TV Show - Hell on Wheels - "Two Soldiers" and "Return to the Garden"

Note:  Major spoilers incoming for the first two episodes of the last half of the final season of Hell on Wheels.  You have been warned.

     The moment I have been waiting for and sort of hoping would never come officially happened, and I don't know what my exact feelings are now that the deed is done.  I really thought (and still think) that this episode should have been saved for the series finale, but I understand why they wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way and start wrapping up all the other storylines.  I just feel like the tension they were going for would have felt much bigger if you didn't know if Cullen was going to come out of the episode as well as the Swede, but that part of the episode was just lacking for me.
     So, first we get some back story with Thor Gundersen, and get some extra explanation as to why he is what he is.  I don't know that it added a whole lot to the story other than to give you a little more pity towards Thor, despite all the terrible things he has done.  He has always been a complicated character, and I guess this did add to that, I just don't know if it was all that necessary to the big picture.  Next, we see what is going on at that Hatch farm, and we get to see the demise of Naomi's parents at the hands of Thor.  But before Thor can get to Naomi and William, Cullen shows up to save the day.
     Naomi and the baby run off to the woods, with Thor right behind them, and Cullen right behind him.  This leads to Cullen getting shot, and fighting the Swede in the river.  Cullen looks as if he is going to kill the Swede and then thinks better of it and instead decides to take him in so he can stand trial.  Cullen is still badly hurt, but he makes the journey anyway.
     There are some pretty good scenes along the way, as Thor and Cullen converse back and forth, and we really get the feeling that this battle between these two is finally going to come to an end.  Which is exactly why I thought that surely the Swede is going to get out of it, like he seems to always do.  But, that was not to be the case this time.  Cullen stands by as the Swede is hanged from the neck until he dies.  And with that, the best part of the show is no longer with us, and there are still six episodes to go.
     I felt that the episode was very strong, and it really felt more to me like how I envisioned the series coming to an end, but the decision to put it right in the middle of the final season just feels weird to me.  Like, I'm trying to think about what I look forward to at this point, and I can't figure out just what I want to see happen.  Do I want Cullen to go back to work for Durant and finish the railroad?  Do I want him to go be with his family and live happily?  I really don't know, so I guess I will have to let the show tell me over the course of the next six episodes.
     The next episode picks up with Cullen getting back to the Hatch homestead, where he discovers that Naomi has fallen in love with another man, and they have made vows to each other, as she thought that Cullen was gone for good.  He explains that he left the railroad and was trying to find her, but she says it is too late now.  He decides to help them go back to Brigham Young's community, and see if he will take them back in.
     We also get to see a little bit of what is going on with the rest of the cast, which feels like it has been forever since we have even seen them.  Eva is dreaming of something bigger than running the whore house in town, Mickey is looking to get out of the bar ownership business, and Durant is just trying to finish the railroad and be done with it.  Once again, not sure how much I care about the rest of the cast and where they end up, as the focus has been off of them so long now, that it almost feels like a completely different show when they are on screen.
     As Cullen and the others arrive at Brigham Young's community, he speaks with the Mormon leader and convinces him to take Naomi and her family in.  Brigham also tells Cullen that if he doesn't find love, he will die alone and a wretched thing.  Seems like some foreshadowing, but guess we will see about that.  Naomi decides to tell Cullen that she has been lying and wants him to take her away and they can be together.  However, this time, Cullen is the one that has decided that they would be better off without him, and so he tells his family goodbye and leaves to go back to the railroad.
     He arrives back at town, and everyone looks on at the returning Cullen, almost in disbelief that he has returned.  We also got a little bit of a look inside Mei's life since Cullen left and her father died.  She has been miserable, but when Cullen returns, she seems to light back up a bit.  She goes to his house and she disrobes and they look to do the business as the episode ends.
     I really just don't know what to say about this episode.  I felt like it was all over the place a bit, didn't really fit in with all the characters as we have come to know them, as they were all sort of going against their normal behavior.  Cullen spending all that time to get back to his family, Naomi saying that she wanted to be with him, and him just leaving was very strange to me.  Maybe best to have left it at her lying to him so he didn't know her true feelings, but I guess it was done to show that Cullen has lost pretty much everything and destroys everything he comes in contact with, as Thor told him, and as Brigham told him.  What does that mean for the railroad?  I assume he will still finish it, but maybe he won't quite get there either.  Seems like they are headed down a dark path for the ending to this series, and maybe Cullen is going to really lose everything by the end.  Sadly, I'm kind of interested, but at the same time, not sure if I really care anymore.  This show has been up and down for me over the years it's been on, so I guess it's fitting that it's going to do it all the way down to the wire.

My rating for the episodes are 7.5/10 and 6/10

Movie - Popstar:Never Stop Never Stopping

Note:  There may be minor spoilers throughout, but with a movie like this, does that matter that much anyway?  Anywho, you have been warned.

     I want to preface this with my love for the Lonely Island, which may cause at least some bias towards this movie.  But at the end of the day, this movie is really just the Lonely Island by a different name anyway, so if I didn't already like the Lonely Island, then I don't know that I would have even watched the movie to begin with.  And I'm guessing that most people that watch the movie are at least familiar with the group, so I would say that most people already have an opinion of the movie before they even walk into it.  That either works completely in the movie's favor, or completely against it, and I don't know that Andy Samberg and the boys would have it any other way.
     The premise of the movie is that there is a film crew following this fictitious band (by the name of Style Boyz), and chronicling the career of the one member that has gone solo after the band broke up (Conner4Real, played by Samberg).  The other two members are of course played by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, the other two members of Lonely Island.  The movie is basically making fun of all the music documentaries that have come out over the last several years, following around the likes of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.  The movie picks up right before the release of Conner's second album, where he has gone completely out on his own and is trying to do his own thing, which results in the album release being a total failure.  The movie then follows the fall of this once very popular artist as he tries to wrestle with failure, and tries to recapture the success he once had.
     The beauty of the movie is how accurate it feels to the source material it is making fun of, if not blown completely out of proportion to up the humor in the movie.  Lonely Island is known for taking absurd things and amping them up to an 11, and this movie is no different.  Conner and the other members of the Style Boyz are over the top characters, but at the same time, you can still relate to them in some of the things you see in real celebrities in the media these days.  The thing about Andy, Jorma, and Akiva is that they can see the absurd in things, but still find a way to make it relate to the average person that is watching the movie or listening to their music.
     As much as I enjoyed the movie, I also find it hard to think of who in my personal life I can actually recommend the movie to.  It's one of those types of movies that not everyone is going to get into, and so for me to go out and tell everyone they need to see it is just not something I can do.  If you have seen other things by the Lonely Island in the past and haven't enjoyed it, then there is nothing in Popstar that is going to change your mind.  Heck, even if you have enjoyed some things by Lonely Island in the past, this hour and a half trip into the minds of these three may be too much for most people.  I think the most likely people to enjoy the movie are those of us that have had some of their albums in the past, or enjoy over the top, raunchy comedies such as the Hangover movies or Bridesmaids. 
     Overall, the movie is a nice 90 minute escape from the daily routine to make fun of the ridiculousness of celebrity and the general public's seemingly obsession with people that we know nothing about.  It stays true to the source material it is making fun of, while providing their own specific brand of humor, and for that I applaud whoever green lit this movie knowing that it was going to only appeal to a certain group of people.  I like it when a movie knows what it wants to be, does it no matter what others are going to think, and then doesn't apologize for itself, and Popstar is exactly that.

My rating for the movie is 7/10