Carl Alves's Blog, page 19

The Walking Dead: Time For After

Well, at least this episode wasn’t as bad as the last episode. Having said that, it was filled with flaws with only a couple of bright spots. After all of that constant fighting in the first couple of episodes, it seems as if there has been little movement in the story line. It’s hard to believe that the next episode is the mid-season finale that will allegedly have a shocking moment.

Rick and Jadis
This is without question my least favorite story line currently going on in The Walking Dead. I hate everything about it. Why the hell is Jadis and every member of her group incapable of talking in complete sentences? Then they walk in those stupid circular patterns all the time. Whenever they are on the screen, I can’t even watch it. It’s some of the worst television I have ever seen. Then when you add the utter idiocy of Rick approaching them even though they have already turned on him once, it’s more than I can take. Please, The Walking Dead showrunners, kill off Jadis and all of her followers and end this misery.

The Truck
In the interest of moving things along—I guess Daryl and company have the same consternation in the lack of plot progression in this season that I have—they decided to go against Rick’s plan of waiting out the Saviors. It’s a sound plan, because they will eventually run out of food and water as long as they prevent them from escaping. Regardless, the new plan was to plow into the Saviors building and allow the zombies to flood in there. I’m not sure why Michonne and Rosita were so up in arms. It was a very logical thing to do to inflict maximum damage on the Saviors and end this conflict quicker. They seemed to achieve their objective as zombies entered the opened building and began having breakfast with the Saviors.

Eugene
Coming from the corporate world, for the life of me I couldn’t understand why Negan didn’t create task forces to come up with plans on getting out of their predicament. His entire plan was to motivate Eugene by shaking his hand and hoping he’ll come up with a brilliant plan. This once again shows how lousy of a leader Negan is. I don’t understand how he became the leader of this group. His leadership skills rival that of Kim Jong Un.

This was a very Eugene centric episode. I like Eugene. He’s a quirky and different type of character than you typically see on a television show. He went through all sorts of internal strife in this episode, having his soul examined by Father Gabriel, being propped up by Negan, and having a gun put to his head by Dwight. The Eugene scenes were the highlight of this episode. I liked the dynamic between Eugene and Dwight, and never thought he was actually going to shoot him

Hopefully, the mid season finale will give a glimpse of hope in what has thus far been a really dreadful season.

The Walking Dead: Some Guy

After operating at breakneck speed, they slowed this episode down, which I think is a good thing. The entire episode focused on the aftermath of the Saviors mowing down King Ezekiel’s people with machine gun fire and the drama that ensued.

Carol
Carol proved to be resourceful as she single-handedly gunned down a bunch of the Saviors and saved King Ezekiel and Jerry for certain doom. I thought some parts of it were a little over the top and suffered from believability with what Carol was able to do all by herself, but overall I still think it worked. She had to make a choice in this episode—save Ezekiel and Jerry or prevent the Saviors from leaving with the ammunition. She showed her humanity by saving Ezekiel and Jerry. Like there was ever any doubt as to what she was going to do. Obviously, she has a thing for the King, so this was a no-brainer.

Daryl and Rick
Like those Saviors ever had a chance. This was a pretty fun, high-octane, action sequence. I especially enjoyed the part after Daryl wiped out on his motorcycle and Rick was pursuing the truck with the weapons, when he weaved out of the way so that Daryl could open fire on them from his motorcycle. Probably not the most realistic scene, that they could coordinate that type of maneuver without communicating with each other, but it had some serious style points.

Ezekiel
Ezekiel was the focal point of this episode. This is the first time they have really delved deeply into the King’s character. It had already been established that he was part stage actor, part carnie con-man, without a whole lot of steak underneath the sizzle. He gives a great speech and is able to get his people to believe in him, but isn’t an especially effective leader in a fight, and that was seen with his whole, “I’m still smiling” bit and his seemingly constant wanting to give up when Jerry and Carol were trying to save him. Even Shiva came in to save him only to become a tiger zombie (oh wait, that only happens in Game of Thrones) after the zombies tore him apart. RIP Shiva. I’m not sure how you were always able to distinguish friend from foe the way you did, but you were a good soldier while you lasted.

It looks like at long last we are going to get some sort of conclusion to the Negan, Father Gabriel, Savior compound situation. I don’t see why Father Gabriel wouldn’t just shoot him, seeing as how he had a gun on him, but the writers are hell bent on saving Negan even though the Allied forces have had about a dozen clear shots at killing him.

The Walking Dead: Monsters

I beat up last week’s episode pretty badly. There was all kinds of action but little context to the action, very little was explained, and there were some serious logic flaws. Well, this episode didn’t get much better. It was chocked full of many of the same problems. After a strong opening episode, this season is turning out to be pretty disappointing. Adding to the fact, there is no coherent strategy among the Allied forces. If the trio of Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie are going to be calling the shots, then they also need to let their people know about how they are supposed to combat the enemy and what they’re supposed to be doing with prisoners. And not only do both the Allies and the Saviors have inexhaustible supplies of ammo, apparently they never have to reload their weapons, or they just discard them for a new weapon.

Morgan and Jesus
Out of everything that was bad about this episode, the sequences between Morgan and Jesus were the absolute worse. Regardless of what their differences are, the two of them battling it out while hauling a chain gang of prisoners is utterly ludicrous, as evidenced by the fact that the prisoners fled while they were fighting. It would take two complete morons to actually have a raging battle in this situation. For the record, Jesus and his stance of pacifism and mercy is ridiculous, and I side with Morgan, but both of these characters need to be flogged.

Maggie
Whoever thought that the Hilltoppers could possibly have a worse leader than Gregory. Well, they just might have one in Maggie. I don’t know if she’s smoking crack over at the Hilltop, but she made two unimaginably awful decisions. The first is letting the aforementioned Gregory back into the fold. How long is it going to take Gregory to betray them? I would wager the very first opportunity that presents itself. Then, she signs off on the Jesus plan of keeping the captured Saviors as prisoners in a couple of trailers. They don’t have holding cells or prisons. How long is it going to take for the Saviors to try to break out. What are they going to do about feeding them? Do they have bathrooms for them to use? Do the writers actually think any of this through?

Ezekiel and Carol
First of all, this is a show about zombies. The director needs to keep it simple. There’s no reason to get all artsy by showing a scene followed immediately by a flashback and slowing it all down. They also telegraphed the disaster that was going to come when Ezekiel kept gloating how nobody had gotten killed (it was also preposterous that they got into a gun fight with about twenty armed Saviors and didn’t suffer a single casualty). Ezekiel was being so smug in this episode that I was almost hoping something bad would happen to him.

Daryl and Rick

This was yet another dichotomy in character philosophy. Whereas Rick was willing to show mercy to Morales and the lone Savior at the end, Daryl was not. He was going to destroy anyone in his path. If they want to beat the Saviors, they need to be more like Daryl. I like this new, dark version of Daryl. His character has evolved throughout the show. He has always had a dark edge to him, but he’s going full out Dark Knight Avenger here. I think there is a conflict that is going to come to blows between he and Rick.

Aaron
This episode saw the first death this season of a somewhat important character in Aaron’s significant other. But it’s hard to feel too much sympathy. Eric has barely had any screen time, and for the most part has been kind of useless. But I thought the two actors playing these characters delivered strong performances and made it work.

Movie Review: Thor Ragnarok

The first two movies in the Thor series were solid, entertaining movies, but definitely not among the better Marvel movies. The bar was not particularly high, and Thor:Ragnarok certainly exceeded it. This movie had a combination of loads of humor, great action scenes, an intelligent plot, and good special effects. But what I really enjoyed about the movie was its various layers. There was the back and forth battles between Thor and Loki in Asgard, Norway, and the planet Sakaar, the adaptation of the Planet Hulk storyline from Marvel comics featuring Hulk and Thor battling it out in an arena, the arrival of Hela and her banishment of Thor, the rebellion in Asgard, followed by the finale.

This movie boasted a strong cast of heavyweights like Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, and Idra Elba. It even had a cameo by Matt Damon, playing Loki in a play in Asgard. Although the movie had its share of serious moments, it had many light-hearted moments. On the way home from the movie theater, it was those light-hearted moments that my family and I shared together. As a student of Norse mythology, I was annoyed at how they re-wrote it for their own purposes. For instance, the character is Hel not Hela. I guess that was considered harsh language for the Disney folk. Hel is Loki’s daughter, not Odin’s. Loki is the one who leads the forces of evil in the Battle of Ragnarok, and so on and so forth. I’m sure most people who aren’t knowledgeable about Norse mythology aren’t going to care, but it annoyed me. Still, these are minor quibbles in what was one of the better Marvel movies made.

The Walking Dead: The Damned

It’s not taking long for The Walking Dead to go off the rails this season. The Damned was a complete mess. It was non-stop action with constant fighting, which one would think would be a good thing. But there was no setup. There was no context to what was going on. It would have been much better if they had clued the viewer into what was actually going, maybe ten to fifteen minutes at the beginning of the episode to explain the plan instead of the slow motion, isolation shots of various characters. The powers that be behind the show dropped the ball in what could have been an exciting, tension filled episode if they only bothered to let the viewer know what was happening and what it meant. The other thing that bothered me was the absolute endless amount of ammunition these factions have. Not only do they apparently have the ammunitions supply that only a US military base could provide, but apparently they don’t have to reload when they are shooting either.

Morgan
Morgan became unhinged in this past episode, and I like this version of Morgan far more than the pacifist version of Morgan. Now, they have Jesus playing that role, and things didn’t work out so well for him. Morgan has become The Terminator, just going around obliterating everything in his path. I suppose the theme of this episode is what combat and war can do to a person. Jesus has to talk Morgan off the ledge at the end of this episode, but I like Terminator Morgan.

Jesus
Apparently, there is a contractual obligation that there has to be a minimum of one pacifist among the Allied Forces at all times, and since Morgan has become the Terminator, Jesus has become the pacifist. And just like it didn’t work out so well for Morgan, it also doesn’t work so well for Jesus, as seen when he turns his back on a Savior prisoner, only to have that same guy turn on him and put a gun to his head. Yes, Jesus used his ninja skills to get out of the situation, but he didn’t even learn his lesson that in a war, you can’t be kind and benevolent to your enemy.

Ezekiel and Carol
I had no idea what this group was doing. As the episode wore on, I was getting some semblance of an idea of what the other groups were doing, but Ezekiel, Carol, and Company were marching to somewhere for some reason that never was established in this episode. For some reason, they needed Sheeba to bite the face off of a man they were apparently chasing, but it seemed to be a big setup to use Zeke’s tiger and to have philosophical conversations between Ezekiel and Carol. This whole plot line was an epic fail.

Aaron

Yet another shootout that didn’t seem to have any rhyme or reason. In this case, the group led by Aaron are trying to pin down a group of Saviors so that Rick and company can do their thing. This was so telegraphed that Eric, Aaron’s significant other, was going to bite the dust or at least get badly injured. Eric has had about five minutes of air time in this entire series, and they kept focusing on him over and over again, so it came as no surprise when he had been shot and was bleeding out. By the way, besides having an endless supply of ammo, none of these people can shoot if their lives depended on it (which it did).

Rick
So, apparently Rick, Daryl and company were trying to get a cache of weapons but it was never established whether or not this was at the main Savior compound or some outpost. They kill a bunch of people and Rick comes across an abandoned baby. I’m not sure what happens to the baby, but apparently this baby doesn’t cry despite all of the gunfire and is still abandoned at the end of this exchange. The episode ends with the reemergence of Morales, who I wouldn’t have recognized except that I just recently watched season one with my son, who has started watching the series. Morales is with the Saviors now, and he has Rick at gun point, when he tells Rick that it’s all over and he calls the Saviors and tells Rick that they are coming back. But who did he call and how are they coming back? The main Savior compound has been overrun by zombies. Negan is surrounded in a trailer with Father Gabriel by zombies. How could they possibly be in a position to come to wherever they are right now with force? Did the writers suddenly become brain-dead like the zombies they write about? What’s going on?

Perhaps you’re not as confused as I am, but boy did this episode leave a lot to be desired.

The Orpan Choir by Sophie Hannah

The Orphan Choir fails from the very beginning and has no chance at succeeding because the protagonist, who is in every scene of the novel, is inherently unlikeable. Louise Beeston is utterly neurotic and annoying. She is constantly complaining about everything and anything, from her neighbor’s loud music, to her unsympathetic neighbors, to government officials who won’t listen to her. She is like one of those protestors who protests all of the time that it eventually becomes background noise, and the reason for the protest is lost. The most egregious aspect of her character is her constant complaining that the school, which is some choir boarding school, is stealing her son, even though she agreed to let him go to the school. I grew so tired of Louise that I could barely finish reading this.



Louise continues to hear a choir that only she can hear. It was so ridiculous how insistent she was that her sinister neighbor was behind the ominous choir, even when it would have been absolutely impossible for him to have been responsible for it. The novel was short, yet still hard to get through. The twist at the end wasn’t bad, but by that point I just didn’t really care anymore and wanted it to be over. This novel is a prime example that a story simply can’t succeed if the main character is an unlikeable bore. Therefore, I would advise staying away from this book.

The Walking Dead: Mercy

Another season of The Walking Dead is upon us. There was some good and some bad in Mercy, but overall I give it a thumbs up. Without further ado, let’s get to the break down.



The Speech

The show starts with a rah-rah speech where Rick, Ezekiel, and the new leader of the Hilltoppers, Maggie, rally the troops about their upcoming attack on the battle. Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick, did a strong job of delivering this speech, and it was a good setup for the events that were about to unfold.



The Plan

The plan itself was sound. Negan’s forces are well-fortified inside of the Saviors compound. They have lots of weapons and greater numbers than the Allied forces (Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom). So, instead of attacking them head on, they devised a plan to have the zombies do the work for them by providing a horde of zombies entrance into the compound. That’s all well and good, but this show is drifting from fiction to fantasy with the way it was done. First of all, we’re about five years or so into the zombie apocalypse. How could they possibly have this mand weapons and especially the ammunition used to pull this off. During their attack, they shot up the outside at will with a seemingly endless supply of bullets. Then there were the dozen or so explosions that they used to guide the zombies to the compound. Once again, a good strategy, but where the hell did they come up with all of these explosions? It seems that once upon a time, the writers took this issue seriously. Now, they don’t seem to care about it, and will just give the Allied forces (and the Saviors) as much ammo as they can possibly ever need.



Negan

It drives me crazy that the characters on this show have had about a thousand opportunities to kill Negan, but never take the shot. Case in point in this episode, before Rick starts his conversation with Negan, he had him in his sights, and could have taken him out, but didn’t. Dwight, on a daily basis, has opportunities to take out Negan, and doesn’t. And then, at the very end, Father Gabriel has a gun in his friggin’ hands, Negan shows up, and he doesn’t try to shoot him. What the hell is wrong with these characters? All of this leads me to believe that Negan is in this for the long whole. I think he survives this entire season, and will be around to wreak havoc at least into next year.



What Does this All Mean



Based on what took place in this episode, it is readily apparent that the zombies will overrun the Saviors. This means that the Saviors will have to be on the run and abandon their home. It doesn’t mean that the Saviors are done far. I think they regroup and counter-attack. The war will continue all season long, and as evidenced by this episode, they have no intention whatsoever of killing off Negan.



Random thoughts

Eugene is full on Negan. I don’t think this is some sort of subterfuge. He has fully switched sides.
Gregory, the former leader of the Hilltoppers is such a tool, and Father Gabriel is a total moron for trying to save him. Just what did he think was going to happen?
I liked the communication method between Dwight and Daryl with the crossbow message.
Negan seriously needs to hire some new lookouts. Just what were these people looking out for? They were taken out with no problem, while their heads were in the clouds.
The old man Rick dream sequence seemed utterly pointless. We all know that there will never be a time when Rick and company can live in peace happily ever after. Robert Kirkman, the show runners, and AMC have no intention of ever ending this show as long as interest and ratings are still good.

Tower Hil by Sarah Pinborough

Set in a small university town in rural Maine, things go haywire when an imposter priest and a university professor arrive. Both the students and faculty of the university, as well as the townspeople fall under their spell and act like mindless zombies. Only Liz and Steve, as well as a couple of the residents are unaffected by the hypnotic effects of the two newcomers, who have seriously nefarious plans that involve the resurrection of the children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve.



Every time I read a Sarah Pinbrough novel, she delivers, and Tower Hill is no exception. She creates a desolate and bleak setting that really creates a sense of foreboding and puts the reader in just the right mood for this horror novel. At first, it seems as if the stakes in the novel are not big enough, however as the plan of the two strangers unfolds, it becomes clear that what they are trying to do would not only have major ramifications in this small town, but the world at large. The characters are well crafted, with the exception of Gray, who comes off to me as a bit of a mustache twirling villain. There is a strong buildup and a good climax. The horror elements are well done, although there are some elements of the story that stretch believability, and are used strictly as convenient plot devices. You could do much worse than picking up this fine horror novel.

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

The Last Werewolf was a painful book to read, or listen to as was the case with the medium I chose. It was tedious, slow paced, and loaded with scene after scene of gratuitous sex. Jake Marlowe is the last werewolf (not actually but it is the title of the book). The werewolves have been hunted down to near extinction, and after a couple of hundred years, Jake is tired of living. He is reminiscent of so many of the self-loathing, oozing with fatigue of being alive, squishy vampires in fiction. The only difference is that he’s a werewolf. This character was such a bore that it was hard to take, and more than once I wanted to stop reading, but somehow I soldiered through to the bitter end, although I lost interest about half way through the book. Apparently, in this world, werewolves have to have sex all of the time which is the reason for all of the gratuitous sex scenes.



I think the author was going for gritty, but for me it came off as hollow. Marlowe kept flip flopping from wanting to live, to wanting to die, and back again that it was hard to tell what his motivation. It would have been easier to swallow if there was a single antagonist, but there were multiple bad guys and nobody I could root for. I’d like to give some positive feedbck, but I can’t really think of anything. I would advise skipping this novel.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

Ivan Vorpatril is a bachelor who comes from a powerful family and has a fairly important job, but lacks any serious ambition and enjoys his bachelor lifecyle. When his cousin convinces him to use his bachelor prowess to charm Tej Arqua in an effort to find out who she is, the situation unravels and he marries her to save her and himself from a load of trouble. That’s what sets this narrative in motion, and while his relationship with Tej grows from a marriage to escape trouble, it morphs into something more. Meanwhile, Ivan’s problems only get more complicated.



This was a fun novel with some interesting twists. I liked both Ivan and Tej as characters, and found characterization in general to be a strong point. Although nothing particularly Earth-shattering took place in this story in terms of plot, I did find it to be an interesting narrative. The real downsides for me were about pacing. I thought at times the novel got bogged down in unnecessary backstory and going on about characters and events that were not pertinent to this novel. As a result, I thought it was overly long and could have stood chopping off about fifty or so pages. That would have made for a tighter read that flowed better. Having said that, I still found the novel to be enjoyable. This is the first novel by Lois McMaster Bujold that I have read, and I think I will read some more.