Rambling TV: What I watched in March

I'm once again going to attempt to keep a semi regular schedule talking about what I watched on TV. I plan on posting at the end of each month. Some of these shows started before March but since I finished them up this month, I'll throw them in here too. Here's what I've been watching on the small screen.

I Am The Night (TNT)

This started in January and it caught my eye because it starred Chris Pine and was slightly related to the Black Dahlia case. Overall, it was fine. India Eisley was really good in the lead role but this wasn't must see TV for me. It was well done, but ultimately a bit forgettable. 

Miracle Workers (TBS)

This show is beyond stupid but it's funny as hell. Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan play two angels who are tasked with making two humans fall in love or else God, played by Steve Buscemi is going to blow up Earth. 

The Good Place (Netflix)

My husband and I binged this on Netflix. It started out as just background noise but we eventually got into it. It has some great one liners, but I don't think it's something I'd tune into week after week. I could just wait for the next season to drop on Netflix. Weirdly enough, it's the lead, Kristen Bell who is the part of this I like the least. Everyone else feels natural in their roles. She feels like she's acting. 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)

I have a free trial for Pime so of course I watched the first two seasons immediately. I LOVE this show. I don't think Prime is worth it financially to me so I'm gutted I won't get to see season 3 very easily. But I'll find away. it's worth it. 

The Case Against Adnan Syed (HBO)

This case was made famous when the podcast Serial talked about it, and now HBO turned it into a four part mini series. I never listened to the podcast, but I recall reading an article about it after it originally aired. Watching this has mostly felt like new information to me so I've found it fascinating. It's depressing that Adnan was denied a new trial. One thing I really appreciated about this doc was that Hei was never lost in the shuffle. Especially in the first episode, they really reminded you that she was a person and she's not getting justice either with the wrong person in jail. 

Quick TV and Movie Reviews Courtesy of Netflix

I go through entertainment moods. Sometimes I'm in a reading mood, other times I'm in a watching mood. For pretty much all of October, I've been glued to my Netflix account. While I wrote a few full reviews for some of the movies I watched, such as The Kindergarten Teacher and Apostle,  the rest I decided to do in one post. Here are some movies and TV series I've been binging lately. 

DVD 
The first three reviews are from their DVD rental service. Side note, how do more people not use this? It's amazing! Do you all still have video rental stores in your neck of the woods because I sure as hell don't.

Eighth Grade

Elsie Fisher is a gem. This is a very quite movie, some would say "nothing happens" but really, everything does. I laughed pretty hard a few times and cringed at others because I could relate. Middle school was hell. I had ICQ and MSN Messenger to make mine awkward, I couldn't imagine having even more social media to add to it now.
Grade: B+

How To Talk To Girls At Parties

God damn this movie is weird. Aliens are touring Earth in 1970's London and one of them decides to check out the punk rock scene. I think this film balances being bizarre and endearing very well. The script it messy but I had fun watching it.
Grade: B-

Kinky Boots

I started watching this back when it first came out on DVD and never finished. I'm so glad I did, this movie is a joy. It drags a bit in the middle but Chiwetel Ejiofor is dynamite. 
Grade: A-

Streaming

22 July

Not that I'm an expert...but Paul Greengrass is the wrong director for this movie, right? I mean, it's awkward as hell that he's making all of these Norwegian actors speak English in a story that happened in their native land. It also feels like most of the effort was put into recreating the terror attack that happened and not much on the legal battle that followed. This film needed a lot of trimming. Though it did have two very convincing performances from Anders Danielsen Lie and Jonas Strand Gravli. I definitely hope to see more of those too.
Grade: C

The Haunting of Hill House

The male characters in this story drove me crazy and the ending tread into Hallmark movie cliche territory but this series was really well done. The actors were good, it was creepy, and the best part was they tied up ALL of their lose ends. They didn't pull a Castle Rock on their audience and they deserve all the credit in the world for that. 
Grade: B+

The Sinner (season one)

I feel some type of way about this. I really liked the murder mystery aspect of the story. Jessica Biel is great, her motives for murder were interesting, but man Bill Pullman.....he was bad. He looked like he was on the verge of laughter in every scene and the side characters were all very one dimensional. At eight episodes, this was a quick watch and I'm glad I saw it. But I felt there was something holding this series back. Maybe it was budget, maybe the network, but the writers had some great ideas and then the rest were just cut and paste from Murder Shows 101.
Grade: B-

Making A Murderer (season two)

Did this need a second season? Probably not. Did I watch it all? Of course. This case still fascinates me. I'm still in the camp of thinking Avery is innocent and that a bunch of fuckery went on with that crime scene. Zellner was a nice addition to the narrative. She brings up a few possible suspects in Teresa's murder, which they didn't get to do that last time around. I can't decide which one I think is more plausible. I don't buy getting flagged down by someone and actually pulling over for it, but that's just me. I'll continue to follow this case as it unfolds, if it ever goes anywhere.
Grade: B-

Daredevil (season three)

Since I'm watching this with my husband I haven't finished it yet. We're currently on the 8th episode. This is still the best Netflix series, the fights are so well done, but Karen Page is bothering me this season even more than I thought possible. I like Deborah Ann Wohl. She's a good actress, if you've seen True Blood you know, but she plays Karen as if she's constantly on the verge of having an anxiety attack. There's a scene where her character comes face to face with Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) and it's tragic how much he out acts her. Otherwise, so far so good. I'm not buying the Defenders not showing up though. They don't have the huge contract issue that the Avengers have when they don't show up in each others movies, and the story kind of calls for one of them to at least check in, and no one has yet. That's distracting.
Grade: TBD

Hold The Dark

Man...I was really looking forward to this and even though it got lukewarm reviews I still wanted to watch it myself. The script is kind of awful and it wastes its very talented cast. I felt like they didn't know how to end this film either. Wasted potential.
Grade: D

Rambling TV: The End of the F***ing World

Speaking for myself, sometimes I find Netflix's tv options a bit overwhelming. There's just so many things to pick from and some look like trash. Thankfully every now and again you'll find a gem of a show, and that's what I found in The End of the F***ing World.

Based on a graphic novel that I have not read, this 8 episode series is a quick watch. (Seriously, the episodes are around 25 minutes each) and it follows two teenagers, James (Alex Lawther) who is pretty sure he's a psychopath. And a new girl at school Alyssa (Jessica Barden) who talks him into going on a road trip with her to find her real father. 

What caught my eye were the two leads. Lawther was tremendous in an episode of Black Mirror (Shut Up And Dance) and Barden I recognized from the wonderful Hanna.  Since it was so short, I ended up watching the entire season in one night. They were excellent. 

The show is very different. It's mostly a dark comedy. Some pretty awful things happen, but the mood is kept fairly light due to the laid back nature of our leads. I'm a sucker for narration in stories and this is one that gets multiple narrations right.

I don't know if this will get a second season. With the leads already being in their early 20's I'm not sure if this is something they could do long term, but I'd definitely watch a season two if they made it.

Did you see this? What did you think?

Rambling TV: The Alienist

Last week I talked about another mini series I watched this year that I adored in Waco, and today we're talking the captivating series The Alienist. 

TNT aired this during the winter. It follows an Alienist Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Bruhl) a police secretary Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) and a newspaper illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) as they attempt to assist police in catching a serial killer that is murdering young boys.

I never read the book in which this is based, and it took a lot for me not to Google spoilers while watching this. I was so impatient! I wish I could've binged this show all at once because waiting week after week was torture. I loved how the series used fictional characters but wove them in with real ones like Theodore Roosevelt. (Brian Geraghty) We got to see them talk about early psychology and see things we take for granted now like taking a match of a finger print. The entire series was fascinating.

Bruhl is an actor that might give Kitsch in Waco a run for his money in Emmy season. It was refreshing to see him play someone that isn't a villain or a massive asshole, though Lazlo is a bit of an asshole in this. Fanning was wonderful as well as Sara Howard. A woman who is sick of being treated as a second class citizen. You can see how done she is with a good majority of the men in this series at times.

If it has one fault, I really wanted a bit more out of its ending, but it did end the same way the novel did apparently, and I can handle that. There was a sequel written, so the jury is still out on whether or not this gets a second season, but I will definitely watch it if it does.

Rambling TV: Waco

As Emmy FYC season ramps up, I wanted to talk about a mini series that I hope doesn't get forgotten come Emmy time this summer. Paramount Network's Waco. What caught my eye initially with this mini series was one of my favorite actors, Michael Shannon. I was only six when the Waco standoff happened. And I realize after watching this how little I actually knew about what went down there.

Shannon plays FBI negotiator Gary Noesner with Taylor Kitsch playing cult leader David Koresh. The rest of the cast is rounded out with Rory Culkin, Shea Wigham, Paul Sparks, Andrea Riseborough, Julia Garner, Melissa Benoist and John Leguizamo. A talented bunch all around.

Who surprised me the most? You probably guessed it...Taylor Kitsch. This guy is awful in 98% of the things he stars in but after being pretty damn good in season two of True Detective he blew it out of the park here. He was charming and scary at the same time. He really captured what I knew of Koresh.  Shannon is brilliant as always, with Sparks, Culkin, and Garner also giving some of the best work I've seen on TV this year. 

At six episodes, it's not a long series you need to dedicate a lot of time to. This was the perfect amount of time to tell the story. It doesn't take a bias approach either. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to paint the FBI/ATF agents as saints for those not familiar with what happened, but they don't. They show the good and the bad on both sides. Because it's such a short series, there's not a lot, if any filler. Everything had its purpose.

I hope this isn't forgotten come Emmy time. There's two more mini series that came out this year that I'm going to talk about in the coming weeks that will likely get voter's attention before this one, but I'll hold out hope.

Did you see Waco? What did you think?

Rambling TV: Thirteen Reasons Why

It's been a hot minute since I've talked about TV on my blog. With Game of Thrones being on a long hiatus and The Walking Dead turning into a trash fire, I've mostly stuck to Twitter with my TV thoughts. But I've still been watching a ton of TV and I just need to talk about it.

More specifically, I really need to bitch about 13 Reasons Why...

I know, I know, I'm making my TV comeback all about negativity but I can't help it. Aside from some pacing issues, I adored season one. It was well acted, the story was good, and it was there for me in a time when I really needed to binge a show and cry my eyes out. So to be served a second season that managed to be even more unnecessary that I ever imagined, I can't help but be massively disappointed.

So here are thirteen reasons I hated season two. These things range from petty to unforgivable in no particular order. 


1) The plot should follow the actual cliffhanger
Remember that school shooting that was teased? Doesn't happen.

2) Hannah and Zach's relationship retcon
Remember when Zach told Clay he knew Hannah better than anyone else? Apparently not because in an effort to show Hannah in a happy place, they invented a relationship with Zach that for some reason was never mentioned in her tapes, and therefore impossible to believe.

3) Jessica/Justin/Alex love triangle
This didn't do any of the characters justice and I'm still struggling with what Jessica sees in Justin in the first place.

4) Showing visions of Bryce/Hannah making out was a poor choice cinematically.
For a show that is so careful about trigger warnings I'm not sure what they were thinking having Clay imagine Hannah making out with her rapist.

5) Skye and Clay's dinner date/fight
Sometimes shows ask you to suspend your disbelief and you do so willingly. Other times you cannot wrap your head around what is happening. That's Skye and Clay's date where she attempts to jack him off under the dinner table with his parents sitting right there. Then after obviously leaving the table to go fuck, they proceed to have the loudest fight ever and not once do either of the parents intervene. I'm sorry, I can't accept this. When they try to brush it off a few episodes later as bipolar disorder it almost makes it worse. 

6) These kids are old enough to teach at this school.
Here's the petty one. I'm sorry, but some of these actors are my age. It's distracting. I'm sorry. 

7) Hannah's bullying past.
Hannah being a former bully didn't add layers to her character, it felt like a cheap way to get the defense attorney some points. Speaking of which..

8) Ghost Hannah
I understand why they would want Katherine Langford to have as many scenes as possible. She's a tremendous actress, but her appearing as a Ghost to Clay only worked in one scene. ( her memorial, which was heartbreakingly beautiful. I give the show that. It was one of two amazing scenes in this season) but the rest of the time it was forced. 

9) The world's cattiest defense attorney.
I felt like I was watching a teenage girl cross examine these people. I'm no lawyer but the way she was acting didn't feel believable at all. 

10) I'm not sure this will help rape victims come forward.
I know what the show was doing with Hannah's trial. They were going for what is the most realistic outcome, that the rapist goes free. But I felt like the show had an opportunity here to give their viewers some hope. Bryce should've gotten his comeuppance. They had a chance to give viewers the justice they likely don't think they can achieve themselves and they didn't. They used just about ever rape cliche possible. As a sexual assault survivor, had I been contemplating telling someone, then watched this, I don't think I'd say anything. 

11) Don't forget Clay is the privileged white male.
Clay is the epitome of white privilege but the show went to great lengths to stretch out the amount of time it took him to learn a lesson. It got extremely unbelievable. 

12) Tyler's rape.
This is my biggest problem by far. They didn't need to use rape as yet another tipping point. Tyler already had demons. He already had motive to want to shoot up his school. Having a bunch of boys rape him in the bathroom with a mop handle was not only unnecessary but it was shot in the most gratuitous manner possible. Kyle Patrick Alvarez directed this episode. I loved his film The Stanford Prison Experiment. But he shot this scene like he shot that film and it didn't work. Gregg Araki directed a few episodes this season and probably would've been better suited to handle this particular scene. It still wouldn't make up for how useless it is.

13) Why did we need a season two to begin with?
Why though? and WHY did they greenlight season three?

Thanks for sticking with me. Did you watch season two? What are your thoughts?

Rambling TV: Thoughts on all of it.

It's been a while since I've written about TV. It's Oscar season, and there's so many movies to write about. But now that I've seen all the Best Picture nominees at least. It's time to get back into the swing of things for TV. Here's what I've been watching:

Agents of SHIELD

The Ghost Rider theme was a hit, but now they're on LMD, which after watching Westworld feels like a very cheap rip off. It isn't very good. As usual, Fitz and Simmons are the only interesting parts, with a few great moments from May and Mack thrown in. I really don't see this show getting picked up for another season. They've already had May (well, LMD May) and Coulson kiss which feels like an ending point. 

Luke Cage

Speaking of Marvel, this show was better. I hate that it took me so long to watch it. Jessica Jones left me so disappointed. This wasn't perfect, Mahersala Ali was amazing as Cottonmouth, the villain for the first half, but then they swapped him for Diamondback and the back half of the season just wasn't as good as the first. It leaves a lot of interest for the second season at least. But Claire Temple hooking up with Luke? No. Go back to Matt in Daredevil, there's more chemistry there.

The OA

This was a quick binge on Netflix. I love Brit Marling's work, and yes this is very similar to a lot of things she's done. But overall, I'd definitely watch a 2nd season. It got weird when they got into their "movements" but the story was strong.

Taboo

I tried to watch Tom Hardy's new show, which has an amazing production, by the way. But I couldn't continue with it. It bored me. I'm still DVRing the episodes so if something changes, I'll give it a chance.

The People v O.J Simpson

Netflix is finally streaming this. I can definitely see why it won so many Emmys, it was amazing. It was an interesting perspective for me. I was 8 when this trial happened. I remember Cochran jokes and not knowing a single person who thought O.J was innocent, but it's something else seeing it played out like this. Now I have to tackle that OJ: Made in America documentary.

The Young Pope

This show has some seriously hilarious moments but then it just drags on. Overall, it's okay. Jude Law is spectacular in it. 

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

A little late, but I saw so many great movies this week I just didn't have time to talk about TV..

Agents of SHIELD

I really don't know how I feel about the winter finale. On one had, this episode had some really great moments with Fitzsimmons, Mack, and Coulson. But there was some cringeworthy stuff too. 

Daisy Sue being the face of SHIELD? The fact that Coulson even suggests that shows what's wrong with this show. Daisy shouldn't be the focus. She's an uninteresting Mary Sue who can barely act. This show is likely going to be cancelled this season, and on one hand I'll be sad as I've grown to love some of the characters on this show, but on the other hand, I'll be happy never to see Daisy again. Her presence on the show actually annoys me more then the fact that AoS makes it completely unbelievable that no one would call the Avengers.

Ghost Rider had a pretty anti climatic finish, but I don't think that's the last of him we'll see this season.

AIDA going rogue did surprise me, so wtf is she doing with May? And can she kill Daisy instead?

Hairspray Live!

I love Hairspray. It's easily one of my favorite musicals and I prefer those versions to the original 1988 movie. This was fun. It was a bit shaky at times, but most of the cast was excellent.

The Good:

Dove Cameron who played Amber was a gem. This is my first time seeing her in something, though someone pointed out to me on Twitter that she's kind of a big deal on the Disney Channel right now. It was nice to hear "Cooties" again after the 2007 version left it out.

Maddie Baillio was a good Tracy, though it seems like her nerves got to her a few times.

Seeing Broadway legends Kristin Chenoweth and Harvey Fierstein were also a absolute joy. 

Jennifer Hudson and Ephraim Sykes were great at Maybelle and Seaweed. Hudson brought down the house, but prefer Queen Latifah and Elijah Kelley from the film.

Martin Short and Rosie O'Donnell also cracked me up in their small roles.

The Bad

Ariana Grande's stunt casting. What were they thinking? I'm not sure what annoyed me more, the fact that they didn't make her take out her extensions (anyone else catch that mouthful of pigtail she got during Momma I'm a Big Girl Now?) Or the fact that she still sings and moves like a popstar. She's constantly throwing her hands up and trying to belt over the other singers. Acting wise she was fine, but I never thought I'd see the day where I preferred Amanda Bynes as Penny. 

Derek Hough, while charismatic and a wonderful dancer should not be given singing parts. (same goes for his sister) His notes were flat, and it's impossible not to compare him to James Marsden who was perfect as Corny Collins in the 2007 movie.

Speaking of charisma. Garrett Clayton had zero. I'll take Zac Efron back, please. 

The Walking Dead

You know, I should be happy that the group is (mostly) back together. That there was a great moment between Rick and Michonne, that Daryl escaped. But I'm just over this show at this point, and I know I won't stop watching it because I watch it with my family. 

The mid season finale gave us two more deaths...Alexandria redshirts Spencer and Olivia. Negan also took Eugene as a hostage because he's predictable. 

We finally saw Carol and Morgan again, but I'm so over Gimple's forced isolation of her. It's hard to completely enjoy a happy family reunion when he won't let her be part of it. 

To quote Rick Grimes himself...I'm tired, son. 

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi coherently about the things I've watched on television. This week is brought to you by being completely done...

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. 

Rambling TV: Thoughts on Westworld and TWD

With the holiday I almost forgot to write about TV this week, despite Westworld having an amazing episode. Let's talk about that first.

Westworld

SO many theories were confirmed in the penultimate episode. Bernard really is a host made in Arnold's image. There's almost certainly two time lines and William really will end up becoming the Man in Black. 

They didn't let us know what happened to Elsie, Stubbs went looking for her and was captured by hosts, which leads me to believe she's at least alive.

Logan was tormenting Dolores in front of William until she escaped. Logan handed him a picture of his sister, the same picture that threw Dolores' father out of whack in the premiere and gave it to him to "remind" William he has a girl at home. William says he understands, then while Logan is passed out, he kills all the other hosts.

Mauve is still plotting and building her army.

We got a visit from old Clementine again. Bernard corners Ford about hist past and has her put a gun on him. After Ford messes with Bernard a bit, making him relive his painful memories, he finally drops the bombshell Arnold truth on him. This is spliced with a scene of Dolores after she leaves William, her scenery and clothes change back and forth until she comes face to face with Bernard/Arnold, and reveals she is the one that killed him. Then Ford has Bernard put a gun to his own head. I really hope someone brings him back.

Next week's finale is 90 minutes, and that has to tide us over until early 2018. I can't wait.

The Walking Dead

This week in The Walking Bottle Episodes, we check up with Tara and Heath for an entire 70 minutes. They get separated, and Tara runs across an all female community who had all the men and boy killed by Saviors a while back. They have a shoot immediately policy, but Cyndie takes a liking to Tara and saves her. She then walks back to Alexandria and learns about Denise, Glenn, and Abe since that all happened when she was gone.

In theory, this story wasn't bad. Tara is one of my favorites. Even though this new Oceanside community is just a gun filled plot device for our currently gunless group, I liked Cyndie and the thought of an all female community is intriguing, though Gimple will probably fuck it up because he can't write female friendships. But the bottle episode format really hurts this. Had this story been told along side others over multiple episodes ala Game of Thrones (seriously, they try to be GoT so much, you'd think they'd attempt parallel story telling) it would've worked. But sadly, it didn't.

Next week is a 90 minute episode as well. I think Gimple took a page out of Mr. Robot's book with all these extended episodes this season. 

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi coherently about the things I've watched on television. Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers. 

Rambling TV: Thoughts on Westworld, TWD + more

Westworld

It was going to be hard to top last week's episode. While this one was a little slower it provided a lot of interesting information, and gave another big theory another point in its direction.

Let's talk about how fucked Sylvester and Felix are. Felix's sympathy for Mauve bit him in the ass in a big way this week. Mauve wants to build an army to escape, and Sylvester thinks they should shut her down and wipe her memory. That doesn't happen, and she slits Felix's throat lightly to demonstrate just how little they can control her. He lives, though. Later, she murders the new replacement Clementine and is taken out by techs. We get a flashback of her begging them not to wipe the memories of her daughter by saying "this pain is all I have left." Now we know where Ford got that line for Bernard.

Speaking of Bernard, he cleans up his tracks for being with Theresa, but when he asks Ford if he's ever made him kill before, a memory flashes before his eyes of him grabbing Elsie, but his memory is wiped before he can do more.

Dolores gets to the old town where she calls home and remembers herself massacring it. William stops her from bringing the gun to her own head. They run into Logan and his men as they leave, and the preview for next week looks creepy and awful.

Now to the big reveal. The Man in Black, when telling Teddy who he really is leaves us two huge clues that point to both the Alternate timeline theory and William being the MIB. The blonde woman they save is the host that helped William pick  out his outfit in the first episode he appeared. MIB says "I thought they would've retired you." Then MIB mentions he's married to a woman and has two kids. That's not a huge stretch, but we know William is about to marry Logan's sister. And if their marriage didn't work, I have to wonder if it's because she found out William did something to Logan - I think there's a good chance William could end up killing him. 

There's so much to digest in this episode. But the most mind boggling....how does Lee still have a job?

The Walking Dead

TWD shocked me this week by actually having a good episode, albeit a long overdue one. We FINALLY checked in with Maggie and Sasha, which should've happened three episodes ago.

Every scene the two of them were in was good. It was nice to see how Glenn and Abe continue to live through them. They also stepped up and helped Hilltop in their time of need, even though Gregory tried multiple times to throw them out. Plus we were given a break from Negan speeches this week by letting Simon take the lead. 

Carl and Enid also had a sweet teenage love story before he jumped aboard the Savior's truck to go kill Negan himself.

Of course, while the episode was good, it still had problems. Mainly Gregory and Xander Berkeley's black hole of charisma. His character is almost as cartoonish as Negan.  The episode also highlighted how shitty Gimple has been at developing stories. Jesus is all gungho about helping Maggie and Sasha, but why? Why is he all of a sudden on Team ASZ? He disappeared after his introduction last season. And Maggie gives Enid Glenn's watch. Why? They should've showed us more scenes of the three of them bonding as a family for it to make sense that Maggie would give away what was one Hershel's to someone that's a non family member, and not save it for her own child.  

Other TV Thoughts

I'm not shocked the least funny SNL episode was the one Kirsten Wiig hosted. The only segment that even drew a laugh from me was the Weekend Update. It was just bad. Hopefully Emma Stone can bring the laughs back in a few weeks. ABC also greenlit an 8 episode Inhumans TV show. I'm assuming this means Agents of SHIELD is being cancelled. If not, I hope the Inhumans show takes Daisy off of AoS so I can stop cringing through her scenes. They specifically said it's not an AOS spin off, but come on. Kill Daisy or shove her on some other show. I want her off my screen. 

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I've watched on television this week. Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers. 

Rambling TV: Thoughts on Westworld and The Walking Dead

I'm not even in the mood to write about TV. Aside from Westworld, everything I've seen on TV this week has been downright awful. From TV that drags, to forced monologues, to the fact that my country elected a racist as president. It's not been a good week. Let's get all the shit out of the way first.

The Walking Dead

This week's episode was a prime example of how sometimes a show reads better than it watches. When I read the spoilers, I actually had a bit of hope. I'd be seeing Rick and plenty of the other characters again, but instead it was just more of the same.

More of Negan speechifying everyone, more forced stupid decisions. You're really going to tell me that Rick, the guy that buried weapons outside of Terminus, and hid a gun outside of Alexandria didn't think to have Olivia make a fake inventory list and then hide half their weapons? After they already said they set aside supplies for the Saviors? Come on. 

The episode was also 90 minutes when it didn't need to be. So aside from a great moment between Rick and Michonne and some amusing Father Gabriel moments, we got stuck with extra speeches and extra focus on characters like Spencer and Olivia who can't act their way out of a paper bag. It's sad that the best episode of the season so far has been the one with a fucking pet tiger in it.

Westworld

Now for the good, Westworld continues to be absolutely amazing, and one of the big theories was finally confirmed tonight - that Bernard is in fact a host. Now, a lot think he's a host made in Arnold's image, but if not, was Bernard a real person? Did he gross Ford, end up being murdered, then a host made to cover that up? Is that Theresa's fate? 

We got more sweet moments between William and Dolores, even though they didn't get to do much in this episode, but hey, a body filled with explosives got to blow up to give them an escape route after their train was stopped.

One of the most disturbing scenes (aside from the fact that Charlotte called a meeting with Theresa midway through fucking a host) was the two of them "proving" Ford has tampered with the hosts enough to the point where they're dangerous. Clementine gets beat up by another host, then after she's reset, she kicks his ass. When Stubbs goes in to stop her, he count power her done and has to kill her. They decide to give her a lobotomy, but not before Mauve gets Felix to take her there to witness it. 

No MIB or Elsie this week, but I can tell these last few episodes are going to be action packed. I can't wait to see where it all goes next. 

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I watched on television. This week is brought to you by anger and depression. 

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

The Walking Dead

How I felt during this episode. 

Oh my god this episode was boring. Did it really need an entire hour devoted to it? They could've summed up the Saviors and how the run shit in 5 minutes. I don't understand why Gimple gives boring characters like Dwight, Beth, and the Governor episodes all to themselves? It's a waste of time. They shouldn't be playing "Easy Street" on a loop for Daryl, they should be showing him this episode over and over again. 


Westworld

No Dolores and William this week. Instead we spent most of our time with Mauve, Bernard, and Elsie.

Let's start with Mauve, who was glorious in this episode. Flex explains how she works, and even takes her on the world's most paranoid office tour. She's shocked to see her "dreams" on the screen. When Felix's colleague returns and threatens to turn him into HQ, Mauve puts a scalpel to his throat and talks him into helping her. He and Felix change her coding at her request. They'll regret that later, I'm sure.

Bernard gets dumped by Theresa, so fuck her. She doesn't deserve him. He and Elsie are still hard at work trying to figure out who planted that transmitter. Bernard goes to a floor so secret they don't even let electricians in to fix their blinking lights, apparently. He figures out where the signal is coming from, and Elsie finds the time stamp on it and discovers a computer hidden in a secret part of the park. As Bernard is about to tell Theresa something is off, Elsie calls him and tells him that she's been one of the people setting off the hosts. She and Arnold. Someone suddenly grabs Elsie from behind and I'm over here having a heart attack because I was so afraid someone was going to kill her.

The Man in Black and Teddy didn't accomplish a whole lot, but Teddy shot a fuck load of people and that's probably the most interesting thing he's done all season.

Tessa Thompson also made her debut in this episode. She was my favorite part of Creed. I can't wait to see what more she does here. 

Bernard, while still looking for more answers happened upon some old hosts that Dr. Ford keeps aside to live out his fantasies, essentially. Right down to that dog story he told Bernard before. However, the episode ends with the host dog dying, and the host boy telling Bernard that Arnold told him to kill the dog. I almost felt bad for Ford there. Almost.

Agents of SHIELD

This week we finally got Reyes' backstory on how he became the Ghost Rider. I have to say, for an ABC show the CGI in this episode was quite incredible, especially the shot of Robbie flying out of the car. Of course we finally got a glimpse of Johnny Blaze, although not his true face. The only thing that ruined it was Daisy interjecting herself into the big reveal. If SHIELD gets picked up for another season, I really hope she dies in this one.

The big twist was that Robbie's uncle is actually the evil one, and these ghosts are his fault. I wasn't crazy about that, though I loved the "dark matter" mention. I miss Agent Carter. 

Fitz and Simmons being split apart again is annoying, hopefully they get a good reunion scene out of it. 

Other TV News

Is it just me or was SNL fucking weird this week? That dead grandma sketch was just uncomfortable, even with adding the Cubs in there. Bill Maher finally got to interview President Obama on Real Time, that was a treat. It's too bad he couldn't be in the studio but I'm glad Maher finally got his interview. 


Rambling TV is a weekly series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I've watched on television. Click those gifs to be redirected to their makers. 

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

The Walking Dead

Thought you'd see how Maggie and Sasha were doing after the deaths of their husband and lover? Thought you'd see how Carl and Rick were handling that almost arm slicing? Nah, let's kill that momentum and check in with Carol and Morgan at the Kingdom. (Interesting enough, this episode was actually supposed to be the 3rd of the season, and next week's was supposed to be the 2nd. They switched the order last minute, probably because they wanted to make people "laugh") The best thing I can say about this episode is that I didn't hate it as much as I was expecting, and it probably will be more interesting than next week's, which we spend at the Sanctuary. 

Showrunner Scott Gimple is quite extraordinary in that he's managed to make me hate my favorite character's story so much. I'm sick of Suzy Homemaker Carol. I truly hope this is the last we see of it because it was never funny. It was over the top and I daresay pretty sexist at times. 

Shiva looks like shit, but we all knew he would. Morgan was actually a lot better in this episode than he was in all of season 6. I didn't hate Ezekiel as much as I thought it would though. He's very over the top, and even though I nodded off during his monologue a little, he's at least entertaining. Even though the plot forces yet another man to "get" Carol when he family doesn't. Gimple needs all the pacifists to mansplain things to her, I guess. 


Westworld

This episode was AMAZING. Easily my favorite of the entire season.

We find out Dolores still is in communication with Arnold somehow. She eerily says "I didn't tell him anything" after Dr. Ford interrogates her.  She steps up this episode, killing the men threatening William, kissing William, and talking him into escaping with her after she realizes they're caught in a trap. (And leaving behind Logan, who is still an asshole) At one point she says "You say people come here to re-imagine the story of their lives. I imagined a story where I didn't have to be the damsel." It was perfection.

On the employee side of things, Elsie and Felix got some focus. Felix dreams of programming and he fixes up a bird he smuggled out of the part, which flies straight to Mauve to end the episode. And Elsie forces a butcher to let her examine the body of the host that tried to kill her after catching him on camera having sex with a host he was supposed to be repairing. (she calls him a creepy necroperv) She finds a device in his body that she believes was used to smuggle intel out of the park. She brings it to Bernard.

The Man in Black generously gives Teddy a blood donation after killing that other guy he was traveling with, then he gets a visit from Dr. Ford. This was the first time we've really seen MIB not have complete control. 

All I want to do now is learn more about Arnold. I'm not even going to touch reddit right now. I'll fall down the theory rabbit hole. 

Agents of SHIELD

We're back to Daisy being completely insufferable this week. Her suicide mission at the prison was cringeworthy. Of course they have to show how much Coulson and May REALLY care about her. Just let her go people, she's never been a good fit on this show.

Robbie got some revenge on the man who called the hit that paralyzed his brother. Easily the best scene of the episode, but because they were in a prison, the whole thing was caught on security videos so now the government has something on SHIELD.

Oh, and the director came out as an Inhuman on live TV, apparently embellished something that he "did" in Vienna - that Simmons called him out on, then allowed himself to get manipulated by a Senator with that prison footage. I miss Nick Fury.  

Rambling TV is a weekly series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I've watched on television. Click those gifs to be directed to their makers.

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. 

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

Westworld

Another fascinating episode here. I was surprised to see Steven Ogg again. He also has a bit part on The Walking Dead right now, but it was worth it to watch Dolores kill him.

I liked that we learned a bit more about Bernard this week. We saw that his son died and I loved the line "this pain is all I have left of him." We also saw through Bernard that Dr. Ford might be the shadiest person in this show. (The Man in Black was absent from this episode) He talked about an old partner, Arnold. The name some of the hosts are talking about and he says he died. I'm guessing Ford killed him. (And maybe turned him into a host? Perhaps that piano player is him?)

Dolores wants to be free, but Teddy hasn't caught up to her new way of thinking yet. Elsie and Stubbs also went after a stray host (and we hilariously learn the legalities of which hosts are allowed to touch weapons) when they find him, he bashes his own head in right in front of them. Wow.

Agents of SHIELD

This episode was better because Daisy was barely in it, but it also highlighted one of the biggest problems this show has: It consistently forces its audience to ask "where the hell are the Avengers?" Even in a post Civil War world, if Inhumans caused massive blackouts across the world, Iron Man and Vision would be dispatched to take care of it. Black Panther would likely do something about it on his side too. The Netflix shows have threats that are quiet enough to where we know the Avengers wouldn't get involved, this show hasn't mastered that. I really wish they would.

Fitz got to kick some ass in this episode, I'm glad they've stopped making him so afraid to do so. That was the best part, besides May waking up and being completely pissed. 

SNL

Man, this was not funny this week. I love Emily Blunt and I was so looking forward to her hosting but I only laughed during Weekend Update. Bruno Mars put on a good show, at least. The funniest part is Donald Trump is now calling SNL part of a media conspiracy against him. I guess he missed the part where he hosted the show and they barely touched him, and how they've been making fun of Hillary Clinton weekly for well over a year now. 

Other TV thoughts

I'm actually a bit nervous for the next presidential debate on Wednesday. I'm afraid the moderator (who's from Fox News) is just going to be screaming "what about Benghazi?!?!?" the entire time. The Walking Dead comes back next week. I already know who dies, *spoiler* Abe, then Glenn *spoiler* but I'm so invested in some of the characters at this point, I can't stop no matter how shitty the show gets. Funny enough, AMC already switched episodes 2 and 3 around, probably to milk something that I'll talk about in my review a bit more. Pray for me. All I want is Carol to have nice things. 

Rambling TV is a series where I ramble semi-coherently about the things I've watched on television. Click those links to be redirected to their makers.