Andrew Lincoln

Walking Dead 5.15 Review: “Try”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: remember, remember, the 5th of November. Because some major shit went down back then and last Sunday*

Also, be warned of PG-13 level foul language in my review.

So my review’s up late again, but who’s counting other than me? I blog on a voluntary basis and write for free because it grants me the freedom to write what’s on my mind. I often use my personal Facebook page to experiment on what topics I should cover, and so far I find there’s more malice among common friends than there is among strangers on WordPress. But that could just be because I haven’t written anything controversial since I blamed capitalism for ruining the lives of American musicians. Anyways, this week’s episode was slow in the first half and the episode suddenly erupted into huge amounts of awesome moments that just kept culminating into a sudden stop.

What I didn’t enjoy: Seeing how crazy Sasha has become boiling over into her hunting walkers thinking she could actually dent a swath into the sheer number of Walkers in the surrounding DC area. Sasha is a damn good shot, I just wish her sanity were as sharp as her aim. I’m also getting tired of Deanna’s character who seemed likable at first, but is quickly reminding me of a more mild version of Senator Michelle Bachman (who in my view only wants things her way and isn’t fully aware of the world around her). My apologies to Bachman supporters, but such is the way of opinions on politicians. Anyways, Deanna is morbidly pissed about her son dying and the bull shit that Nicholas fed her about Rick’s group members being the cause of Aiden’s death. I don’t blame Deanna for being mad, but that doesn’t mean I have to like where her character development is currently headed.

What I did enjoy: Not to contradict myself, but seeing Sasha kick zombie ass with a sniper rifle was pretty damn epic. She never wasted a single shot, unlike many other characters in zombie films. Seeing Pete get pushed through a window and seeing Rick enact some old western style karma on him was great, too. The whole last half hour of this episode just grabbed me by the entrails and wouldn’t let go, all culminating in that badass speech Rick made about how things should be done his way. Looks the Ricktatorship ego has made a comeback, or at least it did until Michonne clocked Rick out cold right before the credits flashed.

In honor of Rick’s ego(s) being knocked out, I hereby post the latest single of my all time favorite band: Breaking Benjmain!

PS, I’ll bet 10 figurative dollars that Daryl and Aaron are closing in on finding Morgan Jones at the camp fire site, who I wouldn’t put it past for carving stuff on the for-heads of the walkers given how crazy he acted in season 3.

-KCard

Walking Dead Season 5.2 Review (So Far)

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*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

Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 2 “Strangers” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*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:

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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

 

Walking Season 5 Premier “No Sanctuary” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Warning: Spoilers Held Within*

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Better late than never folks, especially since I’ve caught writers-rigor-mortis as of late (try saying that 10 times fast!) Anyways, I can sum up the episode in one word: BADASS!!!

We open up from where season 4 left off with Rick and most of the cast being imprisoned in Terminus with the hippie-cannibals of Terminus killing people by bashing them in the head and slitting their throats one by one. As to why they are doing so in such a manner is beyond me, but it definitely looks like something I’d see in Game of Thrones until we hear some type of a large explosion.

We find out that Carol lead a herd of Walkers to Terminus, and blew up the giant propane tank to destroy Terminus’s fence using an assault rifle and a firework (that Carol stole from a Terminus member she took captive). The remainder of the episode is how Terminus gets overrun and Rick and the crew escapes to reunite with Carol, Tyreese, and Rick’s baby daughter Judith.

Highlights include the explosion, the opening with the throat cutting, the subplot with Tyreese having to confront the Terminus captive to save Judith, when everyone got back together, and the big reveal at the end with Morgan following his way to Terminus (who we last saw in Season 3 in the episode “Clear”).

I have zero complaints about this episode, it was like a giant orgasm for my brain. Granted that the show is still different than the comic books, but the writing’s still very solid and they have referenced the source material enough for my tastes that the show is a respectable separate universe (unlike those God awful Resident Evil movies which suffer from poor writing and flip the bird to the games!!)

Many people don’t get the allure of Zombie media, others find The Walking Dead to be rather boring; I find this episode to be chocked full of excitement. As for the people who don’t “get it”, I’ll write another blog explaining why I love zombie media. I’ll also make sure to make this review a series on my blog.

-Tatteybye