This past Tuesday, the cast and producers of Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance appeared at the red carpet for the New York premiere of the new Netflix series. Age of Resistance is be the prequel to the movie that was released over 25 years ago and many fans and attendees were lined up outside to wait to see the premiere. After the red carpet, there was a reception for the press and even the actors and producers attended to talk to everyone!
Talent and producers that attended were Keegan-Michael Key, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Isaacs, Hannah-John Kamen, Lisa Henson, Louis Leterrier, Donna Kimball, Will Matthews, Jeffrey Addis and Javier Grillo-Marxuach.
I got the chance to interview Keegan-Michael Kay, Game of Thrones Alumn Nathalie Emmanuel, and Hannah John-Kamen (Atman and The Wasp) as we talked about the series and what can we expecdt from it since it will take place before the movie.
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Fear The Walking Dead returned tonight with an episode that will be remembered for many reasons. It is one of those episodes that makes you question the production choices similar to that one episode where it was in the spannish language during the entire episode and I remember that episode being a good episode. With all of the members of the group finally making it across the mountains on the last episode, what will come next for them? Here is my recap and review of the mid season premiere of Fear The Walking Dead titled “Channel 4”.
Before I start, I would like to say that I love the production of the entire episode. I always love the found footage genre and most of this episode’s filming techniques reminded me of The Office and the grittier movie Cannibal Holocaust in terms of the camera zooming in and out and making motion along with the characters being interviewed as well as the monolouges that happens in place of scenes. Now that I got that out of the way, here is my review.
The episode begins as the tape plays the interview with Morgan as he talks about someone helping him back then followed by Alicia, Salazar, Grace, Strand, John, June, Dwight, Charlie, and finally Lucianna as they all talked about their previous situations before they all became together. At the same time, footage was shot of a walker approaching, a shot of the S.W.A.T van, the back of the open truck, etc. Morgan talked about the plane landing and not having to stop moving and helping other people ever since they landed there. As Althea was still interviewing Morgan, a walker comes and Althea takes it down. Althea is the. interviewed as she talks about how she got all of the cameras. Then, we see that John opens the truck to give Morgan the boxes so he can write messages on them. Sarah is seen filling the gas as she says that they got it from a few people in the oilfields. She also mentions that the gas is starting to go bad too. Sarah then talks about Logan wanting the gas for himself and then we see that the group left Logan behind. Dwight is filling the gas and talks about him doing the opposite of what he used to do and we then get a shot of him carving a chess piece along with him and Salazar playing chess. Salazar even mentions that Dwight would not let him give him a haircut.
Alicia talks about her being a sprinter as we get a shot of her and Morgan trainnig while Charlie and Strand filling up more gas (I noticed I said this a lot, but this is what happens). Strand then takes down four walkers with Alicia’s weapon. Althea interviews Strand and asks him about Alicia. After that, we get a shot of their current campsite and June mentions that everyone that they try to find is too far apart. Grace takes an invetory of how much food and supplies are left. While she does this, walkers break through the plastic gate as June takes them out. She also mentions on the interview that they had to keep moving to different locations because of this. Althea asks June about the wedding and June says that they are already married and John says that she has his heart. Grace is then interviewed and she worried every day that she wakes up to be sick before they meet and now she does not at all. While they are all driving, Morgan says on the interview that he never pictured that everyone would get this far. He mentions Tess and this is where I figured out that these interviews take place after they meet her. More on her in a bit.
They stop at Tess’ house that is very barricaded and Lucianna mentions that Tess tried to contact her husband on the walkie-talkie. Morgan tells Tess to come out, but she says that she does not know how many are outside. Before they trying to figure out what she is saying, a walker arrives to the house and then, an explosion happens as they all figured out that there are landmines underground on the inside of the barricaded area. Morgan asks how many more mines are buried underground, and Tess replies saying that she does not know.
Sarah plays and sings trucker music, and Charlie and Dwight says that is all she plays and Salazar hates it. Sarah says that the music is the anthem. Salazar also says on the interview that they should have shot Logan the second he opened his mouth. Back to Morgan as him and Tess are talking about her husband going to the drug store due to their son having asthma. Morgan tells her to come outside, and Tess sees the cameras from her window. Morgan wants Althea to turn them off, but she says that it is important that she still films so that way, people can see it. Tess also says over the walkie-talkie that she has not left that area since the apocalypse begun. Morgan tells her that it took him a long time to leave the place he was in as well at the beginning. As walkers were coming from the other side, John shoots them down with his revolver on his side.
At the drug store, June takes most of the medicine over there and tells Morgan that the inhailer is missing. Strand says that Tess’ husband must have it. Alicia finds a tree with a message on it and examines it. She says on the interview that her mom used to do things like that. A walker tries to get Alicia and Morgan takes the walker down from behind. Alicia also says that she has not killed since they got off the plane.
John continues to shoot down walkers from his side, to the other side and then John talks about him being a cop before the apoclapse begun on the interview. Morgan also says that him and John are relatable since they are not big talkers while they are on the job. Morgan tries to take down the walkers on the other side, but they break through and triggered the landmine explosions. John, Lucianna, and Morgan talks about the landmine situation on those interviews as well. We go back to the field as more walkers trigger minefield explosions. Morgan asks Tess if she was okay over the walkie-talkie and she says that she is. Strand on the interview says that the tree was not the only remarkable thing that they seen as they realized that the walker that approached Alicia was Tess’s husband as they also found the medicine in the bag too.
Morgan decides to run into the field at the moment due to the fact that he also thought about his wife and son as he explained on the interview. As another explosion happened right next to Morgan, he takes down a walker. But to only realize that he stepped on the mine and now he cannot move or else it will trigger an explosion. John checks on Morgan as he and Lucianna enter the field. Strand, June, and Alicia arrive as they see that Morgan has stepped on a mine. Morgan tells Tess that her husband is not coming back as he turned and for her to come out the house. June and Morgan talk about it being hard for Tess to say goodbye on those interviews. Althea wants to defuse the mine and John gives a smaller blade for Morgan to dig to see the mine. Althea then tells Morgan where the fuse is and she is 50/50 sure that it is the right one. Before he could continue, Tess comes out to give Morgan a pin for him to slide into the mine. He does this and lets his foot off the mine as it did not exploded at all until a few seconds later after Morgan left the area. Tess and her son finally come out the house and Morgan gives him the inhaler.
Later in the night, we get shots of them preparing dinner as Grace talks about the recipie she learned, and John making a joke about noodles and campfire. Tess and her son is then interviewed and seem to be happy to be surrounded by other people now. Morgan asks Alicia about practicing the next day, but she declines as she wants to know about who made the painting on the tree. Sarah, Dwight, Charlie, and Salazar arrive for dinner now and everyone is relaxing and eating like it is a normal night for dinner. I was happy to see this happen to be honest. In different shots of the interviews, everyone responds to the questions of how they want to figure out what could be next for them and what do they all need help with outside of the normal routine of the walkers. Then they all talk about what to do to help other people in seperate tapes.
After the final interview, the tape stops as we are shown a new character. Here, is when we find out that this character has watched all of the tapes that we seen. The new character fills gas in his motorcycle. Logan then arrives with his crew and they take his bag and gas. Logan then asks about the oilfield and asks the character if he was with Morgan’s group in which he said that he was not. After Logan takes his belongings, he gives him a walkie talkie and tells him to contact Morgan. His crew then shoots up his motorcycle leaving him without one for now as the episode ends.
This style of production for this episode is a risk and it could either have a good reaction, or bad reaction from the viewers. I personally liked it as I felt that it was unique. The interviews showcased more personality of all the characters in this one episode than some characters in other episodes. The episode had a simple concept of a mission of getting an inhaler and turned it into a situatiuon of how far would you go to get something for someone and they did just that while risking Morgan’s life. The explosions caught me off guard multiple times during the time that I watched the episode too. Also to note, there was not one score of music at all until after the new character turned off the tape. I liked this episode better than the mid season finale and hopefully, this plot with Logan moves very fast because I still do not know what his motivation is. Also, where did the kids go during this episode? And how did they get their vehicles back since they flew a plane over the mountains? Nothingless, still a solid episode!
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BURBANK, CA (July 18, 2019) – Batman Beyond, the landmark animated television series that illuminated the imagination of a new generation of Batman fans with its creation of an altogether new hero, is celebrating its 20th anniversary – and you get the gift! Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has remastered the heralded series for its first-ever presentation on Blu-ray™ in the all-encompassing Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series Limited Edition, arriving on Digital ($49.99 SRP USA, $59.99 SRP Canada) starting October 15, 2019 and in a stunning box set ($99.99 SRP USA, $119.99 SRP Canada) on October 29, 2019. Distribution in Canada will be day-and-date with the USA, Pre-orders are now available.
The extraordinary Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series Limited Editionpackage features approximately 1,500 minutes of entertainment spread over four Blu-ray™ discs, plus the two bonus discs of enhanced content. In addition to a newly-remastered Blu-ray presentation of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, there are 15 featurettes on the bonus discs, highlighted by two new inside looks at the beloved television series, led by Nostalgic Tomorrow, a gathering of Batman Beyond production talent and cast led by executive producer Bruce Timm and actors Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle, the voices of Batman and Terry McGinnis, respectively. The bonus discs also spotlight four episodes with audio commentary from Timm and select members of the production team.
Collectibles within the stunning packaging include an exclusive chrome Batman Beyond Funko POP, and four beautifully-designed lenticular art cards produced especially for Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series Limited Edition. This ultimate collectors Blu-ray box set will be individually numbered for a Limited Edition release of 50,000.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Batman Beyond premiered on January 10, 1999 to instant ratings and critical success. The series would run for three seasons, covering 52 total episodes and a full-length animated film, Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Nominated for nine Emmy Awards, Batman Beyond would ultimately take home two Emmys – including Outstanding Special Class Animated Program in 2001 – as well as three Annie Awards.
Of the 52 original Batman Beyond episodes, 41 have been fully-remastered from either their original 35mm film source or the uncommon format “OCND,” the original camera negative digital (a digital scan of original negative). Lines and resolution have been enhanced, and dust and dirt have been removed – however, cell dirt remains to not disturb the original picture. Included in the remastering was the removal of grain, resulting in enhanced colors. The remastering process does cause a slight aspect ratio change (approximately 3% loss of screen image).
Due to time-worn irreparable damage, the remaining 11 episodes were “Smart Rezzed” from standard definition Digibeta video. The process provides for significant enhanced resolution and improvement of the original source material in converting from standard to high definition, though it does sacrifice horizontal lines for clearer image and color representation. While still a marked improvement over the original video, viewers will notice a slight difference between the Remastered and the Up-Rezzed final footage. The 11 affected episodes are: “Eyewitness,” “Final Cut,” “The Last Resort,” “Armory,” “Sneak Peek,” “The Eggbaby,” “Zeta,” “Plague,” “April Moon,” “Sentries of the Lost Cosmos” and “Speak No Evil.”
The creative team behind the breakthrough animated series was headed by the producing quartet of Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, Alan Burnett and Glen Murakami, alongside executive producer Jean MacCurdy and associate producer Shaun McLaughlin. Shirley Walker composed the award-winning score with the Dynamic Music Partners trio of Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter and Michael McCuistion, while 8-time Emmy Award winner Andrea Romano guided an impressive collection of actors as casting/dialogue director. Butch Lukic, Dan Riba and Curt Gida directed the majority of episodic animation along with James Tucker, Kyung Won Lim and Yukio Suziki. Primary story editors and writers on the series were Burnett and Dini with Bob Goodman, Rich Fogel, Hilary Bader and Stan Berkowitz.
The Batman Beyond cast was spearheaded by Kevin Conroy, the fan favorite voice of The Dark Knight as established in the landmark Batman: The Animated Series. Will Friedle (Boy Meets World, Kim Possible) created the character of Terry McGinnis, Batman’s protégé. Veteran voiceover actresses Cree Sumner (Codename: Kids Next Door, Drawn Together) and Lauren Tom (Friends, The Joy Luck Club, Futurama) were series regulars as Max and Dana Tan, respectively.
The guest cast included a healthy collection of film and primetime television stars spanning from Academy Award nominees Paul Winfield, Stockard Channing, William H. Macy, Teri Garr and Michael McKean; Emmy Award winners John Ritter, Wayne Brady, Seth Green, Tim Curry, David Warner and Patton Oswalt; Golden Globe winners Stacy Keach, Amanda Donohoe and Jill Eikenberry; four Grammy Award winners led by Ice-T; and five members of the Hollywood Walk of Fame – Macy and Ritter along with George Takei, Michael Ansara and Mark Hamill. The cast also included legends of the entertainment industry and several young actors heading toward stardom, like Adrienne Barbeau, Kate Jackson, Angie Harmon, Linda Hamilton, Clancy Brown, Gary Cole, Ed Begley Jr., Wendie Malick, Cary Elwes, Olivia Hussey, Kurtwood Smith, Robert Patrick, Ian Ziering, CCH Pounder, Frank Welker, Johnny Galecki, Pauley Perrette, Michael Rosenbaum and Diedrich Bader.
All totaled, the Batman Beyond cast featured actors with laurels totaling five Academy Award nominations, 47 Emmy Awards, 206 Emmy nods, four Gold Globe Awards, 45 Golden Globe nominations, three Grammy Awards and nine nominations, and five actors forever enshrined with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“Batman Beyond elevated the animated adventures of The Dark Knight to even greater heights, providing an edgier, faster-moving, more contemporary take on crime-fighting in Gotham with an inspiring new character in Terry McGinnis,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Vice President, Family & Animation Marketing. “Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has long known the fans’ desire to see this series come to Blu-ray, and we’re excited to finally have the technology to elevate the quality of the original assets to an exquisite high-definition presentation packaged with compelling collectibles in a limited edition set, especially as fans celebrate Batman’s 80th anniversary this year.”
Batman Beyond: The Complete Animated Series Limited EditionEnhanced Content
Nostalgic Tomorrow – A Batman Gathering (All-New Featurette) – Many of Batman Beyond’s core production team and actors gather for an enthralling roundtable discussion of the evolution and execution of the animate series. Join producers Bruce Timm and Glenn Murakami, casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, director James Tucker, writers Bob Goodman & Stan Berkowitz, and stars Kevin Conroy & Will Friedle as they take a wildly entertaining trip down memory lane.
Knight Immortal (All-New Featurette) – A visual and visceral celebration of the Dark Knight’s 80 years of crime fighting, narrated by storytellers of the past, present, and future.
“Tomorrow Knight: The Batman Reborn” (Featurette) – Storytellers explore the rise of Terry McGinnis as Batman and Bruce Wayne’s relationship with the young hero as he mentors a new Dark Knight for modern times.
Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (Feature-Length Film) – The beloved hit animated film from 2000 is included in the box set – fully remastered for your enjoyment.
Audio Commentaries – Enlightening audio commentaries by filmmakers and voice actors for four key episodes: “Rebirth, Part 1”; “Shriek”; “Splicers”; and “The Eggbaby.”
Featurettes – A dozen inside looks at the genesis, production and effects of Batman Beyond.
About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc.:
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution and interactive entertainment businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. An industry leader since its inception, WBHE oversees the global distribution of content through packaged goods (Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD) and digital media in the form of electronic sell-through and video-on-demand via cable, satellite, online and mobile channels, and is a significant developer and publisher for console and online video game titles worldwide. WBHE distributes its product through third party retail partners and licensees.
About DC Home to iconic brands DC (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash), DC Vertigo (Sandman, Fables) and MAD, DC is the creative unit charged with strategically integrating across Warner Bros. and WarnerMedia. DC works in concert with many key Warner Bros. divisions to unleash its stories and characters across all media, including but not limited to film, television, consumer products, home entertainment, and interactive games. Publishing thousands of comic books, graphic novels and magazines each year, DC is one of the largest English-language publishers of comics in the world.
About Warner Bros. AnimationWarner Bros. Animation (WBA) is one of the leading producers of animation in the entertainment industry, producing and developing projects for multiple platforms, both domestically and internationally. WBA’s TV series include Teen Titans Go!, Unikitty!, DC Super Hero Girls and the upcoming ThunderCats Roar for Cartoon Network; Bunnicula, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, The Tom and Jerry Show, New Looney Tunes, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? and Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs for Boomerang; Mike Tyson Mysteries for Adult Swim; Green Eggs and Ham for Netflix; Harley Quinn and Young Justice: Outsiders for DC UNIVERSE; Animaniacs for Hulu; Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai for HBO Maxand the upcoming Looney Tunes Cartoons content initiative. Theatrically, WBA’s full-length film, Teen Titans GO! to the Movies, released in summer 2018. As home to the iconic animated characters from the DC, Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Looney Tunes libraries, WBA also produces highly successful animated films — including the DC Universe Animated Original Movies — for DVD, Blu-ray® and digital media. One of the most-honored animation studios in history, WBA has won six Academy Awards®, 35 Emmy® Awards, the George Foster Peabody Award, an Environmental Media Award, a Parents’ Choice Award, the HUMANITAS Prize, two Prism Awards and 20 Annie Awards (honoring excellence in animation).
The Netflix original hit series The Toys That Made Us will return soon for its third season this year and the show’s creator Brian Volkweiss has a lot of stories of the production of the third season. I got the chance to sit down and speak to him at San Diego Comic Con as he talked about the upcoming season, his toy collection, and much more in this exclusive interview.
Last year at San Diego Comic Con, it was revealed that season three of The Toys That Made Us will be out sometime within this year. Now that we are in 2019, we are not too far along away from the release date of Season 3. So tell me more about the third season and what could we expect?
Brian: It is definitely still going to air this year. I am waiting to get a date confirmed. But it is still airing. I have heard that we got canceled. That is not true. I have heard that we are having legal issues with one of the brands. That is not true. There are just logistical reasons for the delay. The third thing I would also say is you know we had similar logistical issues with season one, but nobody knew the show was coming. Nobody knew about the logistical issues. So we were supposed to come out in May of 2017 and we didn’t come out till December of 2017. So it’s just nobody knew about the show so nobody was you know freaking out. But I will say this and therefore, I shouldn’t say it, but I’m going to say 99.9% of the comments I read on social media complaining about us being late. I take it as a compliment for sure because if people didn’t care, they wouldn’t complain. I respect that. And by the way, the more delayed we are, the funnier the comments are getting subsidized by positive folks all the time. But it’s been about 20 months since we premiered. I’ve read one bad review out of probably over 300 reviews and probably reading over I mean at least two thousand comments and also messages. I would say less than 10 were bad. And I can appreciate that because many shows that I’ve produced are the opposite where if we got 300 reviews, one would be good, and two hundred and ninety-nine would be bad. So, to say that this is the most well received thing I’ve ever been a part of would be a tremendous understatement.
I would also like to say that so far, the Transformers episode has been my favorite of the bunch!
Brian: that makes me very happy to hear because I don’t hear it very often and I love that episode. It took a long time to produce that episode So I’m so happy to hear you say that because I don’t hear very often.
The Master of the Universe series was also a featured episode. Are there any figures of that series that you personally own today?
Brian: When the show was greenlit. I owned zero of He-Man. In fact, I almost did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead of Masters of the Universe. I was never ever into him ever while producing a show. While producing the show, I fell in love with him. And I now have a large He-Man collection. I probably have about a dozen figures and four vehicles of course including Battle Cat.
Do you keep your figures in the box?
Brian:I am 99 percent not a box guy. All I do is tell you since starting the show I definitely have been saving boxes which you know is funny. I get asked all the time you know “how does your wife feel about your toy collecting”. I always say you know [his wife] she’s supportive and doesn’t care at all. And it’s so funny she and I have never talked about this. But to your question, I think it drives her insane that I started saving the boxes. You know it’s weird man. Ninety five percent of the time, I don’t care about mint condition to me. But I really like for my toys for the most part, are to some degree, a symbol of something. And I just want to have that symbol in my collection because, the place in the world where I’m at peace the most is when I’m in my office which is where my collection is. There’s a bunch of toys out there that I love and I really want,and while I don’t understand their price, I do respect the price because it’s capitalism and it’s a fair market valueit’s capitalism and it’s fair market value and if people are willing to spend it, then fair enough. The price should be with the prices but there are certain things where I’m like I get a price. And then, there’s certain things or I’m like I don’t get that price.
At San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that WWE and Masters of the Universe will collaborate for the first time to release a line of MOTU themed WWE figures. What was your reaction to that news?
Brian: I’m shocked it didn’t happen 20 years ago. Everything moves in little pieces in business. If you’re making airplanes or toasters or toys and little steps along the way things have to get proven that something is OK that you’re not going to quote unquote hurt your brand. And I think you know there was a great line that came out last year you know combining Tron with goofy and I just remember looking at that being like if you had told me even five years ago that Disney would allow this to happen I say you’re smoking crack like that is what’s happening now where everybody has the competence to do things from the brand to the IP holder to the toy companies. There is a confidence like Diamond select is putting out these gorgeous black hole figures.
There will be one episode dedicated to wrestling figures in season 3. Which toy developer companies will be showcased for the wrestling figure episode?
Brian: It’s literally every single company that did wrestling figures going back to I mean like tonight 60s before the modern wrestling era even began. So it’s ever you name it such as LJN, Jacks Pacific, and more to be revealed.
Another episode of the newest season will focus on Power Rangers. Will the Super Sentai Warriors toys from Japan also be featured alongside with the Power Rangers?
Brian: Absolutely! To a certain extent, I would argue you can’t do one without the other.
Now you traveled all over the world interviewing many toy creators and publishers and also seeing a lot of rare figures from those toy developers out of a field in all those rare figures of first time as you feel for the first time?
I repeatedly have cried. I mean, I cried, and I cried when I was at Rancho. We were in the basement, and I saw the old car where there was a guy with a binder who had Polaroid pictures of the wooden models that would become Optimus Prime. Because the originals were all destroyed, you were just seeing the Polaroid. I started crying. So I cried repeatedly when we shot the opening for the Star Wars episode when we were at eye level. And you know, we were in the same building that the original Island was in. If you look at like the circuit breakers for the building, they’re still in black Sharpie written like model shop you know roto scope. Like there’s that still there. And I teared up when I saw that so seeing that, I saw some of the original G.I. Joe sculpts. That was unbelievable. Even seeing some of the pictures of the Boba Fett was amazing too.
What was the process of actually going get it to you though you had to go through a whole bunch of approvals from everybody else everywhere?
Brian: Every company was different. They all started the same where nobody believed us because a lot of people lie and say “I’m doing a documentary for Netflix or HBO”. And so nobody believed in this initially. They all asked for a letter from Netflix and Netflix gave me a letter a couple hours after I asked for it that said “to whom it may concern, We have hired Brian to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me at this number”. Everybody called him. He was like a lawyer and the Netflix guy named Tom. And once Tom confirmed that we were real, Every company we worked with was became supportive and wonderful and just a dream absolute dream to work with.We’ve been to Hasbro headquarters probably half a dozen times. We’ve been to Mattel’s headquarters half a dozen times. Almost nothing we asked for was refused as it relates to relics or interviewing people. They helped us find people. They helped us find relics.
Were there any figures or interviews that did not make the final cut?
Brian: There’s one we shot for the Transformers episode with Michael Bay. We did a deal with him that if he didn’t like the interview, we couldn’t air it. And unfortunately, he did not like the interview, and he didn’t let us use the footage. So that was a major bummer because it was a great interview and he explained a lot of things that I never understood. And a lot of people my age, don’t understand about why they made the choices he did for the movies and just watching the footage. I completely understood and felt better about his movies than I had. It’s a shame he didn’t let us use the footage. But no nothing we filmed others in that interview that we wanted to use did not make it into the show.
What about the plans for season 4 if it’s possible? Who do you want to be showcased?
Brian: I’ve got to be careful about this because due to our relationship with big companies, now they’re all over us like “hey, why don’t you cover them”. So I just want to be respectful. But it goes without saying, we would cover hot wheels. That’s the one I’m comfortable saying publicly. We would definitely do hot wheels. There’s really only about 10 more episodes that I really think for lack of a better expression need to get made. I’d love to make 20 more episodes, But I think it becomes a little bit too like people are like “you need to do The Mask”. And I’m like “Mask was a failure”. Then they say “you need to do Thundercat” and Thundercat was a failure. Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t do a show about a failure, some of the best documentaries are about failures.But the problem with doing a show for Netflix without budget being what it is, you really need a constituency big enough for the episode. And Barbie has like 50-60 years of history. You got five year olds, you got 90 year olds that collect Barbie. You know I’m always honest but sometimes, it’s hard to be because you see people’s faces get so upset. But I also inspire them by telling them for them to make their own documentary. But yeah that’s that’s that’s the answer to your question a little long winded.
Follow me on Instagramand Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
AMC’s The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead made their presence known at San Diego Comic Con this year with their Deadquarters offsite, the large walker meetup that weekend, and much more. It is a great time to be a fan of the television series. On the Friday of San Diego Comic Con, AMC premiered the season 10 trailer to the entire world and after that, the panel started and Danai Gurira announced that the upcoming season will be her final one. This news hurts as much as Andrew Lincoln’s departure last year. After the Hall H panel for both shows, the press conferences happened!
The first one was the Fear The Walking Dead press conference as Scott Gimple, Austin Amelio, Lennie James, Alycia-Debnam-Carey, Danay Garcia, Maggie Grace, Karen David, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson, and Chief Content Officer Scott Gimple, and Executive Producers Andrew Chambliss, and Ian Goldberg. The biggest piece of news that came out of the conference is that Scott Gimple said it himself that the CRM helicopter group has nothing to do with The Commonwealth from the comic book series. The conference was great and I took photos after it ended.
The Walking Dead press conference took place right after Fear ended and cast members Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Danai Gurira, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBribe, Cailey Flemming, Cooper Andrews, Nadia Hilker, Ryan Hurst, Avi Nash, and Eleanor Matsuura along with Scott Gimple, and showrunner Angela Kang took the stage to answer every question that they could about the upcoming season and Danai, in particular, talk extensively about her leaving the show. Another great tibit from the press conference is that former or active military members were also walkers in the past on the show along with amputees as well. Norman Reedus has a very funny line around the twelve minute mark. You will love the conference as you can listen below.
Here are some of the pictures I have taken from the press conference as well.
I always love catching up with the cast every year I cover the press conference. Jeffrey Dean Morgan remembered my halloween costume from last year, Me and Norman talked about Death Stranding, and me and Danai talked about her final season for a bit.
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @julianexcalibur for more content and subscribe to The Wrestling Court as we talk about the latest in pro wrestling, pop culture, and comics along with our live watch reactions to past matches. Contact me at julian@alternativemindz.com.
San Diego Comic Con just wrapped up yesterday at the San Diego Convention Center as many attendees from different fandoms attended the show. No joke, over 100,000 people were there and I thought I would be obverwhelmed with going to different vendors, offsites, press rooms, and the panels this year, but I was not as I stretched out my schedule for press coverage this year. I can say that I am happy with my results for 2019 and here are my highlights below.
HALL H
I told myself that I would never go on very long lines and Hall H is an example of that. I believe that this year’s line was much longer than last year’s as it extended all the way to the IMDB boat. Some of the big panel attractions that were showcased this year were Marvel Studios, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Supernatural, etc. We got the most news out of Marvel Studios as the Phase 4 announcements light up the room with a huge reception with announcements such as Black Widow, Doctor Strange, The Eternals, Loki, and the biggest of them all, Shang-Chi, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Blade. It is finally great to see Blade to be added to the MCU as I wanted that for years. DC did not have any panels this year at Hall H, but there was a screening of Batwoman on preview night and soon, you sill read my thoughts of the show. As for the Hall H line itself, it looks very intimidating when you realize that you are looking at the front of the line under the giant tent and it extends way to the back to the point where you cannot see it.
IT: CHAPTER 2 AT THE THEATER
At the theater where the Conan tapings took place during the week of Comic Con, there was a special screening preview of It:Chapter 2. Not only that the entire cast was there, you were able to pick up the exclusive Funko Pops at the end of the viewing. The previews that were shown has made the crowd drop their jaws at every scene that was shown. I honestly cannot wait for the film later this year since I am a fan of the previous film. The entire cast took questions from the fans after the showing and Conan presented the event!
MY INTERVIEWS
My interviews also took place at San Diego Comic Con as I interviewed cast members of Netflix’s The Order. Those included Katherine Isabelle, Sarah Grey, and Louriza Tronco along with executive producers and creator Dennis Heaton and Shelly Eriksen. We all talked about the upcoming second season of the show and it was a blast.
I also interviewed Alison Tolman and Alexa Swinton as we talked about the upcoming ABC series Emergence. I have never interviewed a child before so this was fun to do. And finally, I interviewed cosplayer and make-up artist Meg Wilbur as we talked about her cosplaying as Rogue, her daily routine, the marvel cinematic universe, and much more!
I also attended the press conferences of The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead, The Boys, and Dark Crystal, but that will be on a seperate article!
OFFSITES
There were many offistes that happened this year. Although I did not attend many of them, there were a few that I attended. Amazon had their activations this year which showcased The Boys, Carnival Row, and The Expanse. All of them were very fun and what I forgot to mention in my article about the experience is that on preview day at Amazon, Carl’s Jr. had a truck out there and you had 3 options of cheeseburger types along with french fries and a drink and it was FREE! Many people did not know this until after the fact.
The Walking Dead’s Deadquarters had a huge presence once again with their offsite as this time around, it centered around the airplane and treehouse on the current season of Fear The Walking Dead. There were also times that the radaition gas pyrotechnics happened in the area and it looked awesome. The biggest feature of Deadquarters is that there was an area dedicated to the snowstorm crossing that you have seen in the season 9 finale of The Walking Dead. There was a lot of snow brewing in the tent and it was very cold inside. We had to go through the storm to go to the other side. I have seen frozen walkers, and The Whisperers’ border with heads on a pike.
After you escaped, you are then in a area where you can try the slots game of The Walking Dead, take a audition animation of the mobile app game The Walking Dead: Our World, and demo The Walking Dead: Onslaught. Very fun experinece and I cannot wait to see what they will bring next year.
I also took the time to play the upcoming Switch port of Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist as the Link Summoning mechanic along with the VRAINS story option has been added. I talked with the game’s creator about the game along with the rule changes over the years of the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. I am a Nintendo Switch owner so I am looking forward to playing this on the go!
CONCLUSION
I love San Diego Comic Con and this year was an awesome year for the show. I also have to say that the weather was the best in San Diego for Comic Con in years and many other people have said the same thing. I did not have too much time to take pictures of cosplayers, but these two images from the show that I took are my favorite.
Jenna Elfman as June, Danay Garcia as Luciana, Maggie Grace as Althea – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Let’s face it, last week’s episode of Fear was a big advertisement for beer that was right infront of our faces. It was mostly clunky with some good parts. We are nearly halfway through this season without a character death too, but one in particular could meet their impending doom. Here is my review for the seventh episode of the fifth season of Fear The Walking Dead titled “Still Standing”.
The episode opens with Alicia contacting the three kids as she is infront of the barricaded walkers that we have seen at the end of last week’s episode. After that, Alicia begins to take them out one by one, but before she could continue, Strand begins to shoot the walkers that are near them in that contaminated area. Charlie then tells Strand to get the propeller as she will distract the walkers. Morgan radios in and asked if they killed any of the walkers that was exposed to radaition in which Strand says no. Back to Alicia as she is still taking down the walkers and she notices that Grace is there. June then tells morgan that she will come to the area to help and also that she does not know where John went. But Morgan told her to finish the plane and then Morgan tells Grace that Strand and Charlie crashed into the contaminated area. Morgan told her that he crossed the road block and where he is heading to. Grace then tells Morgan that there is a house near by that has another suit for him to use.
Alicia then sees more walkers and Dylan appearas behind her and told her to follow him since she was going the wrong way. While Strand was dragging the propeller, more walkers that were exposed were walking towards him. Strand tells Charlie to power the balloon to make a wall to prevent the walkers from coming to them. Smart idea.
Alicia and Anne then speak after Dylan lets her inside the treehouse area. Anne keeps telling her that they did not want help and that Alicia was not supposed to be there. Anne asks Alicia about the weapon she uses and Alicia says that it is part of her past too. Alicia warns them that they will die if they stay there and Anne is still not convinced about the plane plan. Alicia says that she wanted to make up for the bad things that she did in the past and then, Anne asks her if she killed people in which Alicia says yes. Anne then says if the plane plan does not work, it will be blamed on her. Althea and June sees that the fuel is leaking from the plane and Althea lets her know that she knows where to get more. Morgan then enters the house to look for the radaition suit. Alicia then contacts Morgan to ask why are they still there and Morgan then says “everything comes with a return”. He then sees a walker on the window part of the door and then tells Alicia that he will get everyone on the plane no matter what.
June asks Althea if she was sure if the helicopter landed on the top of the cliff and Althea says that it did. June tells John that he needs to get back with them soon or else the reactor will melt down. Dwight tells John to leave so he can continue looking for Sherry. John was about to give Dwight the letter Sherry left him, but he put it back in his pocket after Dwight asked him if he would have done the same for June. Strand and Charlie think the balloon will not hold for long and Strand then tells Charlie that at first, he did not believe in the group at first and that they will not stop thinking of giving up. After that, Morgan kills the walkers on the other side of the balloon and he also has the suit on as well. While the kids were talking near the walkers in the woods, the walkers begun to break apart and started to approach them as they run.
Colman Domingo as Victor Strand – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Althea then looks at drawings of those walkers and asked Dylan if he drew them. Dylan says that he had nightmares of playing red rover before the apocalypse begun and he also states that everything is a nightmare now becuase of what happened. Alicia then brings up her mom and before she could continue, Anne yells and says that the walkers are coming. They got in, and closed the gates and there are now a swarm of walkers infront of their house. Grace is trying to power the generator and she tells Morgan that it could only hold for about 12 hours. Then Morgan tells Strand that he needs to take a shower and for both of them to get back and finish the plane. Althea and June loaded the fuel tanks in the back of the trunk as their mission was a success. June tries to contact John over the walkie-talkie and there was no response. Althea then opens up about Althea to June and lets her know that she cannot tell anyone about her.
Back to Alicia and the kids as they realize that the walkers are about to overrun the place and Alicia comes up with the plan to take them out one by one on the bridge. John and Dwight also runs out of fuel in the car that they were driving and tries to hotwire the truck that they seen across from them, but that did not work at all. John then finally admits that Sherry left him a note in the car and gives it to Dwight. This made Dwight mad as he took the note and left the truck. While that is going on, Morgan and Grace talk about the current situation of the reactor and then, we cut to Alicia as she is continuing to take out those walkers one by one. One disgusting looking walker with it’s eyeballs hanging out of the socket tries to bite Alicia, but she took that walker down. The problem after that, is that the walker was exposed to radaition and the blood got all over Alicia!!. Meanwhile, Anne, who cannot aim at all, starts to shoot down the walkers that were approaching the kids. Anne and Alicia then talk over the walkie-talke as Alicia tells her to leave the place for good or else they will get overrun.
Bailey Gavulic as Annie, Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark – Fear the Walking Dead _ Season 5, Episode 7 – Photo Credit: Van Redin/AMC
Later that night, the kids arrive to the area in a van right after Morgan and Grace speak. Strand asks Anne for Alicia as she was not with them. Dwight also came to realize that Sherry does not want him looking for her anymore. But he does not want to give up and is convinced that she is still alive. Alicia then wipes off the blood with the water in the lake and then Morgan asks her over the walkie-talkie if she is okay and she says that she is. Before they could continue, more walkers are seen walking to her location and then the reactor siren goes off as the episode ends.
After we got another cliffhanger last week, we do not need another one. And sorry to say this Morgan, but I will have to take Chris Jericho’s line and say “WILL YOU PLEASE…SHUT…THE HELL….UP!”. It is very frustarating to see him as the voice of reason 3 episodes in a row. And Alicia’s decisions have me baffled as well. The action scenes were also good, but the scripting behind it along with the dialouge was not good for half of this episode. I did like John and Dwight’s interractions along with Strand and Charlie’s as well. The first half of the season is about to end and I hope that the mid season finale leaves off with a bang!
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The Split Screen Festival took place last week at the IFC Center in New York and there were many television show and movie premieres that were shown at the event. Fans got the chance to attend the screenings and see the cast and key people that are part of the show take the stage to talk about them. It was a fun experience for the fans and absolutely great to see this happen.
Of the shows, AMC Network’s Fear The Walking Dead had the biggest prescense of the weekend as fans were awaiting to see the premiere of the fifth season. I attended the red carpet event that took place at the IFC Center and cast members Alycia Debnam Carey, Colman Domingo, Jenna Elfman, Danay Garcia, and Austin Amelio (who crossed over to this show from the main show) were there along with exceutive producer Scott Gimple to take photos and answer questions about the season to the media. I was able to interview Alycia, Austin and Gimple.
Austin Amelio talked about his upcoming story in the fifth season of Fear and we also talked about what would happen if Daryl was to see him again, if we will see Sherry as well, if Negan would kill him if he seen him, and how often he keeps in contact with Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Alycia was the next person I interviewed as we talked about how much of an influence Madison will be in this season since she is not on the show anymore. I also asked if we were convinced if Madison is dead. She also brings up a good story about Lennie James (Morgan) while they were filming and if she thinks that killing walkers is very theraputic. We also talk about the radaition plot on the second episode of the fifth season as well and when she will cross paths with Dwight.
And finally, I got a chance to speak to Scott Gimple. We talked about the current progression of his and Robert Kirkman’s comic book series Die!Die!Die and how the current season of Fear will connect with the upcoming Rick Grimes films and the main show of The Walking Dead. The biggest piece of news from the interview is that the second spinoff series will begin filming next month so that will be something to look forward to.
Fear The Walking Dead airs on Sunday night at 9:00 pm EST on AMC Network
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Christopher James Baker recently appeared on the latest episode of Marvel’s Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D as the new villian Malachi. I recently got the chance to interview Christopher as we talked about his appearence on the show along with his time in Ozark along with Stan Lee, his upcoming role on DC’s Stargirl, and New York City in general. The twenty Minute call was a great one and here is the interview below.
So I have watched you play different roles on Ozark and the blacklist and even Garbo. And also, True Detective and now recently, Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D. My first question to you is that was a hard transition for you to play these different characters?
It’s a good question. And I don’t want to sound flippant. It’s not hard because that’s the work for me like that’s telling you you get a new role and start from the pace up and kind of build it up. Whether it’s about movement quality or you know vocal quality or whether if you know what the story purpose is like all of that stuff is a big part of the craft that I really enjoy. So it is work but it’s very enjoyable work. And by the time you get to the point where you’ve built a new character that’s different in a lot of ways to something you’ve done before. I find that fulfilling to you know when you enjoy seeing that my character was very different to this character those that I’d much prefer to be doing that every time and then doing another version of that guy again if you get what I mean. So yes I it’s work but it’s it’s like I love it. And that’s why I’m in it doing it. I’m kind of always trying to look for something that’s different to anything I’ve done before because it inherently involves a lot of exploration into different parts of yourself or different a different world or different time period that you don’t know about. So it’s kind of like being a religious archaeologist at some point.
When did you get the call that you were going to play as Malachi on the episode?
It was about this time last year. I can’t remember the exact day of the call, but the cool thing about it was that when I did the audition, it was just for a one episode guest. Here’s what I thought I was doing and I was elated like great. This is a great show. It sounds like a really cool character. At that stage, everything in a project like this is so top secret. They’re trying to keep everything under wraps. You actually as the actor not finding out very little about what you’re going to be doing and which is kind of fun and exciting in a way but it really wasn’t until I got there and pretty much just before I read that I met a cast and all the producers and everything. And then you’re reading through and it was that first episode that was just done and I remember finishing the Bible reading and calling my manager and saying oh I just kidnapped one of the main cast. I think they’re going to ask you to come back and get it. So it was kind of I didn’t realize that it was going to turn into to what it was I thought it was just going to be a lot of gastro but yeah. So but it was about a year ago I think and it was very exciting. That’s like stepping into the Marvel Universe which you know I’ve been a kind of comic fan and a movie fan my whole life. So that was there was a limit. Yeah a little bit tingly and kind of giddy and fun stuff like that happens.
Who did you tell first tell that you got the role?
My wife {Laughs} and then my family. At the time, my family’s still over in Australia and so I’m constantly sending them messages that say Guys I’ve got this really exciting news and you seriously can’t tell anyone. Otherwise, I’m going to get my Marvel Police that will come to my house and lock me up so you can be happy for me. But just don’t tell anybody else I’m doing this but it is a double edged sword sometimes.
I’ve heard stories of Stan Lee sometimes going on the set of Marvel’s Agents of the S.H.I.E.L.D.. Have you met or spoken to him before he passed away?
I’ll just be honest. I think we’re in lunch third or fourth episode. And when we found out I was I remember quite clearly in the makeup like you know you do hair and makeup we’ve performed in the makeup bus and that television on and the news broke that Stan lee had died which you know obviously affected the cast and crew of show immensely. And to your question, the rest of the day and the next day everyone I was chatting with would tell these incredible stories about exactly what you’re talking about that some guy and he just broke up or turn up for a cameo and he’d go out and chat to everyone and you know sign stuff and was just as generous and kind of amazing guy that was loving the world that he’d helped create the universe to help create and I think from from stories from from cars right down to you know set pieces and crew people would just hey just in time for everybody from from what I can tell. Fortunately I never got to meet him. I would have loved to. But yeah I think what a quite an amazing what an amazing amazing contribution to so many people’s lives. If that gentleman made some kind of yeah that was he was an amazing couple of days being on a show that you know he’d been a big part of creating.
What was your first day on the set like?
First day was little nerve wracking even if you had a lot of first days on set with something like this. I mean with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was made very easy because they’re on Season 6 the most of the cast and crew have been there for six seasons now. They all want it knowing they’re shooting on the studios that they’ve been working on. It’s just a very well oiled machine and there’s no there’s no teething problems. It’s not like working on episode one of a brand new show where everybody’s trying to get to know each other and do their thing. So it was it was like just being into a really welcoming and fun family day. They made this stuff really well. Amazing crew and then all of the other actors are really welcoming and kind of enjoy what the guest cast bringing to their world and how we all kind of play together and it’s really when you on that first day that everything comes together like you’re doing your research and you preparation at home and it’s not until you get in and you get the costume on for the first time and you get things together and then you step into the set and suddenly you’re in a spaceship and then they hand you the props and your things and then you’re looking around and then everybody else turns up and you start when it’s like All right. Yeah well we’re in where it’s space. Sometimes it’s that very first day that you might be really nervous going “Oh my God I don’t know what I’m doing it and how this is going to work what’s going happen”. And then when you get there and finally step into everything and let go of everything, you worried about it it just takes on a whole different form I think. And then, it becomes into that and that becomes the play in the work. And it’s it’s exhilarating it’s nerve racking cause you really really don’t know what you’re doing a lot of the time until you’re actually standing there and then you see how the camera is going to be moving and what other people are doing. Right. Well the place even looks like oh can you tell again now that line makes sense because you’re holding that thing or you know and there’s a lot of you know I spent a lot of that first day going “Okay so what’s happening, why are they here”, Because everyone thinks the end of season five is so much it happened that I wasn’t privy to it because I didn’t get to know what the last couple of script turned out. Yeah there’s a lot of there’s a lot of catch up in it but it was also really fun and exciting because you walk down on those big kind of studio stages in in downtown Culver City. It’s a lot of history there is when I was walking down and someone’s like yeah that’s where they shot the sound of music I think we shot them and you know like there’s a bunch of old. It’s really cool you know on some of those old Hollywood stages that have history under themselves almost like a theater right. There it was. It was an exciting time and it was also a bugler and I know there was a good time.
Now do you have any stories working with the cast on S.H.I.E.L.D. and also on your time with Ozark?
Oh yes! one with Julia Garner. I do actually use her method of using that one way she’s spinning around on the chair singing to herself and I was standing in the room about 44 when that happened. Just been chatting and then she started doing it. So I just went “Oh my God”.She kind of popped up and cracking up laughing and it was the funniest thing I’ve seen. And it was a lot scarier in the room because everybody of course goes “Oh my God”. And then when we told her that she had been making it look so much worse on the video this looks like she blacked out. Yeah that was crazy stuff like that happened but yeah that was that was about the eyes and watching watching the video of the candidate posting this because she had to get all the permissions and everything she’s like you can sort of make out that we’re on set but you can’t really tell what to do. It’s like I’m in an office.
You’re also going to start the upcoming Stargirl series for this DC Universe. What can you tell me about the upcoming project?
I’m not saying much but it’s besides what’s happened. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Comics Geoff Johns stuff he did. It’s you know a lot of the story follows that pretty closely. Young young Courtney Whitmore moves to a new high school in a little town gets an advantage because she’s style girls. And there’s the places I have nothing on the other side then but yeah there’s nothing coming. It’s just that I think the most amazing thing about it so far has been that Geoff Johns who created the first comic that he ever did for DC quite a that you sound like you’re knowledgeable about the comic world as well. I think like so you know Jeff John and sort of what he’s done at DC and the characters he’s brought back and like true flash and everything that still go with the first thing he did and he wrote it and made it as what followed was a tribute to his sister. And where did it come. And now sort of come full circle and he’s show running this amazing showing. I think the task that is built and the crew that is built I find that with shows is the person that you know the people at the top and particularly the show runner is if they’re really loose and their intention is in the right place and the team they know they just kind of flows down the pyramid and everyone on this show is really great and it’s just been imbued with this excitement because it’s such a special project for him and personally he’s really going to exceeding in extraordinary lengths to make sure that it’s every shot is exactly right. Not in a bad perfectionist way but in a how can we all make this better so that it’s just everything is kick up and there’s been so many fun moments of just being on the set and watching like it was like when making a huge big 13 episode feature film they’ve got the stunt coordinators and came from like cattle and men and stuff and in doing these incredible stunts and I’m like it’s a proper big superhero do. I haven’t I haven’t thought of that kind of thing. It’s just amazing. And it seems it’s got a really good positive yes. It’s just a good story.
Any final thoughts before we wrap up the interview?
Just that it’s been pretty amazing to have a foot in both the DC and the Marvel Universe is I just feel blessed that that’s very rare and wonderful thing and I hope the it can continue for as long as possible because I think there’s something about doing these the comic book things. I don’t I feel like they deal with the bigger archetypes and biggest stories that help us work out what’s right and wrong and moral is not that everything has to have a message but it’s definitely fun to work on a big canvas that has lots of fans that are really into it because they can relate to it even though it’s not set in the real world. Oh yeah.
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After two years of anticipation, Game of Thrones returned for their final season in 2019 to a lukewarm negative reception. It made everyone question how can a show like that dip in quality episode after episode in one season. It got so bad, that it made season 8 of The Walking Dead look like a masterpiece (unpopular opinion, but I love that season since the source material is also my favorite arc) and that is quite telling. I have been a fan of this show since the beginning and although I have never reviewed an episode, I always shared my thoughts to my friends and fans in different places whether if the episode was good or bad. But all of it was not bad though since there are a few good moments that came out of this season. Today, I will rank the best and worst moments of the final season of Game of Thrones.
THE BEST
Brienne is Finally Knighted
While Brienne and Jaime and the rest were waiting for the White Walker army to arrive for the huge battle that will happen, there was a ceremony that took place. Torment questions Brienne about becoming a knight, Brienne said that she could not become one due to tradition. That tradition was about to be broken as she becomes the first woman to become a knight in Westeros. This was a powerful moment in the series as we thought that would never happen in the universe of Game of Thrones and it was much deserved for her to become a knight. Everything that she has been through has come to this as Jaime says that he can knight whoever he wants and he chose to knight her.
Jon and Arya’s Reunion
This was a moment seven seasons in the making as the last time these two seen each other, was in season one. They reunited on the first episode of the 8th season and the fan inside of me came out to clap for this moment as I realized myself that they have not seen eachother in a very long time. Seeing this scene really got me excited for the rest of the season (This was before that it all went under after episode 3).
Lyanna Mormont vs. The Giant Knight
During the Battle of Winterfell, Lyanna proved that she can fight and she tried to step up to attack The Giant Knight with her Dragonglass Axe. She did succeeded, but it came with a brutal consequence as she was squeezed by him to death. She did manage to stab him right in the eye to kill The Giant, but it was her last breath as she died shortly afterwards. Lyanna was one of my favorite characters so this made me sad.
Death of Theon
Theon has went through a very rough time during his entire run on the show. From him being tortured for most of the series, to seeing the horrible things Ramsay did to his sister, it was hell and back for him all because he did not know that he is a member of the Stark family. I did not think his death would come very early as the Night King stabbed him through the chest and tossed his body away from him. Long live Theon.
The Battle of Winterfell and The Death of The Night King
Game of Thrones has always had some of the greatest battles on television that we will all remember. This battle that took place on the third episode has been building up since the Night King was introduced. Although mostly nobody could see the battle on their televisions due to the very dark screen, it was worth watching it if you brightened your television. The army of the dead has poured in and everyone tries their best to take them all out. The death of the Night King was also very satisfying and nobody would have expected Ayra to kill the King as well. In my opinion, this season peaked on this episode and no episode could not top that.
THE WORST
Euron’s Ambush
This one puzzled me since I have seen it and even the writers of the show tried to defend this. Nothing makes sense at all during this scene as Daenerys and her two dragons had to return south after the big battle, and then suddenly, a large crossbow bolt pierces Rhaegal a few times as his body comes crashing down. Although when we first seen The Scorpions a few seasons ago say that a dragon would someday go down, this could have been better executed as Daenerys was in the air and could have seen those ships from a far distance. The writers of the show said that Daenerys forgot about the ships. But how could that be possible when it was mentioned to her in another scene a few minutes before this scene even aired.
Missandei’s Death
I have a mixed feeling about this one. On one hand, I had a feeling that she was going to die before the final episode and that was way before her death got leaked. On the other, this just felt like a comic book story where the woman is killed to serve the purpose of building development of the male that is attached to her. Plus it is the final season so who is going to care anymore after this? Cersei is however not the same person anymore ever since that walk of shame so I did took her more of a serious approach ever since.
Daenerys’ Story
How do you go from one of the best written characters on television to being the worst written characters on television. Seeing her change from a good girl gone bad is as effective as Dean Ambrose’s WWE heel run. Nobody believed it and it felt rushed and unorganic to the viewer. The worst out of character moment we have seen her do is burn the entire city down which also killed millions of innocent families and children. Ridicilous choice to turn her character upside down.
The Production
It felt like the producers did not care anymore when it came to not only writing the show, but leaving objects in plain view such as a coffee cup and a empty water bottle on the final season. But the biggest production error I have seen is when Jaime somehow grew his hand back at one of the scenes. All of this along with the messy and choppy screenwriting made this season one of the worst in recent memory. When the Iron Throne was burned down to the ground, that right there told me to put this show out of its misery.
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