Movie - Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Note:  There may be minor spoilers throughout, but I will only limit them to what is absolutely necessary.

     With all the hype surrounding this movie, and all the expectations that have been either fairly or unfairly put on it, I knew that there would be a lot of divisiveness no matter what the final product ended up being.  Having gone on opening night, and taken a couple days to sit on it, I have now come to the full conclusion that I don't understand the hate that most critics are pouring out over this film.  In fact, I think I really liked the movie, and am even considering going back to watch it again to catch some of the things that I missed the first time around.  Not to say that the movie doesn't have its flaws, because it certainly does have some moments that could have been done better, or possibly left out entirely, but I could probably say the same thing of most movies in general.
     First off, the performances by the main cast of characters was for the most part done really well.  I know that people want to say Ben Affleck was terrible as Batman, but I honestly think the people that are saying that had already made that decision before the movie ever came out.  For whatever reason, people just seem to want to crap on everything that Mr. Affleck does, and as I mentioned above about the movie in general, I don't understand it.  I'm a pretty big fan of Ben, especially some of his more recent stuff like Gone Girl and Argo, and so to see people not even giving him a chance makes me wonder just what this guy has done to make so many people upset at him. 
     Henry Cavill does a good enough job with Superman, though I do somewhat agree that he maybe is a little too down trodden and lacks a bit of confidence that most versions of Superman have had in the past.  But he takes it and makes it his own, and for the version that both he and the director Zack Snyder are trying to pull off, he nails the role on most occasions.  One argument I may make is that he seems to be so worried about Lois (played by Amy Adams, also doing a serviceable job with the role) and not nearly as worried about everyone else.  Superman is supposed to care equally for humanity, but that have really put a huge focus on his relationship with Lois and I think it takes a bit away from his character.
     The two main characters aside, everyone else does what they need to do with the screen time they are given.  As most critics have pointed out, and one of the few things I agree with them on, is the use of Wonder Woman.  I would dare say that when she is fully introduced as Wonder Woman, and not just as Diana Prince, she may well be the highlight of the movie.  She brings a certain passion and sense of true confidence that is lacking from Batman and Superman, which really makes her scenes feel that much bigger.  I didn't have a lot of interest in her stand alone movie that comes out prior to the Justice League movie, but her role in this film has completely changed my mind.
     And now for Lex Luthor.  Jesse Eisenberg's performance has been absolutely lambasted by critics, and I can understand why they fell this way, but I once again don't fully agree with them.  This version of Lex is way different than anything we have seen before, and for better or worse, Jesse really went all in for it.  Was he a bit over the top?  Sure.  Was he completely crazy and no real explanation given for it?  Once again, sure.  Do I think he did a terrible job?  No, I don't.  I thought his performance was okay, I just think we needed more explanation as to why he was crazy, why he wanted to have Batman and Superman fight each other, and how he went about gathering all the information that he had on seemingly everyone in the movie.  The focus wasn't as much on Lex as it was the other characters, so I just don't think we got enough background to fully understand the character, and so that is why the character didn't come off as good as we would have liked.
     Just to address some of the other complaints I have heard, a common theme was that the story didn't make any sense.  I must have been watching a different movie, because I thought everything was explained rather well, and for the most part made sense and fit.  There were a couple things, especially the moment when Batman and Superman realize they are really on the same side (I will not elaborate due to spoilers, but it was a bit odd and too quick of a change, I think it should have been drawn out a bit more).  I would also argue that the big moment in the big fight scene at the end (again, spoilers) was really unnecessary due to having two other people that could have done it that wouldn't have resulted in the same ending.  And for everyone to know that the ending was really just a red herring due to the Justice League being on the horizon, just seems like maybe Zack was trying to do too much unnecessarily.  But in the grand scheme of things, I feel that these complaints are minor, and just because we as the audience know what is happening, doesn't mean the characters need to know, so it was just a matter of perspective more than weak storytelling as I have heard it called.
     The other big complaint I have heard is that Zack Snyder is just too interested in making big, beautiful set pieces than he is about telling a story.  While that can be a bit true, I don't think this movie suffered because of it.  I have generally liked his other movies, save maybe one (I'm looking at you Sucker Punch), but he always tells the story he wants to tell, and part of that storytelling comes from the visuals.  He is a very visual director, and I think he can convey a lot in those big, flashy moments without having to maybe have the full dialogue that I guess other people are wanting to flesh out the story more.  I thought there was a nice balance of his "trademark style" and the other means of conveying the story to the audience, without being too over the top or using too much slow-motion, which he has certainly done a bit excessively in the past.
     I won't say that BvS was a perfect movie, because it certainly wasn't, but to say that is was a 4/10 (score on Metacritic) is just absolutely ridiculous to me.  Solid performance of the cast, solid storyline, great visuals, several truly epic feeling moments that were really well done, all of these things just tell me that this was not a sub par movie so I don't know why the critics have just gone after it so viciously.  I can only guess that a decision was made prior to even watching the film, and so they used that predetermined judgment to magnify all the little things that weren't done perfectly, and use that to say that the movie was terrible.  The movie is not terrible, and if you go into without having already made that decision in your own mind, I think you will be in for a real treat.

My rating for the movie is 8/10

TV Show - Bates Motel - "Goodnight, Mother"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of Bates Motel, you have been warned.

     After last week's episode, I didn't think they could really ratchet up the intensity on this show, but once again, they proved me wrong.  I went into this episode thinking it was going to be a lot of setup for the rest of the season, but instead we got some nice surprises that played out really well.  There are several scenes throughout the episode that were just top-notch excellent, as I will explain below.
     We start this week with Norman waking up from one of his episodes, and asking Norma why she had locked him inside the bedroom.  She gives a typical Norma response, which is to lie to hide her true motives, but Norman is done listening to her excuses.  As Norman is getting ready for the day, he has flashbacks of the night before, and he sees Norma stuffing the woman's body into the freezer in the basement.  When the two meet for breakfast, Norman keeps questioning his mother until she says she has had enough.
     We then get to see Emma, and they are taking out her breathing tube to see if she can breathe on her own.  She struggles at first, which causes Dylan to freak out a bit, but then she takes to it and does start breathing on her own.  Everyone looks relieved and it was really nice to see Emma, who has struggled since the show began, finally have everything look like it's working out for her.
     Norman goes to the basement to check the freezer and finds the animals that he had been storing in there are all out.  He looks in the freezer, but there is no body.  Norma comes home and asks why Norman is down there, and he tells her that he saw her stuff the body in the freezer and that she needs to get help.  She knows now that Norman killed Emma's mother, but that he doesn't remember it and thinks she did it instead.  The doorbell rings and Norma says she will go get it.
     Alex is there, and apologizes to Norma for the day before.  He asks if Norman is a threat, but Norma says he is fine.  Alex goes home and grabs the money he took off of Bob Paris, then he goes to Pine View to get Norman admitted.  He works out a "deal" with the lady, and it looks like Norman is going to get the help he needs.  The woman asks how Alex knows Norman, and he says that he is marrying his mother, so it looks like Alex has had a change of heart.
     Norma thinks that she knows where Norman put the woman's body, so she goes down into the pit and starts looking around.  It is filled with water, but she slowly makes her way around, trying to find any sign that the body is in there.  She finds a glove, but then she hears a car door, and scurries up the ladder to see what is going on.  Norman is standing there and asks her what she is doing.  She says nothing, and says she has to check in the family that has just pulled in looking for a hotel room.  Norman says he will take care of it since she is covered in mud, and tells her to go the house.  He says he will be up as soon as he is done.
     Alex calls Norma and tells her that he will marry her so Norman can be on his insurance, and that he got Pine View to agree to take him in.  All they need is Norman's signature to enter voluntarily, and he says that they are faxing the paperwork in to the hotel office.  She panics, knowing Norman is down there now, and quickly hangs up the phone.  Norman is checking the couple in, being rather polite and really reminding me of the Norman from Psycho in his mannerisms and way he is acting, when the fax comes through.  He picks it up and looks it over, realizing what his mother is trying to do.
     Emma's dad is talking to Dylan at the hospital and says that if he truly cares about Emma, that he needs to get a better job than just selling drugs.  He tells Dylan that he is better than that anyway.  Dylan goes in to talk to Emma and says that he is going home to check on things.  She asks if he is coming back, and he asks if she wants him to come back.  She says yes, and so he says he will be back then.  I hope this isn't foreshadowing anything, but considering how well everything appears to be going, I'm afraid he may not come back.  I hope I'm wrong on this, but it just feels like something bad will have to happen soon, as much as I don't want that to be the case.
     Norman is now hearing his father's voice in his head, and the voice tells him that it was Norma, not Norman, that killed him.  The voice also says that he needs to control Norma now before she can hurt anyone else.  Norman leaves the office, and Norma was lying in waiting.  She goes in to find the fax, but sees that it's gone.  She goes back up to the house, telling Norman that she was taking out the trash, and says they should go out to dinner.  He says he doesn't want to, so she says she will just make dinner instead.
     At dinner, things start to go off the rails.  Norman says that he thinks Norma killed his father, and Bradley, and Emma's mother, and even his teacher from the first season.  He says that the killing needs to stop and he is afraid he is going to have to do something he doesn't want to do.  Norma is now scared that Norman is going to hurt her, so she runs upstairs to grab her gun, but it's not there.  Norman is behind her now, holding the gun.  She tries to keep him calm, and tries to get him to give her the gun, but this just makes him more mad and he throws her off of him.  She runs up to the attic and locks herself inside.  She calls and leaves a message with Alex, saying that she was wrong and that Norman needs to be admitted tonight.
     After a while, she leaves the attic, cause she hears a movie playing downstairs.  She goes down there, but he isn't there, but the movie is turned up and is playing on the computer.  She grabs a knife and goes to the basement.  Norman turns a light on and says he knew this would get her to come out, ignoring her.  She tries to tell him that Pine View is a good place, and he will get the help he needs, but he says he can't leave her there to continue her killing.  He says that there is only one way to solve this, and that is to kill her and himself.  Before he can do that, Alex shows up and stops Norman from doing anything.
     As he goes to put him in the police car, Norma runs out, and begs Norman to sign the papers to go to Pine View.  If he doesn't sign them, he will end up back at the county hospital, and she can't stand the thought of that.  He reluctantly agrees, and then he gets into the car and Alex drives off with him.  I feel that Norman really signed the papers because he knows it will be easier to get away from Pine View than the county hospital, so he can go back and stop his mother, but we will have to wait until next week to see if that is true.
     So, wow, I don't even really know what to say here.  There was so much going on, and then I think we got treated to the best scene in the entire series, and that is the scene at the dinner table where Norman confronts Norma with the accusations that she was killing all these people because she was jealous of them.  The performance by both of them, but especially Norman, was just absolutely amazing.  You could just see him snap, and you instantly feared for what was going to happen to both of them, and I give all the credit in the world to Freddie Highmore for pulling this off.  This show has gotten overlooked when it comes to awards shows, but in my opinion, Freddie Highmore just earned himself the best actor trophy right now.  I'm sure this won't end up happening, and that will be a shame, but that is how good his performance was in this episode.
     The episode just flew by for me, much like last week's episode, and I don't know how many times this show can continue to one up itself and continue to get better.  However, I welcome it to continue to try, and so far it is accomplishing.  I can hardly wait for the next episode, so the show is doing pretty much everything right at the moment, and if this moment keeps up, this will be the best season by far in what I already think is a fantastic show.  As much as I feel sorry for Norman and what he is going through, I also can't look away as he falls further and further down the hole of insanity.

My rating for the episode is 9.5/10

TV Show - 11.22.63 - "The Truth"

Note:  Major spoilers for the fifth episode of the 11.22.63 mini-series, you have been warned.

     We start this week's episode where last week's episode ended, and that is with Sadie finding the recording in Jake's basement of Oswald and his wife getting "intimate."  Sadie storms out of the house with Jake behind her, trying to explain, but she doesn't want to hear what he has to say.  She asks why he has been lying, and he tries to explain by lying to her again, which she sees right through.  She says that she can't trust him and tells him to leave her alone and runs off.  When Jake goes in to the school the next day, Deke tells him that it would look better for him to resign as opposed to being fired, and so Jake agrees.  On the way out, Mimi is back and tells Jake that she thinks this is all a big mistake.
     Jake doesn't get time to think about what has just happened, because the day of Governor Walker's assassination attempt has come, and so he gets to figuring out the plan with Bill.  He takes Bill to Walker's house and shows him where the bullet came from, so they know where they need to be hiding out to see if Oswald is the one that pulls the trigger.  He also points out a church nearby that gets out right at the time of the assassination attempt, which is theorized to be how Oswald got away without being seen.
     Next, we see Jake and Bill double checking everything, and Jake tells Bill that they have to account for everything because they are going to be going against the past, and anything could go wrong.  However, the one thing that Jake would have never thought to plan for happens, as he gets a phone call from Johnny Clayton, Sadie's husband, telling Jake that he has taken Sadie hostage and that Jake should come over to talk.  Jake calls Bill and tells him that he is going to have to do it on his own, and he runs to Sadie's house.
     Jake arrives to find Sadie with a bloody rag over her head, and Johnny with a gun to her head.  Johnny pulls the rag off to show that he has cut a huge gash down the side of her face, saying that she will never be pretty again.  He says that Sadie has caused a big stain on their marriage, but he is a door to door salesman, and he knows just the cure for big stains.  He pulls out a pitcher of bleach, pours a glass, and sets it down in front of Jake.  He then tells Jake to drink the entire glass or Sadie will die.  Sadie tries to create a distraction by dropping a glass bowl on the floor, so Jake can get a shard to fight off Johnny, but before he can do that, the doorbell rings.
     Bill goes up to the Oswald's apartment and offers Marina a cigarette.  She sits down and smokes with him, saying that Oswald is asleep.  They make some small talk before Oswald comes out the door and asks who Bill his.  He says he just wanted to borrow some ice, and Oswald asks him if he has ever read Marx.  He gives him one of the books and tells Bill that inside he will find "the truth."
     Jake is told to answer the door, and he finds two of Sadie's students, delivering a basket for her.  He tells them to leave it on the porch and to get out of there.  They realize something is up, but they leave the basket and go.  Jake comes back in and sits down, and once again Johnny tells him to drink the bleach and this is all over.  Jake picks up the glass, but throws it in Johnny's face, and pulls Sadie into the other room.
     Johnny starts shooting wildly, because he has been blinded.  He is listening for them to move so he can fire in their general direction, so Jake throws his watch to the other side of the room, causing Johnny to fire the wrong way.  When he does, Jake grabs a fire poker and puts it into the side of Johnny's head.  Johnny drops his gun, and Sadie picks it up, firing it into his chest, killing him.  As Sadie is taken to the hospital, the cops want to ask Jake questions, but Deke shows up and tells them that Jake can answer those questions at the hospital.  He asks Jake if he killed Johnny, and Jake says yes.  Deke says, "Good."
     Oswald is leaving his apartment and says he is going to the library, so Bill goes to the governor's house to wait and see if Oswald fires the gun.  While he is waiting, the church lets out, and Bill thinks he sees his dead sister, so he runs to her.  When he gets there, he finds out that it was not his sister, and then he hears the gunshot.  He was not there when shot was fired, and so he has no idea if it was Oswald or not.
     Back at the hospital, Jake explains his story to the cops and they seem to believe it and say that is all they need from him.  He then sees the governor come into the hospital, so he calls Bill to ask what happened.  Bill is crying and tells him that he missed it, and apologizes.  Jake just drops the phone and walks away.  He goes in to see Sadie and when she wakes up, he says he is done lying to her.  So he tells her that he is from the future, and she takes it surprisingly well.  They are talking as the episode goes off.
     Another solid episode in the bag, with three more to go.  I found the Johnny/Sadie/Jake scenes to be particularly good, even if the end was a little over the top for me.  I felt like there were many times that Jake could have done something, but waited to throw the bleach in his face instead, but overall I still liked how it played out and Johnny got what he deserved.  I also found it a little strange that Bill really thought he saw his dead sister, but he did explain that they never found the body and so he thought maybe she was still alive.  Minor gripe, as the past was pushing on him in his own particular way, just as Johnny kidnapping Sadie was pushing on Jake.  The distractions were enough to keep Bill and Jake from the scene of the assassination, so the story continuity made sense.
     I feel like there should still be a lot to the story, but with only three more episodes, I believe they are going to have to cram a lot in.  I'm fine with that, because the how episodes seem to just fly by, which is a plus, so long as they don't lose the story and make it feel too rushed.  So far, that hasn't been a problem, as they have been putting a lot into each episode, and I think it keeps getting better and better each week.  I'm really excited to see how the rest of this thing plays out.

My rating for the episode is 8/10

TV Show - Better Call Saul - "Rebecca"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of Better Call Saul, you have been warned.

     We got a much slower episode this week than last week, but they did a lot of character building and working on some other story plots, so I thought the episode was still pretty good.  It didn't have that big episode feel that last week's episode had, but you still need to flesh out some other things, and we got several pretty big revelations throughout the episode.  Mike wasn't nearly as present in this episode as he was last week, but he still got a couple of good scenes.  This episode was primarily about Kim, which we really haven't gotten a lot of her story, more about what effect she has on Jimmy and his life.
     We start with a flashback of Chuck and his wife, and they are making a dinner.  Jimmy is coming over for dinner after his first week at the firm, in the mail room, and he tells her that they need a sign in case Jimmy gets to be too much for her, so he tugs on his earlobe.  She says that everything will be fine, and then there is a knock at the door and Jimmy is earlier, which looks to frustrate Chuck.  During the dinner, Jimmy starts telling a bunch of lawyer jokes that he heard in the mailroom, which just further annoys Chuck, but his wife seems to be enjoying it.  Chuck tries to give her the sign, but she basically ignores him.  After the dinner, when they are going to bed, she says that Chuck was worried for nothing, and that she liked Jimmy.  Chuck then tries to tell a joke, and she just looks at him funny, and then realizes he was trying to be funny, and laughs a little bit at his joke.  Chuck looks a bit dejected by her reaction.
     Back in the present, Jimmy keeps calling and leaving messages for Kim, telling her that he thinks he found a way for her to get out of dock review.  As he goes to leave for the night, a girl by the name of Rebecca walks into his office and says she has some notes about some of his documentation, and wants to go over them with him.  There are a ton of sticky notes on the document, and Jimmy says he'd rather look at it later, but she insists.  He then realizes that Rebecca has basically been assigned to him to make sure he is doing everything on the up and up, and so he tells her he is going to grab a pen, but then leaves out the back door.
     He goes to see Kim, who is still working in the basement at almost midnight, and shows her what he has in mind.  He wants her to sue the firm, for extortion, but she gets frustrated and berates him for trying to always find the easy way out.  She says that all that will do is ruin her career, and to just leave, she will take care of the mess herself and doesn't want his help.  He tells her that this is all Chuck's doing, but she says that is actually Jimmy's doing, not Chuck or Howard.  Realizing there is nothing more he can do, he leaves.
     The next day, he shows up at the office, and Rebecca is already waiting for him.  He tries to make up an excuse for why he left the night before, but she doesn't really want to hear it and just wants to go over the notes.  Later, the two of them drive to the police station, where Mike is working, and Jimmy asks him what happened to his face, making several jokes.  Inside the police station, Jimmy tries to bribe the clerk with a beanie baby to get his court date moved up, but Rebecca stops him and says she is just trying to help him not get in trouble.
     Next, we see Kim with a bunch of post-it notes, and she is making all sorts of phone calls, but they all end the same.  She gets frustrated and they don't really want to hear what she has to say.  It appears she is trying to land a big client, so she can get out of dock review.  She comes back from her lunch break having been unsuccessful.  We then see several days pass with her getting the same responses everyday.  After the montage of her getting rejected, she gets a phone call and she picks it up and goes out to the hallway.  Upon answering it, we see that one of the people has called her back and wants to set up a meeting with Howard.
     The woman that Kim was talking to, and her employer, someone high up at a bank in the area, shows up and meets with Kim and Howard.  As they are leaving, it looks like everything has worked out and Kim tells Howard that she will follow up with the lady and make sure to get all the information they need.  Howard says that he will put someone else on it, since Kim is busy in dock review.  She thought that by securing this client, she was going to be back in Howard's good graces, but it doesn't appear that is the case.
     Howard goes to see Chuck, and tells him about the new client.  Chuck seems impressed, and thinks that Howard landed the deal, but he says that Kim was the one that did it.  Chuck then asks if she is out of the dog house, and Howard says, "We will see."  And so we see that Jimmy was wrong after all, and it was Howard all along, and Chuck had nothing to do with Kim being in dock review.
     The next morning, Chuck shows up at the firm really early, to get in there before everyone else is there due to his condition.  He runs into Kim, and they sit down to have a conversation and to drink some coffee.  Kim asks if she has a future there, thinking that maybe Jimmy was right after all.  Chuck responds by telling her a story about his father.  Chuck and Jimmy's father owned a store, and Jimmy worked there when he was younger while Chuck was at college.  Chuck came home on break and found out that their father was missing $14,000, and that he found out that Jimmy took the money over time.  He tried to tell his father, but he wouldn't believe that Jimmy had done it.  He then had to sell the store, because he ran out of money, and he died six months later.  Chuck says that Jimmy means well, but that he has a problem and he can't help it.  He says he will talk to Howard and see if he can help Kim out, because he says she isn't the first person to have to clean up after Jimmy.
     To end the episode, we see Mike sitting at a diner.  A man walks in and asks if he can sit down.  For those that watched Breaking Bad, we know that this is Tuco's uncle, referred to on that show as Tio, but he was in a wheelchair and couldn't talk on Breaking Bad.  On here, however, he tells Mike that he wants him to go to the cops and say that the gun was his, and that Tuco took it from him during the fight.  He says Tuco will still go to jail, but not for as long, and he says this would be in everybody's best interest.  He tells Mike to think about it and leaves, and Mike gets angry as the man walks away.
     The ending was a really nice touch, as we got to see another character from Breaking Bad show up, and due to how Tio was on that show, it leads us to believe that Mike will have something to do with putting him in that wheelchair.  That may just be speculation on my part, but I think it is a solid guess.  As far as the rest of the episode goes, I thought the story that Chuck told Kim was a really nice touch.  I also thought the flashback was really good in giving us some more detail about these characters that we haven't gotten a ton of backstory on.  Overall, I like the episode, I just didn't love it, but I did feel that most of what happened was necessary to keep the story moving along, so I will take an episode like this every now an then.  I just think that after last week's episode, nothing they did this week was going to feel as good, so it was probably a good time to do this episode and give us some more meat to the overarching story.

My rating for the episode is 7/10

TV Show - The Walking Dead - "The Same Boat"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of The Walking Dead, you have been warned.

     This week's episode was all about Carol, and I must say that she did a fantastic job with it, even if not much really happened throughout the episode.  We start off by seeing what happened with Carol and Maggie while the others were clearing out the compound, and then a group of the Saviors sneak up on the two women and take them hostage.  We then get to see their side of the conversation with Rick on the walkie-talkies, and we see them trying to decide if they want to make the trade or not.  Ultimately, they say they will think about it and they leave to go to some sort of safe house nearby.
     Upon arriving at the safe house, they put Carol and Maggie in a room, and the Saviors are discussing what they should do with the two women.  They have called for backup at this point, and so they decide to wait until their backup gets there before they decide what they want to do.  During this whole thing, we see Carol has taken on the weak, old woman persona that she has used at Alexandria, to make people think she isn't stronger than she is, and she does a fine job with it.  First, as they drag a walker out of the room, a rosary falls off the walker and Carol picks it up to use later.  She also acts like she is having a panic attack so they will think that she is losing it, which works out exactly as she plans.
     We get a lot of back and forth between Carol, Maggie, and the Saviors, as Carol tries to get them to let Maggie go because she is pregnant.  They don't believe her at first, but then realize she may be telling the truth.  One of the Saviors takes Maggie out of the room to question her, so they can find out where Maggie and her group came from.  We also get a scene the Savior that Carol shot at the beginning of the episode attacks the woman leader of the group, and then goes after Carol for shooting him, but then the woman leader knocks him out.  This only helps Carol with her plan, as she gets kicked a few times first, and so she looks weaker again.
     Later on, the Saviors decide they want to make the trade after all, as their backup has almost gotten there.  They figure they can get the jump on Rick's group before Rick's group can get the jump on them, and so they leave Carol by herself.  Carol quickly proceeds to whittle the cross from the rosary down to a sharp point, and cuts her bindings to get free.  She then goes and finds Maggie and frees her as well.  Carol says they should just leave, but Maggie says they need to kill everyone before they go, so they can end this.  Carol reluctantly agrees and they proceed to make plans.
     They go back to the room where Carol was being held and they find the gunshot guy has died, and is about to turn, so they tie him up by the door and wait for one of the Saviors to come back and check on them.  When she walks in, the walker attacks the woman and Maggie jumps her from behind and kills her.  They take her weapons and go looking for the others.  They come across a hallway that has been set up with walkers to not let anyone out or let anyone in, in case Rick's group followed them. 
     The leader comes across them and starts shooting at them, but Carol gets a jump on her and puts a gun in her face.  She tells the woman to run, but the woman doesn't back down.  She attacks Carol and they fight back and forth, until the woman gets shot, and ultimately bitten and killed by one of the walkers.  The only other Savior from the group hears all this and comes in to see what is going on, causing her and Maggie to fight for a bit.  The woman slices a knife at Maggie, and it looks like she almost cuts her stomach open, but just missed it.  Carol steps in and shoots the woman in the head.
     Carol and Maggie then use the walkie-talkie to tell the backup people to meet them on the Kill Floor.  The men go into the room, and Carol shuts the door behind them, while lighting the room on fire, which they had doused in gasoline.  The men burn alive inside, and the two women leave, killing the remaining walkers as they go.
     As they open the door to leave, Rick and the others are there, and they ask if they are alright.  Both women basically say no, and they are both visibly shaken by the whole experience.  Rick asks the hostage they have if Negan was at the outpose the night before, or if he was there at the safe house today.  The man says that both are true, and that he is Negan.  Rick says he is sorry for this, and shoots the man in the head.
     As I said above, not a whole lot really happened during the episode, other than that the group is back together.  Carol did a really good job of playing possum, so to speak, to set this group up and then took them out.  My only problem with this is that Carol seemed to genuinely not want to kill them, so I guess all of her acting was out of just plain survival mode.  She tried everything she could to not have to kill them, but it felt like she was playing them the whole time, so I thought it seemed a bit out of place.  I thought it was all an act until she said she just wanted to leave, and then tried to get the leader to leave more than once before having to kill her anyway.
     Another glaring problem to me is that this group of Saviors, and Negan (whom we all known was not really there and is still coming), are supposed to be so savage and ruthless, but so far, they have just been massacred by our group with little effort.  Not a single member of our group has even died, and they have killed, what, maybe 40 of the Saviors at this point?  Maybe its just that they are so used to ruling by fear, and they haven't come across an organized group like Rick's before, but still, it seems a bit of a stretch to not lose a single member yet.  I'm sure they will be making up for that soon enough, but I just thought at this point they should at least be trading off a bit.
     With only three episodes to go, I thought that this was kind of a throw away episode, in that not much really happened, other than fleshing out Carol a little more.  Does this lead us to believe that Carol is going to die soon?  Maybe.  They have done similar things with Abraham and Daryl in the last few weeks, so maybe they are just trying to get you thinking that any of them aren't safe, or maybe they are going to throw a big swerve at the end and will kill off someone else.  For all I know, maybe no one will die this season, and it was all just a bunch of setup for nothing, but I find that hard to believe.  I think the next few episodes are going to be some of the most violent episodes in the series, which will culminate in the season finale, when we finally get to see Negan and what he is capable of.  I just hope the rest of the season picks up the pace from what this episode was.

My rating for the episode is 6/10.

Movie - 10 Cloverfield Lane

Note:  There may be minor spoilers throughout, but I will only limit them to what is absolutely necessary.

     10 Cloverfield Lane is a "spiritual successor" to the movie Cloverfield.  Having seen both films, I do sort of get why they say this, but the two movies couldn't really be any more different other than some thematic elements.  Whereas Cloverfield was a "monster" movie in the traditional sense, i.e. Godzilla, this film was a "monster" movie in a different sense.  The monster in this film comes in the form of paranoia, fear of the unknown, fear of others, etc.  I would really say that is where the comparisons between the two films end, and if you are going into this movie expecting more of what you saw in Cloverfield, then I'm afraid you will be terribly disappointed.
     The premise of the movie is that the lead character, Michelle, gets into a car accident, and wakes up in a bomb shelter/basement, chained to the wall.  We don't know really anything about Michelle other than that she was leaving her fiancé because of a fight.  So we are set up with only a few details when we see Howard come in to check on Michelle, and briefly explains that he found her on the side of the road after her accident and that he saved her life.  He then explains that there was some sort of attack, and that everyone else is dead.  They are safe because they are in his shelter that he built in case anything like this were to ever happen.  We also shortly thereafter find out that there is another man down there with them, named Emmett.  Emmett offers up that he is there by choice, and that he helped Howard build the shelter in case of an emergency.
     To give any more away than that would really be a disservice to anyone who plans on watching the film, and so I will not give any more details of the plot away.  I think that the less you know about the movie, the better the watching experience will be, because it is meant to make you wonder the entire time just what is going on.  The best parts of the film are when you are trying to figure out if what Howard is saying is true, or if it is all elaborated by a clearly troubled man who just thinks that something terrible happened above ground.
     The acting and the writing in the movie are absolutely top notch.  John Goodman is frightening at times, and endearing at times, but always the center of attention when he is in a scene.  I would expect no less from Mr. Goodman, as I have always been a big fan, and he leaves nothing on the table with his performance of Howard.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead also does a wonderful job of portraying Michelle as a frightened, but resourceful protagonist, that you can't help but route for throughout the entire movie, whether you know if you are pulling for her for the right reasons or not.  Finally, John Gallagher Jr. does a fine job as Emmett, but his character is not the main focus, and smartly, the film makers only have him do what he needs to do, and not try to force the character to be more than he is.  The dynamic and chemistry between the three characters is on full display, and it's hard to find a cast of characters that are more in sync with each other and make each other better with their individual performances.
     However, it's not all about the performances and the writing.  To have a truly great film, all of the pieces need to be in place, and unfortunately, the lasting impressions are very important.  This means that the ending needs to be as strong as everything else, and that is where 10 Cloverfield Lane comes up short.  There will be people that love the ending, and there will be people that hate the ending, and I personally think that both sides have a legitimate argument for either that love or hate.  I fall in the middle a bit, as I didn't really like the ending, but I applaud the film makers for really going for it and doing something different.  In the interest of not trying to ruin anything, I will leave it at that, but after you see the movie, you will fully understand what I mean.
     I wanted to love this movie, and for the most part I did, but I feel that what could have been a truly great movie fell short in the end.  I loved the performances, the writing, and the ever present feeling of suspense and paranoia that seeped into every scene, but the ending just kept the movie from really being something special.  Overall, I still think the movie was very good, and if nothing else, to see John Goodman's performance is worth seeing the movie, but I would warn that you should go in with a little bit of caution, and expect the ending to not turn out like you think it is going to.  I guess if you have seen all the comparisons and references to Cloverfield in all of the marketing of this movie, you already expect the ending to be outside of the norm.  You will definitely get that from this film, but as the saying goes, just be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it.

My rating for the film is 7.5/10

TV Show - Bates Motel - "A Danger to Himself and Others"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of Bates Motel, you have been warned.

     Before I get into the episode itself, I would like to point out that this is one of my favorite shows on television right now.  The acting is top notch for all of the main characters, the storyline is very solid, and the fact that we all know where it's heading (well, most of us anyway) makes each choice that these characters make seem that much more weighted.  I have personally loved to watch the descent of Norman into his current crazy state, and Freddie Highmore is extremely underrated in how well he has taken care of the slow build.  As I said above, the other characters are extremely well acted too, but I think that Norman is what really separates this show from other really good shows on television right now.  I'm also pretty excited that they have made the decision to end the show after the next season, not because I want to see the show end, but more because I think that the show is going to end when it needs to, and I give all the credit to the show runners for knowing that and not trying to stretch it out unnecessarily.
     We start off with Romero on a boat, far off the shore.  We see the body of Bob Paris, which Romero killed at the end of the last season, and he is disposing of the body and the boat, to get rid of all the evidence.  We also find Norman in a field passed out, and when it comes to, he is talking to "mother" whom isn't there, because her and Dylan are too busy trying to find Norman.  It appears that Norman doesn't realize that he killed Bradley at the end of last season.  A farmer finds Norman, and after Norman tries to attack the man, he knocks Norman out and calls the police, who take Norman to a hospital.
     After getting the call from the hospital, Norma asks Dylan to go with her, but then he tells Norma that Emma is getting her lung transplant and so he is going to be with her.  I am afraid that this doesn't bode well for Dylan since Norman and Emma dated for a while, but I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens with that later.  Norma goes to the hospital alone, and the doctor tells Norma that something is very wrong with Norman and they won't be releasing him for 48 hours. 
     This sends Norma back to Pineview to see about getting him admitted as opposed to being stuck at the county hospital getting treatment.  They tell her that she will just need her insurance information, and get on the waiting list, and they will be happy to help.  Norma doesn't have insurance (more on that later), and on her way out, so sees one of the doctors walking into the facility.  She tries to flirt him up to get him to help her son, but he informs her that he is gay.  So, she instead decides to tell the truth (something she should probably do more often), and the doctor seems to sympathize and says he will talk with Norman after he is released from the county hospital.
     Dylan gets to the hospital after Emma has already gone in, and he and Emma's father sit in the waiting room.  Shortly after, a woman shows up to see Emma, and it turns out this is Emma's mother, which we have heard almost nothing about during the course of the show.  When Emma's father sees her there, he flips out and tells her to leave, or he will make her leave.  She reluctantly obliges, and she ends up going to Bates Motel to stay for a few days.  Meanwhile, Emma's surgery looks to go well, and Dylan goes in to talk to her and tell her that she looks awesome, which was a very sweet, happy moment, which we don't get much of these days.
     Norma takes Emma's mother some breakfast before going to pick up Norman from the hospital, and the woman tells Norma who she is.  Norma is very short with her at finding this out, and leaves to get Norman.  The doctor tells Norma that they are releasing Norman, but that he needs to get help, and soon, or he will end up back at the hospital.  Norma takes Norman and they go home.
     Later that day, Emma's mother shows up at Norma's house and asks her to deliver a letter to Emma.  Norma refuses and tells her to leave her and her son alone.  This causes the woman to berate Norma for not understanding what it's like to have a child that is sick and you don't know if you are going to be able to ever help them, which obviously strikes a chord with Norma and she tells the woman to leave immediately, that she is not welcome there anymore.
     That evening, Norma is giving Norman a haircut, and he tells her that he had a dream that Norma killed Bradley.  She knows what this must mean, but doesn't say anything further.  Instead they go to bed.  The next morning, Norma is leaving while Norman is still asleep, and she locks the door to the bedroom so Norman can't get out.  She goes to Romero's house and does what only Norma can do.  She asks Romero to marry her so that she can use his insurance to help Norman.  Romero, not really letting anything surprise him from Norma anymore, just tells her to leave.  Norma doesn't understand what the big deal is, but does leave anyway.  I thought this scene was absolutely hilarious.  It's just something you would expect from Norma and the reaction by Romero was amazing.  It was just such an awkward and funny scene.
     Norman wakes up and finds that he is locked in the room.  He gets mad and breaks the door down, and then the change has happened.  Next we see Norman, he is wearing Norma's robe and walking around the house.  Emma's mother shows up at the door, and he lets her in.  She notices that he is eccentric, but since she has never met him before, probably just thinks that is the way he is.  She comes in and he gets her some tea.  She explains the situation, and asks him if he will deliver the letter, which he agrees to.  And then he snaps.  He chokes the woman out, and talks about how she should have never left her sick child.  This scene was very intense, and the delivery of this berating to the woman as he chokes the life out of her was so well done.  It really showed us that the change from the Norman that once was into the new, crazy, serial killer has almost completely taken place, and there is no real going back for Norman.  As the woman dies, the show goes off.
     Where to even begin here.  This episode was amazing, as most of the episodes in the series have been, it's almost to be expected now.  The performances by Dylan, Norman, Norma, and Romero were top notch and have just gotten me more and more excited for the coming season.  It looks like we are going to really be picking up the pace as Norman just continues to get worse and worse by the minute as we speed through this season, and then next season, which will be the final season.  And all of this was just in the first episode.  This episode had a little bit of everything to get you hooked back into the show and psyched up for the rest of the season, and what more can you really ask for from a season opener.  After the episode went off, I was only reminded further of why this is one of the best shows on television.

My rating for the episode is 9/10

TV Show - 11.22.63 - "The Eyes of Texas"

Note:  Major spoilers for the fourth episode of the 11.22.63 mini-series, you have been warned.

     I want to preface this review with how further impressed I am with this series the further along it goes.  I was very skeptical coming into the series, as I noted in my first post for the first episode, but so far I think this is one of best, if not the best, adaptation of a Stephen King book into media, whether that be a movie or a television show.  This also gives me hope for The Dark Tower, another Stephen King book (set of seven books actually), which is about to go into production.  I have been waiting for that adaptation for years, as I feel that The Dark Tower is Stephen King's best work, and it has been talked about for years.  The movie is supposed to come out early next year, and it will be starring Idris Elba and Matthew Mcconaughey.  But I digress, on to the fourth episode of the 11.22.63 mini-series.
     The episode starts off with Lee Harvey Oswald timing how fast he can put together his rifle.  This of course just furthers the development of the character as a little unhinged, especially when he later tells George that he intends to use the rifle to hunt fascists.  This leads to the taking of one of the most famous pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald, standing in his backyard holding the newspaper and his rifle, which they recreated for the show.  We also see that Bill and Jake have moved into the apartment below the Oswald's, as it gives them more opportunities to spy on them and George when he comes to visit.  We also get to see that Bill appears to be developing a crush on Oswald's wife, Marina.
       Jake goes back to the school and sees Sadie playing the piano.  He sits down beside her and kisses her, telling her not to worry, everyone has already left.  Being proven wrong, the principal walks in on them and asks to talk to Jake.  He tells Jake that he has a duty to be a little more discreet and gives Jake a card with the name of a hotel where he can take Sadie without being seen by the other faculty and the children.
     When Jake gets back to the apartment, Bill shows Jake a tape where Oswald is talking about wanting to see a message, and talking about Governor Walker, and then George says he has some powerful friends that he wants Oswald to meet.  Jake says that the powerful friends must be the CIA, and they are then going to get Oswald to assassinate the governor.  A knock comes at the door, and Jake answers it to find Ms. Mimi standing there, and she calls him by his real name of Jake Epping instead of Amberson.  Jake explains to Mimi that he is in witness protection because he turned over evidence against the mob.  She seems to take this excuse, but tells him he should be careful keeping secrets from those he cares for.
     Taking Mimi's advice, Jake asks Sadie to go to the hotel mentioned earlier, and she meets him there for a romantic evening.  The next day, he is about to tell her the truth, or at least part of the truth, when he sees an envelope sitting on the counter.  He looks at it and it's pictures of him and Sadie from the night before, so he decides not to tell her after all.  He thinks the CIA is now on to him, so he goes to see Bill and tell him.
     Before Jake gets back, Bill has gone out and talked to Marina, returning a baby doll that he found on the ground.  She thanks him and it becomes much more apparent that Bill has a huge crush on her and feels bad for her, considering who she is married to.  After Jake arrives, Bill tells him that Oswald and George have gone out, so they follow them to a secret brothel.  They go inside, and Jake tries to find Oswald and George so he can spy on them, but the cops show up and arrest Bill and Jake.
     Principal Deke bails the two men out, but he is very upset with Jake.  He then tells Jake that he is going to have to return to the school, because he has a class to teach, so they drop Bill off and head back to the school.  At the school, it appears that Ms. Mimi is getting really sick, as she keeps coughing, but this doesn't get addressed any further as Jake see Sadie talking to her husband, Clayton.  After the husband leaves, Jake goes to talk to her and she says that Clayton won't give her the divorce, and then talks about some of the abuse she has taken from Clayton.  She then drives off saying that she is sorry that she ruined everything.
     Bill shows up at the school and says Oswald and George are supposed to have a meeting later today.  Jake follows George while Bill stays behind and spies on Oswald and Marina.  As he listens in, the couple begin getting intimate, and Bill gets furious, throwing his headphones off.  Jake follows George, but can't get close enough to figure out what is going on.  He turns to leave and runs into Clayton, who says that he took the pictures Jake found.  Jake threatens Clayton and tells him to give Sadie the divorce.  He then tells him some of the personal things that Sadie had told him earlier, and Clayton looks embarrassed and dejected, so he agrees to give the divorce and leaves.
     Jake takes some flowers to Sadie and tells her that she didn't ruin anything.  She appears to be happy that Jake doesn't think lesser of her, but we see someone watching the two of them, even though we don't know who it is.  I'm guessing it's Clayton, as I don't think he would give up so easily, but guess we will find out later.  Jake then goes back to the apartment, and Bill is ticked off, and they hear the Oswald's fighting upstairs.  Bill wants to go confront Oswald, but Jake stops him from interfering.  Bill later finds Marina on the fire escape and gives her a cigarette.
     Back at the school, Ms. Mimi is out sick and Deke is very angry when Jake asks.  It appears that they may have some sort of relationship going on, and that something is seriously wrong with Mimi.  Jake leaves and goes back to the apartment and apologizes to Bill, telling him that he needs him if they are going to succeed.  Bill agrees and they appear to be made up.
     Sadie comes to visit Jake and brings him some baked goods.  As she comes into the house, we see someone leaving in the shadows behind her, but we don't see who it is.  Not sure on this one, could maybe be Clayton or maybe even the yellow card man from the first episode, as I have always thought there was more to that guy than they let on.  Either way, Sadie goes downstairs and finds the recording of the Oswald's getting intimate.  Jake comes home and finds Sadie, and she asks him, "Who are you," as the episode ends.
     There was a ton of stuff going on in this episode, and I thought everything played out really well.  They really crammed a lot into this episode, and I felt like it just bounced from one scene to the next at a good pace and kept my interest the whole way through.  There are so many things going on, and so many possibilities, I'm starting to wonder just how they are going to wrap everything up in the remaining four episodes of the mini-series, but that also makes me think that with so much going on, they next four episodes will be crammed full just like this episode was.  And with the way things are headed so far, I have absolutely no problem with.

My rating for the episode is 8/10

TV Show - Better Call Saul - "Gloves Off"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of Better Call Saul, you have been warned.

     I finally got the episode that I have been looking for this week, and I would put this episode in one of the top two or three episodes of the series so far.  This could quite possibly be because Mike was featured so much, as I have noticed that my favorite episodes normally revolve more around Mike more than Jimmy.  We did get some follow up on the issues that arose last week for Jimmy, but by and far, the story involving Mike, Nacho, and Tuco stole the show this week.
     We start the episode with Mike coming home late at night.  He throws an envelope full of money onto the table, and goes to the freezer, grabbing a bag of frozen vegetables out of the freezer.  He get a drink and then goes in to the living room, putting the bag of frozen vegetables over his eye.  He takes the bag away, and we can see that Mike has taken quite a beating.  Since he has the money, we are to assume that he did what Nacho wanted him to do, even though we haven't been told just what that is yet.
     Jimmy is talking to the partners at Davis and Main, showing them the commercial that he made.  He tries to explain how he didn't mean to cause any problems, and keeps talking about how successful it was, but the partners don't want to hear it.  He doesn't see what the problem is, but they inform him that the problem is that he cut them out, and didn't get their approval.  It looks like Jimmy is going to get fired, but then they tell him that they believe in second chances, but he will be watched very closely moving forward.  We also see that Kim getting in trouble because she knew about the commercial, but she doesn't tell Chuck and Howard that she thought Jimmy had gotten approval before airing it.  She is assigned to do some tedious work as a punishment.
     Later, Jimmy comes and tries to apologize, but she doesn't really want to hear it.  She tells him that she just wants to be left alone, but that she is not breaking off their relationship.  Jimmy then goes to Chuck's house, finding him having an episode in the middle of the night.  Jimmy stays with him until the morning, where they have an argument over the whole situation.  Jimmy then tries to get Chuck to agree to let Kim off easy if he quits practicing law, but Chuck says that is extortion and he won't do it.  This was a really good scene, as we see Jimmy trying to bring Chuck down to his level, because he thinks that anyone would do what he himself is willing to do to get what he wants.  Chuck leaves him with the statement, "I'm not the bad guy here."
     Nacho tells Mike that the person he wants to get rid of is his cousin Tuco.  He says that Tuco is on drugs and acting crazy, and he fears for his own life, so he wants to take Tuco out before that happens.  He sets up a plan, but Mike doesn't think the plan is very good, so he tells Nacho that he will get a sniper rifle and take him out from a distance.  Mike goes to meet with a guy, and looks at several guns, but then he tells the man he changed his mind and won't be needing a gun after all.
     Mike goes back to Nacho with a new plan, and tells him that he isn't going to kill Tuco, but is going to still get rid of him.  He says he will do it for half of the money he was originally supposed to get paid, which is $25,000.  Nacho agrees to go along with the plan, and what may be the best scene in the series begins to play out.
     Tuco and Nacho are collecting their money from their dealers, when Mike pulls in and grazes Tuco's car.  He comes in to order some tacos, and Tuco approaches Mike to tell him that he saw him just hit his car.  Mike says he didn't hit any car, and continues with his order, taking his food and leaving the restaurant.  Tuco follows him and says that he is going to need some money to fix the damage to his car, which amounts to pretty much nothing.  Mike says he will give him his insurance information, but Tuco demands cash instead, having seen how much money Mike was carrying inside the restaurant.  Prior to all of this going down, Mike called the police and told them that two men were fighting outside the restaurant, and now we hear the sirens.  Nacho says they need to go, and Tuco tells him to leave.  He tells Mike to give him the money, and Mike grabs Tuco by the shirt, causing Tuco to pull his gun.  Mike knocks the gun away, and then Tuco slams him up against the wall, punching him repeatedly in the face.  As the cops pull in, Tuco lands one more big punch, knocking Mike out.
     Mike meets Nacho that night, and gets his money, with his face all battered as it was at the beginning of the episode.  Mike tells Nacho that with the gun and the assault, Tuco would be going away for at least five years.  Nacho asks him why he would do all that for only half the money, when he could have easily killed Tuco instead and gotten the full amount.  Mike says nothing, and drives away.
     The pacing of this episode was very solid, as it built up the big climactic ending.  I was happy to see Tuco again, as he was a fun character in Breaking Bad, and is still just as crazy in this show as he was on that one.  The interaction between Mike and Tuco was wonderful, and the way Mike set him up and was able to keep his moral fiber intact was very well done.  As I noted above, any time that Mike gets a large amount of screen time, the show is just simply better.  I don't have a problem with the other characters in Jimmy's primary storyline, it just feels like a bigger show when Mike and his storyline is playing out.  Hopefully soon they will really mesh the two together, and I feel that more episodes will feel like this one then the first three of the season.

My rating for the episode is 9/10

TV Show - The Walking Dead - "Not Tomorrow Yet"

Note:  Major spoilers for the episode of The Walking Dead, you have been warned.

     As things are looking to intensify quickly for the Alexandria group, I came into this episode expecting some big things to happen, and I can certainly say that the episode did not disappoint.  The episode started off a little bit slow, but then picked up the pace the further along it went all the way up to the climactic ending, which puts the group in a very precarious position.  I knew that something was going to go wrong right from the beginning, but I can honestly say that the ending caught me a little off guard, as I was expecting something different.
     We start off with Carol at Alexandria, making cookies for the townsfolk, and especially for Tobin, whom we get a hint that maybe there is something going on between them.  This gets proven true a little further into the episode, as they share a cigarette and a kiss, and we are led to believe a little bit more than that after the cameras stop rolling.  But before all that, Rick and the group return to Alexandria and call a town meeting to discuss what took place at the Hilltop community.
     Rick tells everyone about the plan, that they are going to go kill the Saviors and then they will get enough food from Hilltop for them to all survive.  The only person that objects to this is of course Morgan, who says that they should give the Saviors the chance to surrender before just going in and killing all of them.  Rick says that this will give up their advantage, and so the rest of the group agrees.  Morgan looks dejected and doesn't go with the group the next day.
     Most of our main cast of characters go on the trip to attack the Saviors at their home base.  The form a plan, using what knowledge they have of the Saviors compound, and they find a walker that looks like Gregory from Hilltop, so that they can bring the severed head to the compound as was requested.  The plan seems to be going off without a hitch, as they make their way inside the compound and begin killing the Saviors as they sleep.
     Earlier in the episode, we see Glenn and Heath talking about how neither one of them has ever killed a living person before.  I thought Glenn did a really good job in this scene of capturing what he thought it would be like when he had to do it.  This comes up later as the two men sneak up on a couple of sleeping Saviors.  Glenn hesitates, but then puts the knife into the head of one of the men.  As Heath goes to do the same, Glenn comes over and stops him, doing the deed himself to spare Heath from having to do it.
     As well as the plan is going, something of course has to go wrong, and so one of the Saviors wanders in on Abraham and Sasha trying to get into a locked room, and cuts Abraham's arm.  Sasha stabs the man, but not before he can pull the alarm, waking up the remaining men in the compound.  At this, a large gunfight breaks out between the Saviors and Rick's group, but they still have the upper hand and they continue to slaughter the Saviors, not losing a single member of their group.
     As the alarm is going off, those that didn't go into the compound and were watching the perimeter hear the commotion and decide they have to step in and help.  This results in the best scene that Gabriel has had in the entire series.  I have never liked Gabriel.  He is a coward, and he has caused much more trouble than he has been worth, but he finally got to have a good scene.  As some of the men try to escape the compound, our group starts picking them off.  One man gets injured, but isn't dead.  Gabriel walks up to him with his rifle drawn and tells the man to drop his gun.  The man says that Gabriel is a priest and won't kill him, but it doesn't matter anyway, because of what they have done, Negan will come for them.  Gabriel reads some scripture to the man before pulling the trigger and killing him.
     We also see Carol arguing with Maggie about how she shouldn't be out there, since she is pregnant.  Maggie argues back and says she is going to help the group since the alarms are going off, but Carol tries to convince her to stay where she is.  This will become important the next morning, as the group finishes off the remaining Saviors and they all walk outside as the sun comes up.
     It looks as though the group has succeeded, all of the Saviors appear to be dead.  All of a sudden, someone comes riding out of the compound on Daryl's motorcycle, and he flips out and shoots the man.  He goes over and asks where he got the motorcycle, before punching the guy repeatedly in the face.  Rick comes over and puts a gun to the man's head before a walkie-talkie that he man was carrying says to drop their weapons.  The group looks around, trying to figure out what is going on, but it appears that someone is watching them from a short distance away.  Rick tells them to come out and talk, and the voice on the walkie-talkie says that they have taken Maggie and Carol, and so they assume the group does want to talk.
     Pretty intense episode starting about halfway through, and a really good cliffhanger ending.  I was not expecting Carol and Maggie to get taken, I was thinking it was going to be someone else, maybe Glenn and Heath, or maybe even Abraham and Sasha.  But by taking Carol and Maggie, it really amps up the stakes for the next episode, as the group, especially Glenn, is going to do everything in their power to get them back.  And it also adds the dynamic that the Saviors have two women, so they probably think they have a couple of weak bargaining chips, but they may be in for a big surprise with Carol if she can find the opportunity.
     I felt that this was a nice build up episode to the things that are on the horizon.  They have now made Negan and his Saviors more angry, and I think our group has severely underestimated what they are getting themselves into.  I think when we finally get to see Negan and Rick come face to face, it is going to be an epic moment, I just wish it wasn't still three episodes away or so.  I'm assuming we will not actually get to see the face to face confrontation until the season finale, and that is when things are really going to hit the fan.  I like what they have done with the back half of this season up to this point, and I think they are really doing this slow build very well, and I'm hopeful that this is going to lead to possibly the biggest moment in the series to date when we finally get to the season finale and everything finally comes to a head.

My rating for the episode is 8.5/10

TV Show - "Fuller House" - Season 1

Note:  This review may contain spoilers, but I will try to limit them to only what is necessary.

     When I was growing up in the late 80's/early 90's, every Friday night was filled with one thing in our household.  TGIF, also known as "Thank Goodness It's Funny" on ABC was filled with several comedy sitcoms, such as Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and of course, Full House.  It was a different era of television than we see today, but I have fond memories of all the catch phrases, and the feel good shows where you didn't really have to think too much, you just sat back and enjoyed.  So to say that I went into the new show on Netflix, Fuller House, without at least a little bit of bias would be a lie, but I still think that I'm open minded enough to not rely too strongly on these past memories of the show to shape how I viewed the new series.
     Fuller House picks up around 20 years after Full House went off the air, and is now following the family life of DJ Tanner-Fuller, her best friend Kimmy Gibbler, and DJ's sister Stephanie Tanner.  To say that there are similarities to the original show is a huge understatement, as DJ has recently lost her husband (originally Danny losing his wife), and is left to raise her three boys (again, Danny left to raise his three daughters), and gets some help from Kimmy and Stephanie (Joey and Uncle Jesse in the original).  And the similarities don't stop there, as DJ has essentially become Danny, Kimmy has become Joey, and Stephanie has become Uncle Jesse.  The similarities and the way they were modeled after each of these three is pretty obvious from the early goings, and continues to develop throughout the entire first season.  I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, as they were all raised by these three men, so it only makes sense that they would pick up some of their traits, but sometimes it does come off a bit much.  I would have rather seen them show characteristics of each of the three men that raised them, but considering how the show played out, it almost makes more sense that it played out the way it did.
     As I said, it was a different era in television back in the early 90's, so the over-the-top nature of the show to not really mimic real life, but to instead show what an "ideal" family life would be like, and the new series doesn't try to hard to bring the show into reality.  In fact, it really feels like they embraced it and really went for it, saying despite that times have changed, we aren't changing for you.  It really gives the feeling that the show was created for the fans of the show, and they just basically said, "If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it."  Since I was a fan of the older show when I was growing up, this didn't bother me.  In fact, there were several episodes throughout the season that really made me feel like I was watching the older episodes as opposed to the newer ones.  Since it feels like that is what they were going for anyway, I guess I can only say that they accomplished exactly what they set out to do.  Try to appeal to the fans of the older show, and just try to thrive on nostalgia alone.
     I am surprised at all of the completely destructive criticisms that the show has been receiving by other reviewers.  I can see where some of them have a point, and for those that never watched the original show that decides to check out a couple of episodes, I can even see why they wouldn't watch any more episodes past the first or second one, but some of the things I have read are just ridiculous.  The show is not great, but it's certainly not terrible, and when you compare it to the original and look at the show for what it was meant to be, I think they hit pretty much on the mark most of the time.  There are some serious laugh out loud moments, especially with some of the inside gags from the original, and there are also some times where they just completely missed the mark, but overall I feel that there were more hits than misses.
     If I were to come up with one solid complaint, it would be how they are trying to stay in the 90's with the style of the show, but then they felt that they had to include certain things to try to make it more edgy.  For example, it's a show aimed at families, of all ages, but there are some serious adult jokes that fly by at times.  I know that most young kids watching are going to just let those jokes fly over their head and not think about it, but some of them were really just right out there.  I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old, and they both loved the show, but there was more than once where they looked at me like, "What are they talking about?" or "They sure do kiss a lot on this show."  The original show had some of these types of jokes and such as well, but I always felt they were more subtle.  The new show kind of passes over subtlety and just throws it out there, where you can't really leave it up to interpretation.
     I can honestly say that, despite several of the moments from the show being too much, or trying too hard to make you remember why you liked Full House in the first place, I did like the show.  I won't go so far to say that I loved the show, but I will say that I will watch Season 2 when they make it (which has already been greenlit).  It truly does capture the feeling of the original show, and you can pretty much predict what is going to happen, but I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing unless they are trying to make the show something more than it is.  It is meant to be just a sit down half hour, watch it with the family, and then when it's over, move on with your life type of show, and for that, I think they accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

My rating for Season 1 is 7/10

TV Show - Better Call Saul - "Amarillo"

Note:  Major spoilers for the Better Call Saul season 2 episode "Amarillo", you have been warned.

     I think I have gotten past the slow build feeling that the show has taken on in its second season, and have started to embrace the fact that good writing and production value, as this show definitely has, can make the build feel more worthwhile when the payoff finally shows up.  I'm not saying that there wasn't anything really happening in the episode.  If anything, there is a lot happening, it's just all building into a slower crescendo that I think is only going to get more intense as the season plugs along.  For as much as I have felt that the season is moving along slower than I would like, I am also finding that as all of these things start to play out a little more, I get dragged deeper into the "well, what is going to happen next" line of thinking, and each episode keeps getting better and better each week.
     We start off this week with Jimmy dressed in a cowboy hat and boots, waiting on the side of the road.  A bus pulls up and the driver gets out, acting as if the bus has broken down, but instead we find out that Jimmy has paid the driver to stop here so he can talk to the passengers.  This scene is brilliant in that it shows us what Jimmy will one day become, and that is Saul Goodman.  For all of Jimmy's insecurities and hang-ups about his brother, and whether he feels comfortable in his own skin, Saul throws all that out the window and just let's Jimmy be what he is meant to be, and that is the Saul that we all got to see in Breaking Bad.  He plays to the crowd on the bus beautifully, and before the scene is over, he has gotten every single one of them to fill out the information he wants them to, and he has his witnesses to go against Sandpiper in his class action lawsuit.
     When Jimmy is in his Saul persona (even though they still aren't calling it that yet), he doesn't have to play exactly by the rules, and that is in full force here.  Those that are closest to him know this about him, and that shows up in the next scene, in the board meeting where Chuck and Kim are in attendance.  Chuck calls him out, and says that is sounds like he must be soliciting, which is a big no-no, and Jimmy assures them that this isn't the case.  Kim and Chuck can tell that Jimmy is not being entirely truthful, and he tries to talk his way around the issue, and then finally says that he doesn't want there to be any sort of suspicion, so he will try to find a new way to get clients.  This still doesn't really put Chuck or Kim's mind at ease, but they seem to at least give him the benefit of the doubt at this point.
     As Jimmy tries to come up with a new way to reach clients, he comes up with the idea of making a television commercial and running it at strategic times when the residents at the various communities will be most likely to see it.  He runs the idea by his boss, who seems somewhat open to the idea, but doesn't seem to be fully on board.  Jimmy decides that he will make his own video and then show it to his boss so that he can see just what Jimmy is talking about.  But first, he decides to show it to Kim, who loves the video, but then says she is surprised that Jimmy's boss went for it.  Not telling her that it hasn't been approved yet, he lets her think that the commercial has already been approved and is set up to start airing soon.
     Jimmy starts to take the video in to show it to his boss, but then thinks better of it after hearing what Kim had said the night before, so instead he decides to run the commercial first, and see what kind of response he gets.  After it initially looks like there will be no response, the phones start ringing off the hook, and it looks like Jimmy's idea has really paid off.  However, when Jimmy's boss finds out about the commercial, he calls Jimmy and is furious, despite the overwhelming response.  He tells Jimmy that he will have to come in and meet with the partners, and things don't look good for Jimmy.
     Also during this episode, we see Mike talking to his daughter-in-law, and she informs him that she has heard gunshots at night.  He volunteers to stay overnight, but she tells him not to worry about it.  He instead stays in his car overnight outside the house, and finds out that the gunshots she thought she heard was just somebody throwing out newspapers in the driveways of the nearby houses.  Content that everything is okay, Mike returns to work, only to get a phone call from her, telling him that it has happened again.  When Mike shows up, she shows him a mark on the garage, that she says is from a bullet that has taken out a chunk of the wall.  He doesn't tell her that he stayed out the whole night before, and instead that he wants her and her daughter to leave the house.  Knowing that they can't really afford it, he takes on a job that he normally wouldn't do, but the guy asked for him by name and is paying big money.  He shows up to find out about the job, and it is Nacho, and he tells Mike that he has someone he needs to get rid of.
     I'm not really sure what is going on with the daughter-in-law, whether she is maybe playing Mike to get more money, or if she has just turned paranoid for some reason and is just imaging things happening in the middle of the night.  I assume they will elaborating on this in the coming weeks, so I won't speculate too much on it for now.  As far as Nacho goes, he didn't say who he needs to get rid of, but since it was the final scene of the episode, I imagine that when we find out who it is, it will be a big deal.  I'm thinking it could be either his uncle Tuco, or maybe even Jimmy for some reason, or perhaps an unknown third party at this time (I have my fingers crossed that it has something to do with Gus Fring, a character from Breaking Bad that I think would add a whole new dynamic to this show).  Once again, I can speculate all day, but will just have to wait until next week to find out.
     As far as the Jimmy storyline goes, I think they did a really good job this week of showing how Jimmy is so determined to prove himself to both Kim and Chuck, that is willing to bend the rules further and further, while trying to make them think that he is doing everything on the up and up, and doesn't have a lot of regard for what other problems he is causing in the meantime.  I feel like he had to know that running the commercial was a bad idea, but that maybe he just thought the good that would likely come of it would be enough to make his boss forget that he did this without approval.  I'm afraid he has caused a huge rift at his new job, and may even end up fired over this whole situation, which would certainly put him on his path to become full time Saul instead of Jimmy, as the more bridges he burns, the worse things are going to get for him.
     I'm extremely anxious to see the next episode at this point, as I feel that the train is starting to pick up steam before it inevitably jumps the tracks in the coming episodes.  I really feel like the season has to started really find its footing, and we are starting to see where things are heading, and I just hope that it keeps on picking up that steam as it goes until we get to a huge climax and hopefully some really exciting episodes.  The way things are going, I think that is going to be sooner rather than later.

My rating for the episode is 7.5/10

TV Show - 11.22.63 - "Other Voices, Other Rooms"

Note:  Major spoilers for the third episode of the 11.22.63 mini-series, you have been warned.

     I thought that last week's episode was very good, and while this week's episode didn't have the same feeling for me, it was still a very solid episode and a good continuation of the story.  Last week's episode really felt like it was chugging along at a really fast pace, as they were trying to tie up the side story before the end of the episode, whereas this week's episode was more about setting up things to come in the future.  A few new characters were introduced in this episode, and some other characters from the first episode made a return, and I felt that they did a good job of fleshing out the various characters to give us a better idea of what is going on.
     The episode starts off with Bill and Jake driving in the car, Bill holding a gun to Jake and asking about the newspaper article he found that talks about how JFK had been shot.  Jake tells Bill again that he is from the future, only this time Bill is starting to believe it a bit more than in the last episode.  They go to a hotel where Jake tries to further explain what is going on, and he offers Bill $100 dollars to drive him to Dallas, Texas.  Bill agrees and the men make the drive from Kentucky to Texas.
     When they arrive, Jake explains to Bill what he knows about the location that the assassination is going to take place, and Bill asks if Jake really thinks that he can figure it all out and stop it.  Jake says he hopes so, but he doesn't know for sure.  After this, Jake tries to pay Bill his money, but Bill asks if he can stay on and help.  Jake is reluctant at first, but finally agrees to let him stay on and become his partner.
     They go to a small town halfway between Dallas and the town that Lee Harvey Oswald is going to live in, and Jake gets a job working at a high school to pass the time until the assassination is going to happen almost three years later.  After getting the job, Bill says they should go to Dallas to celebrate, so they go to strip club where they meet Jack Ruby, who is obviously going to play a very important role later, due to his involvement in the real world events of the JFK assassination.
     Two years pass by while Jake and Bill get ready.  They get an apartment right across from where Oswald is going to live, and they set up a plan to put "bugs" around his house so they can spy on him.  Meanwhile, Sadie (the girl from the first episode that Jake ran into when he first got to Dallas) shows up at the school and says she is going to be the new librarian.  What seems like a coincidence seems to point to a little bit more than that, which I feel gets explored a little later in the episode without coming right out and saying it.
     The night that Jake and Bill are planning to bug Oswald's house, Mimi the secretary at the school asks Jake to be one of the chaperones, along with Sadie, whom Jake is clearly forming a crush on.  Jake says he will do it, but he makes plans to leave during the dance and go plant the bugs before returning to the dance.  While at the dance, Sadie and Jake have a conversation about how she was in Maine right around the time that Jake came through the portal into the past.  He says they must have just missed each other, and they toast to timing.  I thought this scene was very subtle, but clearly implies that Sadie is part of the past that is messing with Jake, to try to distract him from the task at hand.
     Jake leaves the dance abruptly, and tells Sadie he will be back in a couple of hours, and then goes to Bill's apartment.  They break into Oswald's house and start planting the bugs, but then Oswald shows up with his wife, and Jake and Bill are forced to try to escape without being seen or heard.  They are crawling through the overhead insulation when Bill gets tangled up in some spiderwebs and screams.  Oswald overhears this and starts yelling and looking for whoever is hiding out, but they get away without being seen.
     The next day, Jake tries to apologize to Sadie, but she doesn't seem to want to hear about it.  Jake knows that he messed up, and so he lets it go, but he will later in the episode try again to apologize, and she shuts the door to the library and kisses him, telling him it better not happen again.  They agree to go to dinner that Saturday.
     Meanwhile, Bill has been listening in on Oswald's conversations, when George de Mohrenschildt shows up.  They try to listen in on the conversation, but the two men go outside and they don't get to hear what happened.  Later, Bill tells Jake that George and Oswald are going to the Senator Walker rally, and so they show up at the rally as well to see what the two men are up to.  After the rally is over, Oswald confronts Walker and calls him a fascist and goes off on a rant, attacking the police officers, before being detained.  He yells out that he will kill them all, as Bill, Jake, and George all look on, as the episode comes to an end.
     I feel like they got a lot accomplished in this episode with the hour they had to squeeze it all into.  They set up Oswald to look like an unhinged, crazy person, while they made George out to look like he was setting this whole thing up so that Oswald will end up taking the fall.  Whether that is what plays out or not remains to be seen, but I think that is what makes it so good.  We are only getting pieces of the puzzle, but not the full picture yet, which will keep us guessing for the upcoming episodes.
     I also felt like there were some very strong scenes during the episode, and not a lot of wasted scenes that were just thrown in.  This makes each scene seem more important, and doesn't let us the viewer get lax in our viewing, as we need to make sure we are paying attention and not missing important details.  For example, the scene with Jake and Sadie, as he is starting to fall for her, and she in return, but we the viewer get to see that this is part of the plan to distract Jake and try to keep him from accomplishing his goals.  Similarly, there was a scene where the neighbors downstairs attacked Bill while Jake wasn't around, and stole the recording equipment, destroying some of their tapes.  This was another nod to the fact that the past isn't going to make this easy on Jake if he really wants to change the past.
     After three full episodes, I think I'm hooked and I really feel the need to find out what happens next.  I can tell that there are going to be many more twists and turns along the way, and I'm really excited to see it all play out.  I feel like the closer Jake gets to the day of the assassination, things are going to really start spiraling out of control, and I can't wait to see how he and Bill handle this, and try to adjust to not let the past keep them from doing what they have set out to do.

My rating for the episode is 8/10