Tag Archives: The Walking Dead

Counting down to one: What I’m watching right now

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the walking dead welcome to the tombs

It’s that time of year. Some of my favorite shows are working toward their season finales, with just an episode or two left. I’m glued to the TV (well, not literally).

Here’s the best of the best:

“The Walking Dead.” This season, the third, has been a big improvement over last year, which spent way too much time at Herschel’s farm. Much of the current season – which ends with the season finale Sunday night – has been split between the prison, where Rick and the other survivors have stopped, and the town of Woodbury, where the so-called Governor rules.

Pivotal events this season – the death of Lori, the birth of “Little Ass-Kicker,” the full acceptance into the group of Daryl Dixon, the return of Merle Dixon (the incomparable Michael Rooker) – seemed to come in the first half of the season.

In the second half of the season, its as if the showrunners decided to avoid the problems of season two by not repeating, over and over, scenes of the cast standing around and ruminating.

Instead, episodes have focused on small groups of characters. Like “Clear,” in which Rick, Carl and Michonne go back to Rick’s old sheriff’s station in search of weapons only to find that Morgan (Lennie James), Rick’s friend from the first season, has holed up in the town.

Morgan has lost his mind after losing his wife and son, and his madness and complete failure to cope with the post-apocalyptic world sent a message to Rick (Andrew Lincoln), who was spending too much time in Crazytown himself.

the walking dead season finale

Other episodes focused on Daryl and Merle – ending tragically for the newly reunited brothers – and on Andrea and the Governor, both of whom came off as badasses.

I’ll be watching the season finale, “Welcome to the Tombs,” this Sunday.

Meanwhile, “Justified,” the FX show about Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), continues to be one of the most clever and sarcastic shows on TV. The over-arching storyline of the season, ostensibly, was the 30-year-old mystery of thief Drew Thompson, but the story is less important than the parade of great characters we’ve been able to enjoy, ranging from the regulars – who have more to do this season – to great new faces like Constable Bob (Patton Oswalt).

“Justified” has always had some uneven moments, but this season has had some of the best episodes of the series to date. The season finale airs Tuesday night.

dallas

There’s another sort of pleasure to be had from “Dallas,” the continuation of the classic American soap opera about the Ewing clan of Texas.

The death of beloved actor Larry Hagman in November left the show in a tough spot mid-way through the second season: How to continue without J.R., a character who symbolized the show even as the real-life illness of Hagman reduced his presence in the new series.

The producers have handled Hagman’s passing well. On the show, J.R. died, the victim of a shooting, in Mexico. But the scripts have taken the mystery of J.R.’s death in a new direction, with Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and the younger generation of Ewings trying to figure out why J.R. was trying to find Pamela (Victoria Principal in the original series, who is apparently not returning).

J.R.’s presence still figures into the show and his death allowed for the return, even briefly, of classic “Dallas” characters like Gary Ewing, Val Ewing and Afton Cooper.

The show has five episodes remaining this season, so we can look forward to more Ewing scheming in the weeks to come.

My favorite TV shows of 2012

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sherlock and irene adler

Summing-up articles: It’s what writers do at the end of the year.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts on movies, TV and books in 2012, the first full year of this blog, and have enjoyed getting feedback from readers. The blog had almost 100,000 page views in 2012 so obviously a few people are checking it out.

I’m not going to rank my favorite TV shows – or the movies and books that will hopefully come in later blog entries – in order of preference. I’ll note, at times, those that I thought really stood out. But I didn’t see enough of any TV and movies and couldn’t come close to reading enough books to say conclusively these were the best of the best. They were just my favorites.

FYI you can probably find earlier reviews of most of these by clicking on the tags at the end.

Here are my favorite TV shows of the year:

“The Mindy Project” is maybe the biggest surprise (and one I haven’t written about yet). Mindy Kaling left “The Office” and struck out on her own with a smart and absurdly funny series that makes me think of “Community” in its mix of smart, funny and strange.

“Mad Men” struck some people as somehow deficient last season. I disagree. The tensions at home and in the office, the relationship between Don and Megan and the awful, horrible, sad end of Lane Pryce added up to a very good season.

Likewise, I’m sure some preferred the first or second season of “Justified” over the third, and I can’t totally disagree. But the third had so many wonderful moments and wild card characters like out-of-town drug dealer Quarles. And there’s no cooler lawman on TV than Tim Olyphant’s Raylan Givens.

“The Walking Dead” is only in the middle of its third season but has improved greatly over the second, farm-bound season. The prison, Woodbury, Michonne, the Governor and the return of Merle. How could you not like that?

“Parks and Recreation,” “Community” and “30 Rock” are my favorite comedies on TV right now. “Parks” is just so consistently funny and goofy, like the scene showing how people drink from the water fountains in Pawnee. “30 Rock” is about gone and “Community,” after losing its creator, could soon follow. But the bizarre “Liz Lemon as the Joker” episode of “30 Rock” and the meta chaos of “Community” will live on in my memory.

Last but definitely not least, we were treated to another three-episode season of “Sherlock” this year. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are close to becoming my favorite portrayers of Holmes and Watson. And Lara Pulver as Irene Adler? Wow.

First look at Tyreese in ‘The Walking Dead’

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The first seven episodes of the third season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have blown past us at an alarmingly fast rate – especially when compared to the second season on Hershel’s farm.

So it’s startling that we’re already approaching the mid-season finale, this Sunday, when “Made to Suffer” airs.

I’ll be looking forward to this one for a number of reasons, including the first appearance for Tyreese, a fan favorite character from the comics who’ll be played by Chad Coleman on the series.

Above is a screen grab from a Spanish-language trailer that purports to show Tyreese and a small group of survivors walking into what appears to be a demolished facility.

Here’s some questions we want to know:

What’s up with Tyreese and the other survivors? We know from the comics that Tyreese soon becomes a staunch ally of Rick. But it almost looks like they enter the prison after it’s been demolished and deserted.

If that’s the prison, what happened to it? We can’t forget that the Governor stole some National Guard equipment from an armory earlier in the season. Does he use it to attack the prison, which he had apparently considered impossible to clear of walkers?

What happens when Michonne takes the bag off the Governor’s walker daughter?

What happens when Merle and Daryl are reunited? Will they clash? Will they make peace?

What happens in the second half of the season, which begins early next year? Is the prison rubble? Will the Governor’s town of Woodbury survive? Will our heroes find themselves on the road again?

We’ll know some of those answers, maybe, this Sunday.

 

‘The Walking Dead’ – “Say the Word’

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If you’ve been watching “The Walking Dead” this season – and the huge ratings would indicate it’s likely that you are – you’re probably thinking the show is a big improvement over the second season, which spent way too much time with the characters hovering around Hershel’s farm and wondering where Sophia was.

In the first five episodes of this season, including tonight’s episode, “Say the Word,” we’ve seen quite a bit of action by comparison. The bulk of the survivors are holed up in the prison while Andrea and Michonne are in the town of Woodbury, run by the Governor – who likes to keep human heads in aquariums – and Merle, single-handedly scary as ever.

Last week, of course, we saw T-Dog and Lori meet gruesome ends and Lori’s baby born. Was there same plan to keep Lori alive through a C-section under even the best circumstances?

By the way, they’re sure coming up with a lot of creative ways to kill walkers. I counted at least two heads-split-from-top-down tonight. It’s a nice contrast to the top-of-head-cut-off move that the show has been doing.

It’s startling how fast-paced this season has been, and how many concepts were introduced in tonight’s episode alone:

The Governor’s daughter. The leader of Woodbury not only has a room full of fish tanks with heads in them. He has his zombie daughter in a cage.

Daryl as loving nurturer. Wow, the inevitable contrast – and conflict – between the two brothers when Daryl and Merle are reunited will be mind-blowing.

Zombie Fight Club. Merle and a series of contenders fight in a circle of walkers. The Governor assures Andrea it’s just for show. But what do you want to bet that, maybe in the second half of this season, Rick or Daryl – maybe especially Daryl – will be taking on Merle in the zombie squared circle?

The phone. Who the hell’s on the phone that Rick answers? I’m not sure if this plot point is in the comic books or not.

And not addressed tonight: Where’s Carol? She’s got a grave, but is she in it?

Three more episodes this year, followed by eight more early next year. Good stuff.

‘The Walking Dead’ returns with ‘Seed’

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When last we saw the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, they had weathered a long, long season at Hershel’s farm and were on the verge of discovering the prison where, we imagine, much of the third season of “The Walking Dead” will take place. Andrea, meanwhile, has been rescued from walkers by a mysterious woman with a sword and two zombies in chains.

The woman is, of course, Michonne, a fan favorite from the comics, here played by Danai Guirara. She’s only one of the changes in the new season.

Tonight’s third season premiere of “The Walking Dead,” “Seed,” opened with Rick leading the others into a a house, cleaning it of zombies. Months have passed. We can tell because Lori is pretty far along into her pregnancy. The group has turned to foraging in a big way. Carl rustles up canned food and Daryl shoots and plucks an owl. (Sorry Hedwig.)

The group comes across the prison and it seems like a natural hunkering-down place, complete with two sets of fencing to keep walkers out. The survivors set about cleaning the inside of the prison of zombies. Because they’re low on ammo, that means hand-to-zombie-hand combat. There’s some funny, innovative stuff here, including how you kill walker prison guards in protective riot gear.

While the prison assault – yeesh – is taking place, we meet Michonne, who is a badass. She and Andrea have formed a bond over the past few months as well. I’m looking forward to their getting to Woodbury, the town overseen by the Governor.

Aside from the gleefully gory walker extermination scenes, a lot of tonight’s episode left me oddly unmoved until near the very end, a nicely claustrophobic inside the prison that seems to seals the fate of a major character.

Random thoughts:

I know Daryl looks cool on it, but I wouldn’t be riding a motorcycle with zombies lurching around. Same for Maggie’s strappy tank top, hot as it is. I’d be wearing heavy Carhartts or something.

New opening credits. Still pretty creepy.

Lots of walker wasting tonight.

Daryl wields a crossbow and gives backrubs? He’s dreamy.

Still can’t bring myself to care about Lori. Just can’t.

On the TV: What I’m watching (and looking forward to)

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Thanks to a lot of work and only a little bit of time, I’m playing catch-up on fall TV shows.

There’s nothing at the moment that I’m looking forward to as much as Sunday’s return of “The Walking Dead.” Here’s hoping the third season of Rick, Daryl, Merle and the rest will be a great one.

Really, considering the machete hand that Merle is sporting, how can it be anything but cool?

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been watching.

“The Mindy Project” features Mindy Kaling, late of “The Office,” in a sitcom she created and writes. Kaling plays a very different character from Kelly on “The Office.” In this case, she’s a physician who (sitcom cliche alert) is more proficient at work than in her personal life.

Kaling has a likable presence and the supporting cast is quite good. And here’s a bonus: The second episode was better than the pilot.

“Alphas,” in its second season on SyFy, is one of the best shows I’m watching now. This series about a group of mutants who work for the government has a nice, X-Men-type mythology – good mutants versus “evil” ones – an intriguing bunch of characters and a good cast.

“Alphas” is also casting to appeal to geeks, with recent appearances by Summer Glau of “Firefly” and Sean Astin of “Lord of the Rings.”

“Last Resort” continues to be my favorite new fall show. I’ve written about its first two episodes and I’m looking forward to the third.

“Raising Hope” has been on for a few seasons now but I’m always pleasantly surprised by how fun it is. It’s a silly, non-sequitur-filled show about a goofy, white trash family. If you liked “Scrubs,” you’ll probably like it.

You say you want ‘Revolution?’

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Ever since “Lost” was a hit, network and cable TV has been trying to find the next addictive serial drama. “Flash Forward,” “Alcatraz” and others came and went.

It’s easy to see why. While “Lost” had its problems – weak episodes where the show seemed to tread water early on, promising more than it could deliver in terms of its mythology and the final episode, which still ticks me off a little bit – it’s easy to see why its success has been hard to duplicate.

“Lost” had a fairly miraculous mix of premise, writing and cast – really, can you think of a show that cast even bit players so well? – and moments that lived on in the minds of viewers well past the finale of the show: Last night, a friend of mine saw a photo of my son with something written on his palm and quipped, “Not Penny’s boat!”

“The Walking Dead,” returning in October for a third season, is one of the few genre shows that has captured the imagination of viewers in quite the same way as “Lost.”

So now, from NBC, executive producer J.J. Abrams and “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau comes “Revolution,” which debuts Monday night.

“Revolution’s” pilot, which is available online through Hulu, opens with a frantic conversation between two brothers. One tells the other, cryptically, “It’s about to go out and it’s never coming back.” A moment later, the power goes out. Cars quit running, cell phones stop working, planes fall from the sky. The premise of the show is that electrical energy is sapped from the entire planet.

Fifteen years later, society has long since fallen apart. Governments and corporations have crumbled and dictators, supported by brutal militias, have taken over. Cities have fallen into decay. Neighborhood cul-de-sacs are small farming towns.

Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable company. (Actually, there’s a reference to Google, and I’m looking forward to the episode that shows us how the present-day lords of Silicon Valley have turned into future Roman emperors.)

The mysterious General Monroe has dispatched his enforcer, Captain Neville (the wonderful Giancarlo Esposito), to find Ben and Miles, brothers who apparently hold some kind of key to what made energy disappear and what might bring it back.

Ben gets killed by the militia and his daughter, Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos), and son, Danny (Graham Rogers) are separated. Charlie sets out for Chicago to find her Uncle Miles (Billy Burke from the “Twilight” movies, bringing some much-needed sarcasm to the show).

Not surprisingly, the ending of the pilot indicates the show’s over-arching mythology will revolve around what caused the blackout and what might reverse it.

I liked a lot of “Revolution” and will probably tune in to the series. But a few things came to mind while watching the pilot:

Many of the buildings in big cities are overgrown with wild vegetation just 15 years after the end of energy. This seems unlikely to me, frankly, unless kudzu pushed pretty far north fairly quickly. I think the makers of “Revolution” were watching “Life After People” on fast forward.

Likewise, “Revolution” shows a rusted-out car body used as a planter. Again, after only 15 years, a car would be totally stripped of paint and covered in rust? There’s a car outside my house that’s been out in the elements, year-round, for longer than that and it doesn’t look like a rust-colored flower pot.

I know Chicago was a big part of the plot and showing an overgrown Wrigley Field was too good to pass up. But it seems ironic that a ballpark that didn’t have electric lights for most of its existence is shown as an example of what happens after the power goes out.

The young leads are cute as can be, in a “Hunger Games” kind of way, but I’ll be waiting for every scene with the wry Burke and the wily Esposito.

 

‘Walking Dead’ season 3 poster arrives

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It’s not like we were looking forward to the Oct. 14 return of “The Walking Dead” or anything.

Oh, who are we kidding? Of course we’re looking forward to the third season of the AMC show, to see what happens when the survivors of the zombie apocalypse venture into the prison and the town of Woodbury.

And bonus: Merle!

AMC has released the poster for the new season and it features Rick atop a toppled bus in the prison yard.

“Fight the Dead. Fear the Living” is a good slogan. Of course, there are echoes there of George Romero’s classic 1978 “Dawn of the Dead,” where bikers and human frailty posed more of a threat than zombies.

Anyway. Oct. 14. Be there or be zombie chow.

 

‘Buffy,’ ‘Angel’ and modern-day cable

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“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ran seven seasons and its spin-off show, “Angel,” ran a too-short five. Both aired on what were considered “mini” networks, The WB and The CW, but networks nonetheless with obligations to meet the standards of broadcast networks and bring in some semblance of traditional over-the-air ratings.

But we can only dream about how those Joss Whedon series as well as his “Firefly” and “Dollhouse” series might have faired if they had aired on channels that were decidedly off-network.

I’m thinking of TNT, FX, USA, AMC and A&E, channels – not networks, since networks are networks of stations, while cable channels have no physical presence out in the real world – that schedule, carry and nurture high-quality episodic drama.

Can you imagine “The Shield” or “Mad Men” or even “Falling Skies” on network TV?

I can’t. I can’t imagine those niche shows pulling enough viewers to stay on the air. “Firefly” sure didn’t.

I can’t imagine the networks allowing the creators of those shows to produce as few as 10 or 12 or 16 episodes per season, something that’s become routine with shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad.”

There seems to be less pressure without a 22-episode, big network season. Less expectation of Super Bowl-sized ratings. Less expectation of quickly meeting the 100-episode threshold for syndication.

With those shorter seasons, you can weed out the deadwood episodes. Okay, some of us were a little impatient with how long last season’s “The Walking Dead” spent on the farm. But it didn’t have to be that way. Look at last season’s “Mad Men” as an example. While the season had its critics, I thought almost every episode was riveting. Would that have been the case if the creators had been compelled to turn out twice as many episodes to fill out a network season?

Who doesn’t think “Smallville,” for example, would have been better with about a half-dozen fewer episodes per season and a little less filler? How about “Lost?”

There are some drawbacks. Out of sight, out of mind. “The Sopranos” and “Mad Men” took their time and sometimes a year or even more passed between seasons. It was torture but it made us look forward to their return even more. That trick wouldn’t work for every show, however.

And admittedly, there’s still less visibility on cable, at least for some audiences. We live in a world where the biggest ratings are still garnered by standard network fare like cops-and-robbers procedurals. We can take solace in knowing that we’re cooler because we know all about “Justified.”

So in my alternate reality TV word, “Buffy” and “Angel” and “Firefly” are still chugging along, well  into the double-digits in years on the air. They’re just airing fewer episodes and every episode is greeted with a sense of anticipation and celebration.

TV: What I’m watching, given up on and looking forward to

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When I was a kid, besides going back to school and the run-up to Halloween, this time of year was a big deal for me because of the new fall TV season.

Yes, I was a TV geek.

I eagerly anticipated the fall season, which usually had at least one or two shows that I wanted to see. Besides, who could guess just how great “The Night Stalker” or “Planet of the Apes” (the TV series) might make the fall of 1974?

There’s less anticipation about the fall TV season nowadays because the TV year is so fractured – worthwhile series debut throughout the calendar year – and, speaking only for myself, I watch less TV.

Because I watch less TV, I try to make every random hour and half-hour count.

So here’s what I’m watching right now as well as what I’m anticipating, what I’ve given up on and what I’m worried about.

“Copper” is a BBC America series – the channel’s first original production – that just debuted last Sunday. It’s about cops in New York City in 1864. The city was a lawless place, full of casual cruelty to children and others who couldn’t defend themselves, and the police department wasn’t much better. Into the mix comes Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War who has come back to the city to find his wife missing and his child dead. The series, which has a nice gritty tone, follows Corcoran as he investigates crimes – the murder of a child prostitute in the first episodes, for example – and patrols the grimy streets and brothels of the city.

“Justified” is returning for a fourth season sometime in early 2013 and it’s likely that our favorite Kentucky-born-and-bred U.S. marshal, Raylan Givens, and his longtime friend and sometimes antagonist, Boyd Crowder, will find themselves up against some new lowlife. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins lead a great cast.

We don’t have to wait until next year to see “The Walking Dead.” The AMC series returns on Oct. 14 for its third season. The series will be split between the prison the survivors were near in the final episode of last season and the town of Woodbury, presided over by the Governor. The first eight episodes air this year, with eight more beginning in February.

I’m not sure when “Mad Men” and “Falling Skies” will be back – hopefully early in 2013 – but I’ll be watching the two very different series. Both came off solid seasons this year.

Few series have been as enjoyable in the past three years as NBC’s “Community,” an odd and offbeat show about a group of misfits who become friends in a study group at a second-rate community college. But I’m worried about “Community” this year after the departure of creator Dan Harmon. By most accounts a genius with people skills issues, Harmon got fired at the end of last season. The cast is great and the stories – complete with blanket forts, paintball apocalypses and genuinely nice character moments – are wonderful. But can the show survive without Harmon? Or will it become another kooky sitcom like “Scrubs?”

I’m not sure I’ll be around for a second season of “Longmire,” the A&E series based on Craig Johnson’s enjoyable series of mystery novels about a Wyoming sheriff. The show looked pretty good and the cast was fine, but the mysteries were mediocre. When the show did take a page from one of Johnson’s stories, as it did in the season finale, it didn’t bring the author’s charms.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to anything on TV quite as much as a live-action Marvel Comics series set in the “Avengers” movie universe. Luke Cage? Daredevil? S.H.I.E.L.D? Where will creative genius and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” mastermind Joss Whedon take this series? Wherever it is, I’m following.

The best part about TV is that, in any given season, some really terrific show can suddenly appear and make you glad you gave it a try. I’ve felt that way about every show on this list at one time or another.