Category Archives: film/tv

The Walking Dead Season 2

Posted on by tjkopena

This week I finally got around to season 2 of The Walking Dead.  You know, pretty much just as season 3 started playing on actual TVs…

My review of the first season got trashed, so I’ll simply recap that I felt it teetered on the edge of having too many zombie horror cliches, and at times dragged on with repeated boring zombie action scenes.  However, I felt season one had just enough novelty and character depth to complement the excellent production values and make The Walking Dead‘s debut arc rate highly.  I also really loved a number of the visuals, such as Sheriff Rick riding back into Atlanta, on horseback, cars jammed to the horizon going the opposite way.  Absolutely beautiful post-apocalyptic imagery.

Season two I actually found to be stronger.  Following the trend of the action slowly diminishing over the course of the first season, which I thought improved it, the second is not particularly action oriented.  This is no doubt driven in large part by real-world issues like having to build characters and fit within effects budgets, but it also makes sense in-world as things shake out and settle down a bit.  That slower pacing has been panned in some circles, but I thought it properly placed the excitement on the drama and tension within the group, rather than the less interesting zombie gags and horror thrills.

I think it’s actually more striking in the portrait cut, but this remains an excellent visual, as is the season two poster (above).

Other potential downsides are largely minimized.  In standard horror fashion several characters become obnoxiously annoying over the course of season with their repeated, mindlessly poor decision making, though that’s basically a fair part of the genre and doesn’t go so far as to break the suspension of disbelief.  Similarly, in a few places events or characters’ responses don’t make a ton of sense or seem consistent, but they’re minor enough to not derail things.  Unfortunately, this season didn’t have quite the visual appeal of The Walking Dead‘s first go-around.  There weren’t really any standout moments based on the sheer look of them, however the general production values remain super high and it’s enjoyable to walk.  This season loses the majestic scope and ornate detail of the destroyed urban scenes in season one, but gains a lot of ominously wide open spaces, and a good juxtaposition of dark, brooding night scenes against brightly colored rural days.

“Bring out yer dead!”

Most importantly though, there is a lot going on with a number of the characters.  Tensions boil along well all season, then pay off with a few fairly dramatic moments sprinkled throughout the last third.  A few avenues are opened and then not really explored at all, but it’s a forgivable offense.  In some cases relationships and situations probably actually wouldn’t have had time in-world to evolve much farther before being superseded by bigger events.  As noted below, it’s sometimes difficult to subconsciously place the show within the very short timeframe it’s actually occupying.  Other threads no doubt hit the cutting floor simply in favor of the larger narrative and bigger dramas.  Fortunately, no lapse is so egregious as to really stand out as a hole.

In general, The Walking Dead still doesn’t really transcend any genre boundaries but it’s definitely toward the upper end of them, so I recommend it for anyone with any interests along the lines of zombies or post-apocalyptic fiction.

Beyond here I’m going to discuss a few thoughts on some particulars, so don’t read ahead if you haven’t watched!  For what it’s worth in the following, I have not read the original graphic novels.

“What, spoilers?!?! Hold me back, hold me back!!!”

The Rest is Silence

>>> SERIOUSLY, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.  STOP READING.  <<<

One thing I found interesting from a storyteller perspective is that the Walking Dead remains engaging despite being generally predictable in both big and small moments.  Of course the well pump will break at the worst possible time.  Of course the swimmer will rip apart and fall back into the well.  Inevitably the two seedy guys in the bar try to jump the crew.  Obviously the walker Carl stirs up will go and kill someone, probably Dale since he’s the outsider du jour.  Clearly Glenn and Maggy will hook up and it’ll be serious.  At almost every moment where a zombie “should” pop up, one does.  Further, consider Shane, arguably the dramatic centerpiece of season two.  He follows an almost completely expected path: Can’t get over Lori, has seemingly inconsequential sex with Andrea (one of the holes mentioned above—no aftereffects, no changed relationships from this???), kills all the walkers in the barn in a huge spectacle, tries to murder Rick, is killed by Rick, comes back as a walker and tries to kill Rick again.

Yep, the men all insist on driving… and they run out of gas. Good job guys.

The more I think about it, the more cliched and predictable it all seems.  So it’s not super obvious what makes it all still work.  Certainly some of it is the production values.  A lesser zombie flick with the same story that tried to pull off this many cliches would almost certainly find itself languishing unwatched in my queue.  Part is probably simply that the show stops just short of overwhelming with the cliches and non-surprises.  To be fair, there are also just enough surprises to make it worthwhile.  I have to admit I did not foresee Sophia being in the barn until immediately beforehand, and her re-appearance was definitely one of the more striking moments of the season.

Another part I think is hope, and the related notion that these are basically all doomed and in some cases tragic characters.  Shane’s the most relevant here and I think squarely of the latter category.  Throughout that long, foreseeable descent of his, I kept letting myself hope he’d regroup and they’d all move on together.  He has so many positive qualities and is so likable, you just keep looking to him as a sympathetic character you want to succeed.  A small but potentially big moment to me was when Shane starts killing zombies from the schoolbus using the trick Rick just taught him of wiping blood on a bottleneck and then stabbing them in the head.  As Shane quietly sat there in the car on the way back, seemingly introspectively rather than broodingly or deviously, I really thought they’d hit the apex of their battle and that had been a sign of his rehabilitation.  Like Rick, I thought they’d turned the page.  But it was too big a course correction and down they went, right back on track.  I guess that’s the power of archetypes and dramatic forms.  No one complains that Hamlet‘s predictable just because Hamlet dies.  As the tragic figure, that’s just the way it’s got to be.

“Doesn’t have to be this way, bro.” “Oh no, the bard said it’s gotta be exactly this way.”

The Living Will Envy the Dead

At first, the faint tease of the Michonne character (the hooded woman with the sword and chained slave walkers who appears at the very end of the finale) left me with a definite “WTF?!” feel.  That brief glimpse just felt like a character and visual that belonged more properly in a fantasy story rather than Walking Dead‘s modern day.  I’m still not convinced the character will really be executed well in the third season.  However, I’m excited about what her appearance, literally, might entail.

One of the things I find most fascinating about post-apocalyptic fiction is looking at how the world diverges, and how quickly.  That’s actually what I probably like the most of the Mad Max trilogy, seeing that evolution proceed throughout the three movies.  In the first movie, the world has regressed and lots of characters are definitely pretty trippy, but basically relatable to our world.  No one looks absolutely freakshow.  In the second movie, the bad guys have definitely gone freakshow.  By the third, the world has arguably stopped regressing and started moving in a new and crazy direction.  As importantly, everyone has gone batshit insane: Bad guys, good guys, chaotic neutrals.  The world has been spun, and both the people and the landscape have left ours.

Walking Dead is still pretty early in its evolution of the world, which it has generally advanced in fairly small steps.  I’m so used to large and/or indeterminate amounts of time passing between TV episodes that it’s a bit of a shock every time a character references some earlier event as happening “yesterday” or “three weeks ago.”  Time-wise they’re just not that far yet from the apocalypse.

Daryl, admittedly, is at times pretty close to having left the reservation.

So, till now, things have hewed fairly close to our world, caveat the minor detail of those pesky zombies.  Everybody’s still basically normal.  Civilization has most definitely collapsed, but things still kind of fit the mold.  Look at the other groups we’ve seen: An urban gang, who in a nice twist is actually defending and caring for a bunch of elderly; a father desperately trying to hold together his farm and family; hints of a mottled gang that’s patched together since the apocalypse, looting, raping, and killing as it roams the countryside.  None of this is particularly non-standard.  The last one is upsetting and makes sense in a post-apocalyptic setting, but sadly it’s fairly normal.  You could have the same thing and exactly the same looking guys in any modern day setting.  In a mid-’80s urban world it probably wouldn’t even be much of a stretch.  They’re certainly a far leap from the gangs of freaks, slavers, and cannibals dogging the protagonists’ steps in The Road.

Michonne, on the other hand, is different.  Elf-like hood, samurai sword, walking around with two chained slave zombies with their arms and jaws cut off?  That’s freak show.  That’s the center not holding.  Her brief cameo is our first real hint of not the cracks in civilization—those are omnipresent—but of people giving up even trying to paper over those cracks.  From here is where we start to get into the crazy, and what it really really means to push people beyond the apocalypse.

The Walking Dead could certainly screw that all up going forward, but so far I think the show’s been well executed, so I’m eager to see where it continues to spin its broken world.

“Welcome to Thunderdome, bitch!”

Freaks and Geeks

Posted on by tjkopena

Recently I watched the first and only season of Freaks and Geeks.  I had seen mention of it here and there of being an amazing series, and I have to concur.  I highly recommend it for basically any and all.

To me the obvious comparison is to The Wonder Years.  Personally I don’t find Wonder Years to have aged well.  It does actually have a lot of good stories and character elements, but it’s all drowned in a lot of overly smarmy self-importance.  At every moment it reaches for some sort of poignance and then rams it into your skull with a twelve inch spike of overlaid narration.  It also just goes on too long, and I think loses a lot of focus fairly early on.

Freaks mostly doesn’t pluck the heartstrings in the same way, overtly hamfisted or otherwise, but that also keeps it from being nauseating.  It does though have a lot of great moments.  By far its biggest strength is that almost every character is fully realized, has ups and downs, and no one is consigned to either cardboard or irredeemability.

Freaks.

Geeks.

Confused Lindsay.

A great example of this is Coach Fredericks, the gym teacher.  A couple episodes revolve around him, so he’s not a minor character, but not a huge one either.  What he is though is extremely well done in both writing and acting, and entirely surprising.  Without revealing anything, there are multiple points as the series goes on where it’s made clear that he fits well inside the mold of standard TV gym teacher stereotypes, but actually has a lot more to him.  It’s actually fairly surprising, warm and comfortable, and adds a lot of depth behind the cliches.  His character treatment is actually what really won me over to elevate my estimation of the show from good to great.  Similar can be said of Mr Rosso, the guidance counselor.  Especially toward the end of the series he has some moments of vulnerability that really give pathos and drama to his character and backstory.  Even the typical school bully character is given his moment of depth and sympathy.

Coach Fredericks.

Mr Rosso.

With that though, the show doesn’t really pull back or sugarcoat everybody.  Freaks is definitely a comedy and mostly upbeat, but everybody has some darker aspect.  Several of the characters have reasonably dark home lives and there are some scenes that stop just short of uncomfortable.  The school bully character can’t actually make the leap to being fully redeemed.  It’s not clear that Lindsay, the main character, is actually going somewhere positive with her life.

Of course, a major part of the success of the show’s execution is the acting.  It’s really fascinating to watch the series go on and realize just how many of the actors have gone on to become pretty well known.  You can really see the bulk of Judd Apatow’s circle coming together here for the first time.

Kim!

Geek! Pygmy geek!

Finally, it’s certainly the case that being cancelled after the first season prevents the show from wearing thin.  Fortunately the writers and producers were cognizant of this possibility and both steered the season finale earlier in the production cycle in case they were cut off, and engineered it to serve as a workable series finale.  I would actually say the final episode is more than workable, it’s great.  Each of the three storylines would more than stand as their own episode leads, and each intertwine really well.  Nick’s final scenes in particular are amazingly well executed, Daniel’s are heartwarming, and Lindsay’s are open, optimistic, and rebellious, exactly how the show should end.

On the road!

Alphas

Posted on by tjkopena

There are no particularly meaningful spoilers in this review, though to recap for those looking to go in with a totally blank slate: It’s good, go watch it!

Recently I watched the first season of Alphas, a somewhat modest superhero drama from the SyFy channel that had been popping up in our NetFlix suggestions for some time.  I had avoided it because, let’s face it, with a few—ok, maybe only one—standout exceptions like BattleStar Galactica, the SyFy channel is not exactly known for quality.  Sharktopus?  Mansquito?  However, I’m glad I gave it a try.

Plot and Characters

Alphas definitely treads familiar ground.  The lead, Dr Rosen, and his team are direct riffs on Dr X and the X-Men.  Bill Harken, a more dominant member of the team, is a mini-Hulk that doesn’t turn green.  Undoubtedly it all also seems even more familiar to watchers of Heroes or the other superhero ensemble shows of the past few years, none of which I’ve watched.  There are in general a fair number of cliches and fairly standard plot setups.

However, Alphas is just different enough to remain interesting, in large part because of its focus on the human experience.  This is captured well by one of the taglines: Super but human.  Again, this is ground well covered by others, but I think it’s a rich enough space to keep exploring.  Refreshingly, although more and more action creeps in as the season goes along, Alphas sticks decidedly toward the simpler, more understated end of the spectrum in terms of superhero powers and special effects.  This helps keep the real thrust of the series focused on the team and the interactions between both themselves and the outside world.

Fortunately, there have been no vampires. Yet.

Plot-wise, the first episode didn’t really hook me in, but the overall story started to take hold in the second one.  At that point it sets off on what seems the planned main arc of the first couple seasons: The tensions and seemingly inevitable conflict between normals and alphas.  So far this plot has been done with an even enough hand that it’s interesting without being overdramatic, a definite risk with these kinds of paradigm change, government conspiracy type stories.  Alphas also manages to not wear this plot thread thin despite it also being a major theme of really solid previous work like Straczynski’s (excellent) Rising Stars and Supreme Power comic book lines.  Starting with that second episode it starts to build a nice air of foreshadowing and building apocalypse that I think works well.  I particularly liked the fairly original, nicely done set piece for a major turn in this story arc at the very end of Season 1, and the Marcus and Anna characters hinting at the storm to come in earlier episodes.

Diversity

Notably, and great to see, Alphas does a good job incorporating a lot of diversity without making a big deal of it.  Of the main team of six, two are women, one is black, one is Indian, and one a functional autistic.  At face value this is great, though it’s diminished a bit by them being very standard: Of course the black guy is the super strong, more combative one; the one woman’s power is manipulating people and she’s fairly materialistic on the surface; the other, Indian, woman’s superpower is listening, and fighting off arranged weddings; the autistic is obviously the computer whiz.  However, the mere fact that all these demographics are there in primary characters puts Alphas in a better place than standard whitebread American TV.

“Pull my finger. No, seriously.”

Better, those shortcomings are countered by a lot of diversity and non-traditional representations among the larger pool of characters.  Women are handled especially well.  A big part of the success of recent superhero movies is that they’ve actually managed to do a good job of appealing to women audiences through relatively strong female characters, and Alphas fits right in with that.  Pretty much all of the women characters are clearly supposed to be at least attractive, if not hot, but so are all the dudes.  More importantly, none of them are overly sexualized and none at all come across as helpless, shrill, or other traditional female characterizations.  Of the team’s two main liaisons with the government, the ranking one is a woman who seems nothing but competent.  One of the more dangerous assassins the team faces is a woman who relies on speed, tactics, and invisibility to fight, which works well in terms of having women-specific fighting styles.  Three other sympathetic “bad guys,” a significant portion of the show, are both female and hyper geniuses.

Other groups also make out well.  The other government liaison is a black man with potentially complex moral standing and a few pretty good scenes so far.  Two main characters have mental disabilities: Gary on the main team is autistic while Anna, one of the key “villains,” has apraxia (an inability to move).  Gary is probably actually the hidden star of the show as he is largely the most compelling to watch.  I can’t immediately think of any other TV show that has given such positive, prominent placing to characters with those sorts of handicaps.

“Bring it, freaks!”

Summary

Alphas is pretty low key, and I think it’s one of those cases were less is more.  By operating under a comparatively restricted budget, they’ve been forced to focus a bit more on characters rather than effects, and kept to a fairly understated approach.  It probably won’t blow anyone away, but by the end of the first season I was really enjoying it.  Importantly, that focus on characters and the diversity of them means that it’s probably fairly appealing to those who would not otherwise be particularly interested in science fiction or superheroes.

“Yeeppp, I’m pretty sure the women can handle this one.”

The first season, comprising eleven episodes, is available streaming on NetFlix.  Another five from the start of the second season are available to stream from the SyFy channel website right now.  Go check it out!

Sidenote: “The SyFy Channel” remains and will remain a really stupid, disappointing name change.

UPDATE: I realized later that Walt Jr in Breaking Bad is of course another currently prominent handicapped character.  I’ll have to think about that some more.  He’s not active as a character in the same way as those here, though he’s a good character well played, and one of the very few positive, “good” characters in that show.