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The Walking Dead Season 9, Episode 1 Review

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

 

Fresh out of New York Comic Con, the latest episode of The Walking Dead just aired and this one was a massive episode. Not only because it’s the season premiere, but also because it’s the first episode for a new arc after the massive All Out War arc we had which was great in my opinion. I was so excited to see what Season 9 of The Walking Dead would bring us and how things with Negan no longer in charge would go for Rick and his group.

The name of this episode is called “A New Beginning” which also takes the name of volume 22 of the comic series, and the subtitle of Issue #127. The episode started off quite strongly with all of our core main characters working together to pull an old wagon out of an old museum. It was nice to see Rick, Daryl, Rosita, The King, Carol, Maggie and everyone else from the core character set share a single scene with one another. It does seem a long time since we’ve seen them all work together on something as they’re often separated and in different locations. They all went to a museum in Washington, D.C to retrieve supplies, such as plows, canoes, seed samples, and a covered wagon. I loved the dialogue that was exchanged between the characters. I also wondered if anyone noticed the bloody handprint on the “Civil War” part of the large artwork Michonne was looking at. The group almost lost Ezekiel as he fell through the glass floor while there were walkers under beneath but the group saved him just in time.

But as the episode progressed we could see that our once close group of friends who we know work together well, are actually having a lot of issues.

For the most part, the struggle for our group at the moment post Negan is with leadership and the limited resources available. There just isn’t enough to go around and people living under Rick’s leadership are getting annoyed.

Further tensions occur on Maggie’s side of the group which she now leads after winning an election. Gregory is still alive and is stirring dissent among the ranks and gets quite a bit done after ken dies on the wagon mission. This gives Gregory a chance to build up an assassination attempt on Maggie during a brief period of severe unpopularity. Gregory fails though and Maggie ends up having him hanged. It’s quite brutal really, but it represents a shift in Maggie’s character to a more ruthless side, which I think might develop further if her character doesn’t have anyone to counter balance what she’s doing. This moment on the show also happened on issue #141.

We see a conversation in this episode between Maggie and Rick where they talk about building a broken bridge and the resources involved. Between the two groups, it’s tough to organize and Maggie’s unpopularity at the moment makes it tough for her to commit strong resources to help Rick. I feel that going forward, we will probably see some tensions between the groups for resources and it might strain the Rick and Maggie friendship quite a bit, but it’s just a theory.

The thing I’m most sad about at the moment is that if you’ve been reading up on Andrew Lincoln news lately you’ll know it’s his last season. I really don’t want him to go and the actor, particularly in this episode had so much screen presence that it’s hard to imagine the show without him in it. It’s going to be a tough season to watch but I’m happy with this premiere episode. I’m looking forward to seeing how both Rick and Maggie develop as season 9 progresses and how they handle leading both their groups Also interesting is where some of the other characters are heading right now such as Daryl and Carol who both had a few interesting moments in today’s episode and I’m keen to see both those characters develop.

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SDCC 2018-Better Caul Saul Press Conference

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

AMC Network has invited me to attend the Better Call Saul press conference today and I have learned new things about the show along with new tidbits of the development of that show and Breaking Bad. It was great to hear the cast and director talk about the show especially for its upcoming 4th season. Here are some photos from the event along with the audio from that press conference in the video below.

 

Here is the Audio

https://youtu.be/vWecEsx7Joo

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AMC’s “The Walking Dead” season 9 will have a “new look and feel” according to the new showrunner

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

 

“The Walking Dead” TV series has a new showrunner for season 9. In a recent interview, the new showrunner Angela Kang talked about the changes in the “look and feel” of the show, and other aspects of the story.

Kang is no stranger to the show, and has been a part of the TV series since the second season. Her role has been expanding gradually, and now she is the showrunner. In an interview with Variety, Kang teased that they are “playing with the style of the show a little bit.”

“I think fans will enjoy the new look and feel that we have,” Kang said. The long running show has a typical look and feel, something that Kang is aware of, but they do want to keep the show “fresh.” Apart from the look of the show they have apparently experimented with the sound too.

There will be a time jump in the next season similar to the comic series where there was a time jump in the comic series after All Out War ended. After using cars and jeeps on the streets, the heroes appear to have finally run out of gas for their vehicles. The next season will show them on horses and carts. “The world is starting to break down and nature is taking over,” Kang teased.

Apart from the changes in the transport the heroes will use, their weapons will also change. They will gradually move away from guns and bullets to more of hand weapons. The close-up shots of people slashing and stabbing zombies should make for some exciting action sequences, especially when they face a big horde. “It’s a fun evolution we’re playing with,” Kang said.

The show has had shocking exits of some of the main characters in Season 8, which is expected to continue in season 9.

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Fear The Walking Dead Season 4, Episode 8 Thoughts

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

I just finished the mid-season Finale of Fear The Walking Dead. It was a great episode. I have loved this season so far! Unfortunately we have lost a few main characters, my favorites at that, but they have gone in such an amazing way.

The episode starts with the war between The Vultures and the Clark crew coming to an end. John is shot, and Naomi, who we find out her real name is June, is trying to save him. Charlie is in danger of being killed, she killed Nick Clark so of course we would find her here, and there is gun fire everywhere!

After all is said and done Morgan, whom I am loving on this show, saves Charlie, John, and Naomi (sorry June seems odd). Al takes them to the one place there will still be supplies, the stadium. Unbeknownst to them, the Clark crew is following behind.

In the flash back we finally see how Mel tried to help the Clark crew basically to help himself because he was hurt, and the crew took him in, and Ennis released thousands of walkers to take over the stadium.

Flash forward to Al and her crew making it to the stadium to save John. The stadium was locked from the inside, and full of burned walkers, which was curious. Cleared a path and Naomi and Morgan go in for medical supplies. As they are in the infirmary Clark crew makes it there and start firing. Some talking and a rocket launcher later Alicia makes it into the swat van. Fight, fight, fight, and then Alicia finds out that Madison met Al, before the stadium. Madison tells Al this story of her kids saving a dying bird, fighting for it even though it didn’t have a chance to survive, and saving it, Alicia watches her interview. This leads Alicia inside where Morgan and Naomi are, to shoot Naomi, Morgan convinced her to put her gun down and they hug with tears.

After everything no one dies, thankfully, Naomi saves John (for now), and we get the ending to Madison’s tragic tale.

After Ennis realeased the walkers everyone in the stadium tried to leave, against Madison’s wishes. Madison was trying to save everyone and only seeing one way to do so. She led most of the walkers into the stadium, coming to the door she realizes there is no way out, she locks the door. Radios in to tell her kids, “You’re not gone, until you’re gone”, then lights the place up with a lit flare.

Now we don’t see her dead, but on The Talking Dead they seemed to confirm it. So RIP Madison, you were one of the best, and it’s sad to see you go, but she went out the hero we knew her to be.

Alicia remains the only character left from the show’s premiere. She becomes the lead after the death, or supposed death of Madison. We don’t actually see Madison get burnt to a crisp, so a small possibility exists that she lives. I had a feeling Kim Dickens would not survive the diamond. It was a clever hook to have Al and Madison meet in the beginning. Al was responsible for the creation of the diamond, a truly epic reveal. Fear the Walking Dead is officially rebooted. The second half of season four will surely establish a new dynamic among the survivors. I’ve had some major issues so far, but found the midseason finale satisfying. I will be tuning in when Fear the Walking Dead returns to AMC in the fall.

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The Walking Dead Season 8 Review

Julian Cannon Leave a Comment

Season 7 of AMC’s The Walking Dead had hits and misses especially with the sheer amount of bottle episodes after the season 7 premiere that turned a number of viewers away. I did not turn away however since i am a fan of the series whether if there is a good episode or not. Season 8 corrected most of the mistakes that season 7 had with a great story with very shocking moments with a great conclusion at the end. Here is my review of AMC’s The Walking Dead season 8.

Season 8 uses material from the comic series of the same name and it covered the All Out War arc from that series. If you would like to read the comic series’ story line that matched the episodes of this season, i would suggest to pick up issues #115-#126. The three communities of Alexandria lead by Rick Grimes, Hilltop led by Maggie Rhee and The Kingdom led by Ezekiel join together to go to war with Negan and The Saviors. The other communities of The Junkyard and The Oceanside played their parts of the war as well. The first battle happened at The Sanctuary as the three units attacked the place and at the same time, navigated zombies to The Sanctuary. While Negan and his group were stuck there, Rick and gang attacked the other outposts that Dwight told them about. During these outposts attacks, Rick met Morales (who has been missing since season 1) and to find out that he is not part of The Saviors, Ezekiel’s tiger Shiva dies, Aaron’s partner Eric dies, and soldiers from each community dies during the attacks. Jesus also convinced everyone to not kill the members who are prisoners or surrendered as other characters debated on why he made this decision.

During this time also, Carl Grimes meets a new character named Siddiq as he ran into him twice this season. Rick was also captured by Jadis and then set free after he convinced her to join the battle with the gang. While this is happening, Eugene who has been on Negan’s side since season 7 made a plan to clear all of the zombies that flooded into The Sanctuary and Negan then plans to attack Alexandria and The Kingdom. The attack on The Kingdom failed as Gavin was killed during the attempted attack, but the bombing of Alexandria happened as Carl tried to sacrifice himself to not only prevent the attack, but to stall Negan as the people of Alexandria secretly leave. Houses were exploded along with cars as Rick and Negan had their first fight. As Negan escaped, Rick finds everyone in the sewers and the big reveal down there was that Carl was bitten. Carl says his goodbyes to everyone and wrote everyone letters (including Negan) along with telling his dad Rick about the visions of the future (those visions of the future is what happens after the time skip after All Out War ends).

The rest of the war involved the infected weapons attack at The Hilltop, Tara wanting to kill Dwight for killing Denise back in season 6 and the deeper conflict between Rick and Negan. Carl’s death affected everyone no matter which side is good or bad. Carl wanted them both to end the war and Negan and Rick were still bloodthirsty to try to kill each other. The final battle took place in an open area as all of the guns of The Saviors deflected thanks to Eugene secretly plotting against Negan (the trick he did goes back to the Vietnam War). Rick and Negan had their final fight as Rick cut Negan’s throat with a broken glass. As Negan falls, Rick told Siddiq to save his life as Maggie screamed out in anger to kill him. Negan lives but Rick will put him in the cell that Morgan built back in season 6. Speaking of Morgan, he went back and forth with his emotional state to whether if killing was worth it or not. He is off now to the spinoff show Fear The Walking Dead.

Overall, i loved this season. I loved season 7 as well, but this season did not have filler or bottle episodes that took away from the main plot. Scott Gimple said that this season will not have bottle episodes and that actually came out true. The most controversial death of all time in this show will have to go to Carl Grimes and that is a decision i will never agree with. But his death actually did bridge in the gap between the final battle that he [Gimple] thought had a gap in the comic series. There was behind the scenes drama also especially when the actor died on set during the filming of one of their episodes and much more. Despite having a decline in the ratings, The show still pulls in an average of 6 plus million viewers a week and is still the number 1 show on Sundays. Season 9 will have a new show runner and i believe we will finally get The Whisperers in that season. Who will play as Alpha and Beta boggles me but we will have to see once it premieres.

The acting is very phenominal. Jeffrey Dean Morgan knocks it right out of the park with his role as Negan and Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurria, Lennie James, Austin Amellio, Steven Ogg and Melissa McBribe stole the show this year in my opinion with an honorable mention to Chandler Riggs as both the 8th and 9th episodes of this season were his best performances since season 4, episode 9.

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