Month: March 2016

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 15 – East

“I’m not right. There is no right. There’s just the wrong that doesn’t pull you down.”

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(SPOILER WARNING!)

Just one more ep to go of this season, and for the second week in a row the denizens of The Walking Dead are acting pretty stupidly, with yet more inadvisable expeditions beyond Alexandria’s comforting walls on the eve of war. As some consolation, at least their motives this week made more sense than last week’s. Daryl was motivated by guilt and hotheaded rage, Carol by her conscience, and the rest because they cared about the idiots who’d already gone out there. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 15 – East”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 14 – Twice As Far

“You wanna live, you take chances. That’s how it is.”

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(SPOILER WARNING!)

After the tumultuous events of the last couple of weeks, this week’s Walking Dead was one of those “take a breather” eps so common before the Stonking Big Finale. Not filler exactly, as there was plenty of character development and groundwork laid for plots to come; nevertheless, it was an uneven episode. There was plenty of good stuff here, but it all hinged on an unlikely display of stupidity by our veteran survivors as they chose the worst possible time to go on two inadvisable foraging trips with two comparative rookies. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 14 – Twice As Far”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 13 – The Same Boat

“You’re not the good guys. You ought to know that.”

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(SPOILER WARNING!)

After a Western ep and a war movie ep, two things the show does repeatedly, this week’s out of format The Walking Dead took on a new genre. This was a taut, claustrophobic hostage thriller, told almost in real time, and with only two of the regular cast present for most of it. If you were wanting gut-ripping Walker action, or firefights with the latest group of psychos, you were out of luck. But if you wanted an intriguing, character-driven story, you came to the right place. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 13 – The Same Boat”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 12 – Not Tomorrow Yet

“We know exactly what this is. We don’t shy from it. We live. We have to kill them all.”

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(SPOILER WARNING!)

There’s an old military maxim, coined in the 19th century, that no plan survives contact with the enemy. Switching gear from Western to war movie again, this week’s ep of The Walking Dead was a textbook demonstration of that, as we followed Rick and his meticulous planning to lead the gang to Savior HQ, with the ultimate objective of killing them all in their sleep. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 12 – Not Tomorrow Yet”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 11 – Knots Untie

“Your world’s about to get a whole lot bigger.”

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(SPOILER WARNING!)

I frequently bang on on this blog about how The Walking Dead tends to appropriate the tropes of both war movies and Westerns (outside of its obvious genre of post-apocalyptic horror). It was at it again this week, and like a couple of weeks ago, the most obvious source of inspiration was The Magnificent Seven. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 11 – Knots Untie”