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Post by Jay on Jun 12, 2017 15:27:05 GMT -8
S7Ep16 "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life"
"Boy I hear the Scavengers are going to be back in this episode and I am so excited I could projectile vomit blood." "I suppose the worst thing about them from a storytelling vantage is how poorly integrated they are into the overall story, as if they're mere padding to get the season to a set length. Of course, we all know the real worst thing about them is literally everything." "Season finale, gang's gonna get back together, for a single episode, then screw off for separate locales" "Oh look the cold open" "The gang I guess includes flashbacks to Abraham and the thought occurs that Sasha has had two disposable relationships" "Negan's a bit of a death cultist and oh my god smiley face blueberry pancakes" "So Dwight is defining himself in terms of his relationship to his lady friend and hey at least the gender roles are swapped" "Good old Daryl, perpetually squinty" ""If he's lying, this is already over" hooray Rick said a smart thing for once" "Oh Goddamnit are they going to have Sasha listening to her earphones after every commercial break" "Some eager Foucaldian is writing a dissertation on Negan for want of something to do" "I wonder what it would be like if the show didn't, every time it killed off main cast, lay it on thick and sappy as molasses" "SWAT Carol, SWAT Morgan, and back to making poor choices Morgan" ""Do you seek to extinguish everything you were?" On this show that passes for character development" "Ugh Scavengers" "Hey the explosives that were picked up in midseason premiere" "My favorite thing about the Scavengers is that the main cast trusts them inherently despite no vetting process" "They are doing it after every commercial break. I have no curses colorful enough for my response here." "I also feel like this Abraham is her version of him, not actually him, and I don't know how I feel about that." "It sort of makes her actions look more selfish in their way" "Hiiiiiiii Eugene" "This is also padding" "Curse you sudden but inevitable betrayal" "I probably shouldn't complain about lack of tension given I already ruined it." "Oh wait, belated flashbacks and headphones and daydreams (heavy sigh)" "I've come around to the idea of it being her version of Abraham talking" "And there could be Eugene redemption in the future. And Negan trying to talk her out of the casket thing. I still appreciate Negan for not being The Governor" "And this scores some points for gunning down a lot of Scavengers although I'll point out that once again we have given up on the idea of "high adrenaline situations make people turn into zombies faster"" "Going into overtime here" "Negan's really the first worthy adversary" "Oh my god that man is getting his face ripped up by a CGIger. And again!" "So in this particular fire fight how does anyone know which is which aside from Kingdom folk being in battle armor?" "Mad that the Scavs weren't utterly wiped because that means I'll have to see them again" "Also the smoke grenade just reminds me that no one has managed thrown explosives which is a shame as this would appear to be a tactical advantage for taking out gunmen in high spots. Like, video games with crafting features are more advanced than this" "Meanwhile back in Mordor, the orcs prepare for war" "Voiceover and montage with string music lazy emotive multipliers at critical levels" "I don't know if the clips of Maggie and Sasha are supposed to be real but I guess they are because they didn't have the soft and hazy focus and light oversaturation"
That was a bloated finale that ticked off all the boxes for what we expect TV to do. I don't really know what there is to say about it other than I initially planned on taking a survey of the season at large and now feel like such a venture would be a waste of my time. I gather that people have complained about Negan being too hardy-har-har but really the show's direction and writing have been sloppy for most of the season and as much as the writer's room wants to talk themselves into thinking The Scavengers were a good idea, they have no fit within this world and are boring fodder, perhaps more boring than the Terminus crew. There were a couple of nice touches in the episode like Eugene lying about giving Sasha the cyanide, claiming that she suffocated instead (Negan rightly does not entirely buy it) and Dwight leaving Darryl a little toy soldier with "didn't know" written on the back so as to verify that he had no part in the Scav betrayal. There are interesting pieces at work for a future season such as whether Eugene has to redeem himself and what's involved here or (I guess) whether Rosita and Tara will hook up or what Dwight might do behind the scenes or Oceanside's involvement but more likely I would guess that Morgan and Carol's characters continue to wildly fluctuate as the plot dictates and there will be blood and there will be bloat.
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Post by Jay on Jun 13, 2017 13:29:14 GMT -8
Was talking with M about this episode and she pointed out the while the Governor was having picnics they were like "we don't trust this guy something's up" and while they ran afoul of a factory full of cannibals, they looked at the Scavengers, you know, the funny talking garbage cultists and said "SEEMS LEGIT"
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Post by Jay on Dec 15, 2017 11:25:15 GMT -8
HEY GUYS I'M BACK WITH MORE SALT
S08, Ep1 "Mercy"
"Jiminy Christmas, soft focus, future projection and "Another one bites the dust" by Queen. "Mercy" indeed." ""When we first met, Jesus said my world was about to get a whole lot bigger." Context, Rick, context." "Rick is simultaneously preaching divine Providence and killing all sons of bitches. There is no cognitive dissonance. This is the show now." "The budget seems to have bumped up enough to where the CGIger is no longer an eyesore." "Carol and Tara perched above a herd on the march and not a molotov to be found." "Future Rick has succumbed to The Santa Clause." "Meanwhile, Mountain Dew is now sponsoring the show and encouraging people to collect zombies in a Snapchat styled app and I can say unequivocally that this is what they deserve. This is what we all deserve." "Carl has an encounter at the gas station. We all been there. Except that he can't tell where the noise is coming from, like he's dead and not half blind. And then Rick intervenes and goes on some jingoist tirade after wasting bullets". "So now they're taking out the lookouts that we have definitely understood them to have known the locations " "People leaving Alexandria, with Carl and Michonne behind, is it plotting? After all, we just had the group reunited so it only follows that they split up immediately. It's the post-apocalyptic Scooby Doo principles at work." "Bunch of LARPers in a field." "I see where Judith continues to get older while Maggie is no more pregnant than when we last saw her." "Feels nostalgic to see this same stretch of highway, yet again." "Did they just waste a bunch of ammo again shooting off in sync?" "So, it's annoying that Negan and his lieutenants just waltzed out into the open there, knowing that multiple people had guns." "Never forget that this is framed by flashbacks. Or flashforwards. Maybe both. You know, I don't care anymore." "You can tell Eugene is evil now because he's wearing dark colors." "A zambie might set off the Rube Goldberg contraption." "Gregory betrayed Rick's group because that's simply what any Xander Berkeley character does." "Oh no threats and ultimatums about people being kicked out of Hilltop it's not as if there are other settlements." "Rick only got to seven before he started shooting that's how you know he's gone bad." "So, those windows are getting messed up. " "I think that the most ridiculous thing about this episode is that last season they had to surrender the guns to the Scavengers and the plot revolved around the notion of ammo scarcity and now everyone is wasting bullets wildly shooting at windows and such." "Sure Padre, save the Judas. Get screwed in the process." "Corl is going to give food to the weirdo from the gas station." "Oh no, a stink bomb! It smells like poo gas!" "And Negan screws up the brown pants line. And padre has a gun and won't shoot." "Rick got the titular line! Someone should be keeping score. I would, but that would mean that I would have to pay attention." "Oh a speech and two. Followed by two dedications, one of which was George Romero. Well, all right then."
Man, what can be said about "Mercy?" It's not coherent, it's trying entirely too hard. So there's a double frame within the narrative... the A-line, near as I can figure, is that Rick in his infinite wisdom has decided to take on the Saviors compound with the guns they suddenly have I guess even though last season was mostly about ammo scarcity. They then use the guns that they have to ... uh... wreck the factory that the Saviors are camped out in and blow out most of its windows. That accomplishes something. Meanwhile, a team of Tara, Carol, Morgan, and Daryl have systematically eliminated lookouts along the path to the compound, I think, with the intention of eliminating advanced warning such that a conveniently placed (timed, even, by Tara) walker herd can roll through right as Rick's team is leaving, which shows how much anyone thinks of walkers anymore. Oh, and Father Gabriel decides to save Gregory, who just sold out the Hilltop to Negan, and then Gregory immediately peaces out in the escape ride while Gabe ends up in a trailer with Negan (oh noes). Also one of the saviors chucks a smoke bomb into the Tara/Daryl/Carol/Morgan crowd as the walker mob approaches so I guess their fates are uncertain (oh noes). That's the present tense of the episode. Frame 1 involves Rick making a speech to the gathered alliance forces which is rambling and incoherent but seems to be something the writers were rather proud of. Frame 2 involves the life of Future Rick who has a longer beard now and walks with a cane and is preparing for a festival in Alexandria despite relentless soft focus.
I don't even know what I can say about all of that that hasn't really been hashed over in the observations. The episode is trying to be gripping and experimental as a way into the new season and isn't at all succeeding, reading more like fanfic than anything else. Moreover, the central conflict of the previous season ("how do we get more bullets to fight these jerks?") seems to have been thrown away entirely as the Rick-led militia proceeds to fire away at objects and neither enemies nor targets of opportunity.
I hear the show gets worse from here, which is exciting! I'm excited to watch bad television and continue to see the seams revealed and torn asunder.
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Post by Jay on Dec 17, 2017 0:17:12 GMT -8
S8Ep2 "The Damned"
"Oh hey, dramatic music with montage of face close-ups. This show is trying to be The Aesthetic." ""What if The Walking Dead was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson?"" "It's hard to feel good about Alexandria shooting up the Saviors compound when it's like a dozen jerkwads ruling over a couple hundred suckers who had nowhere else to go." "Mountain Dew: Kick flip in front of a zombie." "Morgan believes he's immortal now I guess which is step one to being proven otherwise or getting everyone around you murthered." "Oh no slow mo and dust and zombies" "Ezekiel is now the highlight of the show." "Also I feel like I could say this all the time, but doesn't a show about zombies they feel strangely auxiliary. Like, it would be in everyone's best interests most of the time to just kill them on sight to spare someone else the trouble later, but no one ever bothers." "Speaking of, S2 established that everyone is infected and that those under stress revive more quickly which means that a fire fight should quickly turn into a bloodbath as those shot start to revive again but hey." "I feel like Aaron's boy toy is at high risk of being killed. Just because this is how he is being treated by the episode and they telegraph everything." "(Sigh) as cliffhangers go, that was crap." "Dasher, dancer, Prancer, vixen, Comet, Cupid, Daryl Dixon. Happy holidays." "Jesus is suddenly about mercy I guess but that was the last episode?" "Morgan has two modes, crazy and not." "Oh my god, the zombies actually revived in the fire fight and it was a plot point which the veteran savior had not considered." "I also love it when Ezekiel has his mask slip in front of Carol because she can't handle the chicanery. " "Rick's got a dude in a choke hold and didn't say "shh sh sh only dreams now"" "There are two personalities in this show, kill everyone or don't kill everyone." "Oh, it's the hippy dudebro what Morgan fought with earlier. Was waiting on familiarity." "Rick found a babby! How is babby formed? Oh no, it's a mirror Rick look at what you've become." "The cool thing about the CGIiger is how it, as a wild animal, can distinguish friend from foe." "Wait, why is Aaron's team still in a firefight after it was clear that zombies were turning on the Savior side? Oh and his boytoy got shot. This show." "Man I bet Ezekiel has most of the LotR movies memorized." "Wait, they have a S1 callback? To the Morales family? And now we're doing the music and montage AGAIN?!"
So the direction of "The Damned" is as affectatious and pretentious as one might expect from that title. You went to film school. Amazing. On the other hand, not that the script was great or anything (there was more shootin' than dialogue), I can respect some elements of the writing. We've been reckoning with Rick being a bloodthirsty type for the past few episodes, ditto Morgan, who true to his word survives even as his loutish comrades are offed just before a commercial break since they're, strangely, the only ones in the group who cannot handle orders to shoot. Morgan appears to be returning to madness now that his former mentee was killed, which resonates with questions raised by the return of Morales, formerly a dude whom you could claim was more or less a good dude and is now caught up in the wrong crowd. I can fully expect this tension to last all of a few episodes before being dissipated by Morales probably getting killed and then maybe Rick and/or Morgan having dramatic personality shifts. Beyond that? Not much of an episode, except for the fact that unlike in the premiere, some incidental people on the "good guys" side got killed. Like that girl with the short brown hair who had survived as a background character assisting in various projects ever since Rick and Co. arrived in Alexandria. I'll miss her.
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Post by Jay on Dec 22, 2017 22:56:55 GMT -8
S8Ep3 "Monsters"
"The people who run TWD really want me to watch Insidious. Figures." Hahaha oh man, the Carol and Ezekiel chemistry almost makes it worth it. "So their "strategy" gets to unfold in half a minute and involves one group encircling another group encircling another group and then firing guns at them. With no friendly fire." "What's fun when a show gets to this point is that the writers are so self serving and indifferent to continuity that one is willing to resolve another's quasi-drama during the cold open." "We have another foil announcing to his complement that they're the same." "They're STILL in that firefight? Without any one we can care about holding down the fort except Tobin whose name we might know." "Oh no Aaron's boytoy what are the odds of finding another post apocalyptic gay. I think it also reiterates the idea of queer characters getting offed for sympathy points. Not to say it exclusively happens but they also did it with Tara's girlfriends. It's the new black cop being killed just before retirement (MENDOZAAAAAAAAA)." "I know that they only seem to have rifles no putting the boytoy out of his misery." "The post-apocalypse now has undercuts and manbuns. "We have no electricity but look at how clean this edge is?" "Dudebro whistling a tune from The Nutcracker. Marri Kurisumasu." "Jesus Saves the Saviors. What a twist!" "I see that Rick and Morales are get to list off their grievances and people they've lost." ""I lost my family. I lost my mind." Oh, cool, exposition." ""I would at least try to find another way" yeah don't mention Morgan or anything because he didn't know Morgan." "Daryl shoots Morales. And full-on one writer pissing on another." "Fox is creating a show based off of 9-1-1 that is not Rescue 9-1-1." "Why is the dudebro antagonizing Morgan while in ropes. " ""ZOMBIES COMING DOWN THE HILL, BITCH! SHOOT EM IN THE HEAD SHOOT EM IN THE HEAD."" "This episode is really into the quick cut from signal of danger to danger as if there were nothing in between." "They're hunting the rope gang." ""It doesn't change. It never changes!" It's all becoming Clear to me." "More announcing of foils." "There's a cliffhanger because it was Time." "One of the Bros in the Mountain Dew commercial looks like a former roommate of mine." "After the cleanup job by the Kingdom's forces, we can't even pretend to believe the old saw about in a post-apocalyptic zombie filled world the real danger is humans." "At least Jesus wearing a duster gives some visual variety." "Otherwise dudebro's observation that Morgan shouldn't be wearing too-small armor for death wish drama reasons is valid. Unless he's going to pull a Sasha and die because someone needs to in order to leave some semblance of believability." "I guess chain gang fled while Jesus and Morgan fought." "Gregory pleading at the gate is nice." "Kal. Pancakes. Gregory. It's almost worth it." ""Have you no mercy?" Come on Greg that was two eps ago." "And he's still around to debate while the chain gang rolls in?" ""Jesus" exclamation or emphatic?" "Zombie montage, or zomtage if you will." "Oh Rick with the Polaroid camera for some reason" "Butterfly effect dictated that if Polaroid continued production that we'd have a zombie apocalypse. Near miss there." "Zombie boy toy is going to join other zombies who may be gay or not gay zombies are destroying our nation." "Post-apocalyptic BABIES. "We were going to... Adopt... In the post-apocalypse."" "I suspect that Aaron will survive a while because he can act a bit." "Reminded in this scene of how Daryl filled Andrew Lincoln's vents in his car with glitter." "Daryl shot a dude again incoming moral struggle?" "Oh someone had guns. Safe bet seems to be on this being the western outpost that the shemp referenced Gavin holding onto."
I suppose there's something valuable in this series of episodes being all arc to this point (there's not much more territory to explore, however, unless Gabriel gets a bottle episode incoming). I also feel as if there was enough action in this one to recuse the faults elsewhere. The Announcing of Dramatic Foils has become more or less a TWD tradition since we might assume that their target audience would still be sticking forks into wall sockets unless explicitly instructed otherwise. The Gay Death is also a trope we've seen the show engage with. If I'm coming down with an analysis of the episode, it's not that the moves were good or particularly resonant, although some groundwork may have been laid for future tensions between the group and either Morgan or Daryl or both. Rather, the show wasn't trying to be artsy or dramatic beyond a few scattered quick cuts early on where one assumes that no space for reaction time excuses a death or two. It wasn't a good episode, but neither was it trying to convince me how good it was supposed to be, which is something of a relief.
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Post by Jay on Dec 26, 2017 22:14:36 GMT -8
S8Ep4 "Some Guy"
"We went from high drama to Ezekiel getting dressed. I feel like S2 did this with the Shane/Otis ep?" "Oh, I get it, this is quotidian "a day in the life of the kingdom" stuff so that we can feel more sad about people dying because this show loves ex post facto development." "I feel like this show is zombies punctuated with speeches. Also we're back to convenient non-revival of the dead as walkers. Whoops, spoke a moment too soon. Well, at the very least he shouldn't be having his on-knees scream fest in hostile territory." "Is it a bad thing that they're going to S2 for ideas? It seems like a bad thing. (CORAL)" "In the video game adaptation, the character of Carol is voiced by David Hayter." "And Ezekiel is ambushed by... David Koresh? Napoleon Dynamite? I don't know, which is funnier?" "Carol has set the enemies into alarm state and needs to disappear until they reset." "I was going to complain but then Yo-Yo split David Koresh in half with an axe. Man, here would be a time for D&D references." "What's with all the zombies in plainclothes with still immaculate braids?" "Carol has a decision to make but not until this word from our sponsors." "Ezekiel is a method actor." "This episode gets some extra points for having foils without announcing the foils. However, the close ups on zambies in the approach? Not so hot." "Easy Rider and Officer Friendly in hot pursuit. So I guess that prediction turned out okay." "I'll note this was one of their stock highways they like to use, but it was almost worth it to have Rick jump from one car into the other." "Rust barrels? Toxic waste? Trioxin?" "I feel like the day shall be saved by the CGIger. They have telegraphed that enough." "Oh god it happened, just after Ezekiel got the titular line in. " "It's time for minimalist music and denouement!?"
In theory, a show like TWD could offer an interesting critique of the "great man" theory of history in which a heroic individual rises to the challenge, etc, by foregrounding the randomness behind each individual's gifts and endowments. In reality, meh. This is probably the closest we get in seeing flashes of Ezekiel's reversion from The Man Who Would Be King to... "Some Guy"
Also I initially thought the episode was going to be framed with Ezekiel telling the story of how they got back from the vantage of the future, which is what the S2 episode with Shane sort of did, to the expense of its drama. This episode merely used that as a flashback to bring in more drama that hadn't been present through the first three episodes. Hat tip to the writer I guess because I imagine it's thankless work writing the fourth episode in and trying to impart more drama on the situation than was inherent to the first two episodes.
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Post by Jay on Jan 7, 2018 19:16:01 GMT -8
S8Ep5 "The Big Scary U"
"Ah yes the all-dark voiceover followed by close-up. Gabriel praying. This show has... A certain aesthetic let's say?" "I've missed Simon. He's got the Negan attitude without the hardy har har aspect." "Gregory doing a board room presentation to Negan is (kisses fingertips)" "Also Dwight is playing Negan all right. Although Gregory got the titular line and Negan sort of spelled out the why of the team name Saviors,. This is the yeoman work of the middle eps." "I don't actually read the comics but I wonder if Negan's propensity for nicknames is related to current events." "Negan's bloodthirsty take on human resources makes him more compelling as a villain. He likes to kill, simultaneously, recognizes the only end game is to get troops. There's the intimidation there, sure, but it's kind of, Machiavellian in it's way." "Oh at least we got this as a precursor, after the fact explanation for why Negan didn't fire on the LARPers." "Ugh, erasing, I was commenting on how they only went halfsies on the Gabriel and Negan foil which was refreshing." "So, I wonder what they do with Dwight later." "Oh, is Eugene in on this with Dwight? That would be... Sort of interesting." "This is probably their way of doing the Negan backstory without explicit flashback, him being a gym teacher and all." "Motivational speeches but with swears." "I enjoy the fact that Negan starts to lose composure about the wives, it's the backstory, but it's integrated well." "It's rare that we have Rick and Daryl working together so maybe the divided attention isn't bad. I think that what's interesting about this is that Rick is not "the ends justify the means" dude but Daryl is. Which I suppose is explained but Daryl's affinity for The Kingdom and how they got wrecked at that Outpost. " "Oh cool now they're fighting physically. And the truck blew up because they threw unlit dynamite at it. Mythbusters is despondent." "Oh cool they made up already. So much for that "commercial break" drama." ""Chokehold's illegal, asshole" "Yes it is" (snerk)" "Gabriel cares about his speech, Negan is bemused and bored, noting the severity of Gabriel's actions." "Oh, Negan's real wife referenced." "I feel satisfied by Negan's confession, but perhaps it's just low expectations." "Oh cool the gore camo solution from S1!" "At least the masking was ineffective but I feel like it sets up The Whisperers in its way " "Dwight showing leadership, the girl with the neck tattoo. Somehow people are more concerned with water than the imminent assault. Also the "I am Negan" was delayed" "Negan busting out the rhymes" "Trying to figure out Negan's suspicions here. Seems to finger Simon but I don't know on what basis other than his trust of Gregory, and to be honest, no one should trust Gregory for any reason. That's perhaps the episode's biggest flaw." "Trouble in paradise w/r/t the guns. The lack of documentation seems to be the issue. " "I kind of want to know what Eugene's finger issue is 'cause I know it's not Atari." "Oh shit do we have Scavs again" "Aw, Eugene. And Gabriel. Awwwwww." "So now Gabe has a fever I guess. My history with zombie media suggests bite or scratch or exposure but I don't know if they have the stones to do it."
Nothing Compares 2 "The Big Scary U." Okay that's a lie. The mode the show seems to be in is that the interior episodes have to clean up after the big ones in opening, midseason, and finale, so here we are again, not having seen Michonne since... Ep1? I don't really know. This episode wasn't bad as such so I'll just take a moment out to clarify that I read spoilers for the comics just to get a sense of the general trajectory but haven't been keeping up with show spoilers. I've not heard good things rom the friend that kept up with it (who informed me that the chokehold line is a call back to season 2 and yeah, this is a show that can do that but isn't good at stringing along a plot for consecutive episodes). I feel a little discombobulated in my pronouncements here, but for the questioning of the lack of Michonne, I think that the episode would have been better served fully on the Savior campus and having nothing to do with Rick and Daryl. I think that you can sort of fit the other characters in among the Saviors since it ends up mattering what they do (Regina got to shoot someone, who ever she is, and the girl with the barcode tat reappeared!) and how Negan responds to it. However, as nuanced as Negan was in the episode, I still think the highlight for me was Simon bringing Gregory pancakes in the intro and noting that he milled the flour himself.
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Post by Jay on Jan 7, 2018 21:06:33 GMT -8
S8 Ep6 "The King, The Widow, and Rick"
"Three Men and a Baby. Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place. Wait, where are we. When are we?" "Oh god the intro has Scavs. I hate the Scavengers. And now we're all stuck with them." "A mourning wall, because we haven't seen those regularly or anything." ""The plan is working" There was a plan?" "Voiceover w. montage and soft finger plucked guitar music. Southern accents. People reading letters. It's like a Ken Burns Civil War special with zombies!" "And then the Scavengers doing arts and crafts. They ruin everything, the Fallout wannabes. Oh well, I think maybe their leader no longer has Die Antwoord bangs." "Hahaha Jesus is passing out turnips. How far we have fallen from bread, fish, and wine." "Rick is bothering the Scavs again, but why, given the fact that they believe The Saviors are cornered by the zombie invasion and the Scavengers have nothing to offer beyond clipped diction and receding hairlines." "Maggie and Gregory have announced their foils but at least he's saying obviously wrong things." "I forgot Rosita existed but then now that she doesn't have pigtails I struggle to recognize her. Not that anyone above ten should have pigtails." "A day and a half, six eps." "Opera over loudspeakers? Or maybe this is gas station dude because he appeared for some reason in the preview." "No, wait, here's Coral talking to that dude who has been fighting zambies in the wild." "Carl has a mom who told him stuff that's a call back to the third season why do they bother." "The three questions!" ""Doesn't killing walkers make things harder for you" no it makes things easier for everyone you stupid git." "Oh dear the wee babby followed Carol. In his own normal-sized (for him) armor. " ""I have to get the guys who killed my brother" well that was Ben so is this Jerry?" "I see dawn has risen with everything still the same for the chain gang." "Mags built a playpen though. " "Oh god Gregory called her Margaret that was subtle awesome. And now they're putting him in the pen! This episode has something going for it." "Zombies in the woods prefer fresh meat." "This is a procedural question but given the state of decay how is it that we routinely have character who aren't even Carl all of the time struggling to push off dead weight walkers?" "Who are these folks in the garage anyway? I don't think that's Arat? No, it's not. Wait, how did someone lose a gun." "And did a single man get blown up with an RPG. Seems like a waste." "Daryl crashed a car into the escape wagon. How? Why?" "And Ezekiel is having his episode or two long crisis after the earlier show of bravado with callbacks to previous conversations and events. So, Zeke's downspiral spans two eps." ""Henry needs you" and we sure care about ol' Hank Venture over there" "Oh wait, Zeke refused to go forth. Duration: Pending!" "I think that this episode succeeds in part for trying to rid The Saviors of the feeling of being uniform and monolithic." "I appreciated that Enid was talking with Aaron and all but I feel like now that she's no longer frequenting hot topic and asking people to refer to her as "Raven" I no longer have a clear bearing on what makes her character other than a loyalty to Maggie. She seems to have all but forgotten about banging Carl in the woods." "Wait, why is Rick in the pokey at Scav HQ? Ugh, this show."
I can't say this episode was one of the better ones but then how many of them are going to be at this point? The finale was a series of events that were deus ex machina in their operations and that sort of takes some of the shine off the cooler stuff with Mags and Gregory or how Carl came back for Siddiq. Moreover, I think that I would say that any episode with a small child insisting on following a seasoned zombie-fighting veteran or has The Scavengers in any capacity whatsoever cannot be regarded as "good" since it's impossible to imagine the Scavs as either a legitimate threat (too isolationist) or possible future allies (again) leaving them in that empty space of adaptation where they can neither have too much impact nor too little lest their ruse be seen openly.
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Post by Jay on Jan 8, 2018 21:51:02 GMT -8
S8 Ep7 "Time for After" "If you fall, I will catch you I will be waiting, Time for After." "Wait, no, put your Rick in a box" "'The apocalypse was so long ago I forgot how to do a Poloroid I'm Jadis'" "God I hope that the other dude with the clipboard was doing a fair caricature" "I Eugene's chart for trying to figure out the conspiracy" "Dwight is appealing to Eugene's milquetoast nature. Solid plan." "Eugene says he'll back off on a 'do no harm' basis but uh harm already been done did" "'Eugene, you're a doctor, keep Gabriel from dying'" "I feel like Gabriel is more advanced in his illness than half a day would suggest but here we are." "All the fun that the writers used to have with Abraham has been channeled into Eugene. And it's not bad fun, they're just weak at plotting." "There's that red blotch on the hand again. I hope they ain't going all Nathaniel Hawthorne on us" "Tanya? Boom box? Wat" "I see that Eugene fell off the post-apocalyptic wagon?" "Morgan has joined up and apparently remembered his sniping skills from S3?" "Oh, right, they got the guns from Oceanside. I can't say I'm great at remembering certain details season to season." "Invoking the dead for argumentative leverage, never fails in this show." "Now kiss my ring 'Eugene, I was going for a handshake'" "C'mon Eugene, MacGuyver up something" "Michonne suddenly is uncertain? Trusting faith? I mean, I think that it's a good non-overt contrast with Eugene and Gabriel's dialogue about faith but I don't feel as if this is a wholly natural development for Michonne, but then we're on a couple of seasons of that at this point." "Revenge seems to be the sole motivator for most of the cast at this point and if you don't have revenge you have poor decisions that stake your survival on human decency." "I bet Eugene never won the Pinewood Derby but he internalized that failure, oh how he internalized it." "'Don't turn around' You're just gonna see my heart break?" "'... a chomp down on your choad' (Dwight pauses to examine junk, forgets that he's wearing pants and chaps)" " One thing they seem to be aiming at here is that Dwight is shooting while Eugene is paralyzed and then shouts down the feeble Gabriel as means of tension release." "Oh hey, finally remembered Rick was in the intro. Time for him to grease up and engage Winslow in Greco-Roman wrestling" "Or stick fight see if I care." "Rick is so fed up with the Scavs (and so am I)" "Or he's still willing to partner? And Jadis tries to hold out for getting Rick to pose for her? Oh my god, they're art school exiles it all makes sense now." "Climax! Loud dramatic noises!" Remember what I said about the "in-between" episodes being decent and the others in the build-up points not being so? I feel like that holds for this one. The main different here is that while a few of the other episodes in prime position of late have wanted to wear their artsiness or cleverness on their sleeves between dramatic speeches and quasi-innovative camerawork, this episode did almost nothing worth reporting with its camera and the script had some weak spots primarily around Eugene suddenly being an alchie because they couldn't figure out what else to do with his internal tension beyond having him wear black all the time. I suppose it fits that he seems to engage in things in more of a binary despite his vocal assertions in favor of subjectivity-- he can't defend the Sanctuary but Dwight can even though he knows Dwight doesn't believe in it-- but it feels like one more exposure of the show's limitations, to say nothing of the fact that I think that Eugene should at least be able to manage Pruno with the existing supplies in the compound and probably doesn't need to rely on Negan's hussies to supply him with vino. But I did learn something from this episode. It was from UrbanDictionary. Apparently, there doesn't appear to be a standardized agreement as to whether it's spelled "choad" or "chode," which is exciting because in our literate and text-based culture, unlike in the 17th century and prior, spelling tends to standardize pretty quickly. Think of how many words outside of "chode/choad" that you know of that have acceptable variant spelling that AREN'T bound to the U.S./U.K divide where one side likes their Zs (and does not call them "zeds") and the other side likes to throw extra "u"s in, transpose "r"s and "e"s in deference to the French, and prefers to use Ss instead of Zeds. It's a marvelous linguistic occurrence to consider.
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Post by Jay on Jan 12, 2018 12:43:42 GMT -8
S8 Ep8 "How It's Gotta Be"
"Sorry, 90s kids, this episode will have nothing to do with the third single off Third Eye Blind's self-titled album. That was 'How's It Going to Be.' Big difference." "So, for the record, I had the big surprise of this episode spoiled by some goon on my FB whose feed I've since hidden. It's always something." "I see they already got the intertext of Rick talking to Carl in flashback, but I wonder if we're supposed to interpret, given Carl's show of Mercy (oh gosh, episode one!) whether Rick ought to spare the Saviors or not involve the Scavs? What are we supposed to get from that?" "That was timely of Carol and Jerry?" "It's odd to have Carl advocate for a civilized approach given that he was raised with all this doom about him." "Post-rock guitar overlay with montage of faces worked better for Les Revenants, sorry dudes." "Aaron and Enid are road tripping. I think that this is partly to establish one or the other as main cast coming up here. Likely Aaron." "Ah, they're headed to Oceanside." "Good lord, Judith is growing like a weed." "(sigh) I guess that's Carl's will or something. Kid can act a bit at least." "At least they've managed to develop Tara with an awkward sort of physical comedy. It's not slapstick, either. The show has struggled with its unique characters particularly in the longer run so giving her some substance is appreciated even if I'm not sure how it jibes with her former law enforcement history." "I guess Enid shot the old lady of Oceanside. Hell of a way to endearing yourself to the locals. Best laid plans and all that." "I guess Negan's back. And there are sewers now! I too have played Left 4 Dead." "Uh, pre-commercial car crash?" "And Ezekiel got a card? Wait, what the hell is going on he just ran for cover and hopped up on the stage and not a few episodes ago (and a day or two in timeline) he was limping and had his leg all messed up." "And on top of that, not only did The Saviors rally offstage to escape their zombie situation, they've also coordinated to figure out where to intercept Maggie and crew without surviving recon. Ugh." "Gavin gets to make a speech. Weird." "Huh war simile along with heavy handed focus on the sole hijabi of the The Kingdom." "Carl volunteers to sacrifice himself for the greatest sacrifice" "'It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls.' Civ V reference for everyone." "Gavin is not totally one-dimensional. Which is decent. But he never was, he's always been the sort of reluctant 'this needs to be done' contribution" "A return to opera music" "Although, that Simon thinks that Sasha suffocated is interesting. Although he just voiced the necessity of Hilltop as 'the breadbasket' while also threatening to overrun it with walkers. I suppose anyone can till the soil." "Shemp down, I repeat, shemp down." "Eugene has an alarm clock but here I am wondering about what sorts of processes they went through to establish a chronology and whether the post-apocalypse observes daylight savings time." "What's with this music while they focus on Carl? Sounds like the music box in the clock tower in RE3" "Uh, is Carl burning Alexandria down to keep it from being taken? I mean, running on an assumption here that they've evacuated via the sewers which they now have" "Dwight just went Benedict Arnold and Bar Code is making a speech at him while standing near upright while under heavy fire." "Oh and they're blowing up targets of opportunity again." "I do like Eugene's headlamp. And his Mr. Wizard solution." "I can also kind of see Eugene's struggle here as despite the love hate relationship, Abraham was his guy and he was somewhat estranged from the group." "And now Ezekiel is burning things down? Oh my goodness the hijabi has some combat moves." " Carol's back but what happened in the car with her and Jerry? Sigh." "Seriously why can Ezekiel run now" "There's the hostage taker from the earlier episode. And he calls her cupcake and is brutally and immediately shot. That's ... Satisfying, as bloodshed goes." "I suppose Dwight blaming Eugene for the escape makes the redemption arc more challenging. Also Daryl took his vest back, ha! Well, you need to keep warm in this kind of environment." "Mags is using her hostages to the advantage." "I also imagine, that the heads on pikes Negan setup is foreshadowing, though whether he does it or not, I don't know. Also, have we had that level of violence yet?" "Why is Dwight apologizing to Michonne and not Tara?" "Yeah, Rick, call out to Judy, she's clearly verbal." "'Shut the hell up!' 'Nope!' (applause)" "Rick, dude, I know you were trying to KO Negan there but bashing him in the windpipe would have been a more straight forward incapacitation." "Michonne also just absolutely wrecked another dude with no name. It's a rough episode to be present and with dialogue but unnamed." "Oh cool more post-rock montage. I guess this is near the end of the episode?" "Siddiq!" "Yeah, Carl has a bite mark, can't fix it (abdomen), and I guess that while he's still unaffected Ezekiel can run again. Oh, let's do a slow pan out just like we did when others have been bitten in the past. That's the ticket."
Ehhhhhhh... I don't know, I mean I try to be softer on the show and focus on what it's doing well in the the rougher stretches and I think that there is intermittently stuff to praise. So, I decided to mention Tara. I guess Eugene as well, although my friend who watches this show hates this season's arc with him. And Carl's acting skills. And the possible political gestures being made by the writers. I'd also admit a bit of delight that went unrecorded, which was the fact that The Scavengers IMMEDIATELY left the second it got hot around the Sanctuary. The rest....
The established pattern is to throw everything at the wall in the big episodes and give cleanup duty to what falls in between and this is no different. The biggest bit of strangeness was plainly the fact that Ezekiel, after needing a soldier under each arm to hobble into town and then wander off and sulk, is now going Solid Snake on the Saviors, although he's not AS good at being Snake as Carol is. But it's also kind of hard to track what's happening where and when, in part because it's night-- oh, shoutout to the fact that unlike circa S4, you can actually see stuff in the dark-- and as a result I wasn't totally clear on what was going on with Dwight and Barcode ramming a barricade and who was where and when. But the characters are also just showing up where the plot needs them to, healing or not healing as much as they need to (Jerry gets taken hostage but everyone else escapes?). And then there are the artistic flourishes and montages of faces and trying to convince us that this is a serious artistic endeavor...
I suppose the recurring inventory of the shows pratfalls are about as tedious as seeing them in action? It could be dramatic, but it lacks the writing focus. It sticks too close to the material in moments, but doesn't know what to do with too many of its own characters, Daryl excluded, although he's mostly there to be raspy and shoot stuff these days. It can be violent, but not too violent, and have language, but not too much language, which can take the edge off the threat by the antagonists. It's a classic case of an adaptation trying to serve too many masters.
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Post by Jay on May 17, 2018 21:25:02 GMT -8
Maybe I'll be getting back to this. Maybe.
J: "Maybe I should watch TWD. Maybe I should see Coral die" J: "Rick is gonna be telling dad jokes to Judith for naught. It's going to be sad times" M: "The finale was....dumb as hell" M: "But Coral bc we jeezuz" M: "Becomes ze jeezuz that is" J: "Wee jesus" J: "Not to be confused with regular-sized Jesus" M: "Haha every time carl popped up I'd quote mastershake " caaaarlton hiiii"" M: "Bite-sized jesus" J: "Who got bit and subsequently bites it" M: "Everyone loves tummy kisses! That zambie was just blowing raspberries!" J: "Zombie: (motorboats) Carl: (giggling)" M: "Oh coral"
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Post by Jay on May 28, 2018 17:43:57 GMT -8
My tendency to look up episode wiki pages after watching one came back to bite me as, for no good reason, they had spoilers for the finale. So, if you haven't gotten that far, be warned I'm going to get mad about that being spoiled for me and talk a little about that, though I'm more upset about the fact of its being spoiled than the content. I'll leave out the tangent where M and I were talking about late 90s / early oughts indie folk?
S8Ep9 "Honor"
J: "I think I'll watch the midseason premiere of TWD although the whole "this episode is 82 minutes long" thing is a big turnoff, especially considering they can't figure out what to do for much of a season but somehow another twenty minutes here and there's going to fix something" J: "Well at least Yo-Yo / Jerry is back?" J: "Well at least we got to see the bite." J: "... are they playing Bright Eyes?" J: "Yeah, I'd know that voice anywhere" J: "I guess that trick by Morgan wasn't dumb" J: "But more seriously, I will be thinking about the Bright Eyes happening for the next hour" J: "Smol Child: 'I want to go on a suicide mission!' Carol: 'Token resistance!' J: "I like how Carl keeps saying he got bit. It really brings out how he got bit." M: "It really highlights the biteyness of it" J: "I mean I hadn't thought about Bright Eyes in about ten years I don't know about you" M: "Me either! Or....Belle and Sebastian. Oh how polarizing they were on the ol board" (note, we used to frequent a punk rock message board) J: "So they're doing a cut back and forth between fantasy in soft focus, past, and present. Like, they really only have so many techniques available to them in the show, which makes a lot of the major events kind of similar" M: "Its garbage right? And suxdenly carl is Mr. Messiah" J: "I suppose I should have known there would be a big sloppy sendoff" J: "Siddiq explains his value, Michonne and Rick shoot dagger eyes at him. "I mean, the new guy is a doctor but how is he at wearing a cowboy hat and an eyepatch and getting into stupid dangerous situations?"" M: "But not the chuuuuurch" J: "Morgan just tore a dude's entrails out as the finishing touch on him and Carol going commando on the theatre. That was... pretty metal" J: "Michonne and Carl just declared themselves to be best friends please kill me" J: "It's not like other more sensible options were lacking they just..." J: "In church now, Carl as Jesus: Confirmed" J: "Also we have Carl reflecting on The Prison era... it's not like they utterly ignore the past seasons, but only selectively" J: "So they're cutting back and forth between Gavin and Carl who is confessing (in church!), maybe to make a point, maybe to force Rick to develop! Who knows!" J: "Or is it Rick and Morgan? Ugh who cares." J: "Smol murdering child!" J: "Carl has been to the mountaintop!" J: "'Carl, I promise, I'm going to make it real.' S9: Rick has a beard" J: "Murder is not for boys! It is for Carol and maybe Morgan" J: "The Negan cameo oh my goodness" J: "I mean, I'd be okay with it if they did get all buddy buddy since of all the villains we've had, he's the least boring" J: "To formally register my hatred of the internet, I just looked up the Wikia page for the episode, normal, for me, given that I like to be aware of whether or not I missed anything significant, and for NO CLEAR REASON i had a major event of the season finale spoiled for me in the process. why" J: "I had specifically avoided looking at any pages that would spoil material for me and then it just started talking about who survived from the pilot episode AND OH BY THE WAY"
Open commentary for Wiki users / editors: Must we? I mean, really? There was no reason to bring up that finale death in the midseason notes. There's no reason to do a lot of the stuff you guys do. I remember clear back.... god... more than a decade ago... when I was watching BtVS for the first time and wanted to look up information on Xander because I was trying to figure out where he was in relation to past events. Innocent, right? Just don't read past a certain point, and you're probably in the clear. Nope. What's the photo they have running for the page itself? Late season 7 Xander. Who looks a very specific way. And so that surprise was lost on me.
Here's a tip to make things more user-friendly: Default to old images and in new episode pages only refer back to previous episodes and not potential foreshadowing. Make things generally healthier for people who are starting the series instead of catering to everyone that's completing it. If the later entries end up longer as a result, so be it, but there's no need to be making everything that much more obtrusive and daunting for viewers who are behind and simply want to get some background and see if they overlooked anything major. The wiki should serve all people, not just cater to those who are already up-to-date.
Okay, I feel like that rant is... more substantive than anything I have to say about this episode. The Bright Eyes was too chipper for what was happening even if the lyrics were dark. There was no tension in Gavin capturing Ezekiel because we have no reason to care about Gavin nor anyone with him. Small child doing bad things due to bad influences is a card that was played again, along with soft focus + oversaturated lighting. Someone else made a declaration that didn't make much sense when a competing one that could have made sense was available (I'll simplify things a little, you know what would make more sense than Carl claiming Michonne is his best friend even though I can't remember many singular interactions between the two of them? Claim that he's happy that his dad has someone he can depend on again and play up the Rick + Michonne 'ship. Hell, Carl and Michonne don't have much of a relationship in the comics either even though he lives longer). There were more rather blunt beats of comparison between the moral trajectories of two characters which didn't really make sense because they only go back and forth and there are limited means of generating drama. I'm not convinced this "needed" to be a 80+ minute episode for story purposes, but instead was made to be that so that the audience could take a few more sucker punches in the feels.
M hated the finale. We'll see when we get there. The returns have been diminishing for a while and even the risks the show takes don't feel like they amount to much of anything, so we could be in the final half season of me making a thing of this on an episode-by-episode basis, or at all.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on May 28, 2018 19:49:15 GMT -8
Wow! I haven't thought about Conor Oberst in a while either. It's interesting to think about what indie darlings are going to stand the test of time and which ones aren't.
By the way what is The Walking Dead lol
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Post by Jay on May 28, 2018 19:52:25 GMT -8
During the tangent, we speculated about how Sufjan Stevens appears to have filled that particular void and also we hate him and his many hats!
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on May 28, 2018 19:58:26 GMT -8
During the tangent, we speculated about how Sufjan Stevens appears to have filled that particular void and also we hate him and his many hats! Stupid fucking Sufjan Stevens. Actually, I'm not sure that's fair-- Sufjan and Oberst are basically contemporaries? And they both put out Christmas albums. I think Bon Iver might be the replacement Bright Eyes? He's shitty enough for the title.
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