path and she's totally off-script from the comic so I have no idea what's in store for her at this point. And what's with the Gov? I thought he was shagging his PR rep? I smell a chick-fight coming people and it ain't gonna be pretty. My $'s on Andrea for this one. She makes really, really bad hook-up decisions but the girl's a scrapper, you have to give her that.

So now it's time to talk about Michonne and Daryl. Who will be together in the prison by next weeks' episode! Is it me or do my Christmas wishes always come through? Let the republic of awesome begin!! I kind of like the whole Carol/Daryl thing going on but he may have to move on. I mean if Daryl and Michonne got together, reproduced and stayed alive long enough to parent then there may actually be a chance for humanity in this apocalyptic world. We'd have little 5 year olds with ripped arms and incredible abs cross-bowing zombies in the head with their miniature samurai swords on their backs for when they run out of arrows. Daryl has come far enough that he would actually make a great dad now. The guy just has so much heart. Loved the scene where he was outside the closet trying to get up his nerve to go in there because he was worried about seeing Carol as a walker or seeing her eaten. Why Carol didn't call out when they went by the first time is totally beyond me. Who's got a theory on this one? And does Michonne know how to make an entrance or what?!? With what Rick went through earlier he had to be wondering if he was having another hallucination. In the classic words of Fillmore from 'Cars': "I'm not the only one seeing this right?!?"

Monday, November 12, 2012

Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 5: Say The Word.

So some of you out there are saying that this episode was mostly about Rick going off the deep end and some of you are saying that it's about Andrea, Michonne, and the Governor. Well you're all wrong because this episode was CLEARLY about Daryl "Super Nanny" Dixon. Can we pause for a moment and log a running tally of his achievements in this one episode alone?
1.)Assesses Rick and see's that he has checked out.
2.)He organizes a mission to fetch infant formula.
3.)Schedules a play buddy for Carl so he won't be sad
4.)Rocks a bitchin' Pancho Villa cape thing and then gives it to the baby like a wise man givin' presents to the baby Jesus.
5.) He organizes the neighborhood ladies so that every night someone brings Rick and Carl a covered dish or a casserole. (OK, I made this one up but if it were an option he would have done it.)
6.) Kills dinner with his crossbow.
7.) Brings back all the loot and Maggie in one piece.
8.) Feeds the baby it's first bottle like an old pro.
9.) Gets Carl thinking about baby names.
10.) Lays flowers on the graves of the fallen (Carol?).
And he does it all with grace, kindness, and his nice little "Today is the GOOD version of Daryl" smile. Has anyone EVER done so much in one episode? I think not. He still needs to wash his face but man oh man, he's ownin' the Zombie Apocalypse like it's his job people. And I love him for it.

Onto the lesser plot threads:
The Governor in the TV show is definitely a kinder, gentler, less rape-prone version of the Governor in the comic. So much so that it makes Michonne seem kind of crazy and over-reactive. And that bums me out a bit. I want him to show his true colors so Michonne's fears and suspicions are validated. We have now seen the heads in the fish tanks, his Zombie daughter that he is keeping as a pet, and the fights he organizes but all that just kind of makes him look eccentric and not evil. Even his slaughter of the Army guys could be written off as an attempt to keep his people safe. He's evil though and I bet we see something big go down in the next few episodes.
Michonne is awesome. Can't wait for her to join the prison alliance.
Andrea- when you make bad choices, bad things happen to you. Should have left when you had the chance.
Rick just made me cringe in this episode. Mostly because of the copious amounts of Zombie splatter that he wore like mourning clothes. You know me and Zombie splatter... I can't handle it.
Carol: ?!?!?
And 2 final zombie survival tips to send us on our way:
1.) If you have to choose between sending power to the Zombie Research Laboratory or the beer cooler you ALWAYS choose the ZRL. We're all clear on that right?!?
2.) WHAT was Maggie wearing in this episode? Was it a cuuuute little top with lots of shredded strips and fringe? no, No, NO!! Totally grabbable by zombies. Performance fabrics in the right size so there's not a lot of flowing material around you is the uniform of the ZA people. We want quick, drying, splatter resistant, non-snaggable duds. As long as they're within those parameters they can still be cute though....I mean girls gotta be girls right? 



Monday, October 29, 2012

Walking Dead Season 3, Episode 3: Walk With Me

Best 10 minute opener EVER! Sooo many questions and observations:
1.) A helicopter?!? That's hours of speculation and discussion right there! And they were talking to a bunch of people back at some kind of base so there's another major group of people out there, probably ex-military. Of course our characters never got to meet or see these guys but at least a few of them are still alive so we get to find out a little bit more about them and where they came from later in the episode.
2.) Zombies = pack mules. I LOVE IT! Why not? If you're using them to fend off other Zombies and they're still shuffling forward who wouldn't thinking about slapping a few items onto their backs. Heck, why not let them schlepp ALL the stuff! This could revolutionize the post-zombie world. Zombies can be usefull! Think about it... you could chain up a whole bunch of modified jawless, armless, domesticated Zombies and form a perimeter around your property to keep out other Zombies. Kind of like scarecrows you know? They can carry your stuff, guard your land - heck, they may even be able to pull a plow! I mean probably not quickly or in a very straight line but what do you want from the undead? And you don't have to feed OR water them.... so much better than horses! Speaking of horses, they really do serve the same purposes except for carrying people around. They even act all sketchy when something's up or someone's coming. Pack animals + sentinels. This is beautiful. Michonne rules.
3.) Whole bunch of new guys. We'll see about them.
4.) MERLE! Of course he would show up at Woodbury. Don't be fooled peeps. I know it seems all rosy and quaint but a ne'er-do-well like Merle is not going to hang out at a church picnic. And is it me or does Merle have a retractable bayonet arm? Cool...

A&M get taken by the new guys and we next see them in Woodbury. They're all sulky, suspicious and ungrateful as a class of 8th graders and after a while you kind of want to smack them and make them be nice and appreciate this wonderful safe new haven full of generous people. (Except those of us that have read the comic who are screaming "RUUUUNN!!! While you still can!!)
They get the grand tour. I would be like "WOOOOW! Veggie gardens! Old People! Pregnant Ladies!" But A&M are of course battle-hardened, super-critical and suspicious. Love them.
Not super-clear on the pilot's story. Can't figure out if he was describing events that happened toward the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse or something that happened more recently. I'm leaning toward something that happened in the last month or so because he mentions "supplies lasting" ect.
The Governor promises to go after the rest of his group and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And that's when the episode cut to the most important, bestest, most vital and wonderfullest thing we have seen to date in the post-Zombie world: THE ZOMBIE RESEARCH LABORATORY. YES!!! I love this so much I can barely cope and I love the dude/nerd that works there already. I would soooo be your research assistant Mr. Zombie lab guy! I have many, many, Doctoral dissertation topics already lined up and ready to be tested. Let's do this! Finally someone has decided to look into these suckers and get some answers. Aaaand he appreciates the brilliance of Michonne which makes me love him even more and he doesn't even know about the pack-mule thing yet! Pure awesomeness. I'm no fan of Woodbury or the Governor but I'm ready to give up my freedom and become a library card-carrying, fully indoctrinated citizen of the town just based on this alone.
   The Governor runs out to wherever to find the other army guys and.... warm feelings gone. Hmmm.... don't you think you could have used the extra guns AND the extra man-power Mr Mega-tyrant Dictator Sir? Or is your MO to just waste anyone that could be a threat to your authority. If so A&M better watch themselves big-time. They come back, he gives some big cover-up speech and we find out that he's shagging the Woodbury PR rep AND he likes to relax at night by looking at his collection of severed heads. Nice one.
  I loved this episode. Questions were posed and then answered all in one nice little 42 minute package which NEVER happens in this show, we got major character development of existing characters plus a whole new slew of new characters. I wonder if the season will keep flip-flopping between A&M's story line and the rest of the crew back at the prison or if the 2 threads will merge quickly. I'm sure Rick and the Governor will get along real nicely....

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 2: Sick

Does this show make anyone else exhausted? I watched 2 episodes back to back last night and at the end of it I was pooped! I can understand why the characters are at the end of their tethers... I only live in the zombie world for 2 hours and I feel like I could sleep for days. Last night's episode (2 nights ago for you lucky viewers in the States) was epic and awesome. I was quite sure when I saw the title that the episode would be mostly about Andrea and Michonne, but they never even showed up! I loved the final shot of the opening sequence.... the prisoners are left standing alone in the room with Hershel's severed leg like "Dude, did that just happen?"
      This episode was all about exploring the human threat. Zombie's will eat you, but at least they're predictable. Other humans are competing with you for a limited food supply at best and looking to take your whole group hostage for a multitude of nefarious purposes at worst. The thing is, if people are going to re-claim the world and rebuild society they are going to need each other. Cue music... "people - people who need people". Ok, ok, I'll stop singing. But they are going to have to embrace each other at some point.
   This is one of those episodes where I'm not going to give you a re-cap. The plot was very straight forward. But the acting and nuances of the characters' relationships made it sooo interesting. Let's look at the prisoner thread first. As with any new group there are going to be keepers and chaucy ones. It's not unlike buying a pint of supermarket blueberries. Even if it looks like a good batch there's bound to be at least a few rotten ones in the middle layer no matter how hard you looked at the container from the outside. If you're really unlucky there's a nasty one all covered in fuzz that's contaminated all the ones around it. People are just the same. The dance between Rick and the prisoner leader was so subtle. I taught high school for 8 years and they just nailed the way the guy tested the boundary with Rick. He never overtly challenged him. For any thing he did he could have claimed it was accidental or misunderstood. But after a while you and the kid both know that it's all on purpose and it's escalating. And this isn't high school math class. After flinging a few Zombies at Rick by "accident" Rick looks him in the eye and sinks a machete into the guy's skull. Had to be done. After cleaning up the other tainted blueberries there's only 2 guys left. Hey more food for our guys right?
    The Hershel thread was intense. I was excited and curious to see if he would turn or be OK with the tainted limb taken off. They didn't get that leg off super-fast if you ask me so I was thinking he would turn. And when Lori gave him CPR and he grabbed her and rose up I jumped off the couch! Great moment. Hot Tip Lori: don't give CPR to people who are on reanimation watch.  It's right up there with "Continue to breathe as you go through your day". Really? Of course I wasn't that scared for her because there's no way the writers are going to give up birthing drama and take her out now. Carl comes through big-time in this episode. Goes off and finds the infirmary by himself and brings back supplies?!? Go kid! Lori freaks out on him and to be honest I would probably have done the same. Can someone tell me where the break happened between Carl and Lori? They always got along relatively well and now he hates her. Not sure when that started....
   The thing that bugged me the most about this episode was people walking around up to their elbows in blood and gore and NOBODY washing their hands!! Arrggh! I just want to take a face cloth to Rick more than half the time. There's got to be water somewhere... put Carl in charge of hauling it to a washing station for the love of God. I'd be driving everyone crazy if I was there with enforced wash-up time. Oh well. The episode ended with no foreshadowing and no indicators of what is to come except for someone watching Carol through the bushes so I have no idea what's going to happen next. Predictions for next week?

Monday, March 19, 2012

Walking Dead Episode 213: Beside the Dying Fire

No, No, NO!! I'm not buyin' it. Not buyin' it at ALL!! And I'm bummed because this is the first time I've had to really and truly call foul on this favorite show of ours.
1.) A HELICOPTER flying over head causes a massive herd to migrate all the way out to Hershel's farm from Atlanta?!? Not a chance! As if Chopper noise would cause OUR walkers that we know and love to ABANDON A MEAL and shuffle mindlessly off AWAY from the food? I think not. If that were true then a barking dog, a woodpecker, a falling tree branch, or any other number of random noises would have sent the herd veering off into a million directions. Plus if all Zombies "herded" like this then they would be very, very easy to get rid of. You could trick them into surrounds and just burn them in mass groups. Nope. It's the random Zombie that surprises you in the trees that has kept the series scary. That's the rules of Zombies and they need to stick to those rules and not change them completely just because it's season finale time and they need a whole bunch of them to show up for a big finish. Lazy writing.
2.) The whole gang goes out in vehicles at high speeds with shotguns and handguns over rough terrain. And headshot after headshot I never saw anybody miss. Not even once. Since WHEN is this possible? C'mon PEOPLE! Why groom this amazing, thoughtful, and delightfully intelligent fan-base and then insult us like this in the finale? They were up against a losing cause anyway so it's not as if their success was ever going to be a function of accuracy right?
3.) We lost Jimmy and Patricia. Yawn. Who didn't see that coming? Since we met them their fate couldn't have been more clear if they were red-shirt wearing ensigns on board the Star Ship Enterprise. Both those characters screamed "disposable!" from the get-go.
So they run for it. And make it off the ranch in sub-groups. Lori and Man-Pants make it off with T-Dog. Beth is also wearing a red Star Trek shirt by the way. It's just gonna take a while longer. Daryl drives off the farm but then sits at the end of the driveway staring contemplatively at the sky. (?) Because that's what I would do if I were fleeing a Zombie horde. NOT! So conveniently he is right there to hear Carol's screams and she makes it out with him. Glen and Maggie get away together and their story and emotional thread is really the only one that feels authentic. Rick saves Hershel and they get away with Carl and Andrea gets left behind. Andrea's story thread is pretty much the only redeeming thing about the episode from here on out. I'm gonna save it for last because I really like happy endings.
    So they all meet up on the highway (no thanks to Hershel and T-dog), count their losses and hug it out. In my little world it would also be time for Purell and face-washing but you know me. Love Daryl in this scene. First it's the Asian driver comment and then the way he dispatches the argyle sweater Zombie the way most of us would offer to answer the doorbell. "I'll get it!"
   They breakdown on the side of the road and discuss the last 24 hours and it comes out that people turn into Zombies because everyone's infected. So if you die from anything you turn. NOT BUYING IT. First of all if that were true you could get bitten and as long as the bite didn't kill you you should be fine. This could totally explain why they are constantly exposed to Zombie spackle and it doesn't affect them. But if that's true then Jim should have been fine when he got bit. It wasn't a lethal wound and if he was already infected with the Zombie virus and ANY death would have resulted in his turning, then the bite should not have killed him. Because whatever was in the bite was something he already had. If everyone is already infected God help Lori if she gets 6 or so months along in her pregnancy and then miscarries. She'll have a zombie fetus trying to claw it's way out of her. That's gonna make all pregnancies a little more high-risk. As if the high probability of giving birth in the woods wasn't scary enough. Geez....
    Then the episode just dissolves into.... hmm what's the right word. It wasn't bad, not weird, just... off. It was "off". Rick's different. Lori's feral or something now that she knows about Shane. And no one is using their heads anymore. I mean they choose to sleep out by the side of the road. But let's look at this screenshot.
 Take a close look at that fence. It's really nice. What would you say a fence like that would cost? 7-9$ per linear foot? They don't line country roads with fences like that. And oh, what's that in the distance? Is it a transformer? I believe it is! So why not take a little stroll down the lane and spend the night at the McMansion that's at the end of that driveway and behind that fence. It's not rocket science gang. You may even be able to rustle up some grub. I gotta walk away. It's all too sad and pathetic. I'm going to NEED until next October to get over this episode.
  But like I said before - go out on a happy ending. Andrea's story was great. She's so hard-core and epic that I'm kinda starting to like her. But with all those Zombies no one could hold out indefinitely. She lost her ammo, she beat them off with guns, lost her knife in one of their skulls and got taken down. I was so bummed at that moment because I KNEW that no one was coming to save her. Until.....Michonne!! She showed up in all her glory looking just like I always thought she would. I actually jumped off the couch and hit my hand against the ceiling (by mistake... ouch!) Her moment of introduction was visually perfect. And kind of redeemed the episode for me. So now all we have to do is sit back on our heels and speculate until sometime next October. Oh man.....