Daily Archives: March 18, 2012

‘The Walking Dead’ season finale: Burning down the … barn

After a second season that tested the limits of its viewers’ patience at times — and at other times excelled as after-the-end-of-the-world melodrama — “The Walking Dead” went out with a bang tonight.

Lots of bangs, as a matter of fact, followed by exploding walker heads. Also fire, as in the fire that burned down farmer Hershel’s barn.

In this case, fire good. Walkers bad!

Some thoughts on tonight’s episode:

The helicopter: As the episode begins, walkers in the streets of Atlanta notice a black helicopter overhead. They stumble after it, a journey that takes them out into the countryside and to the fields of Hershel’s farm. The helicopter not only explains why all the walkers showed up in the countryside at one time but teased us with the possibility of other survivors. Who was in that helicopter?

The badass chronicles: Daryl, with his crossbow and attitude, is a fan favorite on this show. Tonight he didn’t disappoint, tooling around on his motorcycle and snarking at people. Oh, and killing walkers. But Hershel, the mild-mannered veterinarian who has been an annoyance at times this season, grabbed his gun and put down a lot of walkers tonight. He also backed the new, more badass version of Rick who took charge by the end of tonight’s episode.

“We’re all infected.” Rick reveals what the doctor at the Centers for Disease Control whispered to him at the end of the first season. It makes perfect sense — the zombie plague had to begin somehow, after all — but casts a pall over the whole proceedings. If you manage to avoid walkers for 20 years and have a heart attack, you come back as a walker. Bummer.

The prison: The next major setting for the series is straight out of the comic book series. I haven’t read that far in the comics, but there’s potential for a lot of conflict there. We glimpse it at the end of the episode.

Michonne: One of the most-awaited characters from the comic book series showed up right before the final scene, as a hooded, sword-wielding figure rescues Andrea from a horde of walkers. On “Talking Dead” afterward, the show’s producers confirmed that the hooded swordswoman was popular comic book character Michonne. Creator Robert Kirkman (I think it was) said that Michonne is the first character who’s not just surviving in the post-apocalyptic world but has it all figured out.

I’ll come back to the topic of “The Walking Dead” at some point soon — certainly before the show returns next fall — but it’s been fun blogging about the series this season and I’m looking forward to season three.

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 5

It’s Sunday and that means (at least lately it does) a look at what’s in the comics pages. ‘Cause there’s still something good even though “Calvin and Hobbes” and “The Far Side” are long gone. Right?

“Classic Peanuts” jumps into March Madness with the kids playing basketball. Unfortunately, the hoop is on Snoopy’s dog house and baskets wake him up. Not one of Charlie Schulz’ best.

“Garfield” sits by with a cup of coffee while Jon cleans out his wallet, then advises his person, “Time for a man purse, pack rat.” Is this thing on?

“Wizard of Id” has the wizard walking past various ogres and giant spiders and rats, unperturbed, only to squeek when he seeks his wife with her hair in rollers and green stuff on her face. Hello? Hello? (Cricket noise.)

“Speed Bump” is a play on old “Frankenstein” movies with the mad doctor and Igor choosing a brain for the monster. The jars are labeled “Normal Brain,” “Abnormal Brain” and “Brain With Song Stuck In It.” “No, Igor! That would just be cruel,” the doctor says. Pretty good.

“Blondie” tries out a new hairstyle and Dagwood reacts with shock. Frankly, so did I. Doesn’t this look like Donald Trump’s hairdo?

Freaky.

“Dennis the Menace” discovers, about 15 years late, that truism about how kids are better with computers than adults. Next they’re going to show Dennis signing up for an AOL account.

Finally, “Ziggy” just confuses me. Ziggy’s bird is hanging upside down on his perch with comic strip “confusion” circles around his head. Ziggy asks his dog and cat, “Did you put butter on his perch again?”

Is butter why the bird is hanging upside down? Wouldn’t he just fall off, completely unable to hang on at all, if the perch were slippery? Why does he look like he’s taken a blow to the head?

Maybe Dennis the Menace could explain it to me.

New trailer for ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’

I’ve mentioned before that I really enjoyed Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” It’s a fast, fun read that plays its story straight: The nation’s 16th president discovers, as a young man, that vampires are a plague upon the nation.

Grahame-Smith’s story, in which Lincoln has an unlikely mentor in his war against vampires, has a title that invites smirks. But the book is a compelling and somber read. The addition of a supernatural subplot to Lincoln’s life fits, bizarrely enough.

Director Timur Bekmambatov’s movie version comes out on June 22. There’s a new trailer out for the movie that emphasizes both the story’s tragedy-infused tone as well as what looks like crazy action.