What Lisa Watched Last Night: Do No Harm (dir. by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, once I had watched the new episodes of Survivor and South Park and the series finale of One Tree Hill (yes, it was still on the air), I decided to watch a Lifetime movie before bedtime. (And by bedtime, I mean time that I spent in bed because I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night.) Anyway, the movie that I ended up watching was called Do No Harm.

Why Was I Watching It?

Because it was a Lifetime movie, of course! As if you had to ask…

As well, Do No Harm is the latest made-for-TV Canadian film to make its American “world premiere” on the Lifetime Movie Network. At times, it seems like every single film that pops up on Lifetime was sent to us by Canada. Certainly, the best ones do. Myself, I love watching these films and spotting the scenes where Montreal is obviously standing in for New York City. I also enjoy how these films always seem to star a vaguely recognizable American TV star and a bunch of pleasant and polite people who all have French last names. Proud American that I am, I occasionally fantasize about running off to Canada and Lifetime and Degrassi are to blame…

What Was It About?

So, Emily Edmunds (played by Deanna Russo) is a fashion designer who is engaged to the perfect guy but then, a few days before their wedding, her fiancée goes on a business trip and, a few hours after he leaves, Emily sees a news report about how his plane has crashed and there’s no survivors so Emily decides to kill herself but since there wouldn’t be a movie if she died after the first 15 minutes, Emily is saved and ends up getting checked into a mental hospital where she bonds with her therapist Dr. Thorne (Lauren Holly) but — uh oh! — it turns out that Dr. Thorne has some issues of her own and ends up developing a psychotic obsession on Emily and when Emily is finally all like, “Leave me alone, psycho,” Dr. Thorne responds by kidnapping Emily and then murdering a lot of people with a shotgun, poison, and finally some hit-and-run driving.

Hold on a minute, let me catch my breath.

Did you get all that?

What Worked?

In the great tradition of low-budget Canadian filmmaking, this movie was ultimately so bad that it was good. It’s hard not to admire how the filmmakers take a genuinely intriguing premise and then portray it in a way that is so heavy-handed and ludicrous that you can’t help but watch.

Lauren Holly probably gives the best performance of her career as a caring therapist who, oddly enough, turns out to be a pretty efficient diabolical mastermind. What I love about films like this is how the villain can go from being sympathetic to creepy to brilliant to remarkable stupid depending on how much time is left in the movie.

I also love how, in these movies, nobody will ever believe that main character even if there’s like a thousand reasons that they should. Emily’s best friend actually leaves a message in Emily’s voice mail while she’s in the process of being killed by Dr. Thorne and yet not even that is enough to get Thorne arrested. It reminded me of that episode of South Park where Cartman pretends to be a psychic and gets everyone but the actual serial killer arrested.

That was a really funny episode, by the way.

What Didn’t Work?

Unfortunately, you really can’t have “so bad it’s good” without the bad. Then again, this was a Lifetime movie and it kept me entertained so, as far as I’m concerned, it all worked.

“Oh My God! Just like me!” Moments

Needless to say, I’ve seen a few therapists over the years and every single one of them was obsessed with me.

Or, at least, I always assumed they were.

In reality, it was always kind of disappointing for me to realize that they had other patients who spent just as much time with them as I did.

Bleh.

Lessons Learned:

I may, in the future, spend a year living in Canada but I’ll never see a Canadian psychiatrist.

Review: Game of Thrones S2E01 “The North Remembers”

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Arleigh

“The night is dark and full of terrors old man, but the fire burns them all away.” — Melisandre

George R.R. Martin’s medieval fantasy epic novel series, A Song of Ice and Fire, made a triumphant debut on HBO with Game of Thrones in the Spring of 2010. The show was headed to be a big success due to the huge fan-base that have read and re-read the novels, but the show was able to attract those who wouldn’t know George R.R. Martin or his books. This was the show that further cemented the notion that genre has become the ruling king of quality tv.

A new season of Game of Thrones now arrives with the premiere episode titled “The North Remembers” and while it shows Robb Stark (now proclaimed King of the North by his bannerman and liegelords) flush with success against the forces of House Lannisters and thus King Joffrey at King’s Landing the episode also weaves in an ominous tone that looks to dominate this second season. It’s a season based mostly on the second novel in the series titled A Clash of Kings and tonight’s episode has set-up not just King Robb Stark of the North against King Joffrey Baratheon at King’s Landing, but the old king’s two surviving brothers (elder brother Stannis Baratheon at the Isle of Dragonstone and younger brother Renly Baratheon at Storm’s End) as these four kings begin their path into a clash for the Iron Throne.

One thing to be said about tonight’s episode is just how much happens throughout it’s running time. We see how life since the execution of Ned Stark has changed the kingdom of Westeros for the worst as refugees fleeing the war between Lannister and Stark has made things near-untenable in King’s Landing. While the peasants and commoners of the kingdom suffer we’re quickly re-introduced to the author of the war in King Joffrey (played with an almost psychotic glee by Jack Gleeson) who hold’s knightly games to commemorate his naming day and plays at being a conquering monarch by redecorating the throne room. Trying to manage this petulant boy king is both his manipulative mother, Cersei Lannister, and his dwarf uncle Tyrion Lannister who also has been appointed the latest Hand of the King to help advise.

While we see the North with Robb sending peace offerings and terms to the Lannisters in the hope of getting his sisters (Sansa and Arya) back we also see him in a nice scene confronting Jaime Lannister still his prisoner and still trying to gain an upper-hand on the young king. It’s a huge difference winning battles can do to a young man’s confidence as Jaime’s veiled insults about his age only amuses Robb. It helps that his direwolf looks to have grown double in size since we last saw Greywind. The episode went a long way to showing Robb not just becoming King of the North in name, but also in manner and deeds.

Tonight’s episode might have been called “The North Remembers” but it’s the arrival of Melisandre of Asshai (Carice van Houten), the priestess of R’hllor (Lord of the Light) and her sway over Stannis Baratheon that adds a sense of the magical to what had been a series steeped heavily in medieval realism. It’s the addition of Melisandre and her seeming real gift for magic plus a glimpse of Daenerys’ dragons that offers glimpses to a world of magic and shadows behind the reality of war and the suffering it puts a kingdom’s people through.

As one could see this is quite a lot for one episode to juggle, but series director Alan Taylor has done a great job of keeping things from becoming too confusing to follow. Even the dark turn into infanticide and bloody purge in the end of the episode was a consequence born out of one of the king’s advisors in Petyr Belish (aka Littlefinger) who thought himself witty and clever by telling the Queen Regent Cersei that he knew exactly what had gone on between her and Jaime and the true parentage of King Joffrey. Taylor kept the episode from being bogged down in one area but at the same time still gives each character in the episode some character growth. Everyone looks to have aged and grown since last season and some for the better (Tyrion enjoying the fruits of being Hand of the King but also reveling in the fact that of all his father’s children it is he who is now trusted and not the disappointment) while others for the worst (Joffrey continuing his path towards Caligula-level mania).

One thing tonight’s busy episode has done is re-introduce the show’s audience to the world of the Seven Kingdoms and it’s many interesting characters and stories that came out of season one. It’s a world that continues to be a complex web of intrigue, moral greyness and ambiguity. While we see certain character on the extreme spectrum of right and wrong (Stannis and Joffrey respectively) we’re truly shown by tonight’s season premiere that everyone has their own agenda. Even characters we might have been led to believe as good show signs of cruelty while those we’re to see as amoral show signs of benevolence.

“The North Remembers” was a great start to what looks to be a season that will blow the first season out of the water (I don’t just mean because of the epic Battle of Blackwater that would highlight the season), but it also showed that despite being a show that had a legion’s worth of characters and subplots it still remained must-see and captivating to watch. Let the clash of kings commence.

Notes

It was great to see the opening title sequence once more and this time with the addition of Dragonstone to the stable of clockwork strongholds that has become famous.
We see Sansa Stark still pretty much a hostage of King Joffrey and trying to keep her head by parroting what he wants to hear. She did redeem herself somewhat by keeping a drunkard looking to become a knight from being drowned to death in wine and instead becoming Joffrey’s latest court fool.
Tyrion’s entrance in the same scene may not have had him slapping Joffrey (a meme that grew out of a slapping scene early in season 1), but his veiled insults at Joffrey’s ability to rule as king shows us why Peter Dinklage was deserving of winning that Emmy for his role as Tyrion Lannister.
The scene with Tyrion visiting his mistress Shae in the manor he had set her up in King’s Landing was brief but showed just how much Tyrion seemed happiest when close to her. Though it still doesn’t stop him from keeping her secret from everyone especially his father.
Once again I like to point out just how huge the direwolf looked as it growled menacingly at Jaime Lannister while Robb Stark held onto it. It’s almost as if Robb had to keep Greywind from lunging forward to rip the Kingslayer’s throat out. Maybe Greywind thinks Jaime was partly responsible for the death of Sansa’s direwolf Lady in the first season.
Speaking of direwolves…we get more clues that the Stark boys may be closer to their direwolves more than we thought as Bran Stark back in Winterfell dreams of roaming the forest near the God’s Wood and seeing it all through the eyes of his direwolf Summer.
HODOR! HODOR! HODOR!
Great sequence between Littlefinger and Cersei in the castle courtyard. Littlefinger may think of himself as the smartest and cleverest man in King’s Landing, but he still finds himself outmaneuvered, manipulated and laid low by Cersei. Those who doubted that Lena Headey would make for a great Cersei shouldn’t be having any more doubts about that casting choice with tonight’s episode.
We get a hint at the future introduction of what could be another self-proclaimed king in what looks to be quite a busy batch already with Theon Greyjoy asking to be sent back to the Iron Isle to speak with his father, Balon Greyjoy, on behalf of Robb who will need those hundred of Greyjoy ships to take on King’s Landing.
Was surprised to see Robert Pugh as Craster. I thought he looked like Shipmaster Mr. Allen from Master and Commander.
Also great to see Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos the Onion Knight who looks to be the clear-headed counsel to Stannis Baratheon.
Was disappointed there was very little of one of the show’s more interesting players in Varys the Spider, but it looks like he gets to have a juicy little scene in next week’s episode, “The Night Lands”.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E13 “Beside the Dying Fire”

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Arleigh

“Christ promised a resurrection of the dead. I just thought he had a little something different in mind.” — Hershel Greene

[spoilers within]

We’ve finally come to the season 2 finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The previous episode, “Better Angels”, saw a second integral character die as a set-up to what looks to be pivotal finale.

This season has been plagued from the beginning with infighting between it’s original showrunner in Frank Darabont and it’s network in AMC. Mirroring the very internal struggle between two very powerful characters within the show some worried that this struggle between Darabont and AMC would affect the show’s quality. While the first half showed that Darabont’s slow-burn narrative style was drawing some grumblings from the show’s audience it still didn’t keep it from getting huge ratings numbers with each episode shown.

The second half of the season saw a change in showrunner as Glen Mazzara (veteran writer and tv showrunner) took over the show’s creative reins. From the very episode of the second half we could see a change in the show’s pacing. There was a sense of desperation in the characters as they tried to deal with the death of Sophia during the episode before the mid-season break. With the additional deaths of the show’s two extreme ideologies in Dale and Shane we find the group’s leader in Rick very close to the tipping point.

“Beside the Dying Fire” begins with a flashback cold opening going back to the show’s pilot episode. We see zombies feeding on what looks like the remains of Rick’s horse during his failed attempt to enter Atlanta. As the zombies feed a passing helicopter distracts and gets the attention of the zombies who soon begin following in the same direction it flew on. The opening doesn’t show how much time passed between that flyover Atlanta and the show made by Carl to put down Shane, but it looks like this Atlanta herd is what will be making the assault on the Greene Farm and the rest of the survivors.

The siege that occurs through the first half of this episode should satisfy and put a huge grin on the show’s fans who have been complaining about the lack zombie mayhem during this sophomore season. Sure there were episode that had more than a couple zombies in it, but a huge attack we never saw occur until this season finale. It’s this very attack that reinforces the notion of how much the zombies themselves are like a force of nature. They’re like a hurricane or tornado that destroys everything in their path. There’s no way to stop such a force only attempt to weather the storm and try to come out the other side healthy and whole.

From how the first half of tonight’s episode went down not everyone made it out safe from the herd that took down the barn and the farm. With the important deaths that had preceded tonight’s episode it was a nice release (if you could call killing off two background characters in a most gruesome manner a relief) to see that these deaths were meant more as a way to lessen the number of the cast and nothing else. Having three characters (two in the preceding episodes to tonight’s) die this season who had some connection to the group was already more than what most other shows on tv could manage. Some have called these deaths something akin to the redshirt yeomans on Star Trek always being killed to keep the important characters from dying instead. If that was the case then these redshirters were two episodes too late and Dale and Shane would agree with me.

As action-packed and exciting as the first half of the episode turned out to be the second half slowed things down to let the survivors catch their breath and dwell on their new situation. No more farm to call home. Their delusions of safety from the dangers of this new world totally shattered for good. New revelations about the the zombie apocalypse looking to tear whatever tenuous hold Rick had over the group as a leader. This second half did a great job in answering some of the questions brought up this season and one very important one which ended the first season: What did Jenner whisper to Rick in the CDC’s final moments.

So, the second season of The Walking Dead started slow and got slower, but a second half under a new showrunner with a new vision for how the show should proceed seem to have redeemed the show from what could’ve been some fatal flaws that other shows in the past could never recover from. Like a reverse mirror of how this season unfolded “Beside the Dying Fire” began with a bang and ended quietly with questions answered and new ones brought up. It also introduced in it’s final moments a new character that would become integral to the series.

It’s been a season of two showrunners, Darabont in the beginning and Mazzara in the latter half, that made for an uneven one. Some have protested the firing of Darabont from the show because of his conflict with AMC. Some thought AMC was forcing Darabont to do the show with less money which would’ve cut into his vision of the series. Some have intimated that AMC didn’t like what they saw in the series in those early episodes of the first half and wanted a change. No matter how things truly unfolded behind the scenes it looks like the show might have found the person who knew how to get the show back on track. The Mazzara era of The Walking Dead might have arrived on the expense of Darabont leaving but as I’ve come to realized throughout this second half of the season it was a change that was needed and one that brings a sense of hope to a show that is about having so little of it.

Notes

The cold opening uses another flashback and this time all the way to the pilot episode. I’m not sure if this was the same helicopter Rick saw but if it was then it must’ve circled around the city for the zombies eating poor Mr. Ed to have seen it again and follow it.
I can never say I hate characters in this show, but I do get frustrated by how they behave and most of it not due to their lack of survival instinct. I speak of Lori who seem so preoccupied with everything except her son who she should be watching like a hawk after what had happened with Sophia. Then there’s her reaction to Rick confessing to her that he had murdered Shane. I’d give the writers the benefit of the doubt and say she was in shock that he actually did what she wanted him to do, but didn’t expect to have Carl pulled into it, but her reaction was still more extreme that it should’ve been. They could easily have just left her speechless and in shock at what her machinations had reaped and kept the scene really powerful.
The comic book version of Lori was never a sympathetic character so her tv version falls in line with that character, but she wasn’t stupid when it came to her son like this tv version seem to be. The way Mazzara, Kirkman and the writers seem open to killing off anyone I sure hope they do a better job of rounding out her character and giving her a singular purpose outside of just being the show’s resident shrill.
The zombie herd that finally attack the farm look to be as big, if not bigger, than the herd we saw shambling down the highway which began the show’s long-running arc to find Sophia and then to stay or not stay on the Greene farm.
I really enjoyed this first half of zombie mayhem as we saw zombies take down both Jimmy (Beth’s boyfriend) and Patricia (Otis’ girlfriend) and some of the most gruesome display of zombie feeding frenzy. The scene where Otis and unnamed raider get taken down by zombies were done well but were also shot very darkly. With Jimmy and Patricia it happens with enough lighting that we saw every flesh-ripping and blood spurt. It definitely satisfied my inner-gorehound.
Ernest Dickerson was the director for tonight’s episode and he did a great job with making the utter chaos of the farm attack easy to follow. Every episode he’s done for the show has been very good and I hope he continues to direct future episodes.
Greg Nicotero and his peole at KNB EFX have been treating this show’s audiences with new zombie effects magic each and every episode they appear and tonight all their work this season ended in a crescendo of grand guignol proportions.
T-Dog Watch: He had quite a few lines tonight and we even got a semblance of character development. This cypher of a character began showing signs of frustrations himself in regards to the group he has hooked up with. He looks to have survived season 2 and will be in season 3. The question now is whether the writers will continue to let the character grow or will he be removed early on to make way for another.
Daryl Watch 1: He may have been at his most magnanimous in tonight’s episode. He did more than his usual share to help fend off the attacking herd and did so without his trust automatic and only Dale’s six-shooter. Seeing him riding around on his chopper while killing zombies as calmly as one strolling down a country lane was a nice homage to the scene in the original Dawn of the Dead when the bikers who broke into the mall killed zombies like it was second nature.
Daryl Watch 2: Everyone seem to refer to him as a redneck, but I’ve come to see him as one of the most observant and level-headed individuals in the group. Carol’s attempts to make Rick look less in his eyes was quickly shot down. Daryl may be the sort of leader that his fans want to take over the group, but he sees his worth in the group and that’s being it’s protector and Rick’s unofficial right-hand man.
Daryl Watch 3: While everyone seemed to look at Rick’s announcement that he had killed Shane and that it was going to be his way or the highway were of discomfort, shock and worry we have Daryl looking at Rick with no judgment. With Shane gone and Rick’s leadership status having taken a blow by episode’s end it looks like Daryl may just be the one who keeps Rick on the straight and narrow.
The news that everyone is already infected wasn’t a surprise to fans of the comic book, but for those who only watch the show it should answer the questions about the Randall and Shane zombies. It’d be interesting if the show’s writers further explore the idea that even the concept of death has died in this new world.
Finally! Michonne has finally made her appearance and exactly on episode 19 of the series just as she appeared on issue 19 of the comic book. We didn’t see beneath the hood of her cape, but reports after the show has confirmed that Danai Gurira will be taking on the role of the most badass character in The Walking Dead. Daryl may just have competition for the title of The Walking Dead BAMF.
I was so relieved to finally see Rick blow up on everyone in the final minutes of the episode as he kept getting hounded and questioned by everyone. This is a man who tried his hardest to keep everyone together and safe. Killed people without pause who he thought endangered his people even if it meant killing his best friend. Now he has to stand around and listen to Carol, Maggie, Glenn and even his wife on his jock about how he’s screwed things up. I wouldn’t have been shocked if he had shot one of them as a warning to anyone else who dare question his authority (Cartman would’ve). The leader everyone wanted Rick to become has finally arrived but it may have brought with it some of the Shane-crazy and mistrust from the very people he’s trying to protect.
Lastly, the moving wide shot of the camera from the group as they sat silently beside the dying fire and to the area just beyond the woods next to them was the final great moment in an episode full of them: a seemingly empty prison. Season 3 cannot arrive fast enough.

Season 2 is now over. What did you people think of tonight’s episode? Do you still plan on staying with the show? What do you want to see from the writers for the upcoming season?

Review: The Walking Dead S2E12 “Better Angels”

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Arleigh

“No more kids stuff.” — Rick Grimes

[some spoilers]

Fans of the comic book that The Walking Dead is based on have either been excited or up in arms about the major changes and deviations the show has taken from the source material. It’s a major point of contention that probably has lost some of the hardcore fans of the comic book. I can understand why they would bail on the show. They love the comic book with such a passion that any changes made from pages-to-screen is seen as a betrayal for their hard-earned loyalty through almost a decade of reading the series. On the other side of the equation I do believe that the changes have been a good thing for the tv series. It’s kept things unpredictable to the point that long-time readers cannot predict what will happen as the show moves forward. It’s this know knowing aspect of the tv series over the comic book source material that should keep things fresh for everyone.

“Better Angels” is the penultimate episode for season 2 and it’s another good step towards rewarding the show’s fans for sticking with the show despite a first half to the season that’s been called very slow. It’s cold opening was a nice balance of the quieter moments that the first half had been mostly about as Rick and the group buries Dale and the rest of their dead. Balancing this is a montage of Shane leading a hunting party driving around the outskirts of the farm to destroy those zombies who are too close for comfort to the farm. It’s an opening that will lead the two men the cold opening focused on to finally hash out their differences by episode’s end.

Glen Mazzara (the show’s new showrunner after the firing of Frank Darabont halfway this season) co-wrote this episode with Evan Reilly and it’s going to go down as one of the best episode of this season, if not one of the best in this series’ short history, so far. The first half of the episode shows how some have been dealing with Dale’s death in the previous episode. We get Carl feeling more than just a bit guilty about his role in getting the group’s moral compass killed to Glenn and Andrea exchanging some fond memories of the old coot as they try to fix and start Dale’s old RV. Even Daryl looks to have been affected by Dale’s death as he becomes much more helpful in this episode as if he understands that the group may be broken, but it won’t be because of what he didn’t provide.

If there was ever a reason to believe that this show has turned a corner in terms of storytelling since Darabont left the show then this episode just strengthened this second half as an almost reboot to the season. It closed off one major story arc as the showdown between Rick and Shane finally came to a head in the last ten minutes of the episode, but it also went a long way into finally answering just what exactly Dr. Jenner whispered into Rick’s ear at the CDC at the end of the last season. It puts a whole new set of problems for these survivors and also adds a new level of anxiety to the series. The fact that just dying even when not bit by a zombie will cause a recently dead person to come back to life adds to the hopelessness echoed by Jenner at last season’s finale.

With just the season finale left the series has quite a bit of storylines to deal with. The episode ends with Rick and his son Carl over the body of the former’s best friend and the latter’s surrogate father and as the camera pans into a wide shot we see that just beyond the crest and unknown to father and son was a herd of zombies emerging from the nearby woods. We also have the lingering danger of the dangerous group of survivors that may be camped just a few miles from the farm who may pose a much bigger danger to the group than the zombies themselves. No matter how the season ends it looks like the group’s time at the farm may be coming to an end and that’s as welcome a turn as the speed by which Mazzara and his writers have changed the pacing of the story.

Notes

Just have to say that tonight’s episode had some great scenes from the wide shot of Rick and Shane at the top of a crest with a very large looking moon back-lighting the pair.
Interesting how Rick voices the one thing many people have been complaining about Dale’s character during his eulogy over his grave. Yes, Dale got under the skin of not just fans of the show, but it would seem the others characters in the show itself.
The cold opening of the group giving Dale and the others the group has lost (both Sophia and the friends and family of the Greene’s in the barn) was paralleled by Shane, Andrea, T-Dog and Daryl driving around the farm’s perimeter destroying the zombies they come across. This was something that was long overdue and it was great to see just well this group destroyed the zombies when they had the upper hand and weren’t outnumbered. This is a major point of topic for zombie lore fans who know that when it small numbers zombies are pretty easy to avoid and/or fight when one keeps a cool-head.
That final zombie before it got the top of it’s head smashed open by a shovel strike from Shane got a very cathartic beatdown from everyone. It’s as if these four were taking out their frustrations on this last zombie.
It looks like Hershel and his family have finally seen the light and allowing Rick’s group
Great scene (brief as it was) between Rick and Daryl early in the episode. We’re seeing just how much Rick appreciates Daryl for doing what needed to be done with Dale at the end of the last episode. Even Daryl is starting to figure out how much of the “heavy-lifting” Rick has been doing since he joined the group. No matter what Shane fans may think about him being the only one who made the hard decisions I think Daryl would think differently as he sees Rick as the one who was the true leader even if he didn’t agree with everything Rick said or do.
Speaking of Shane, it looks like Dale’s death may have finally pushed him over the edge. Seeing the one person who was all about keeping the group from losing their humanity die not because of the group’s descent into amorality but because of the very danger that has no use for high principles and moral high grounds. Shane finally sees that he’s been right all along and it doesn’t help that Lori looks to be trying to make amends with him.
We see that Lori as a character continuing her turn as the Lady MacBeth of the series as she continues to try and manipulate the situation between Rick and Shane to her advantage. Whether she prefers Rick or Shane becomes even more cloudy.
In this episode we’re seeing Rick beginning to lose more and more of his need to hold onto the world before he woke up in this zombie apocalypse. The quiet scene between him and Carl in the hayloft was a good example of this. Rick knows that Carl will not be able to grow up in a world where children have a chance to act like kids. Him handing Daryl’s gun back to Carl is the first step in Carl finally losing that youthful innocence. Whether Chandler Riggs can pull off a Carl that’s becoming more and more adult at such a young age would be determined in the coming episodes and seasons.
We finally get the Randall story-arc ended as he becomes the excuse for Shane to get Rick alone with him and solve the problem his best friend poses.
The revelation that just dying without being bit or scratched by a zombie has now changed everything for the worst for the group. Even the escape of non-zombie death doesn’t stop one from coming back and joining the innumerable legions already roaming the countryside. It’s another acknowledgement that The Walking Dead has been following the zombie lore rules set down by the grandfather of the subgenre, George A. Romero himself.
With Shane and Dale both gone it will be interesting to see just who will replace their roles in the new season. I can see The Governor (David Morrissey cast in the role) taking on the villanous role that Shane occupied this season, but Dale’s voice of reason may just be a much harder one to replace.
T-Dog actually got more than just a cursory cameo appearance in this episode real early in the episode. He also got more than just one line. He was actually part of a real conversation. Maybe there’s hope for him yet (doubt it).

Review: The Walking Dead S2E11 “Judge, Jury, Executioner”

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Arleigh

“This new world is ugly. It’s harsh. It’s survival of the fittest and that’s a world I don’t want to live in.” — Dale Horvath

[some spoilers]

All the episodes since The Walking Dead returned from it’s mid-season break has shown a change in pace through most of it’s episodes. The first episode since the break looked to continue the much slower pace of the first half of the season but finished off with a literal bang and the two episodes following it up just continued this faster pace to the second half.

“Judge, Jury, Executioner” returns everyone back to the farm and has to deal with the conundrum that is Randall. The farm has become a symbol of the show hitting the breaks instead of keeping pedal to the metal. It happens once more tonight as the bulk of the episode was mostly Dale trying to convince everyone and anyone away from Rick’s decision to kill Randall. It’s a decision we’ve been expecting as Rick readily admitted it to himself and his erstwhile friend Shane in the previous episode that Randall will probably have to die to protect the group and the farm from the unknown group lurking out there.

Jeffrey DeMunn seems to have had a tough time having to play the role of Dale Horvath who was suppose to be the voice of decency and morality in a show that was veering away from such pre-zombie apocalypse notions. It’s a sort of character that will always look out of place in a world written to be lawless and tooth-and-nail survival. Most post-apocalyptic stories will always have such characters to try and keep the rest of the group from becoming savage and amoral. It’s a tough role and made even tougher when those who behave without conscience and without morals seem to look more like hardy survivors while those who try to stay decent end up being shouted down or killed outright for their naivete.

It didn’t help DeMunn that his character seemed to come off as spinning his wheels whenever he tried to speak up to the group about the dark path they’ve been traveling down since the end of the first season. Tonight went a long way to making Dale’s point of view make sense as it did show him as the only person who seemed to be the only one who wanted to hold onto his humanity in the face of apathy and amorality. Whether his ideas and point of view was correct or not doesn’t matter. He was that angel on everyone’s shoulder who was fighting for control of the group’s morality over the devil that was Shane.

While the outcome of the decision to kill Randall wasn’t too much a surprise, Rick may be learning to be pragmatic about his decision making, he still has a soft spot in trying to be a high moral role model for his son Carl and killing Randall wouldn’t be a good way to keep up that illusion. The outcome in regards to Dale was a major surprise and should continue the show’s off-the-rails decision to deviate from the comic book in terms of who lives and who dies and when it happens. Seeing the zombies attacking Dale and with him vainly keeping the snapping jaws from his face made the scene almost being set-up as a way to convince Dale that those who were going to save him were the same people he was accusing of being amoral and inhumane. So, it was a major shock when the zombie remembered it had more than just it’s snapping teeth to kill and decided to use it’s clawed fingers to rip Dale’s midsection open.

As surprising an ending that the Sophia story-arc ended up doing with the character this one with Dale was even more so.

Just like episode 8’s “Nebraska” which started off slow and was much more focused on intellectual and philosophical debates about the right and wrong things, tonight’s “Judge, Jury, Executioner” went down a similar route until an ending that also had a literal ending with a bang. With just two more episodes left in this second season of The Walking Dead Glen Mazzara and his team of writers need to close off this Greene Farm location and find a way to get the group back on the road and have it make sense. I’m much more confident that this new showrunner and writing team will pull it off than the previous regime.

Notes

Dale looks so lost trying to get people to listen to his talk of decency and humanity. Everyone either looks at him like he’s talking crazy or just plain tired of hearing the same litany of why the group needs to retain it’s sense of humanity. Even the one person he thought he had in his corner in Hershel pretty much admits that his convictions in the decent thing to do were mistakes.
I know it’s getting old, but it’s sort of hilarious watching Dale and Shane trying to sidestep the fact that when it comes down to the bones of it they both want to kill each other.
Good to see Hershel make a decision about Glenn and his daughter. It’s definitely a much better scene than how it was handled in the comic book.
It was very surprising to see Andrea suddenly switch gears and support Dale during the group’s confab inside the house. I’m still not sold on her sudden change of heart. I think some of it was Dale’s unwavering conviction and near pleading to the group not to go down a path hey may never recover, but I also think her reaction to Shane’s advice to do some sort of coup over the Rick/Hershel leadership might’ve shown Andrea to what extremes Shane would go to. She might be regretting calling Shane as her good teacher in regards to survival.
Carl was a major part of tonight’s episode and probably highlighted the very things that screamed “Dumb things TV kids do” for everyone watching the show.
The dumb things he did sneaking into the barn to get his close look a Randall and then sneaking off with Daryl’s gun off into the nearby creek and finding the zombie might be the only thing people will remember about tonight’s episode, but deeper down Carl was the very symbol of how things were taking an amoral turn for the group that Dale was railing against.
Carl the tv version looks to be much farther along the path of becoming a sociopath than his comic book counterpart. I think having Shane live past the first six episodes of the show and still alive with season 2 winding to a close has had a much more detrimental effect on the child of Rick and Lori Grimes than in the comic book. This makes the character much more interesting moving forward but it also could blow up in the writers face if they make him too sociopathic and amoral that redemption would be too late for the boy.
Daryl’s moment in the episode showed him at his worst, badass and best. Worst in how he continues to try and distance himself from the rest of the group. Badass in how he’s able to get the very info about Randall’s group when others from RIck and Shane have failed. Best in how he dealt with Dale and how he may be the one person Rick should listen to moving forward.
Daryl is not idealistic like Dale, but he seems to be more observant about how the group is doing and handling things than people give him credit for. He’s willing to follow Rick’s lead even if he doesn’t agree with most of it, but at the same time won’t upset the group’s leadership dynamics. The fact that he knew Shane killed Otis but not as guessing, but observing Shane the moment he got back without Otis makes Daryl less the dumb, hick redneck he’s shown to be.
Some people have been theorizing that killing off Dale was because Jeffrey DeMunn was a Darabont regular thus was going to be on the chopping block because of that professional relationship. If that is the case instead of a creative decision to shake up the show’s group and storyline even farther from the comic book then Laurie Holden should be worried in her role as Andrea since she is also a Darabont regular.
T-Dog makes an appearance and I think he had one or two throwaway lines. Please, Mazzara and writers just kill him off and bring in Tyrese who at least brings some backstory that could be mined to better effect than what T-Dog has contributed.

What Lisa Watched Last Night: The 84th Annual Academy Awards

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, me and my BFF Evelyn watched the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Lisa and Evelyn at the Oscars

Why Was I Watching It?

As if you had to ask.

What Was It About?

It was about honoring some good films and making a lot of catty comments about rich people who don’t know how to dress themselves.

What Worked?

You know who is adorable? Bret McKenzie, who all good people as a member of The Flight of the Conchords. He won an Oscar last night for best original song for Man or Muppet and he gave exactly the type of wonderfully sincere acceptance speech that you would expect from Bret McKenzie.

You know who else is adorable? Jim Rash. The script he co-wrote for The Descendants is overrated but it was still good to see Community’s Dean up there accepting an Oscar.

And you know who is really, really adorable? The little Emma Stone. Loved her dress and loved her whole little skit with Ben Stiller.

Jean Dujardin, Christopher Plummer, and Octavia Spencer all gave wonderful acceptance speeches and Uggie got to go on stage when The Artist won best picture! That was so cute!

What Didn’t Work?

Much like the Golden Globes last month, the Academy Awards were a rather somber affair, It was as if everyone couldn’t get over the fact that they had actually nominated Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close and everyone was muttering under their breath, “Let’s get this over with before anyone remembers that we nominated a film that not even those people at the Golden Globes were impressed by!”

As much as I enjoyed two of the nominees for best picture (The Artist and Hugo), respected one of them (The Tree of Life), and enjoyed another almost despite myself (The Help), the majority of the nominations this year went to movies that we will probably never watch again and to performers who will probably never have a year as good as this one. Perhaps that is why the various Academy montages all seemed to feature scenes taken from films that received not a single Oscar nomination. (More time was devoted to the latest Mission Impossible than to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.) It just gave the whole ceremony a rather odd feel. It reminded me of when I was in high school and the drama club would give out little trophies and certificates at the end of the year. I received a little trophy for being the Best Actress in Advanced Theatre during my junior year. I also got a certificate for “Biggest Flirt.” (My acceptance speech, by the way, was: “Couldn’t it have been for best lay?” Ahhh, High School.)

As host, Bill Crystal was pretty bleh and he kinda looked like Robert Blake from Lost Highway.

Whenever Rooney Mara popped up on screen, me and Evelyn would yell, “You need boobs to wear that dress, honey!”

Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech was long-winded and she came across as being a bit full of herself, I think. Now I know that you’re saying, “Well, gee, Lisa, she’s the greatest actress ever so she’s earned the right to be full of herself!” Actually, if you really pay attention to Streep’s performances, you’ll see that the main reason she has a reputation for being a great actress is because she never allows you to forget that she’s acting.

I missed James Franco.

“OMG! Just like me!” Moments

As I mentioned on twitter, Evelyn and I have decided that we were the Jennifer Lopez and Cameron Diaz of my living room. We’re still debating on just who exactly was Cameron and who was J.Lo.

Lessons Learned

Everything is better with James Franco!

Review: The Walking Dead S2E10 “18 Miles Out”

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Arleigh

“It’s time for you to come back.” — Rick Grimes

[some spoilers]

The Glen Mazzara era of The Walking Dead has done a very good job of speeding things along after an almost glacial pace that we got from the first half of the season. While the mid-season premiere with “Nebraska” continued some of the flaws which viewers and fans complained about in regards to the first half of the season it ended with a sequence which showed that Mazzara and his writers may have turned a corner from the more cinematic storytelling-style Darabont brought to the show. With last week’s episode, “Triggerfinger”, the show continues to make strides in adding a sense of desperation to the proceedings even when zombies are not involved.

Fans of the comic book and genre fans will always be thankful for Frank Darabont and his diligence in getting the comic book adapted to the tv screen, but with these last two episodes and then tonight’s “18 Miles Out” now in the bag we’ve begun to see that Frank’s style of drawing things out may have been hampering the show this season. Whether it was his vision for how the show was to unfold or just his style of storytelling, Frank’s first half of season 2 had lost that sense of danger that the show had built with a truncated first season. Tonight’s latest episode was a prime example of why it might have been the right call to let Darabont go and put a seasoned tv veteran on the helm.

We enter “18 Miles Out” in medias res just like episode 3 (one of the best episodes of this current season) and it’s a good sign of things to come for this episode. Before continuing I must say that anyone who still complains that the show was not showing enough zombie action need to sit down and just shut up or just stop watching a show that they’ve already decided to complain about no matter how good or bad each future episodes turn out.

With the past regime the issue with the character Randall recovering after his encounter with the spiked fence and Rick in the previous episode would’ve taken the rest of the season, but instead we’ve skipped a whole week in the show’s timeline as Rick and Shane drive 18 miles out of the farm to let the recovered kid go on his merry own way. This cold opening has Rick and Shane on the run from zombies with Randall still tied up and crawling his way towards a knife that could be his only salvation. For cold openings this one was actually pretty action-packed and full of tension that the episode will just continue to build on.

The episode switches back and forth between the adventures of Rick and Shane w/ Randall and the going’s on back on the farm with the youngest Greene daughter, Beth and her sudden crisis of of faith. Whenever scenes of the farm came on the screen in the past I’m sure there were much groaning and mumbling about how things were now about to slow down. For the first time in this season the farm without zombies was just as tense as the scenes with Rick and his group avoiding a group of zombies. The first season and some of the early parts of season 2 saw Andrea also go through the same crisis as Beth Greene goes through tonight. It’s a crisis born out of hopelessness about the situation they’re now in. Hershel has had to adjust to the revelation that what he thought about the zombies were all wrong and now his youngest must go through something same thing. Beth contemplates and even pleads with her older sister, Maggie, that there’s nothing left out in the world and just trying to persevere and move on was a wasted effort with the only guarantee was to be “gutted” by the very things they first thought were people who could be cured.

This situation back at the farm brings to a head what looks like the female version of the Rick and Shane power struggle. On one side we see Lori trying to raise Beth’s spirits and trying to bring what she calls a sense of “normalcy” in their chaotic new world. On the other side is Andrea whose has gone through what Beth is going through and doesn’t disagree with it. She sees it as an option that she was denied by Dale at the end of the last season and she won’t disagree and deny Beth the same choice. The confrontation between Lori and Andrea about this very subject matter brings to mind just how much Andrea has begun to see Shane as the leader of the group. While Lori still comes off across as somewhat of a shrew she does seem to be more in agreement with her husband’s way of thinking even in this zombie apocalypse.

This encounter between the group’s leading ladies just continues to highlight how much the show has moved to warp speed in abandoning the teasing of the first half of the season and just letting all the cards on the table in terms of each character’s motivations and agendas.

While the scenes at the farm were pretty good the highlight of the episode has to be the travails that Rick, Shane and Randall encounter 18 miles out. We see Rick finally have that “talk” with Shane about everything which has occurred while he was in a coma and since. There were several moments in this half of the episode’s story that showed not just Shane in a bad light but Rick as well as decisions have to be made to see who will survive the zombies. How things finally come to a head by episode’s end shows just how different Rick and Shane are and just how much Shane has been posturing trying to convince everyone that he’s the only one who could make the tough choices and decisions.

“18 Miles Out” goes to great lengths to make this second half of the show’s season 2 make up for the slow pacing of the first half and it succeeds. There’s still some little nitpicks and flaws here and there in terms of dialogue and how some of the characters come off, but it looks as if Mazzara and his writers have finally realized that subtlety might not be this show’s forte and, when handled accordingly, the show can succeed with being blunt. This show looks to be finally getting it’s focus down and we get one of the series’ best episodes since the pilot and I would say it’s best episode since.

Notes

Some great zombie make-up work by Nicotero and his gang over at KNB EFX for tonight’s episode. With the whole episode set in the daytime they don’t have the luxury of darkness and little light to hide imperfections in the make-up work. Every zombie chasing after Rick, Shane and Randall looked to have been given the “hero” treatment.
Some very good zombie kills tonight with the best one coming courtesy of Rick and using another zombie he’s already put down to help aim his third kill in a row.
Randall, played by Michael Zegen, comes off both as a scared kid who knows that his past associations may just be the death of him, but also as someone with a mean and sadistic streak in him as shown when he plays with the one zombie before he takes it out.
For may be the first time in this show’s short life, so far, the show doesn’t use the full cast in the episode. In the past we may have two or three cast members not making an appearance, but tonight we almost get a whole group. Not showing up tonight: Glenn, T-Dog, Carol, Daryl, Patricia, Jimmy, Dale. It made the episode feel so much more leaner.
We get some bit of fallout about Glenn freezing up because of what Maggie had told him before he went to town. I don’t know if Maggie should be going to Lori for advice but what she got was the right advice despite what people may think of Lori as a character.
While Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene has been the more vocal and active of the Greene girls this season it was nice to see Emily Kinney get more than just a couple lines. Her predicament and how she played the role of the little girl who has lost all hope was quite good. Her message about how things were hopeless and that there really was nothing left to live for came off better than when Andrea did the same last season and earlier this season.
Tonight we get to see someone come off even worse than Lori. Andrea as the show has portrayed the character was already not a fan favorite, but her channeling of her inner-Shane in regards to Beth’s situation won’t be making her any new fans. It’s ironic considering how she lectured Shane about how his presentation about the right decisions left much to be desired. Her own presentation about her viewpoints was very Shane-like.
It’s a small step, but Sarah Wayne Callies’ performance as Lori continues to improve. We get some reasoning why she’s acted the way she has since we met her back in the pilot, but she still retains some of the shrewness that has made her hated by fans. It’ll be interesting how Mazzara and his writers balance this two sides to Lori’s character.
Rick and Shane finally have it out and it was quite the throwdown. One would think that Shane would have the upper-hand in this dust-up between the two friends, but Rick showed different. He may not be as cold and calculating as Shane likes to show he is, but Rick definitely showed he could handle himself not just against Shane but zombies who get the drop on him.
For a moment the writers almost made it so that Rick was about to pull a Shane on Shane in the end, but we see why Rick is different than his erstwhile deputy by episode’s end.
Shane has been one-upped by the very person he has been hounding as weak and pathetic all season and the look of impotence on Jon Bernthal’s face when this epiphany finally hits him was a great moment for this series.
The show has finally shown some clues as to how quickly the zombie apocalypse turned the world upside down. Two or weeks if we’re to believe what Shane told Rick in the beginning of the episode. Also, noticing how the zombie guards they put down earlier had no bites on them which goes a long way in putting The Walking Dead into Romero-style zombies.
Rick telling Shane to deal with how things between everyone in the group are as of now or leave. Telling him in the end to come back shows how much Rick still sees Shane as a friend who has lost his way and to come back to them instead of continuing the darker path he has set on since everything went to hell and especially since Otis.
Last week’s episode didn’t have a song to end the episode but tonight we have Wye Oak’s “Civilian” which went well with Shane looking at the grassy field with it’s lone zombie walking towards nowhere in particular. It was a very strong scene.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E9 “Triggerfinger”

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Arleigh

“So, let’s chalk this up for what it is…wrong place, wrong time.” — Rick Grimes

It looks like no matter what some viewers may complain about The Walking Dead moving as slow as the zombies that ended the world it still manages to surprise everyone with scenes of great tension and burst of quality that we all want the show to be. This was most evident with how the mid-season return episode “Nebraska” at first seemed like it was going nowhere once again, but actually moved the story along. The ending of the previous episode helped Rick as a character grow though it also manages to make his fairer half in Lori become even more hated by most everyone with her stupid decision to try and go into town by herself.

Tonight’s episode continues the two major storylines which ended the previous episode. We get a cold opening which is terrifying despite what people may think about Lori as a character. That scene of the zombie trying to pop it’s head through the crack in the car’s windshield while Lori remained out of it then just before we segue into Bear McCreary’s opening theme she wakes up to see the half-eaten face pushing through.

The title of this latest episode is “Triggerfinger” and for the first third of the night it’s quite a proper one at that. No sooner as Rick, Hershel and Glen gather the weapons of the downed Dave of Tony from the previous episode do the trio get penned in the bar by the very friends the “would be” raiders spoke of. The episode shows just how much a danger survivors continue to be toward other survivors as cooler heads rarely prevail. Soon enough both sides are trading fire like a scene out of Rio Bravo but this time with the added danger of zombies in the midst.

During this scene between two groups trying to just survive we see differing philosophies. Rick’s group tries to defuse the situation even once the bullets start flying and when casualties begin piling up we see Rick still trying to hold onto his humanity by trying to save one of the opposing numbers who have seriously hurt himself in an attempt to leave town. The other group was shown to be more willing to cut loose anyone too injured to save themselves thus leaving them behind to the mercy of the approaching zombies. Mercies that involve the very thing some fans have complained about and that’s not enough zombie carnage. For just the second time in this show’s short life we see someone still alive being set upon by a group of zombies and eaten while still alive and screaming.

The other continuing story from the previous episode has Lori trying to survive the night after crashing her car. No matter what people personally think about Lori as a character this sequence show’ that she can go into survival mode when circumstances needs for her to suck it up and survive. She doesn’t whine or appear helpless despite the precarious situation she put herself in. The fact that people back in the farm don’t even realize she’s been gone for hours must just add fuel to the fire fans have been fanning since the show first started. The series has a role for Lori and while it seems to be one of wet blanket for the most part the ending of tonight’s episode showed that she too will do anything to try and protect her family from dangers both zombie and human.

If the last couple episodes show’s anything it’s that Glen Mazzara’s turn as replacement showrunner has added much needed energy to the show. With last week’s episode and then tonight we’ve seen more action and character developlement than the first half of this second season. There now seems to be a feeling of desperation in how things have started to unfold. We still get some quieter moments between characters back on the Greene farm, but they’re not as prevalent as they’ve been in the past. Again I think this positive development has to be laid down at the feet of veteran tv show producer Glen Mazzara who understands that tv shows rely on keeping it’s audience’s attention focused on what’s going on the screen. So far, he and his writers have been doing a good job in moving the show with much forward momentum and keeping things that would slow it down to a minimum. As much as I love Frank Darabont for bringing this show to tv I think him being replaced was just what this show needed to succeed in the long run.

Notes

Now that is what I call a scary opening. I’m sure many people watching tonight’s episode were hoping the zombie got through the windshield and chowed down on Lori, but then we wouldn’t have seen how badass she can be when the chips are down. Her actions in this sequence and in the episode’s end was a nice bookend in helping grow this character beyond the harping shrew many have been calling her.
Her reaction to another Shane lie and then her own reveal to him about their relationship to Rick goes a long way in making her go beyond much-hated character to one that’s conflicted but set in trying to fix what she thinks was a mistake that should never have happened.
It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the group, especially for the Grimes clan, now that Shane looks to have been shot down once again by the woman he says he love and done so in a way that leaves him with no opening for redemption. The fact that Lori has repeated Dale’s own suspicions about Shane’s role in Otis’ death all the way back in episode 3 of this season show’s that Shane was losing the support of the very person he believes he’s protecting. With talk of actor Jon Bernthal being coveted by Frank Darabont to star in his police detective tv series it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Shane’s much-delayed demise will not have a clock counting down. Whether that clock strikes “zero” before or right at this season’s finale will be speculated on by fans for weeks to come.
I like how the show has made the little character details really stand out since Mazzara and crew took over from Darabont. I don’t know if anyone else picked up on it, but during the gunfight back in town we finally hear Hershel leave behind any notion of what he thought about the zombies as being people just sick when he began to call them walkers as he and Glenn tried to survive against the other group of survivors.
Tonight’s episode goes a long way in making Hershel the new right-hand man for Rick. While Hershel looks to still be upset by what Rick’s group did with the barn zombies he has at least begun to admit both in his language and mannerisms that Rick had been right all along and that he now needs to protect his own family and Rick’s group may be a key to their survival.
Love Hershel puts Shane in his place after Shane once again tries to kneecap Rick’s place as group leader. Tonight really was a coming out party for Scott Wilson and here’s to hoping his Hershel continues to back Rick.
On the Glenn and Maggie relationship front…we see Glenn becoming more gunshy and clumsy when it comes to taking care of business when away from the group. Seems Maggie’s professing of her love for him has muddled his brain. We see him make several mistakes tonight that’s damaged his confidence. It will be interesting how both he and Maggie deal with his crisis of confidence as the season moves along.
Daryl looks to be pulling himself back from the group emotionally and it’s good to see Carol trying to prevent that from happening. This subplot looks to be in it’s gestation period but if done right it could turn out to be a good sign in keeping Daryl from further isolating himself from the group and at least keeps Carol busy trying to be savior for the show’s resident badass.
T-Dog watch: one line of dialogue and not much else. Please, Mazzara and crew just kill him off and bring in Tyrese.
We see some great work from Greg Nicotero and his make-up FX wizards from KNB EFX with tonight’s zombie carnage. Whether it was the zombie peeling it’s face off in an attempt to get through the busted car windshield to get to Lori or the face ripping of the wounded shooter as they begin to eat him alive. I know shooting these scenes at night and in the dark helps in keeping the tricks if the trade from being more obvious, but I think even if the scenes were filmed in the daytime I believe the effects work would be even better and much more bloody.
Finally, the show ends with Lori channeling her inner Lady MacBeth as she tries to turn Rick into solving the Shane problem (by any means necessary) which looks to be a spark away from destroying everything the group has worked for since they left Atlanta.

Review: The Walking Dead S2E8 “Nebraska”

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Arleigh

“Ain’t nobody’s hands are clean with what’s left of this world. We’re all the same.” — Dave

[some spoilers]

After almost three months in hiatus The Walking Dead returns with a brand new episode which brings us back to how we left the show after episode 7.

It’s a cold opening with us, the audience, looking up the barrel of Rick’s pistol with smoke still billowing out from him having to use it to put down Sophia. The awkward silence is only broken up by the sobbing by the youngest Greene daughter which soon turns into screams of horror and panic as not all of the walkers the group had massacred was fully and truly dead. But it’s a burst of adrenaline that doesn’t last long. We see the cracks opened up by Shane’s “live or die” outburst from the previous episode now out in the open as the revelation that Sophia was always in the barn and all the searching for her by the group has been for naught and has put many in the group in danger.

Whether Herschel and his family really knew that Sophia was already turned didn’t matter to some in the group who now look at the Greene’s with suspicious eyes. Some still cling to the hope that it was all a mistake and that the only person who knew Sophia was inside had died days before. We once again see that these two differing thoughts have come down between Rick and Shane. It’s a conflict that has been brewing since Rick’s return to the group all the way back in episode 3 of the first season. While its been quite a surprise and a treat to see the TV-version of Shane survive far longer than the one from the comic book source I do think that this conflict between the two alpha dogs will soon come to a head by season’s end. To continue having these two be at loggerheads beyond this season would be unnecessary and take away from any dramatic payoff this subplot has.

The center section of the episode is probably where some viewers will once again harp and complain about the show returning to it’s habit of being talky and spinning it wheels in place. I won’t say that I haven’t worried about this show when it came to it’s quieter and slower moments. There’s been times this season when the show has spun it’s wheels in place instead of moving forward, but as we saw with the Sophia reveal which ended the mid-season of season 2 there’s a crazy logic to what’s been going on even if we can’t see it when it first occurs.

This is not to say that the writers and new showrunner Glen Mazzara don’t have some work to do in improving the show’s pacing and quality. With the start of the second half of season 2 Mazzara and his crew have the opportunity to take what Kirkman and Darabont had laid down with the first 13 episodes of the series and create something that goes beyond the show just being a good show. While the middle section of the episode wasn’t a step in that direction I thought the final twenty minutes of the episode was something the show has been hit or miss with throughout this season. Maybe it’s the change of showrunners from Frank Darabont who’s experience has been mostly with film work while Mazzara has been a veteran of some very dialogue-heavy shows such as The Shield.

In the past episodes with Daradont in charge the scenes between Rick and Herschel in the town bar would’ve been a mixture of great writing but not something easily translated into spoken dialogue. This time around with Mazzara in charge the scene moved at a pace which didn’t equate to a scene being talky, but helped establish the changes in how two men used to a leadership role realizing that they’ve made mistakes which has led them to the growing tension back in the farm and within the two groups. Adding to this great scene was the arrival of two new characters which would ratchet up the tension in the bar from 1 to 11 with just a few lines of dialogue heavy with hidden meanings and agendas.

It’s this final scene with Tony and Dave of Philadelphia that gives me hope that the writers and Mazzara have seen some of the complaints from fans and realize that slowing down a scene with dialogue interactions between characters doesn’t have to be useless and an exercise in exposition dumps. Watching Andrew Lincoln (in his best performance to date) and Michael Raymond-James (Terriers, True Blood) interact with each other like it was some sort of verbal chess match was the highlight of the show. The tension created by the dialogue between the group of Rick, Glenn and Herschel with the two newcomers in Dave and Tony was so thick that it became palpable and like a powder keg just needing the merest of sparks to set off.

The final sequence with Rick finally making the hard decision to protect his group (now Herschel Greene and his brood included) over trusting the potential of other newcomers to either be a boon or a danger felt like the character making a turn from being a white hat of the show to one who now must travel this zombie apocalypse looking at things through shades of grey. Rick has always borne the brunt of fan criticism as being too noble and/or wishy-washy when it comes to making the tough choices. If this episode’s final moments was any indication Rick looks to be capable of making decisions without any hesitation if it comes to the safety of the group. He’s just not roided out in his execution of said decisions as his former deputy, Shane Walsh. Here’s to hoping this greying out of Rick is part of the new change in show leadership. If that is the case then the show may have finally found it’s stable footing for seasons to come.

Notes

I loved how quickly Shane tries to reassert himself as the “correct” leader for the group after he failed to put down Sophia and watches Rick make that tough choice. With each passing minute with this episode Shane comes off even more sociopathic, delusional and unpredictable
Another great scene is Rick pretty much telling Lori to shut up in no uncertain terms when she tries to argue that he should stay and not go off running to town to bring Herschel back. The look on her face as Rick tells her he’s doing this not just to save Herschel but their unborn baby was some good writing and acting.
For a moment during that scene one could almost see why Rick was so frustrated with Lori and their relationship before the zombie apocalypse interrupted the world’s routine.
Once again T-Dog has been relegated to being the one character on the show to say one or two lines and still not have any of it show any insight into his character. I still believe his days are numbered and won’t last this season into season 3.
The ‘ship growing between Glenn and Maggie continues with Glenn starting to show some doubts as to whether he should stay with Rick and the rest of the group. He seems to genuinely like Maggie, probably even loves her, though he still seems surprised that Maggie feels the same and actually mean it. In the comic book the relationship between the two seemed more like survivors clinging to something humane with love being an afterthought. This is why the tv version of this relationship has actually made these two characters even better than their comic boo counterparts.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but Glenn telling Rick in their drive into town about how the only people to say that they loved him was his mom and sisters made for a sad moment. Glenn has never mentioned anything about his life prior to the zombie apocalypse other than he was a pizza delivery guy. Knowing that he has no idea what has happened to his mother and sister or whether they’re still alive or turned into walkers was a very downbeat note in what was a quaint little scene.
Carol and Daryl look to be handling the revelation of Sophia from the previous episode in different ways. Carol trashing the Cherokee roses out in the field was very appropriate as was Daryl pulling back once again from the group as his hopes of Sophia being found alive has been dashed. It will be interesting to see whether the two will become assets to the group or more of a liability moving forward.
It was nice to see Michael Raymond-James from Terriers and True Blood appear on this episode. His verbal jousting with Rick at the bar was one of the best scenes of this series that didn’t include zombies or a roided out Shane. His performance in what turned out to be a cameo was so good that one couldn’t outright say that he was someone bad looking to waylay Rick and his group. He seemed like someone who was probably like Rick in the beginning of his own group’s travels, but has been weighed down by what he has seen and done to survive and protect his own that desperation has made him to do things that the regular world wouldn’t look well on.
All those who think Rick was a paper tiger of a leader and that Shane was the one who would best protect the group should think twice about that criticism. He showed backbone, initiative and some guile in trying to convince the two newcomers from Philadelphia that they need to look somewhere else for shelter. He definitely showed his inner-Raylan Givens with his final act of the episode.
I’m going to go all the way back to the beginning of Season 1, episode 5. Rick declared to everyone that they are not to kill the living. The fact that he has broken his own self-imposed rule on the group (already broken by Shane though unknown to most except a suspicious Dale) with what he did in the end of the episode should prove telling in how he behaves as he and his group of survivors continue to meet up with others on the road (hopefully) and with those within the group looking to supplant him as leader.
Finally, it’s been awhile since the show used a song to end an episode. It’s been a nice return to hear a particular song used this time and “Regulator” by The Clutch was an inspired choice to end “Nebraska” especially after such having such a down and dirty Old West showdown to end things:

What Lisa Marie Watched Last Night: Sexting in Suburbia (dir. by John Stimpson)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, as I was laying in bed and waiting for sleep to come, I turned on Lifetime and watched a movie called Sexting in Suburbia.

Why Was I Watching It?

Because it was on Lifetime and seriously — how can you not watch something called Sexting in Suburbia? That’s like the greatest freaking title ever.

What Was It About?

So there’s this popular, out-going, bright futured high school student named Dina (Jenn Proske) and, on the same night that she’s crowned homecoming queen, she’s also sends her boyfriend a naked picture but she accidentally sends it to the wrong phone as well. So, of course, the picture goes viral and soon, everyone at school sees it and they get all judgmental and soon, everywhere Dina goes, she’s seeing graffiti that reads, “Dina is a slut!” Plus, Dina gets kicked off of the Girl’s Field Hockey Team because apparently, there’s some sort of morality clause that goes along with being on a high school athletic team or something like that. Seriously, is that like a real thing? Anyway, Dina loses her college scholarship as a result of being kicked off the team so she goes home and kills herself. Now, it’s up to her mom (Liz Vassey) to find out who is responsible for that picture going viral and get some justice for Dina.

Oh, and by the way, this all takes place in…suburbia!

What Worked?

The film had a good anti-bullying message to it and it definitely captured how everything in high school is such a drama. It also made a good point about just how messed up society is when it comes to dealing with sex in general and how quick everyone is to judge girls as opposed to boys. Whereas guys are applauded for “acting like men,” girls are expected to meet someone else’s standard of perfection and the minute we deviate from that standard in any way whatsoever, we’re condemned and called nasty names and expected to live the rest of our lives being punished for not living up to someone else’s ideal.

However, ultimately, what really worked as far as this film is concerned is the title. Seriously, I love that title! Sexting in Suburbia. Say it a few times and you’ll see what I mean. It’s just so melodramatic and Lifetime-worthy.

What Did Not Work?

This movie, like a lot of Lifetime Movies, had a strong bias in favor of brunettes and against redheads. Seriously, if you spend a week watching nothing by the Lifetime Movie Network, you will discover that 9 times out of ten, the movie will feature a smart brunette, a naive/or spoiled blonde, and a sociopathic redhead. Seriously.

Speaking as a redhead, I have to say that this has always bothered me.

“OH MY GOD! JUST LIKE ME!” Moments

Seriously, who among us can say that they haven’t accidentally sexted the wrong person? It’s just a part of growing up.

Lessons Learned:

It’s not easy being red.