My halfway decent impersonation of The Walking Dead’s Negan. Below are a few concept photos and videos from earlier in the costuming process.
Final costume video and commentary.
Initial costume unvelining video:
Let me know if you love it or hate it, I’m welcoming constructive criticism on this cosplay. Here’s to hoping Halloween 2017 is a legendary one.
-KCard
*Hello friends, be sure to watch out for SPIDERS and SPOILERS along the way to the Sanctuary.*
Hello readers new and old, I’m back to write my only review of this second half of the season released in a timely manner. I apologize for being such a ghost to my readers lately, but I’m happy to be back to writing again. It’s been a long angst filled winter chocked full of writers block for me, but it’s over now. As it stands for the show, this was an amazing episode and a great way to close out this dynamite season as I loved how they made everything tie together so nicely.
What I Liked:
First off, it was great to see Abraham again in the form of a continuing flashback with how he interacted with Sasha, from the scene where Sasha begged Abraham not to leave, to where Abraham said that if you’re going to die it had best be with some form of meaning to it. I loved how they built up the fight and what happened with Sasha sacrificing herself for Rick’s group. It was an emotional goodbye to a great character, and her death had a lot of meaning to it since it helped Rick’s group break free from the struggle briefly. I enjoyed seeing how Negan turned the tables on Rick briefly, and how Negan planned to kill Carl, but Rick wasn’t going to bend the knee to Negan again. It was great to see Ezekiel and Maggie come to rescue Alexandria at the last minute to help turn the tables on Negan and Jadis. Lastly, that joke where Jadis talked to Michonne saying “I lay with him later, you mind?” had me in tears and was well played. With that said, there were still somethings that I didn’t enjoy.
What I didn’t Like:
It was a shocking moment to see Jadis’s group betray Rick’s group, and while it was a great plot twist, it’s made me dislike Jadis as a character. I didn’t enjoy how Eugene has basically gone over to the “dark side” of serving Negan, and I dislike that Rick and his group were dumb enough to fall for Dwight’s deception. Not that the scene where Daryl confronted Dwight wasn’t worth seeing, I just think that Daryl should have known better. Lastly, I feel as if the scene where that woman beat Michonne was a bit gratuitous and unnecessary, but I understand what dramatic tension the writers were aiming for with it. There are some things shaping up for next season that I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
What I Expect To Happen Next Season:
For starters, it’s obvious there are going to be some strong forms of tension between Negan, Dwight, and Eugene because Negan is on to Eugene about Sasha, and Negan could easily find out about Dwight’s deception about Sherry escaping. I’m curious if Jadis will keep working with Negan, or if she will work to betray Negan like she did to Rick. I’m thinking Morgan might start down a dark path again, and I think that Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie will need to figure out the best ways to defend their respective communities from Negan’s army.
I felt overall season seven was pretty killer, and despite being slow at certain points, it’s like if season two happened without being horrible. I look forward to this coming October to see where things go, and I lament that October is far away at the same time.
-KCard
*Spoilers: you have been warned about them*.
Hello again WordPress and friends, I wanted to say that I’m likely to release my reviews on The Walking Dead on the following Monday or Tuesday after the episode airs. I’m watching the episodes on my Xbox rather than using cable (welcome to the modern era). I’m not writing a full review for this week as it’s just too far past the deadline.
With that said, I’m still sharing my thoughts on the episode. I thought this episode was an awesome way to bring us back into the fold as Rick and Alexandria are prepping to fight The Saviors. Highlights included how Rick met with King Ezekiel, the badass scene with Rick and Michonne mowing down a walker heard with the two cars, and how conflicted Ezekiel is to do the right thing to help Rick.
Lastly, I’m looking forward to seeing who the new group of survivors are next week.
-KCard
Spoiler warning: warnings spoiled.
Hello WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my review on The Walking Dead 7.5 episode, “Go Getters”. I rather like this season of TWD so far as it’s being mostly driven by plot. I know past seasons dwelled on character development and moral humanity, but this season just blends those aspects without as much “filler” content. And by “filler”, I’m referring to a lack of bland subplots as deviations from the source material have always been a part of TWD. Anyways, onto my thoughts on the show.
What I Liked:
It was great to see the cooperation between Maggie and Sasha with how Maggie is becoming a stronger character, as opposed to Maggie being distraught by Glenn’s death earlier in the season. I enjoyed the subplot of Enid and Carl’s little romance growing, with a good laugh I got from them using the roller blades. I liked seeing how Greg cowered before Simon and the Saviors. I felt the whole scene was well played out and acted between Simon and Greg. IE, I liked how Simon channeled his inner General Zod and made Greg neal. Lastly, I loved the scene where Jesus knew Kung Fu, and Maggie reminded us all that she grew up on a farm and knows how to use a tractor as a deadly weapon to kill the walkers and crush that car with the loud music.
What I didn’t Like:
I spent all of this episode being reminded how much of a selfish and cowardly prick Greg is, since we haven’t seen him since last season where he was a sexist jerk towards Maggie. I can’t believe Greg was going to sell out Maggie and Sasha to the Saviors, that’s just solidifying my hatred for this character. Other than Gregory being a prick, I had no qualms about this episode. Even if it lacked a lot of action, I still found this episode to be top notch.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things pan out next week with Jesus and Carl infiltrating the Saviors compound. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get them both killed by Negan and Lucille.
-KCard
Warning:
Life’s a treat,
and it feels so sweet,
when you’re living on spoiler street.
Hello again world of WordPress, Kevin here bringing you my brief thoughts on Walking Dead episode 7.4, “Service”. I missed reviewing the last two episodes just because I’ve been busy with work and accepting the outcome of the Presidential Election last week. Here’s to hoping we can get “Negan Lucille” into office someday, candidates who will take care of the deficit by “shutting that shit down, no exceptions!” As for the two previous episodes, I know some people might have found them boring, but I’m rather enjoying how much dialogue and plot driven things are becoming in The Walking Dead again. These eipsodes were a breath of fresh air from the season premiere. It’s like the creators are trying to Make the Plot Great Again. Terrible political jokes aside, I rather enjoyed this episode as a whole.
What I enjoyed:
I rather like the direction they are taking with Rick’s character development since Negan is working to break Rick like a whipped dog. I don’t mean to say that Rick deserves to be treated this way, but I’m curious to see where things will go with how Negan is treating Rick. Such as if Rick ends up breaking completely, or just becomes a worse person than he was in the middle of season five. I enjoyed seeing the tense air between the members of Alexandria and the Saviors with how the actors played everything out. The scene where Carl confronts the Saviors and stands up to Negan was well made. Same goes for the scene where Dwight was creepily taunting Rosita.
Speaking of Dwight, if Negan is the big dog around the yard, Dwight is the simpering little hound dancing in his shadow for Negan’s approval. It seems that the writers are actually trying to make us hate Dwight more than Negan, and it’s working for me. I think Dwight is losing his humanity becuase of Negan’s actions, and Dwight sees parts of his old-self in Daryl that he now hates. IE, the scene where Dwight takes Daryl’s bike and then purposely taunts him over it saying, “You can have it back Daryl, just say the word!” Which I think was a reference to last week where Daryl refused to call himself “Negan”.
As for Negan himself, I am falling in love with how Jeffery Dean Morgan plays this psychopath. I find myself quoting Negan in my head all of the time with how he goes from being funny to dead serious in a heartbeat, he’s the kind of villain that’s “so bad he’s good.” I’m finally starting to catch up on the source material, so I will incorporate how the show version of Negan compares to the comic version of Negan in future reviews. Here’s to hoping the writers don’t screwover Negan like they screwed up the Governor’s story arc. With all of that said, I still had a few bones to pick with this episode.
What I didn’t enjoy:
Am I wrong for thinking that this episode didn’t have to be be 90 minutes long? I feel the episode itself became a lot worse once Negan left Alexandria. Negan was really the person who made this episode pop for me. With that said, I didn’t feel like Negan needed to take every single gun from Alexandria, as it decreases their chances of survival in the now zombie infested world they live. Negan said he didn’t want Rick’s group starving to death, but God forbid another Walker heard needs to stroll through Alexandria again. I know what these plot points stood for though, it was to demonstrate how much control Negan has over Rick now vs who Rick used to be, as Negan even mockingly pointed out to Rick with that scene where Negan was holding Deanna’s camcorder. Lastly, while I thank Father Gabriel for buying Maggie more time, I don’t like the idea of her being found out at the Hilltop colony later this season by Negan. This season will prove to be a bitter sweet symphony of writing if so.
I look forward to see where things will be going this season, while last season gave us a lot of action, I’m thinking this is going the season where Walking Dead comes back to plot over action, like a better and darker version of season two. I pretty much gave away my song for this review, so here’s your moment of zen:
-KCard
We finally meet Negan, but the episode delivers a mixed performance. #twdfinale
*In the words of Chester A Bum from That Guy With The Glasses: “SPOILERS!!”*
Hello, I’m Kevin Card, you might remember from such show reviews as “The Walking Dead, why did the Governor come back for spaghetti Tuesday?” And, “Game of Thrones, does George RR Martin have a thing against family bonding moments?” And so we’re here again readers, another episode gone and the WTF moments are in full swing to help us prepare for the hammer to fall next week. There were some great things in this episode, and some not so great things. So let’s dive in and see the hand we’ve been dealt.
This episode started off light hearted with the most amount of sexual fan service we’ve seen since season three, including a shower scene with Glenn and Maggie and a post coitus apple between Rick and Michonne. Things quickly turned dark and tense though as characters went out trying to find Carol after she sneaked out of Alexandria. We see that even with Carol suffering from an internal crisis over never killing again, she’s still willing to kill if she has too (unlike Morgan) after she puts down that truck full of Saviors. We get some quality dialog and action scenes with Rick and Morgan, and finally we see that Daryl is trying to avenge Denise by trying to take out Dwight (only to be out smarted by Dwight and then get shot in the shoulder). There are things I really enjoyed, and things I could have done without.
Things I enjoyed:
I enjoyed a lot of the dialog in this episode, especially between Rick and Morgan about that Wolf prisoner and how things went down at the prison with Carol being exiled. The fact that they opened the episode with music from Johnny Cash was fantastic. I also enjoyed how Carol got the drop on those saviors by keeping an automatic weapon up her sleeve and just outsmarted them every step of the way. I loved the scene on the rail road tracks where Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita try and talk Daryl out of confronting Dwight. Lastly, I enjoyed knowing that Carol managed to get away from the surviving Savior (so far), but that stray surviving savior may have a chance to capture Rick or Morgan… which would definitely not be something I’d enjoy.
What I didn’t Enjoy:
That Dwight managed to outsmart Daryl is complete BS to me, Daryl should have known to check his surroundings. I think Michael Rooker was right when he said that being in Alexandria has made Daryl soft, and now Daryl has a gun shot wound to prove it. I also didn’t like how it looks like Maggie is going to have a miscarage of her child, which I don’t want to see a zombie baby (thank you, Dawn of The Dead remake). There’s been a lot of speculation if Glenn will die by Negan’s hand, but I can’t say anything for sure beyond that if Glenn dies it would make all that stuff we suffered for in season 6A meaningless. And if Glenn does die, at least let him die heroically and go out with meaning like Merle did in season three. Beyond that, I thought this was a great episode despite the “think fast” moment of the episode ending with Daryl getting shot.
It’s now confirmed that Negan will appear in next week’s 90 minute series finale which means two things to me: the hammer is about to fall for Rick’s group, and we may very well be entering Game of Thrones “Red Wedding” territory of character deaths. Let’s just hope that those characters dying serve actual meaning instead of just plain shock value. I’m praying that we all won’t lose our lunch when the barbed wire baseball bat comes into play next week.
I’ve referenced this song by Queen at least three times in this blog tonight, so it would be criminal to not post:
-KCard
*Spoiler warning: this blog is one part dry humor, one part spoilers, and no parts click bait. Seriously, I’d rather have a small happy audience of readers than a colossal audience of annoyed readers.*
Hello again Word Press and friends, Kevin here bringing you my thoughts on the stuff and thangs of this episode. But before I get into that, I just wanted to say that I think I enjoyed last week’s episode better overall (despite not finishing my review on it) for all of the badass dialogue and action scenes that happened (Did Carol channel her inner Heisenberg after setting those dudes on fire??) Anyways, this episode started off much slower than the previous episode, but perhaps for good reason with how stuff escalated towards the end. We’ll discuss this more as I get into what I liked and didn’t like about this episode.
What I liked: I enjoyed the interactions between Abraham and Eugene as I feel they grew closer in their friendship, despite Eugene being an asshole towards Abraham for killing that metal chrome headed walker. I enjoyed seeing Daryl, Rosita, and Denise interact with each other over their quest for medicinal drugs (and orange soda). And I like how most of the episode switched focus so evenly between these two groups. The show down at the train tracks towards the end was pretty epic, and Eugene biting Dwight’s groin to create a distraction was a comedic highlight in an otherwise serious fight scene. There were still some glaring things I didn’t enjoy though.
What I didn’t like: Why the hell did they have to kill off Denise so damn soon?! Seriously, I feel like they just killed Denise to give Dwight a cool bad guy moment to introduce a fight scene (much like how they killed off Axle in season 3). I could have done without Eugene being all butt hurt by Abraham trying to help him by killing that walker. Lastly, I’m sad to see Carol is loosing her composure and the will to keep fighting. I also wonder if this no killing vow of Carol’s will effect her tense friendship with Morgan. I can only imagine how much trouble that Carol leaving the group will spell once the real Negan appears and reeks havoc on Rick’s group in the next few episodes.
I look forward to seeing the rest of this season unfold. Still wondering when Negan will show up though…
-KCard
-KCard
*SPOILER WARNING: Never leave mayonnaise out in the sun as it will spoil quickly. And in the words of Grandpa from Hey Arnold, never eat raspberries.*
Hello again Word Press, Kevin here bringing you the review of the latest episode of The Walking Dead. Before I start up on the review, I can’t make any more comparisons to the source material until I get a chance to catch up on the comics (or until they finally release the third compendium) . I’m a very busy individual these days between working full time and working with my band to record our demo (it’s why at best I only release one blog a week). I’ll look into the comics on my own time, just not while the show is going on.
Speaking of being busy, I didn’t get to release my review on last week’s episode because I only saw the full episode of 6.11 this past Sunday. Overall, 6.11 was a pretty darn good episode, especially with how Maggie handled the negotiating with Gregory and stood up for herself. I also liked how last week’s episode was like the calm before the storm. This week’s episode had much more action than last week, and more human on human fighting than we’ve seen since seasons three and four. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife in this episode, and the second half of the episode played out like an awesome action movie. There are some things I enjoyed about the episode overall, and some things that really grinded my gears.
What I enjoyed: It was great how well thought out and coordinated all of the fight scenes were in this episode as I loved seeing how many of the saviors were massacred later in the episode. It was great seeing Rick’s plan in action of faking Greg’s death, and then moving in to kill the saviors in their sleep. That was, until that one savior pulled the fire alarm right before Abraham and Sasha killed him (the shit officially hit the fan in the episode from that point onwards). I loved how Jesus managed to save Glenn and Heath after they were trapped in the armory and shot straight through the door to kill that group of Saviors. My favorite action scene was where Father Gabriel shot that Savior after saying a prayer for him out loud, and saying “Amen” after the deed was done (maybe Gabriel will finally start kicking ass for the lord?) Lastly, I enjoyed seeing Glenn and Heath struggle with the fact that they are now killers. This struggle showed how solid the acting chemistry was between Steven Yuen and Corey Hawkins (heath) can be even when the screen time runs quickly.
What I Didn’t Like: Abraham, why’d you have to go and be an asshole to Rosita? I don’t care if that’s “the way shit is” with you, you don’t just break up with a woman who’s been that good to you in a heartbeat. You don’t just tell her that you only dated her because she had tits. I mean, maybe it’s a better change of pace where in the comics Abraham cheated on Rosita, but it still leaves me feeling pissed off. I’m happy for Carole finding love again, but I’m sad it wasn’t with Daryl (like many had hoped it would be). Lastly, I shudder to think what may happen to Carole and Maggie being held hostage by who I presume to be one of Negan’s wives. Things could get ugly next week.
Overall, I felt like this was an awesome episode that was well written, acted, and paced. I look forward to seeing next week’s episode.
-KCard
*Spoiler warning courtesy of Buzz Lightyear*
Hello again everyone, Kevin here bringing you the analysis on this week’s episode of The Walking Dead. I just wanted to let people know that the reason I always open up with a “filler” paragraph is so when I post these reviews to Facebook the text doesn’t bleed over and reveal any spoilers for those who didn’t want to see them. I like to consider it an extra insurance policy to prevent people from getting upset over spoilers.
Speaking of filler, I often hear comic book Gatekeeping fans get upset at the show every season due how slowly the story drags on. These people need to remember that these are two different mediums, and television shows need to reach syndication (100 or more episodes). It’s especially worth mentioning that lately The Walking Dead has returned to referencing the source material at a rate that I find to be appropriate. My main complaint about the show is that they add unnecessary story arcs that turn into filler arcs (source material aside) such as the corrupt police officers in the hospital from season 5A. Now then, onto the show.
This week’s episode really had no way of topping last week’s episode, so we can consider this the calm after the storm has settled. That being said, a lot of awesome things still happened in last night’s episode of The Walking Dead. For starters, we finally got to meet the comic book character Raul Rovia (nicknamed “Jesus”). We saw Spencer put down Dianna’s walker with help from Michonne, and we also saw that Carl has no idea how to talk to women with how rude he was being to Enid. Lastly, I’m happy to see that Rick and Michonne are together now as a couple as I’ve recently been “shipping Richonne” (as the kids on Tumblr are saying these days). There were some things that bothered me about the episode, but I rather enjoyed it overall.
What I enjoyed:
It was great seeing how the characters interacted in this episode, Michonne helping out Spencer with his personal task of putting Deanna out of her misery (after being reanimated) and helping Spencer find out he still has a family with the people of Alexandria. It was awesome seeing Jesus interact with Daryl and Rick throughout most of the episode, and how they kept Jesus true to his comic counterpart at how skilled at sneaking and hand to hand combat that he is. I also enjoyed a lot of the dialogue as this was definitely a story driven episode, not an action driven episode. Lastly, it was amazing to see Rick and Michonne together, and amusing to see them both draw their weapons on Jesus while naked at the end of the episode. Some fan service for Walking Dead fans? Hell, I’ll take it! Now onto the things that bothered me.
What I didn’t enjoy:
I really felt like the writers had Rick and Daryl acting out of character this whole episode, I’m pretty sure Rick and Daryl should have been smart enough to know that they should have just driven straight back to Alexandria with that supply truck before stopping anywhere else. Yes they found Jesus (not biblically), but they also lost all of the supplies in that truck because they kept messing around to try and locate soda for Denise, and kept struggling to deal with Jesus. The truck wouldn’t have fallen into the lake (which was painful to watch) if Rick and Daryl had just done the sensible thing and gone straight back (which Daryl is usually known for in this show). I feel like that whole part of the story focusing on Rick and Daryl was just wasted time where they stopped acting their normal selves. Other than that it was a satisfactory exposition episode (that was unfortunate enough to have to follow the act before it).
So I’m looking forward to seeing next week’s episode of The Walking Dead and how the whole story with Jesus will play out. I should also note this is just about the part of the comics that I stopped reading at so I will either need to play catch up with the source material (I own Walking Dead compendiums one and two), or just ask that people not spoil the major story arcs that are coming up in the future. I’m also super curious to see what they do in the show with Negan.
For today’s featured song I was tempted to leave “Jesus Take The Wheel” by Carrie Underwood in honor of Jesus stealing the food truck, but musically it doesn’t scream “Walking Dead” to me. Instead I will leave you all with the Johnny Cage song “When The Man Comes Around” as the appearance of Jesus (Raul) means that bad things are going to happen this season when Negan finally appears.
-KCard
Kevin Card 