*Spoiler warning: When God gives you spoilers, you should take to social media and demand that you should have received lemons instead!* Hello again friends, it is I, Zoidberg! Err, I mean Kevin! So I realize now that this review is a few days late, but…
*Warning: Spoilers be ahead there, me hearties. Yar har har*
So I decided to sound like a pirate with the spoiler warning, so so sue me.
As my readers might have noticed, I’ve fallen behind on doing individual reviews on the episodes of The Walking Dead for the last three weeks. I’ve decided to do the logical thing and review what’s happened in the season so far as whole. I’m not going to be doing much summarizing with the episodes since it would take too long. Instead I’m going to touch up on the strengths and weaknesses of season 5.2 thus far.
What I disliked: Not going to be a very large list here, but I have some minor complaints to touch upon. My first complaint is how quickly they killed of Tyreese in the opening episode,why does this show constantly have to kill the moral center of the group? We understood the symbolism of human selfishness in this show well after season 4.1 ended. It could be worse though, at least the mortality rates of good guy characters in the Walking Dead doesn’t go to Game of Thrones proportions. The other thing that I dislike is how they’ve handled Noah’s character development, I just feel like he’s either too nice or too petty with how he interacts with others in the group. He’s a new character though, so I’m sure that they will give him a bigger and less annoying role in the group. Lastly, some of the characters in Alexandria (if anything like the comics) are proving to be kind of one-dimensional and annoying themselves. The moment that ROTC scavenger character (who I’m too lazy to Google the name of right now) dies, the better for thinking he can psychological warfare with the walkers.
What I liked: On the other hand, I can really tell the budget and writing for this season has increased and AMC is pulling all of the stops to really make season five blockbuster quality (the term for movies, not the bankrupt store). First, the way Tyreese died was awesome with how we saw the killed off characters with hallucinations interact with him. I like the design of Alexandria so far, even though the artwork was much better in the comics (#Firstworldnerdproblems). The comedy is also on point this season, it was pretty hilarious to see Sasha kill those rabid dogs and see the group eating dog meat immediately afterwards. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing how most of the group has adapted back into a more comfortable lifestyle with how the group shaved off their beards (#RIPRicksBeard).
I look forward to seeing how the season will end, but I do think it will be a colossal mistake to kill off Daryl if like rumor says currently. Let’s see where things will go folks, season five has been dynamite so far, and I hope that it ends as high a note that the season began on.
And now for no rhyme or reason, I’m going to post my favorite EDM song:
-KCard
*Warning: spoilers imminent. All easily angered WD fans approach at ye own peril*
I live in New England and I fucking hate all of this snow, we’ve had almost 100 inches of snow in the last six weeks and I have had to constantly clear 80 million tons of white bullshit. Winter rage aside, I’ve also come to terms that I can’t post four blogs a day because I just don’t have the time anymore folks. When I do have the time it’s hard to find inspiration to do so. I’ll just post whenever I feel like it, even if that means reviewing an episode a week later like I am right now.
This episode was by far the most trippy episode of The Walking Dead we’ve had since the season two episode “Chupacabra” due to Tyreese hallucinating and him seeing many previously dead characters. To summarize, the screen opens with father Gabriel reciting scripture and the members of Rick’s party digging a grave (presumably for Beth) and blood dripping on a photograph. We later see the group splitting up to go see if Noah’s sanctuary is still intact. We find out the walls broke open and the sanctuary got overrun by the walkers.
Noah is acting incredibly emotional over the loss of his friends and family, and decides to enter his childhood home to search for his family. Tyreese accompanies Noah, and Tyreese gets his arm chewed-up by a walker (who was presumably Noah’s little brother) while he was distracted looking at family photos. As the episode progresses we see that Tyreese is hallucinating from blood loss. As Tyreese hallucinates he keeps seeing many previously dead characters talk to him, and hearing BBC radio broadcasts as a reminder of how he only wanted to help people during the apocalypse. Eventually Tyreese dies of blood loss from being bitten twice and having his arm amputated by Rick, Noah, and Michonne.
Highlights of this episode included: Seeing the Governor and Beth once more, seeing how the dead characters interacted with Tyreese, how Tyreese basically told the Governor to fuck off because The Governor never knew who Tyreese really was, and how the second walker came into frame as The Governor approached. The whole atmosphere of this episode was wonderfully directed.
What I didn’t like: how Noah has developed as a character thus far being so emotional and self centered, and the fact that Tyreese got killed off this early in the second half of season five. Goddamn, that was a huge bummer for me. Seems like The Walking Dead is definitely taking a few notes from Game of Thrones with how they kill off characters lately (always killing off the moral conscious of the group).
I look forward to watching the next episode tonight and seeing how where the group goes from here. RIP Tyreese, I know you’ll live on in the hearts of the group.
-KCard
Okay, I’m bringin’ it, bringin’ it, bringin’ it back. I’m bringin’ it, bringin’ it back: FIRE BALL!!! Sorry for the Pitbull reference there. I meant to say that I’m bringing back the spoiler warning for this one because the shit really hit the fan on tonight’s episode. I don’t normally swear on my blog, but I’m making an exception for tonight because this was pretty heavy.
*Spoiler warning*
Now that I’ve effectively established I take no responsibility for spoiling major plot points for you; this episode was a very, very strong one. Not as epic as the season opener, but way more gut wrenching.
To summarize, after Rick ran over and shot the escaping cop, Father Gabriel brought a hoard of zombies from the school where the Termites were staying back to the church, Glenn and Maggie reunited with Carl and Michonne just in time to kill the walker hoard, and the plan for the exchanged mostly worked. After a lot of talking the Walking Dead Rescue Mission (hashtag) went down, but not as planned. The prisoners were exchanged, but Officer Dawn demanded to have Noah back since she lost Beth as her “ward”. Noah was about accept that offer, but Beth hugged Officer Dawn and then stabbed her with surgical scissors. What happened next made my jaw drop and my heart sink: Dawn shot Beth clean in the head, to which Daryl shot Dawn clean in the head back in retaliation.
What I liked: the coldness in which Rick dealt with the escaping officer, how we saw the internal struggles Dawn had over exercising her tyrannical rule on the hospital with that fight scene between Dawn and the other officer, the scene with the cops and Daryl and Sasha being snipers far away. Seeing Dawn get what she deserved was nice, I honestly thought she was more despicable than the Governor in some ways (namely how her narcissism made her believe she was saving people when she was actually enslaving them. At least the Governor was aware of how he hurt people.) Also, I hated that it had to happen, but this character death with Beth just created a huge tremor of emotion to millions of viewers (which hasn’t happened since Hershel died). That’s why this episode was great, because it created such a huge tremor in TWD fan community.
What I didn’t like: Not much aside from the huge amounts of talking and how the sub plot of rick shooting the escaped cop was used as a diversion to the real WTF moment in this episode rather than starting the conflict between the two groups. I’m also sad that I have to wait until February 2015 to see where Rick’s group goes next. It will be interesting to see where the group goes from here.
And with that, I leave you with my new favorite EDM song: Prayer in C by Lily Wood and The Prick, which I dedicate to the Grady Memorial Cops for being the most annoying villains in Walking Dead history.
-Tatteybye
I can still remember in college when my professors would say it’s unprofessional to write “good” and “bad” to describe something as a critic. While that may be true in a news paper, I call the shots when writing on my own time and style. I can also remember when I really got into The Walking Dead back in 2012, it was my senior year of college watching season three. Season five has been the best season we’ve had, but three will always be my favorite. This episode wasn’t a bad one, just not as good as some of the previous ones. I was hoping for more climactic moments in the episode, but it served to prep for the showdown with the cops at the hospital this coming Sunday.
What I enjoyed: seeing Daryl rip the head off of a walker and beat one of the cops was pretty epic, probably the most creative walker kill we’ve seen all season. I also enjoyed seeing Rick confront the cops and them being able to tell he used to a police officer himself. It was also really nice to see how the group dealt with Abraham after he assaulted Eugene. Seeing Beth get the power to defend herself again and save Carol. Lastly, it was nice to know that Eugene is still alive (even though he has very little plot relevance now).
What I didn’t enjoy: Seeing the cop knock Sasha unconscious, how Rick didn’t go with his plot to snipe all of the cops down, all of the jumping around to different characters, not knowing if Father Gabriel will betray or abandon Rick’s group (and how Gabriel has been acting vs how his character in the comics acted).
I felt this episode had great moments, but still has left a lot to be desired. As a matter of fact, season five started out with a big bang, and has slowly spiraled down to a regular drama. I’m sure the mid season finale coming up will fix that though. Stay tuned folks, the nice thing about me writing this on a Friday’s that Sunday isn’t so far away now.
-Tatteybye
*Disclaimer* I studied Journalism in college, and the main thing they taught me was to never miss a deadline. However, I write best when I’m inspired to do so, not when I’m constrained by deadlines (personal or otherwise).
With that out-of-the-way, I’d label this episode as an interesting balance between “funny”, “boring”, and “reflective” (which totally doesn’t sound like my blog, ahem). There were funny moments, intense moments, and a lot of talking between Daryl and Carol about past events.
What I enjoyed: the scene with the van falling off of the bridge was really awesome, I also love how improbable it was that Daryl and Carol weren’t injured at all by the fall. I laughed my ass off when it started to rain walkers who fell off the bridge after the van. I felt the flashbacks were used to good effect, and that it’s awesome that Daryl and Noah are going to enlist Rick’s help in destroying the corrupt folks at the hospital.
What i didn’t enjoy: the vast amounts of dialogue that seemed to happen for no real reason that really just became filler. I also didn’t like what happened with Noah’s character at first with how he stole the weapons from Daryl and Carol. Lastly, I could have done with more of what was going with Eugene and Abraham.
At any rate this was an enjoyable episode, I just could have done without all of the talking (which is a fairly common complaint about the series in past seasons). Once again the next episode is coming up in less than an hour and I will enjoy watching it.
-Tattybye
So I missed the deadline to review these episodes when they were fresh, so to make up for it and catch up for this week I’m going to give a brief recap on what I did and didn’t like about episodes four and five of The Walking Dead.
5:04- My only real complaint about this episode is that things only revolved around Beth and a bunch of throw away characters we were just introduced to. What I did enjoy is the blatant metaphor for control by the Government and police forces that we’ve seen in the last couple of years. From Officer Gorman’s creepy and sexual predator type advances towards Beth, and the scene of Beth climbing down the elevator. This episode was unsettling because of how twisted the members of the hospital are, though the walkers helped.
5:05- This episode had to be the screwiest of the season so far with how the pacing went, the random switches to Abraham’s flashbacks, and the sex scene where Eugene was spying on Abraham and Lolita (which is also a direct reference to the comics). This episode was my least favorite of the season so far aside from the references to the source material and the scene where Eugene uses the water cannon to kill all of the walkers. When Eugene fessed up to being a fraud, which was probably the most shocking moment in the season so far.
And so the next episode of The Walking Dead comes on in under 20 minutes from when I post this, which means I will review the new one later tonight or tomorrow morning.
-Tatteybye
*Spoiler Warning*
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Well it would seem that fried chicken I ate last Sunday slowed down my writing reaction time as well as my metabolism. Funny how meat can mess with the mind sometimes. Anyways, this week’s episode was vastly better than last week’s episode due to the dramatic tension, the many references to the comic, and the how much better the pacing was this week with how much detail they fit in under an hour of screen time.
To summarize, we pickup from last week with seeing the remaining Termites eating Bob’s leg. Bob tells them they’re eating tainted meat because he got bitten in the previous episode. After throwing up and having a melt down the Termites drop Bob back off at the church, and begin a game of psychological warfare with Rick and his group. We then find Rick confronting father Gabriel about his past and find that father Gabriel locked out members of his congregation to die when the outbreak first happened, and Gabriel is still haunted by his cowardice in the present. After Bob goes inside the church, Abraham wants to protect Eugene so they can get to Washington and demands that Rick and his group join him without waiting for Carol and Daryl.
Rick Refuses Abraham and an argument breaks out, with Glenn making both agree to compromise: Abraham agrees to give Rick 12 hours to follow Rick’s plan to wipe out the Termites in exchange for taking Glenn and Maggie to Washington with Eugene and Lolita. Rick’s group divides up and sets a trap where half the group leaves for where the Terminus members are hiding, and keeps the other half of the group to hide in the church. The Termites take Rick’s bate and go inside the church threatening to kill all of the members including Judith. The Termite leader Gareth even offered father Gabriel safe passage if he betrayed Rick’s group. Eventually we see two of the termites get gunned down by Rick’s returning group, Gareth gets some of his fingers shot off. Gareth tries to weasel his way out of death by promising to leave Rick’s group alone, but Rick tells him how he’s a danger to other people, and that he “had a promise to keep” right before he bashed Gareth’s head in with his machete (the same weapon Rick mentioned he would kill Gareth with in the start of episode 5:01). h.
The Termites are then shot to death. Father Gabriel remarks “Why did this happen? This is the Lord’s house!” to which Maggie rebuts him “No it’s not, it’s four walls and a roof”. As the episode closes we see the group split like they had agreed to do, and Michonne offers her advice to comfort father Gabriel, and Daryl comes back through the bushes saying “All right, come out!” The film fades to black right after.
Hah, I swear AMC loves using their cliff hanger endings. I have to say that this episode felt like it should have been a half way season closer, not just the third episode because of how many subplots got wrapped up all at once. That being said, it was a great episode and shows that that AMC is making this their biggest season of The Walking Dead to date. My favorite moments had to be with Bob screaming at the Termites, “tainted meat!” I also loved seeing Rick fulfill his promise to Gareth, and seeing how the dynamics between Abraham and Rick keep unfolding. My only complaint is that I’m wondering where the story line can go from here for the next couple of episodes. We will have to wait and see for next Sunday.
Until next Sunday comes around, I highly recommend you all browse the internet for Walking Dead memes. This one that my friend Sam found on Tumblr is pure gold!
-Tatteybye
For those who haven’t guessed yet, I’m a colossal nerd and I’m proud of that fact. I enjoy the art of costume-playing and creating my own costumes to pay homage to some of my favorite characters in popular culture. I love old school cosplay, insane attention to detail, re-imagined cosplay (like gender bending and race crossing characters), and the “controversial” sexy cosplay (which simply shows a more human side to the art, the people slut shaming the models are the real problem). I don’t read comics that often, so I have yet to head into the world of comic book cosplay. However, I have amassed the photos of some of my past projects to display here on WordPress for the world to see.
1. The Angry Video Game Nerd:
One of the forerunners internet reviewing, and one of my biggest influences in the world Critiquing, the AVGN always managed to make me laugh even the saddest times of my teenage years. I love his reviews, and to show it I dressed up as him in Halloween in 2011 and 2012. The hardest part was finding the right type of glasses, which I found at a dollar store and punched out the lenses.
2. Merle Dixon of The Walking Dead
***Season one and three spoiler warning*** Merle Dixon (played by Michael Rooker) is a foul-mouthed racist we meet in Season one of The Walking Dead who was handcuffed to the top of a roof by protagonist Rick Grimes because he was a danger to the rest of the group (he was attracting the attention of the all the zombies down below by shooting them with a snipe rifle). He had to cut off his hand to escape, and returned in season 3 with a badass prosthetic with a bayonet on it. Merle causes a lot of chaos to the story line alongside The Governor (the biggest bad guy in Walking Dead history), but eventually Merle redeems makes an effort to protect his brother Daryl and the rest of the group by confronting The Governor and his men with an army of walkers and a sniper rifle. Merle was killed by the Governor in that confrontation, but he’s still a fan favorite.
Of course I deplore anyone with racist tendencies, but in the name of great fiction, I think Merle’s just a massive badass character who has all the right traits to survive in a zombie apocalypse. I cosplayed as Merle and even met Michael Rooker and Scott Wilson last year at Rock and Shock 2013. Wilson and I had a fun conversation. Alas, Rooker’s people rushed me through seeing him though because he had a very long line. I did make a joke about wearing the prosthetic was a pain in the ass though to Michael and his crew members. Louisiana has Mardi Gras to celebrate, New Englad has Halloween and we take it very seriously. The pics below depict my steps gathering the costume and making the bayonet prosthetic.
3. The 9th Doctor
The 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) was the first Doctor introduced in the reboot of Doctor Who, and despite being around for only one season is still considered an underdog and fan favorite in the series. I often liken myself to different incarnations of The Doctor, with 9 being the most common that I can relate too. It was only natural that I would pick to be the 9th Doctor for Halloween this year. This was by far my easiest cosplay as I already had the proper sonic Screw Driver and most of the correct attire, the hardest part was getting a good sweater that fit the look. Alas, the lighting inside my house is awful, so my purple shirt comes out looking like it’s either blue or black. Next year I’ll save up my money and buy the authentic leather jacket, but what I have now means I don’t need to spend $150 on a jumper I’m maybe going to use three times a year. Feel free to comment below your thoughts as to whether or not that these cosplays are “Fantastic!”
Also feel free to recommend any cosplays for me in the future, I’ve wanted to go as Light Yagami from Death Note for a long time, so that might be my next one!
-Tatteybe
*Warning: Spoilers Held Within*
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First things first, there is no real topping last week’s episode in terms of action and orgasmic moments of awesome (I never could have written those words for the local papers!) This episode was much calmer than last week’s for the most part, with some scare moments with walkers and a lot of dialogue between the characters. I did find the pacing to a bit slow at parts, but the ending of the episode more than made up for that.
We start off seeing the group has escaped Terminus and is wandering through the woods to scavenge for food. They soon stumble upon Father Gabriel who is surrounded by Walkers on top of a rock. Rick’s group saves Gabriel, and the group takes up residence in Gabriel’s church. Later on after some dialogue about how Michonne misses Hershel and Andrea we find the group killing walkers in the flooded basement of a food donation center to gain safe access to the food stored inside.
Father Gabriel panics when he recognizes one of the walkers in the basement until Michonne saves him. We later see that Rick doesn’t trust Gabriel since Gabriel is apparently hiding something. Towards the end of the episode we see Abraham spurring the group to continue their trek towards Washington to try to stop the outbreak. We also see Bob leave the church and get captured, then wakes up to find himself face to face with members of Terminus explaining why they hunt people for food. Bob sees people eating his leg like it was cooked chicken.
My reaction to the ending can be summed up nicely by this classic Anchor Man meme:
Along with the ending, highlights included: Michonne talking about Hershel and Andrea, the subplot with father Gabriel hiding something, seeing The Walkers in the basement die, and seeing the speech that Abraham told Rick and the others to spur them on towards Washington.
This entire episode was meant for the story to develop, so it’s natural that they would slow things down a bit from last week’s episode. On that note, I did find the episode a bit slow at parts, but I enjoyed it overall since the show is getting closer to mimicking the comics. This episode makes me sad that next Sunday is a week away. I’m also definitely craving some chicken right about now (not really, but I did have steak for dinner).
-Tatteybye
Kevin Card 