“I wish you good fortune in the wars to come. Now it begins.”
(SPOILER WARNING)
Amid the sprawling cast and multifarious plotlines of Game of Thrones, it’s actually rather easy to forget some of the characters exist (or at least, haven’ been killed yet). But as this week’s ep showed, that gives the showrunners the chance to use their newfound freedom, and show us what happened to them. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 3 – Oathbreaker”
“The gods won’t mind. They spill more blood than the rest of us combined.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It was another lively episode of Game of Thrones this week – not so much in terms of action, but in terms of the plot magnitude of events. Once more, it’s hard to be sure how much of this is the intent of showrunners Benioff and Weiss, and how much is based on what George RR Martin has told them about forthcoming plot. Still, this week saw yet more seismic shifts in Westeros’ balance of power, as the cull of important characters continued from last week. And yet I suspect that what will cause the most kerfuffle on the internet is not the characters who died as the one who didn’t. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 2 – Home”
“Fuck prophecy. Fuck fate. Fuck everyone who isn’t us.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
So, we stride boldly into uncharted territory as Game of Thrones returns for its first season premiere Since The Books Ran Out. As if to show the training wheels were off, showrunners Benioff and Weiss immediately started running with radically new plotlines (though to be fair it might be based on what George RR Martin told them). This involved interspersing the usual collection of short establishing vignettes in the season premiere with some massive plot twists, and some seismic shifts in Westeros’ balance of power. Continue reading “Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 1 – The Red Woman”
“It’s mob rule on land. What makes you think it’s any different out here?”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After a storming season finale for AMC’s ratings behemoth The Walking Dead, the long wait for resolution to that controversial cliffhanger ending is now being filled by the return of previously lacklustre spinoff Fear the Walking Dead. Fear’s first season was mediocre at best, seemingly taking an age to reach the point of its zombie apocalypse, then avoiding showing us any of the actual detail in favour of following a group of unlikeable characters in a military quarantine. It was (eventually) interesting enough, but felt like a missed opportunity. Continue reading “Fear the Walking Dead: Season 2, Episode 1 – Monster”
“What if it’s the last day on Earth for you? Or for someone you love?”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
Wow, that was good! Of late, Walking Dead season finales have tended to be rather low key; it’s been the mid-season finales that packed the punch. This time, the mid-season finale was functional but forgettable; I even forgot to review it. This, though, more than made up for it. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 16 – The Last Day on Earth”
“I’m not right. There is no right. There’s just the wrong that doesn’t pull you down.”
(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”
“You wanna live, you take chances. That’s how it is.”
(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”
“You’re not the good guys. You ought to know that.”
(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”
“We know exactly what this is. We don’t shy from it. We live. We have to kill them all.”
(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”
“Your world’s about to get a whole lot bigger.”
(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”
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