Rambling TV: Thoughts on Westworld, The Walking Dead, and Agents of SHIELD

The Walking Dead

After the worst ratings grab cliffhanger in TV history, TWD comes back and...makes you keep waiting for it. They don't want any of you to turn the channel.

Honestly, The Walking Dead doesn't trust their audience. There, I said it. I've been thinking it for a while, ever since show runner Scott Gimple went in cry baby mode last season saying critics "didn't get" what he was trying to do. They wanted so badly to have a "Red Wedding" episode with this premiere, but they don't trust us enough to feel the character's anguish, so they play with time to make sure their ratings stay high. Then they keep piling it on and on and on. They've completely missed what made Game of Thrones' The Rains of Castamere so well done. It was heartbreaking, surprising, and above all, still good TV. This wasn't. It's like they turned it into the Walking Torture Porn (which is hilariously something Andrew Lincoln said the show would never do) The actors weren't given much of an opportunity to look anything but sad. 

Glenn was one of my favorite characters and it sucks to lose him when she show treated him so badly. Glenn never got a bottle episode devoted completely to him (get ready for more of those this season) He never got to talk about the fall out of him killing a person for the first time. He should've been the one to encounter Jesus with Rick instead of Daryl. Glenn deserved better than getting reduced to a shock death so half the general audience could think "at least they didn't kill Daryl!" Abe was also a good character in his own right, and he's also getting the short end of the stick. Rick imagining everyone else getting hit with that back takes the impact away from what actually happened.

I think I'm too angry to feel genuine sadness right now. This was one of the few cases where most of the episode read exactly like the spoilers. (the only part that was better on screen were Sasha and Rosita's final conversation) It just wasn't good TV. It was overkill and manipulative in the worst way.

I'm only watching this show for Carol and Rick at this point. I hate being invested in characters on a show that's so wildly inconsistent. 

Westworld

Lucky for me, Westworld continues to impress. 

The biggest part of the episode was the Man in Black being revealed to have a "foundation" that helps people in the real world. I imagine he does something great to combat how shitty he acts in the park. We also got to meet a new character, Armistice who's a great addition

William and Dolores are cute together. It's a shame Logan keeps acting like a total twatwaffle. William telling him to "Stop trying to kill or fuck everything" was perfect.

Mauve is also getting to the bottom of some of her questions. Next week's preview looks to be intense in regards to that.

Can Dr. Ford get any creepier? I was surprised he told Theresa he knew she and Bernard were fucking. 

Agents of SHIELD

Unfortunately we're back to Daisy of SHIELD this week. I'll never stop being bitter that they try to force her into being the lead. She tricks Simmons into think she's found the dream apartment for her and Fitz (then pays for it with the money she's stolen) and forces Jemma to let her use SHIELD's computers to find other Inhumans.

Then they go to Inhuman Jason, who I still don't care about despite some okay comic relief last season. Turns out, he's working with the Watch Dogs and when he's just about to kill Daisy and Jemma, Mack, Coulson and Robbie (who they've had in containment most of the episode) show up and Robbie kick's Jason's ass...but brings him out alive. Boo. That scene looked amazing, at least.

Of course when Coulson and Mack see Daisy, their boners shoot through the roof. Then they tell her and Robbie they have to work with SHIELD now to stop the watch dogs.

Highlight of the ep: Something I was sure they were going to use to start a huge fight between Fitz and Simmons didn't work out that way, yay!

Other TV Ramblings:

The "Trump supporter on Black Jeopardy" sketch on SNL was hysterical. I had no idea Lady Gaga was apparently doing country music now, though. Wtf was that? I also caught some of the Rocky Horror Picture Show remake, and aside from the people playing Brad and Janet having good voices, I had to turn it off. They couldn't be raunchy enough on network TV and it just didn't have the same campy vibe the original had. The costumes were amazing though.

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi coherently about the things I watched on television. This week I raged typed everything after watching The Walking Dead. Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers.