Simon’s Incoherent Blog

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 6 – The Last Time

“Love doesn’t die. LOVE… DOESN’T… DIE!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, that’s over. A plotline that’s been six years in the making, stretching across no fewer than four TV series, with details eked out crumb by crumb, has finally come to an end. Was it a satisfying one?

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 5 – Become

“Protect the people from the people.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s (admittedly well-written) two-hander saw Rick and Michonne solving all their relationship difficulties in the most effective day of couples counselling the world has ever seen, this week saw them going on honeymoon.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 4 – What We

“I don’t like who you are with them. What they make you. It isn’t you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, contrary to my expectations after last week’s Big Cliffhanger, Rick and Michonne didn’t have parachutes after all. Luckily for them, they were over water when Michonne dragged them both out of the helicopter. Even more luckily, there was a handy luxury condominium nearby, which still had power, supplies, and a nice clean bed for our heroes to, er, reconnect.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 3 – Bye

“You didn’t threaten me, or the people I loved, when I was trying to get away before.”
“That’s because I knew you couldn’t.”
“So what’s changed?”
“You two together? You can do anything.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Well, all the pieces are finally in place, and now the true plot of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live can finally get going. Yes, it’s been fun and all catching up with how Rick and Michonne got back together, and we’ve had the setup of the Civic Republic and its totalitarian military. But what we really want to know is: how are Rick and Michonne going to win?

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 2 – Gone

“My name is Michonne. I lost someone. Years ago. But I just found out that he might… I just found out that he’s alive.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

As expected, after last week’s focus on Rick, this second instalment of The Ones Who Live was a Michonne-centric episode, catching us up on how the other half of TWD’s power couple found herself confronting her long lost beloved in the aftermath of shooting down his CRM helicopter.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – Episode 1 – Years

“We don’t die. We’re the ones who live.” – Michonne, The Walking Dead season 8

(SPOILER WARNING!)

I used to love The Walking Dead.

Sure, it had a shaky start. A fairly assured first season of an economic six episodes was followed by a draggy second of thirteen, in which the characters stood around arguing on a farm and occasionally a zombie showed up. But by the third and fourth seasons, with the group ensconced in the prison and at war with David Morrissey’s charismatic Governor, the show had truly found its feet and was compulsive viewing.

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023: The Church on Ruby Road

“It isn’t magic – it’s a different kind of physics.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Nice to see the Doctor back on Christmas Day again! For all that Russell T Davies is keeping to the continuity established by his predecessor, it seems one thing he was set on was abandoning Chris Chibnall’s setting of the “Christmas” special on New Year’s Day, and returning the show to the Day itself.

Doctor Who: 2023 Special #3 – The Giggle

“You’ll be someone else. It doesn’t matter who. Cause every single one of you is fantastic.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

These specials have been an interesting side trip into the world of Doctor Who, giving us the second shortest-lived (onscreen) incarnation of the Doctor, reinvigorating the show while acknowledging everything that went before. It’s easy to imagine, after these, that we’ll still be watching Doctor Who in several years’ time. But the new question is – just how many?

Doctor Who: 2023 Special #2 – Wild Blue Yonder

“There’s something on this ship that’s so bad the TARDIS ran away?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

This second Special to celebrate Doctor Who’s 60^th anniversary perfectly demonstrated the show’s flexibility by being almost totally different from the last. A far future, alien, sci-fi setting rather than contemporary Earth; only two (ish) characters rather than the previous ensemble; and some of the weird, weird concepts that only science fantasy can do. Diverted by Donna’s coffee-spilling goof at the end of the previous ep, our dynamic duo found themselves trapped on a ghostly, seemingly empty starship at the very edge of the universe – only to find they weren’t as alone as they thought.

Doctor Who: 2023 Special #1 – The Star Beast

“Why did this face come back? To say goodbye?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Now that was more like it.

Don’t get me wrong, I know showrunners are all a matter of taste, and some people really loved Chris Chibnall’s run on Doctor Who. Even I had episodes that I really loved, and moments that stirred my feelings. But generally, for me, it was often clumsy, and incoherent (☹) and too satisfied with cramming in spectacle when character-driven stories would have worked better. And Steven Moffat (who I did enjoy while others didn’t) had his failings too – chiefly that his delight in timey-wimey puzzles often overshadowed his characters, and sometimes drowned the emotional beats of stories.