Season 5

Game of Thrones 5.10 Review “Mother’s Mercy”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler Warning: Ah one, a two, a skiddily diddily do….not read beyond this point if you haven’t watched the episode yet. It’s bad enough I still have people yelling at me for spoiling a major character death in The Walking Dead a few years back.*

Just gotta say thank you to my readers for not minding that I always come out late with these reviews, and also thank you all for continuing to read them despite my dry humor and tendency to ramble at the beginning of each review (it’s to cover up spoilers on my personal Facebook page). With all of that said, here are my thoughts on this massive headache of an episode.

Before I delve into the nitty-gritty of this episode, and what I enjoyed and what I hated, I just want to say that I felt like that Stannis was really swept under the rug in this episode. I know Stannis is still alive in the books from what I’ve heard, so I feel like that whole scenario of how quickly he was defeated was complete bullshit (aside from the part with Brienne beheading him, that was pretty awesome that she got closure for Renly). I just stated two things that I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy about the episode. Oh well, at least I’m only trolling myself rather than trolling my fans (looking at your GRRM!)

What I enjoyed: It was great seeing Brienne get closure (as mentioned earlier), and it was great seeing Theon regain his sanity to save Sansa from Miranda and then to escape, and I loved seeing that Varys is still alive and ready to help give Tyrion and Dany a helping hand at managing things in Mereen. Speaking of Dany, I’m glad to see she’s still alive, I just hope the Dothraki turn out to be allies rather than enemies (and things are completely up in the air about that one since the show is abandoning the book cannon). I loved seeing Aria get her revenge on the pedophile women beater Meryn Trant (albeit at the cost of her eye sight). I’m happy to see Sam leave with Gilly to become a meister. Lastly, I’m curious to know the Frankenstein angle with The reanimated Mountain will effect things next season.

What I didn’t like: Where do I fucking start with this massive thought bomb of an episode? Star Wars Expanded Universe references aside, I hated seeing The Bolton’s beat Stannis’s army. Stannis could have done some real good for the seven kingdoms and the north (burning his enemies aside). I felt bad seeing Cersei have to endure such a massive trek of shame through the streets of King’s Landing since it seemed like overkill (despite all the pain she’s caused). Of course, I knew that Jon’s death was coming, but I hate that they killed him for trying to save the Free Folk vs how he died in the books (with being stabbed after ordering the Knight’s Watch to attack the Boltons). I haven’t been this pissed by Game of Thrones since I saw the Red Wedding, and at least that resolved plot points rather than opening more unknown plot possibilities.

I have mixed feelings about this finale since it was well written and well made, it just pissed me off so badly that I almost would have written HBO an angry letter (not to GRRM as what happened recently). However, I know to respect another writer’s artistic vision (even if that vision is overly sexual and brutal as all hell). I think in the meanwhile I will go ahead and start reading the book series to pass the time until the next season comes out.

And with that, I will leave my favorite EDM instrumental “Heart Upon My Sleeve” since Game of Thrones is definitely the type of show to bring you around on an emotional roller coaster.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 5.9 Review “The Dance of Dragons”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: They tell’s me not too, but I still drinks it. (Butterda may be a hush a bush a push Leopold). Home Star Runner References aside, this blog contains Game of Thrones spoilers. There, I even spoiled the reference for you.*

So here I am once again making a review that is out a week later than other reviews. The Journalism student in me feels bad, but the blogger in me who’s doing all of this on an un-paid basis feels at ease. On that note, I think I’m going to go on a brief hiatus from blogging after reviewing tonight’s series finale of Game of Thrones. It’s been hard to keep on top of this stuff, and I want to focus more energy into my music with my band than my writing (we are working on making our first album). Anyways, I missed reviewing the series for the last two weeks since I’ve been super busy prepping for a promotion at work, getting a new car, and prepping for a show with my band.

To sum what I’ve missed: It was great to see Cersei gets her just desserts, the battle of the Wildings vs the White walkers was awesome, and holy crap I loved seeing Tyrion meet Dany. I’m just going straight to this week’s episode to save myself time and to catch up for the incoming series finale. Once again, I can’t comment heavily on the Books V Show debate as I’ve yet to read the books. Reading is a hobby I’ve fallen out of love with, I read Game of Thrones vicariously through Wikipedia though.

Since it’s the night of the season premiere, you can look elsewhere for summaries as I’m going to keep this review short and sweet. To start things off, I was really starting to like Stannis as a character; but this show once again twists the good out of anyone and makes them burn their own daughter alive. All thanks to the bastard Bolton’s squad torching the siege and food supplies for Stannis’s army. Stannis and Ramsay are different characters, but they’re both hungry for power and its lead them to do horrible things. To be fair, Stannis at least has some resemblance of a conscious vs Ramsay who literally gets off sexually to the suffering of others. As the episode progresses we can clearly see that Jon Snow is quickly becoming hated by the Night’s watch and that things are looking progressively more bleak for him (book fans know what I’m hinting at here).

Now the thing that I really loved about this episode was seeing Jorrah being a complete badass in the fighting pits and proving to Danearys that he is for forever loyal to her by killing that Son of the Harpy in a spectacular fashion. I also loved seeing Dany fly away to safety on her dragon. What I didn’t like was seeing Shireen Baratheon burned alive and how evil the Sons of The Harpy really are by just butchering random citizens. Beyond that, it was a pretty solid episode and I’m looking forward to seeing the series finale tonight.

Speaking of burning things down, here’s a song by Five Finger Death Punch that reminds me of how Stannis feels about his enemies.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 5.5 “Kill The Boy” Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: Abandon hope for happy plot resolutions all who enter here*

So I previously stated that I have yet to read the books, but I will admit that I’ve been cheating and reading plot spoilers on Wikipedia. I won’t spoil anything in the books that I read, vicariously. I will say that some of things I’ve read have been causing me great amounts of distress though. For now, the show is providing me with enough headaches. On the plus side, reading the graphic novels has taught me to love comic books again.

Anyways, this last episode was awesome in how awkward and intense the moments were between Ramsay, Sansa, and Reek. The dining room scene was especially true of how awkward the interaction was between Ramsay and Reek, but I tip my hat to all of the actors. I especially tip my hat to Alfie Allen for his portrayal of someone struggling with their identity. I enjoyed seeing Tyrion and Jorrah interact with one another finally, especially when they were reciting poetry on old Valeryia and how Tyrion loves his wine. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing Stannis talk to Samuel Tarley about how to kill the white walkers.

Speaking of Staniss, I do hope that he’s not making a tactical mistake bringing his wife and daughter along with him onto the battle field. I don’t put anything past the Boltons at this point, even flaying a young child living. I didn’t like knowing that Ser Jorrah has grey scale, that’s going to be an interesting subplot later on though. It’s unsettling to think of what can go wrong next for the remaining protagonists. I know better than to expect happy endings from GOT though.

No music video today since I wrote this review on my phone. I’ll try and post the next review on time tomorrow though.

-KCard

Game of Thrones 5.1 and 5.2 Review

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warning: Rhymes with “soiler warning” but is grammatically correct and leaves much less of an undesirable mess short of internet flame wars.*

Speaking of procrastination on a Sunday (refer to: my latest reblog). Oh well, I’m all caught up on Game of Thrones the show, but I still need to pick up the books to re-discover the love of reading. I did recently pick up volume 1 of the GOT graphic novel though (I’ll review that as well when I finish it).

Seeing as I have to review two weeks worth of episodes of I’m not going to bother with summaries. I’m just going to touch upon what I liked and didn’t like.

What I liked: Tyrion is still the same old lovable smart ass we’ve known from past seasons. “Can I drink myself to death on the road to Mereen?” I’m also happy to see Tyrion and Lord Varies working to restore Daenerys to power in Westeros. Another thing I enjoyed seeing was the chemistry between Stannis and Jon Snow. To me, Stannis is a more interesting character than he was in season two, and is an interesting second father figure to Jon. It’s also good to Brienne of Tarth still kicking ass, as usual. Lastly, the pacing this season ‘s wonderful given how much plot they have fit into the last few episodes.

What I didn’t like: Cersei Lannister is more evil than Joffrey and Ramsay IMO, she’s down right cold blooded and heartless. I can’t believe the level of hatred she feels towards Tyrion, and not caring for innocent dwarfs who died by beheading. At this point I shouldn’t be surprised though, Cersei has been the cause of great suffering for many through out the series. I also disliked how Danaerys had to have that rogue council member executed by beheading for killing that Son of The Harpy. It’s a stereotype of the series when the protagonists stubborn sense of righteousness causes their followers to loose faith in their leadership (refer to: Rob Stark).

What I’m hoping to see: I know a few spoilers from the books, but I have tried to not spoil too much for myself. I’m hoping that the next few episodes help us see where the wars to come are going to be headed, maybe season five is where they start deviating from the books more. I’m hoping for more happy endings than sad ones, but I won’t get my hopes up knowing GRRMs tendency to troll his fans.

If there’s anything else I should cover in my next (hopefully on time) review, just let me know in the comments section.

-KCard

Walking Dead Review: Episode 5.14 “Betrayal and Redemption”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Spoiler warnings: I post them not to piss people off, and spoiler warnings are still more socially accepted by Republicans than Trigger Warnings*

For those who haven’t figured out yet, I’m a moderate Democrat who used to a be a self proclaimed mega liberal. Now that conservatives in congress are looking to make laws about which bathroom a trans person can only use, I’m about ready to loose faith in humanity and politics all together (and a zombie apocalypse suddenly becomes vastly more appealing to me than it was before). Anyways, I loved this weeks episode of The Walking Dead a lot since it was a roller coaster ride of “Holy shit” and “that’s so epic” moments that it’s ridiculous. I’m not going to bother with summaries anymore, as you can watch the episode or read about the plot on Wikipedia now a days anyways (hey, that rhymes!)

To keep this review nice and short I’m going to state what I enjoyed, what I didn’t like, and what I hope to see next time.

What I enjoyed: One name, one red haired dude who kicks ass in time for St. Patricks Day: Abraham! I loved seeing this dude kick zombie ass medieval style with that weighted hammer and mace like weapon and him coining the phrase “mother-dick”, that was just fucking brilliant. I also enjoyed how they tied in Carol interacting with Sam from last week to where we found another comic based plot point: that Jesse and Sam are being beaten by Pete. Lastly, I equally enjoyed seeing that armored walker blow up from the grenade explosion and seeing Eugene finally grow some back bone and step up to save Tara.

What I didn’t enjoy: It’s to be expected that there’s going to be a lot of gore in a zombie apocalypse, but seeing Noah die the way he did (and how quickly he got killed off) was too much for me. Not that I couldn’t stomach the gore, but that it seemed pretty forced to me in how it was executed (just like how the fight between The Mountain and Prince Oberyn went down in Game of Thrones last season). Also, I know I wanted Aiden to get his come-up-ins, but I didn’t think he deserved to get impaled from a grenade explosion, and then disemboweled by walkers old school Romero style. Lastly, I did feel that drunk scene between Pete and Rick was incredibly awkward and out of place with the rest of the episode. They could have used those two minutes more productively.

What I hope to see next time: 

Lots of ass kicking and resolution of the tensions that are high in Alexandria would be nice, but I’m pretty sure next week will cover that. Looking forward to seeing Rick confront Pete, and if father Gabriel will continue to influence Deanna in convincing her that Rick’s group is evil (“Satan has many servants”). As for everything else, I’d say that the season finale should be just as explosive as the season opening. We shall see where things go from here.

Speaking of the works of Satan, here is on of my favorite Avenged Sevenfold songs to close out this review:

-Kcard

Walking Dead Review: “Forget”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*Emergency, emergency, spoilers are imminent. I repeat, spoilers are imminent Prepare to man your keyboards and be warned of butt-hurt comic fans*

I enjoyed this weeks episode simply for how many subplots they weaved together so quickly into just one hour. Before I go into my review, I want to touch up something that annoys me about the Fandom community: “source material loyalty” rants. For the record, I’ve read the first two compendiums of The Walking Dead comics and deeply enjoyed them. It’s fair to say that I like the show and the comics equally (but for different reasons). I get why many comic book fans say there’s too much filler in the show, but just because something is based off something else doesn’t mean it has to be 100% accurate to the source material. TWD show may deviate from the comics, but it’s probably the most loyal live action adaption of a zombie story in the history of zombie media; especially compared to the horrible Resident Evil film franchise and that god awful movie World War Z (which was basically a poor Max Brooks fan fiction).

As I step off my writer’s soapbox, I shall now step back onto my critiquing soapbox. As mentioned previously, this week’s episode had a lot going on in it. To summarize, the episode plays out showing how Rick’s group is adapting to life in Alexandria, and how most of the group is starting to enjoy life there. The exception that we’re seeing to this rule is Sasha who’s sharp shooting skills are sharp, but her grasp on reality is still dull. We see that Sasha is still haunted by all the recent deaths of her friends and loved ones, as she pointlessly shoots old photographs and gets royally pissed off at the people at the cocktail party later in the episode. Meanwhile Rick, Carol, and Daryl are letting Alexandria grow on them (but not without suspicion). Daryl has come out of shell and with help from Aaron to become another recruiter for Alexandria. Lastly, Carol scared the ever living Be-Jesus out of a child by making a speech that reminds me heavily of something Freddy Kreuger would say. Carol made this speech to hide the fact that she was stealing guns from the weapon storage building.

The only thing I didn’t really enjoy was seeing Buttons the horse become zombie food, and maybe how Sasha is becoming so emotional at this point (not that I blame her). Otherwise this episode was chocked full of awesome things such as getting to know Aaron’s back story, seeing the kiss between Aaron and his husband for how it pushed a boundary among the more politically conservative television audiences, and the kiss with Rick and Jessie for it’s shock value in how Rick has been cold and distant towards female characters for the last two seasons. Carol’s speech was also something that will go down in the history of this show as something that evokes fear into your soul (especially since the zombies have lost their shock factor by this point). Lastly, I enjoyed seeing Daryl warm up to the idea of helping Alexandria out by Aaron’s continued kindness towards him.

By the looks of things, some major stuff has yet to play out between all of these intersecting plot lines and the fact that we only have three episodes left in the season. Namely what’s going with Rick’s grasp on power, Sasha’s emotional state, and why the hell that Walker had a “W” on it’s forehead. Judging by the preview of next week’s episode, it would seem that another heard of walkers is making their way towards Alexandria, which we shall see how well the walls could withstand such an onslaught.

Speaking of forgetting and love story plots, here’s a badass song by Apolocayptica and Christina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil, “SOS (Anything but Love)” that reminds of the emotional struggles of characters on TWD:

-KCard

Walking Dead review: “What Happened and What’s Going On”

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

*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

Recap on Walking Dead 4:04 and 5:05

Posted on by kevinthemusicguy

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

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:

images (1)

 

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