“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”
“There’s still people out there, and they’re still people. We should bring em in.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
With the first half of season six having covered a tumultuous three days or so of peril, last week’s mid-season opener provided a capstone, and this week saw The Walking Dead’s heroes getting to relax for a while, and take stock. While Angela Kang’s script was a fairly conventional A Plot/B Plot mix, this actually felt like an out of format episode, for one simple reason – the gang were actually happy. Continue reading “The Walking Dead:Season 6, Episode 10 – The Next World”
“No-one gets to clock out today. And hell – this is a story they’re going to tell.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
As I caught up on the return of The Walking Dead after my usual sojourn to LA this year, it occurred to me that I never did get round to writing a review of last year’s mid-season finale. Not that there was anything wrong with it, particularly; there were some tense set pieces, and some good character action. But basically, it was the third act of every zombie movie ever made – the inevitable bit where the hordes of hungry undead break into our heroes’ sanctuary, and carnage ensues. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 9 – No Way Out”
“ ‘They are not all successes, Watson,’ said he. ‘But there are some pretty little problems among them. Here’s the record of the Tarleton murders, and the case of Vamberry, the wine merchant, and the adventure of the old Russian woman, and the singular affair of the aluminium crutch, as well as a full account of Ricoletti of the club-foot, and his abominable wife….’ “ – From the journals of Dr John H Watson MD, The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
(SPOILER WARNING!)
It’s not quite a festive tradition as entrenched as the Doctor Who Christmas special, but it’s becoming a pattern that, every couple of years or so, Steven Moffat will deign to present us with a new episode of the sporadic Sherlock on New Year’s Day. Last time this happened, it felt for me like the series’ first major misstep, as Moffat tried to have his cake and eat it by spending half the episode playing with the fans’ anticipated explanations for Sherlock’s survival then never actually explaining it. As if to smirkingly revel further in that sleight of hand, a glancing reference to it here seemed to give a true explanation, but who knows? Continue reading “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride”
“Nothing’s sad till it’s over. Then everything is.”
(SPOILER WARNING!)
After last week’s exemplary step into experimental drama, I have to say I wasn’t overly surprised to find this week’s series finale of Doctor Who was very much back to business as usual for Steven Moffat. As ever,we had a script brimming over with fantastic ideas, many of which were never properly developed. As ever, we had a tricksy, non-linear narrative which gradually gave up the answers. As ever, there were fan-pleasing references everywhere. And as ever, the death of a major character turned out not to be so permanent after all. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 12 – Hell Bent”
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