Breaking Bad

Walking Dead Series 5 Finale Review: “Conquest”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Warnings of a spoiler: his name is Kevin Card and he’s generally kind of a douche-bag, especially when he writes about himself in a self-deprecating manner.*

Hello again folks, it’s my last Walking Dead review until this summer when the spin off series comes out. I just wanted to take the time to say thank you to my readers on WordPress and on my Facebook who comment regularly. Special shout out to bloggers edwinlives4ever and listentothebabe for their funny and interesting discussions on my WD posts. Also a special shout out to blogger Dominique for consistently liking all of my posts since he subscribed. You guys win my corner of the internet.

Well folks, it was almost 24 hours ago and I’m still taking in the whole experience of how epic this entire season was. It literally opened with a bang (the destruction of Terminus), followed by some annoying “cops are control freaks” filler in the middle, and closed out with many plot resolutions and the start of a new plot with Morgan coming back. The final episode to me was better than the season opener for how much suspense it created from a single “public forum” debate.

If my readers want a plot synopsis, here you go. Otherwise, I’ll just touch up on what I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy.

What I enjoyed: It was great seeing Pete get his full on comeuppances by having Rick shoot him in the head while being wrestled to the ground by Abraham, it was awesome to see Morgan again and finally figure out who the those Wolf freaks were. I also enjoyed seeing Glenn and Nicholas resolve their differences after almost nearly killing each other. It’s awesome to see how far Carol’s character development has come this season. Lastly, I love how they resolved every single plot point in season 5.2 in the last half hour at the forum. I’ll also credit the writers misleading us thinking that Rick was going down the same path as The Governor for a while, but they were actually foreshadowing the death of Reggie.

What I didn’t like: Seeing that Morgan didn’t finish off the Wolves when he had the chance, this is only going to come back and bite Morgan and all of Alexandrea in the ass next season (especially if you’re familiar with the comics). I didn’t feel it was necessary for father Gabriel to loose his sanity and have him bully Sasha, who’s also been loosing her grasp on reality. Though the scene between Father Gabriel and Sasha did create some better resolutions later on in the episode. Not much else to complain aside from seeing how quickly the red poncho guy got killed off (distant Star Trek reference?)

I was glad to be wrong about Daryl biting the dust, even though that scene in the van was a real tease for some people who were expecting him to die. Also, I feel really sorry for Deanna now since she’s basically lost the majority of her family. This will probably spell trouble down the road for Alexandrea.

As season 5 has closed, I bid farewell to what has been the best season of The Walking Dead to date. Many have said Walking Dead can’t measure up to other AMC fan favorite like Breaking Bad, but it doesn’t have too anymore. Walking Dead is simply in a separate league and genre of badassery than Breaking Bad was.

In honor of the new villains for next season, here’s an industrial metal song that I found while browsing Youtube earlier today.

-KCard

How I Relate Fictional Characters to Myself

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

Image

*I do not own this image, credit(s) unknown. Show spoilers ahead!*

This blog is meant to be a peek into the inner workings of my highly nerdy brain. As such, this blog is not for the faint of imagination: you have been warned!

Cutting to the chase, I’ve been through a lot of emotional struggles in my life, and being somewhat reclusive I didn’t always want to be around people. So in my reclusive times I had a tendency of watching epic television shows and anime to forget about said problems. I’m happy that I picked the entertainment mediums I had since these television shows taught me awesome morals when I was younger, and continue to still do so today.

For instance, the lesson of the manga Naruto taught me that hard work will always overcome natural genius (which I relate too with my bass playing). Breaking Bad taught me how easily money, pride, and power can corrupt a person. Doctor Who showed me how Regeneration is a brilliant metaphor for a personal rebirth.

Now why am I listing these things? Because I like to imagine myself as these characters depending on what mood I’m in. In times of great consideration of my past and personal life I liken how I feel to this scene of Walter and Skyler White:

For those who don’t watch Breaking Bad, Walt always justified his selfish and murderous actions of cooking meth and killing people by saying “I did this for my family!” Here, Walt is coming clean and in my eyes earned a tiny bit of redemption. This feeling of redemption and honesty is how I feel when I come clean about something selfish I’ve done (though obviously in a less dramatic overtone).

Another character I imagine myself as is the War Doctor from the 50th Doctor Who Anniversary Special:

The War Doctor was tasked with ending the Time War and saving the galaxy by having to destroy his home world. I love when the Doctor declares “No more” and “What I did, I did without choice” because I sometimes relate myself to him when I have to make very difficult decisions (genocide not being one them, ahem).

At other times I imagine myself as Merle Dixon from the Walking Dead, who did anything to protect his baby brother in the zombie apocalypse.

I’m not saying I’m a white supremacist or anything like that (whom Merle’s character was). I just adore how complex Merle’s character was which is why I enjoyed Cosplaying as Merle and meeting Merle’s actor Michael Rooker last October. I like to think of Merle as the more sarcastic part of my personality, and I still can’t get over just how much of a complete bad-ass he was.

1390597_10152292092544908_704930449_n

1737_10152292081589908_1430825122_n

I could go on, but I think you’ve got the gist of what I’ve been blogging about. If anyone has any favorite fictional characters they relate themselves too, then feel free to share them in the comments section!

-Tatteybye

Breaking Bad Series Finale Reaction and Discussion

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler Warning*

One word; EPIC!!

It turned out very differently than I was expecting since I was expecting Walt to go out shooting up Grey Matter. Instead Walt reconnected to his humanity (somewhat) and tied up his loose ends through thorough planning and ingenuity. There were so many amazing moments in this episode that it felt better than pent-up Christian honeymoon sex.

My favorite moments included: 1. The kitchen scene with Skylar and Walt where Walt essentially apologized and stated his love through his actions for Skylar while saying goodbye. 2. Where Gretchen and Elliot are blackmailed into giving Walt’s money to Walter Junior. 3. Where Walt takes out the skin heads using his battery rigged machine gun. 4. Lydia getting poisoned with the Ricin originally meant for Gus. And, 5. Jesse finally taking out that rat faced sociopath Todd by choking him.

For a long time throughout the fifth season, I was waiting for Walt to get his just desserts. But seeing how things turned out at the end I was rooting for Walter White, and was happy to do so. I basically have no complaints other than the show being over. That ending had so many high notes it was better than hearing a choir of professionally trained Soprano singers. And speaking of The Sopranos, this show’s ending didn’t suck!

So, RIP Walter White and Breaking Bad. It’s been one hell of a ride.

-Tatteybye

Breaking Bad Season 5 Discussion

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

Spoilers ahead: I was waiting for the series finale for my next review of Breaking Bad, but the last two episodes had some serious stuff go down. Instead of discussing fan theories and summarizing events I’m just going to give a few thoughts on the last two episodes and the direction the show has gone in.

Here are some of my raw thoughts: I respect Hank a lot for being defiant to the last before his death, and I feel truly sorry for the situation Jesse has been put into being forced to cook for the skin heads and that sociopath Todd. Speaking of Todd, what a complete douchebag for the way he killed Andrea and beat-up Jesse. To a minor degree, I finally feel sorry for Walt. But, Walt still has so much blood on his hands, and by the looks of things he’s going to have even more on his hands by going after Grey Matter in the last episode. Walt’s ego got in the way of his original goal of helping his family, and he’s lost everything for it including the love of his wife Skylar.

Skylar is under a lot of scrutiny from the police and by fans in real life, but Skylar isn’t a “bitch”. When Walt made that dramatic phone call, it was a parting gift to Skylar to save her from scrutiny. Skylar was forced into a tough position by Walt and didn’t want to see her family fall apart. Yeah she slept with Ted, but she’s only human and others would probably have done the same. Breaking Bad fans needs to stop persecuting Skylar in such a sexist manner. And speaking of which, I’d like to give a huge tip of my hat to Anna Gunn for winning the Emmy award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Skylar.

Image

Well done!

To finish, the media says that the cult of Breaking Bad fans is the biggest group of fans on all of American television, and I’d believe it all. Vince Gilligan is a masterful writer and producer. My main issue with the show is that it’s always been incredibly tense and takes forever to get any sort of event release. However, this tension and the incredibly amount of tragedies is what brings the fans to watch the show time and time again. I joined late in the Breaking Bad popularity train and I’m going to be sad when the show ends next week, but I’m glad I was part of the action for a while. Let’s hope that next week’s episode will be as legendary as we are all expecting it to be.

-Tattebye.

Breaking Bad “Blood Money” Review and Discussion

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

As a disclaimer, I’m not going to summarize the episode as I think everyone who likes the show has already seen it by now, and those who haven’t seen it yet SHOULD because the episode was amazing.

How is this episode awesome? Well, I enjoyed how Hank is now onto Walter and how it’s causing Hank great stress (Dean Norris plays this role very well). Walter is the same manipulative bastard that we all have come to love and despise at the same time, but knows his play world is starting to collapse around him. Jesse is starting to lose his mind from guilt over the events of the last half of the season, and surprisingly Skyler is slowly warming up to Walter again.

Memorable moments include Hank crashing his car, Skyler showing Lydia who’s boss through sheer intimidation while at the car wash, Walter grabbing the GPS, and of course the last ten minutes of the episode between Walter and Hank.

What I enjoyed most about the episode is how Hank dealt with the truth of the matter on Walter and how Hank punched Walter halfway across his garage. Walter reacting to the confrontation as both himself and his evil alter ego Heisenberg was basis for a huge “holy shit!” moment with how he managed to talk down someone as determined and physically strong as Hank.

Some fan theories have stated different things such as Hank killing himself, or Walter going in to shoot up Grey Matter after disappearing. While I could see both being possible, I’m unsure if that first theory would make sense for Breaking Bad; Walter is a heartless mastermind, not a brainless psychopath. Hank is too determined to catch Walter, but with the way “Heisenberg” told Hank to “tread lightly” it could be possible that Walt could screw with Hank’s head enough for him to end his life in such a manner.

A personal theory I have is that Jesse could end up betraying Walter and turning himself in because of how guilty he feels about everything he’s done so far. It shows to me that Jesse found a heart while Walter lost one. Also, I’m sure some people were confused by the opening of the episode, but my theory on it’s that Walter used the “vacuum guy” mentioned in season 4 to escape from Hank and the DEA. If I just predicted the rest of the season then somebody owes me dinner and a movie; if not then just exile me to watch this awesome show for the rest of my days.

“Blood Money” lived up to my expectations as a return for the best show in television, and I look forward to seeing the rest of the season play out.

-Tatteybye.