Reviews – Page 27 – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 16 – Conquer

“Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is, is who you’re going to be. If you’re lucky.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

So, I wasn’t quite accurate last week when I referred to this season finale of The Walking Dead as “double length”. AMC’s bold assertion of a “90 minute season finale” actually referred to the timeslot in which it was broadcast, with its attendant commercials. In actual fact, this ep ran for nearly 65 minutes, about half again as long as the usual 42ish. The show’s done this before, but not since the season two opener; here, though, it wasn’t to provide big budget Walker spectacle but to give some quite complex character drama room to breathe, which it did very well. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 16 – Conquer”

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 15 – Try

“People die now, Deanna. They do. There’s times like this, when you can decide who and when – or it can be decided for you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s high drama, this week’s ep of The Walking Dead was a slower paced affair. But while it may not have been packed with action, the tension has never been higher between our gang and the sheltered residents of Alexandria. It hung palpably in the air, just waiting for the inevitable explosion; and when the balloon finally went up, it was no surprise that it was Rick who was the spark that lit the fuse. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 15 – Try”

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 14 – Spend

“You wanted a future. You need us for that.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After a slowish (but still interesting) couple of weeks to ease Rick and the gang (and the audience) into its new setting, this week The Walking Dead went back to full throttle. The uneasy relationship between the newcomers and the established Alexandrians shows no sign of getting any better, with the suspicion now coming from the other side. Meanwhile, we got back to some meaty Walker action with two expeditions outside the wall that didn’t go entirely as planned, leading to some dramatic consequences. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 14 – Spend”

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 13 – Forget

“Can you tell the difference between a good guy and a bad guy? Rick doesn’t seem to be much of an expert.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It was another week of intriguing character development in the newly optimistic Walking Dead, as the regular gang cautiously began to bond with the inhabitants of Alexandria. After the implication in last week’s ep that our heroes could well be going down a dark path that would lead them to be the ‘bad guys’, Deanna Monroe’s shrewd social engineering had them questioning whether that would even be necessary – and subtly implied that there may well be a greater threat waiting outside those impressive walls.

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The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 12–Remember

“What do I want? I want you to help us survive. I know you can help us to do that.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After a predictable Twitter backlash about last week’s fairly chaste kiss between two men, The Walking Dead’s new tone of hope continued to develop this week, in a thought-provoking, character-driven episode as the gang (and the audience) got to know more about their new refuge. After several years of having all their suspicions about such communities justified, their (and our) scepticism was understandable. But this ep seemed to show that Alexandria really was everything Aaron had claimed it would be; leaving us to wonder where the danger would come from this time. And in a final bombshell, we found out.

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The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 11–The Distance

“Just because we’re good people doesn’t mean we won’t kill you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Watching the previous episode, I had cause to remark that, after all the shit our heroes have been through, it was about time they caught a break. In this week’s ep, it seemed that that break had turned up in spades. The only trouble was, with Rick and the gang so hardened from their experiences in the post-apocalypse wilderness, could they find it in themselves to trust their luck?

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The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 10 – Them

“We do what we need to do. And then we get to live… We are the walking dead.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After the previous rather experimental season opener, the follow up was a much more conventional affair. That didn’t mean there wasn’t plenty to enjoy – depending on what it is you enjoy about The Walking Dead. If what you’re after is zombie action, violence and gore, but you don’t care much for character development, you were probably shit out of luck with this one.

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The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 9–What Happened and What’s Going On

“To face it. Keeping your eyes open. My dad always called it ‘paying the high cost of living’.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

As ever this time of year, I’ve been absent from blogging while having a whale of a time at the Los Angeles Gallifrey One Convention. It was as much fun as ever, but once again, I’m behind in looking at The Walking Dead, which returned from its mid-season break the night I arrived in California with a typically bleak but unusually experimental episode. On first viewing, I found it confusing and hard to follow (though that might have been the jetlag), but interestingly a second viewing gave me quite a different perspective.

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Doctor Who–Last Christmas

“Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time it might be the last time.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Do you know what, for me, is the biggest disappointment when I’m reading or watching a story? When it ends with some variant of “he woke up and it was all a dream”. For me it cheapens and discredits everything that went before, however good it might have been. It also provides licence for some very dodgy writing, with the inevitable defence that, if it’s a dream, it doesn’t have to make sense.

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The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 8–Coda

“You keep telling yourself you have to do what it takes just until this is all over. But it isn’t over. This is it.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

So this week we bid farewell to The Walking Dead for a little while – till February, anyway. As has been traditional since season 2, the show has taken a mid-season break, giving rise to that new style of cliffhanger, the “mid-season finale”. Compared to previous years – and indeed to this season’s slam-bang opener – this was a surprisingly low key affair, both in action and in stakes. In season 2, the mid-season finale brought an unusual bit of excitement to Hershel’s farm when the barn zombies broke free and we discovered the tragic fate of Sophia; season 3 brought the reunion of the Dixon brothers after Rick’s ‘terrorist attack’ on Woodbury; and season 4 had the spectacular destruction of the prison along with the deaths of several established characters.

Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 8–Coda”