I have one word…Awesome.

Episode  8, Made to Suffer

Summary:

The eighth episode starts with a new group fighting for their survival. One of them gets bit and they flee over the fence into a destroyed part of the prison.

Meanwhile, back at the Governor’s place Glenn is making an awesome bone weapon from a walkers arm while Rick and his raiding team make their way into the Governor’s compound.

Thankfully they save Glenn and Maggie, but Glenn already spilled the beans about the location of the prison. One of the best segments of the episode kicks off when Michonne separates from the main group and holds up in the Governor’s rooms.

Back at the prison Carl hears screaming and goes to investigate. (Yes, imagine that, Carl running into danger.) He finds the new group and “rescues” them. I was actually impressed with the way he handles himself, which I think might be a first.

There is a messy firefight as Rick’s team get’s out of town. Most of the team as well as Michonne make it but Daryl gets lost in the mix, which leads to the closing scenes of the episode. The Governor turns on Merle, accusing him of helping his brother Daryl. The mid season closes with a shot of Andrea looking shocked, and then its over.

Overall, I liked the episode, but it wasn’t a home run. There were too many story lines which split the time spent on each too much in my opinion. And the ending just sucked for me. I get that they want to leave us hanging so we come back, but they just introduced a whole new set of people into the story line and then leave us hanging on so many fronts.

So I’m mad and giving it a 3 out of 5.

Things I loved about this episode…

• The creepy governor feeding his daughter. It is sick, weird, and twisted.  Yet somehow very powerful.
• Glen concerned about Maggie and what the Governor did or didn’t do to her. He’s been beat half to death, but he is still just worried about Maggie. They better survive this episode or I will be really pissed.
• The prisoner telling Carol he thought she was a lesbian because she has short hair.
• Michonne finding the tanks of heads in the Governor’s house. And then his kid in the cage. The fight scene after that was one of the best in the series.  I cringed and jumped when she got him in the eye.
• The ads for the movie “Warm Bodies”. I can’t wait to see that.
• Carl locking the newcomers up. It was the first thing that Carl did in three seasons that was semi intelligent. And the big black dude who is the leader of the new group actually responds in a reasonable manner.
• The Governor turning on Merle. I love it when the bad guys turn on each other. O

Things that I didn’t like about this episode…

• It was the end of the first half of the season. How long do I have to wait for more? Too long.  Too Long.
• I thought it was kind of dumb for Rick to drop smoke to save Glenn and Maggie. What good is smoke when you don’t have masks? I thought it was kinda lame.
• The firefight as Rick tries to get his people out. If you are in the open and there is a gunfight you are dead. I hate it when people run across open ground when someone fifty feet away is unloading with an automatic. There is just now way you aren’t going to get hit, even with a few smoke grenades in the mix.
• Michonne leaving the Governor alive, and the fact that he can still partially function with a piece of glass in his eye.
• Merle has an uzi in the ending scene by the fighting pit. Who the hell has an uzi these days?  Such a fashion mistake.

Lawless (2 Out of 5 Graves)

I had such high hopes for this movie. I downloaded it and waited until my son and his friend were busy playing a game before getting a beer and sitting down in front of the television.

The movie starts out with the three brothers making a delivery run and immediately sets the gritty tone of the film. It is a rough world, and if you want to survive you need to be willing to get your hands dirty.

So what knocked the movie down to the “I probably won’t watch it again – even if I’m bored to death with nothing to do” category? It wasn’t the acting or the cinematography, it really came down to the core message of the movie being a bit too twisted. On the one hand it is supposed to be brutal and violent, which it is, but then every time you think someone is dead they pop back up in the next scene. It felt like I was watching one of those Saturday  morning Kung Fu movies where the main characters get run through a hundred times but keep on fighting. I get that to some extent that was part of the story, that the Bondurant family was supposed to be “hick legend” invincible. But they ruined it with the last scene of the movie. I just thought that was dumb the way they shatter that mythology which was built up through the whole rest of the movie.

The other major issue I had with the movie was what a p*ssy Shia’s Jack was. I get that he his physically smaller than his two brothers and maybe a bit mousy, but come on, let him progress a little as the movie goes. He wussed out each and every time he should have fought. It really killed the overall movie for me. I don’t mine my main character having to learn to be a killer, but don’t make him a Suzy for the whole movie. (Sorry Suzy)

The Good:

• Tom Hardy was amazing as older brother Forrest. He made every scene he was in. 
• Jason Clarke as the mildly psychotic brother was well cast. Jason has that look in his eyes that makes you wonder if he is really in control of himself. He didn’t play as large a part as Tom’s Forrest, but he was a greats supporting character I enjoyed watching.
• Mia Wasikowska.  You can put her in amish clothes and she is still a smokin hot girl. There is just something about her face and eyes (pretty much all you see of her in this movie) that pulls you in. One of the most underrated hotties in hollywood.
• The love story between Forrest and Maggie was touching. Forrest is played so well, he is simple yet complicated, and even though you know he has feeling for Maggie, he really can’t figure out how to act on them until she makes the first move. Would have been a great love story just because of that if they didn’t ruin it  with the dumb closing parts of the movie.

 

I am shocked, I would have thought that was a life long commitment.

It was one of those weeks. Very busy playing catch up after the long holiday weekend and then my youngest gets sick and is home from school.

He’s sick, and literally dying of boredom. His blood pressure was only 95/50. Time for a stat injection of steam game fun. (Yes, I know I’m spoiling him and am a bad parent, now go away.)

So he finds Don’t Starve on steam and we get to copies. We can’t play together yet, the game is still in Beta and I’m not sure if it is even going to support multiplay, but he wanted us to do something “together” so we both got it and started playing. If you buy it now on steam you are automatically in the beta and get the game for a few dollars cheaper as well.

The high level goal of the game is to collect supplies and survive day be day while increasing the technology available to you and getting better weapons to fight the monsters.

From here on in there are two sides to this story. My son loves the game. He is playing and progressing through the technology tree, and doing a little better each time he plays. You can save and come back to a game at certain points, but if you die, its over.  You get to keep your research points, but you have to start the game from Day 1 once your goose is cooked. Ry is loving it and has been playing for two solid hours since it downloaded.

Me, I played through two rounds and will wait a little while before I make another run at the game. The race to feed yourself before your food bar shrinks seems a bit too rapid, and the game while fun at first, seemed relatively shallow in terms of overall game play depth. I’m hoping that as the Beta goes on and I play a bit more, that opinion changes.

So, as an overall rating I give it a 3 out of 5. I think it has promise, but may not be fully baked yet. But for roughly twelve bucks, it was well worth keeping my sick child occupied for the last two hours.

Yes I am, Yes I am.

I don’t know where this stuff was when I was a kid.

My boys have no idea how spoiled or lucky they are.

There are some truly awesome nerf guns out for Kmiss this year and they are great early training tools.