Rambling TV: Thoughts on Westworld, Agents of SHIELD, TWD + more

Agents of SHIELD

Network TV schedules are awful. AoS has been on a three week break, and next week is their midseason finale. This break really hurt the show because there was a good portion of this episode where I completely forgot what they were doing. They had no recap before the episode. The fact that AoS also suffers from what I like to call; Generic Brunette White Guy Casting™ means I wasn't 100% sure if I was looking at the new director or not. It was hard to get into.

Luckily this episode provided a lot of great moments for Fitz and Simmons. When Coulson, Fitz, and Robbie were caught in the explosion, it reminded me of Stranger Things and the upside down. Mack also briefly became Ghost Rider in a pretty cool scene. Unfortunately they're amping up Daisy for the finale, and we all know my feelings about her...ugh.

Westworld

Where do I even start with this episode? I suppose I should start with "Bravo." Westworld had a hell of a first season and this (rightfully, unlike TWD) 90 minute finale was really a game changer.

So the final big theory was confirmed; that William is the Man in Black. RIP Willores. I like to take credit for that name, by the way. "Willores" was something I suggested in a random tumblr poll and people seemed to roll with it. Then Jimmi Simpson tweeted it today too. I'm going to miss him by the way, that adorable cinnamon roll.

Seeing MIB rough up Dolores was hard. It was hard when we first saw it in the barn, but the way he talked to her made it seem like he's probably done that and had his way with her plenty of times before as he's looked for the maze. It's sad to see something so sweet turn so sour. 

Poor Felix, this dude just got himself in so much shit. The sequence when they're fighting off security was great. (Also, Westworld has the worst security) I also love how Mauve, when Bernard tells her she was just given a new narrative refuses to believe him. It gives her final scene so much more weight.

Speaking of weight, there were a lot of emotionally heavy moments. Learning that Arnold asked Dolores to kill him because he wanted to see his son again. Mauve saying "Goodbye, my Clementine." If I hadn't cried in Moana earlier today I could've teared up there.

I was half expecting Ford to give his best Wolf of Wall Street "I AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE" speech at the dinner, but nope. That ending is going to completely change how season 2 goes. (hello Samurai world) The wait is going to be awful. 


The Walking Dead

We're out of the bottle episode format for a little bit (don't worry, it's back in full force in the 2nd half of the season) I've actually been looking forward to parts of this episode since filming just because I knew we'd be getting the Carl/Negan material from the comics. Unfortunately Jeffrey Dean Morgan has a bit too much "fun" playing Negan so now he has long monologues at every moment and is generally over the top and boring at the same time. 

The Negan/Carl scenes were the highlight of the episode. Though I see Chandler Riggs got the same "this actor isn't very strong so lets direct around them" treatment Emily Kinney used to get on the show. It's too bad they couldn't give that to the actors playing Olivia and Spencer too. They were awful.

This episode did not need to be 90 minutes. In fact, why did we need The Cell? This gave us a more in depth look at the Sanctuary. They should've just threw half of this shit in that episode and kept the normal episode length. Rosita and Eugene got to do something, which was a nice change. Rick and Aaron and Michonne separately seemed to be onto something interesting, but we didn't see that either.

Next week is another extended episode. They didn't even show Carol in the preview. Why am I still watching this show?

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi coherently about the things I've watched on television. This week is brought to by my tears because Westworld is over.