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
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Sunday, March 6, 2016
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
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
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
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
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
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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
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
Monday, February 29, 2016
TV Show - The Walking Dead - "Knots Untie"
Note: Major spoilers for the episode of The Walking Dead, you have been warned.
This week's episode was a bit of a slower walk than the last few episodes, but it really took the time to set up several new things, and have set some wheels into motion that certainly do not bode well for the group. The episode starts off with Abraham and Sasha talking, as they come back from patrol. Sasha says that Eugene is going to be going on the patrols with Abraham moving forward, and that Sasha is going to be going on watch tower duty. Abraham doesn't take this news very well, but he doesn't say anything. They show a flashback of Abraham and Rosita together, which will be a bit of a common theme throughout the episode as we see Abraham dealing with conflicting issues about whether or not he wants to have a relationship. I personally see this as a way of setting Abraham up to be taken off the show soon, but I guess we will find out about that later.
Next, we see Jesus talking to Rick and the group about how he lives in a similar community, and how he wants to work out a deal to trade between the communities. He says there are several other communities that are doing the same thing, and that the people of Alexandria are about to be opened to a whole new world. Rick and some of the others agree to go with Jesus to his community to see what the deal is.
On the way, they find a car wreck, and four survivors that are hiding out in a store nearby. We find out that one of them is a doctor, an OB-GYN doctor by coincidence, and so Maggie and Glen are hoping that he can provide care to Maggie during her pregnancy. After they arrive at the community, named Hilltop, the group finds out that this place is successfully growing crops and raising cattle. We also get to meet the leader of the community, a man by the name of Gregory. It's apparent rather quickly that this guy is just a leader by name, and that he is really not a very good leader and his people just fall in line because they don't know any better. Maggie talks to Gregory at Rick's request, and Gregory says they are willing to help out, if the people of Alexandria are willing to work for it.
A group of members of the Hilltop community return from a run, and a few members are missing from their group. Gregory asks where the others are, and one of the men says that Negan has taken his brother hostage, and would leave him alive only if he delivered a message to Gregory. He then stabs Gregory, and Rick and the group move into action to stop the attack. Rick ends up killing the man that stabbed Gregory, and the people of the community don't really know what to think of what has just happened. Jesus steps in and talks both sides down, and Jesus says that the situation is complicated and he will need time to explain everything.
We then find out that Negan came and killed one member of the community, a 16 year old boy, and demanded that they give half of all of their supplies, and in exchange, Negan and his Saviors would not attack the town. Rick and his group can't believe that they would just give in like that, but Hilltop doesn't have any fighters, outside of Jesus, and so they just gave in instead of fighting back. Rick says that they will go and kill Negan, in exchange for the supplies they were asking for. Maggie then goes in and works out a deal with Gregory, and he agrees. The end of the episode sees the group going off to find Negan's compound and fight Negan and his Saviors.
Considering the slower pace of the episode in comparison to some of the recent episodes, I still felt like it kept pace enough to not get boring, and to really introduce a lot of new aspects to the show. I feel like they spent a lot of time focusing on Abraham and Glen, and the emotions they are currently going through, which leads me to believe that something bad is on the horizon for one or both of them. Knowing how the comics play out a bit, I do know that something bad is coming sooner rather than later, but I do think they will stretch that particular sequence out until the season finale, so I wonder just what could happen between now and then.
Maybe this is all misdirection by the showrunners, as they know that a lot of people are aware of something bad happening very soon, and so they are trying to keep everyone guessing. There has been lots of speculation as to how this whole thing is going to play out, and so my guess is that they are going to play along all the way up until the moment happens. It's also possible that they are putting a lot of stuff out there to see how the fans react, and then make changes accordingly.
I guess we will just have to wait a few more weeks to find out all the answers, but the tone of the show has definitely gone from being hopeful and optimistic in the last few weeks to a more somber mood. I knew it wouldn't last long, but I guess it was good for the group to catch a breather for a few episodes before things go from bad to worse. And it looks like that change is going to be coming all to soon for the group.
My rating for the episode is 7/10
This week's episode was a bit of a slower walk than the last few episodes, but it really took the time to set up several new things, and have set some wheels into motion that certainly do not bode well for the group. The episode starts off with Abraham and Sasha talking, as they come back from patrol. Sasha says that Eugene is going to be going on the patrols with Abraham moving forward, and that Sasha is going to be going on watch tower duty. Abraham doesn't take this news very well, but he doesn't say anything. They show a flashback of Abraham and Rosita together, which will be a bit of a common theme throughout the episode as we see Abraham dealing with conflicting issues about whether or not he wants to have a relationship. I personally see this as a way of setting Abraham up to be taken off the show soon, but I guess we will find out about that later.
Next, we see Jesus talking to Rick and the group about how he lives in a similar community, and how he wants to work out a deal to trade between the communities. He says there are several other communities that are doing the same thing, and that the people of Alexandria are about to be opened to a whole new world. Rick and some of the others agree to go with Jesus to his community to see what the deal is.
On the way, they find a car wreck, and four survivors that are hiding out in a store nearby. We find out that one of them is a doctor, an OB-GYN doctor by coincidence, and so Maggie and Glen are hoping that he can provide care to Maggie during her pregnancy. After they arrive at the community, named Hilltop, the group finds out that this place is successfully growing crops and raising cattle. We also get to meet the leader of the community, a man by the name of Gregory. It's apparent rather quickly that this guy is just a leader by name, and that he is really not a very good leader and his people just fall in line because they don't know any better. Maggie talks to Gregory at Rick's request, and Gregory says they are willing to help out, if the people of Alexandria are willing to work for it.
A group of members of the Hilltop community return from a run, and a few members are missing from their group. Gregory asks where the others are, and one of the men says that Negan has taken his brother hostage, and would leave him alive only if he delivered a message to Gregory. He then stabs Gregory, and Rick and the group move into action to stop the attack. Rick ends up killing the man that stabbed Gregory, and the people of the community don't really know what to think of what has just happened. Jesus steps in and talks both sides down, and Jesus says that the situation is complicated and he will need time to explain everything.
We then find out that Negan came and killed one member of the community, a 16 year old boy, and demanded that they give half of all of their supplies, and in exchange, Negan and his Saviors would not attack the town. Rick and his group can't believe that they would just give in like that, but Hilltop doesn't have any fighters, outside of Jesus, and so they just gave in instead of fighting back. Rick says that they will go and kill Negan, in exchange for the supplies they were asking for. Maggie then goes in and works out a deal with Gregory, and he agrees. The end of the episode sees the group going off to find Negan's compound and fight Negan and his Saviors.
Considering the slower pace of the episode in comparison to some of the recent episodes, I still felt like it kept pace enough to not get boring, and to really introduce a lot of new aspects to the show. I feel like they spent a lot of time focusing on Abraham and Glen, and the emotions they are currently going through, which leads me to believe that something bad is on the horizon for one or both of them. Knowing how the comics play out a bit, I do know that something bad is coming sooner rather than later, but I do think they will stretch that particular sequence out until the season finale, so I wonder just what could happen between now and then.
Maybe this is all misdirection by the showrunners, as they know that a lot of people are aware of something bad happening very soon, and so they are trying to keep everyone guessing. There has been lots of speculation as to how this whole thing is going to play out, and so my guess is that they are going to play along all the way up until the moment happens. It's also possible that they are putting a lot of stuff out there to see how the fans react, and then make changes accordingly.
I guess we will just have to wait a few more weeks to find out all the answers, but the tone of the show has definitely gone from being hopeful and optimistic in the last few weeks to a more somber mood. I knew it wouldn't last long, but I guess it was good for the group to catch a breather for a few episodes before things go from bad to worse. And it looks like that change is going to be coming all to soon for the group.
My rating for the episode is 7/10
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Video Game - Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC
Rise of the Tomb Raider is the sequel to 2013 reimagining of the original Tomb Raider games, which was named simply Tomb Raider. I played through most of the 2013 game on the PS3, and while I thought the game was very good, both from a story perspective as well as a gameplay perspective, I still felt like something was missing. I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time, but whatever it was, it did result in me never finishing the first game. And so I went into the sequel with a little bit of hesitancy, as I was afraid that I would end up in the same boat, and would not finish it. After about a month of playing, I have now finished the game, and have actually completed it at 100%. Whatever it was that was missing from the first game was completely erased by the creators, and I felt myself compelled to finish up all the side quests just as much as I was compelled to finish up the main story line as well.
First off, the story is excellent. This game picks up some time after the events in the first game, and we find Lara and her friend Jonah heading up a mountain, looking for an artifact that Lara's father was looking for before he died. This intro works as both a beautiful landscape and introduction to the story, and also a tutorial on how to use Lara's abilities. There more than a few moments that I found myself holding my breath as Lara makes her treacherous climb to the top of the mountain. The way that the game designers laid out this intro was amazing, and I was hooked in right away.
After the climb goes terribly wrong, and Lara gets separated from her friend, we get some more of the backstory. It turns out that Lara's father was searching for this artifact, and it ruined his career, as what he was looking for essentially amounted to the fountain of youth, and so nobody believed that it existed. He continued to pursue it, even up to the point that it appears he took his own life, after running his family name and his career. Lara goes in search of the artifact because she believed in her father, and also wants to clear his name. I will not ruin any more of the story, but it takes many twists and turns along the way, and plays out like a well written movie, not the typical writing you get from a video game. The voice acting for all of the actors was very well done, which really added to the overall presentation of the game.
Next, I want to talk about the gameplay. Every aspect of the first game that I can recall was improved on and worked out to near perfection. There were a handful of times that I would try to do something, and the controls would cause me to fall to my death, or would maybe not quite land on the ledge I was trying to get to, but these moments were few and far between, and normally I found Lara doing exactly what I wanted her to do. I also thought that the actual fighting (the bow and arrow, and the guns) was well improved from the first game. I found it rather easy to switch out between the different weapons on the fly, and to then aim my weapons at either the bad guys or the various objects around the landscape.
There is plenty of side quests and additional items that you can obtain along the way as well. The map layout was very well done and it was almost always easy to see just how much of an area I hadn't completed yet. If you missed things from a previous section, it was also easy, via the Fast Travel from the various campsites, to go back and pick up the things you missed. There were a handful of puzzles along the way that were a bit tricky or hard to see what to do at first, but this only added to the satisfaction upon completion of the puzzles, and you would get a worthwhile reward at the end, through upgrades that made Lara's journey a bit easier.
I think my play through with 100% completed was somewhere between 30-35 hours. To just play through the story itself, you could probably completed it all around 15-20 hours. Pretty satisfying amount of gameplay from a mainstream, $60 game, and I would say that Rise of the Tomb Raider was worth every penny. I even find myself wanting more now that I have finished it, and I will likely be looking into the DLC that is available for the game, which is something I normally don't do. The only complaint I have at this point is that I will likely have to wait 2-3 more years for the next one. But if the next one is even half as good as this one was, it will be well worth the wait.
My rating for Rise of the Tomb Raider is 9.5/10
First off, the story is excellent. This game picks up some time after the events in the first game, and we find Lara and her friend Jonah heading up a mountain, looking for an artifact that Lara's father was looking for before he died. This intro works as both a beautiful landscape and introduction to the story, and also a tutorial on how to use Lara's abilities. There more than a few moments that I found myself holding my breath as Lara makes her treacherous climb to the top of the mountain. The way that the game designers laid out this intro was amazing, and I was hooked in right away.
After the climb goes terribly wrong, and Lara gets separated from her friend, we get some more of the backstory. It turns out that Lara's father was searching for this artifact, and it ruined his career, as what he was looking for essentially amounted to the fountain of youth, and so nobody believed that it existed. He continued to pursue it, even up to the point that it appears he took his own life, after running his family name and his career. Lara goes in search of the artifact because she believed in her father, and also wants to clear his name. I will not ruin any more of the story, but it takes many twists and turns along the way, and plays out like a well written movie, not the typical writing you get from a video game. The voice acting for all of the actors was very well done, which really added to the overall presentation of the game.
Next, I want to talk about the gameplay. Every aspect of the first game that I can recall was improved on and worked out to near perfection. There were a handful of times that I would try to do something, and the controls would cause me to fall to my death, or would maybe not quite land on the ledge I was trying to get to, but these moments were few and far between, and normally I found Lara doing exactly what I wanted her to do. I also thought that the actual fighting (the bow and arrow, and the guns) was well improved from the first game. I found it rather easy to switch out between the different weapons on the fly, and to then aim my weapons at either the bad guys or the various objects around the landscape.
There is plenty of side quests and additional items that you can obtain along the way as well. The map layout was very well done and it was almost always easy to see just how much of an area I hadn't completed yet. If you missed things from a previous section, it was also easy, via the Fast Travel from the various campsites, to go back and pick up the things you missed. There were a handful of puzzles along the way that were a bit tricky or hard to see what to do at first, but this only added to the satisfaction upon completion of the puzzles, and you would get a worthwhile reward at the end, through upgrades that made Lara's journey a bit easier.
I think my play through with 100% completed was somewhere between 30-35 hours. To just play through the story itself, you could probably completed it all around 15-20 hours. Pretty satisfying amount of gameplay from a mainstream, $60 game, and I would say that Rise of the Tomb Raider was worth every penny. I even find myself wanting more now that I have finished it, and I will likely be looking into the DLC that is available for the game, which is something I normally don't do. The only complaint I have at this point is that I will likely have to wait 2-3 more years for the next one. But if the next one is even half as good as this one was, it will be well worth the wait.
My rating for Rise of the Tomb Raider is 9.5/10
Friday, February 26, 2016
TV Show - Better Call Saul - "Cobbler"
Note: Major spoilers for the Better Call Saul season 2 episode "Cobbler", you have been warned.
Despite the fact that I think the show has started off to a bit of a slow start for its sophomore season, I still find myself being sucked into the anxiously waiting to see what happens next scenario. I don't know if it is my deep admiration for Breaking Bad, and knowing that there are likely big things on the horizon, or if it is just that the way the show is written is supposed to make me feel that way. This week's episode certainly ended on a high note, and there were several very good scenes throughout the course of the episode, but I still felt like a lot of the time, I just wanted the episode to get to the point already.
The episode starts with Chuck in his house, still with all the electrical items turned off around his house, and he is trying to play the piano. After his boss shows up to tell him that Jimmy has taken on a job at the other firm, Chuck clearly doesn't take the news well, and it appears that he has decided to leave the house and go in to work to see Jimmy at the meeting between the two firms that happens later in the show. I felt that this scene was pretty good at continuing to develop Chuck. I feel bad for him half the time, but it sure feels that he is going out of his way to make sure that Jimmy doesn't succeed. He is a very interesting character, as I don't know if I should like him or hate him.
Next we see Pryce showing up at the police station to further discuss his missing baseball cards, and Mike sees him come in. Mike tells him that the police are just trying to set him up to confess to the drugs that he was hiding in his house, but Pryce doesn't believe him. Mike says he will take care of it and will find the missing baseball cards, and Pryce reluctantly agrees. Mike then goes to Nacho's place of business (his dad's auto body shop), and tells Nacho that if he doesn't return the baseball cards, he is going to tell his uncle Tuco that he has been doing side business, and Nacho decides that the wrath of Tuco is not worth the trouble, and so he says he will return them after hearing Mike's offer (more on that later).
We then go to the meeting between the two firms, and everyone is surprised to see Chuck show up. After the meeting, Chuck tries to talk to Jimmy, but Jimmy really doesn't want anything to do with him. They have a brief conversation, and then Jimmy leaves. It is very clear in this scene that Chuck is being nothing more than an instigator, and it is eating at Jimmy that his brother would only come out to (hopefully) see him fail. I still think that the dynamic between the two and whether or not Chuck is really out to sabotage him or if he genuinely is hoping that Jimmy will just come into his own and prove him wrong. I think it is the former, but I guess only time will tell.
Nacho, Mike, and Pryce all show up at the normal meeting spot, and Pryce gets his baseball cards back. In exchange, he has to give up his yellow Hummer, which Nacho is planning on breaking down for scrap, and so he is making a good profit off of the deal. Afterwards, Mike tells Pryce that he is going to need to go to the police station to tell them he found his baseball cards, but first he calls Jimmy to go to the police station with him.
To get the cops to accept that Pryce found his cards and can drop the case, Jimmy tells them that what he was really hiding was some sexual fetish videos that he had made. This is a big whopper, but it reminds me of some of the excuses that we saw Saul Goodman make in Breaking Bad, where he just goes so over the top, that its hard to question him on it. To take this even further, he actually has Pryce make one of his "squat cobbler" videos to show to the cops so that they won't think he's making it up.
At the end of the episode, Jimmy and Kim are eating pie (yes, the ones he bought to make the video with, but these were the "untouched" pies). Jimmy relays the story to Kim, and she gets visibly up when she finds out that he fabricated evidence (the video he made), and tells him that he could lose his license to practice for doing something so stupid. She says that she doesn't want to ever hear about anything like that again, and he says, "Don't worry, you won't ever hear about it again." We all take this as he just isn't going to tell her about it when he does it again, as opposed to realizing that what he did was stupid and not doing it again.
As I said above, I felt that the episode was a better than last weeks, but I was still hoping for it to pick up pace a little more. There is still a long ways to go in the season, so I'm sure that it will pick up a bit in the next few episodes, but I just keeping waiting for something big to open up, and it just hasn't happened yet.
There were several very strong scenes in the episode. When Mike goes to visit Nacho at the auto body shop, I think this was one of the better scenes in the series so far. Mike just adds something extra to all the scenes he is in, just as he did in Breaking Bad. The other scene is the end scene with Jimmy and Kim. The way it goes from all fun and games to being so serious, it was a very well filmed scene and really reminds me just why I started liking the show to begin with, and Breaking Bad before it. The writing is just so well done, and the way these scenes are filmed, they just suck you in and make you hungry for more.
My rating for the episode is 7/10
Despite the fact that I think the show has started off to a bit of a slow start for its sophomore season, I still find myself being sucked into the anxiously waiting to see what happens next scenario. I don't know if it is my deep admiration for Breaking Bad, and knowing that there are likely big things on the horizon, or if it is just that the way the show is written is supposed to make me feel that way. This week's episode certainly ended on a high note, and there were several very good scenes throughout the course of the episode, but I still felt like a lot of the time, I just wanted the episode to get to the point already.
The episode starts with Chuck in his house, still with all the electrical items turned off around his house, and he is trying to play the piano. After his boss shows up to tell him that Jimmy has taken on a job at the other firm, Chuck clearly doesn't take the news well, and it appears that he has decided to leave the house and go in to work to see Jimmy at the meeting between the two firms that happens later in the show. I felt that this scene was pretty good at continuing to develop Chuck. I feel bad for him half the time, but it sure feels that he is going out of his way to make sure that Jimmy doesn't succeed. He is a very interesting character, as I don't know if I should like him or hate him.
Next we see Pryce showing up at the police station to further discuss his missing baseball cards, and Mike sees him come in. Mike tells him that the police are just trying to set him up to confess to the drugs that he was hiding in his house, but Pryce doesn't believe him. Mike says he will take care of it and will find the missing baseball cards, and Pryce reluctantly agrees. Mike then goes to Nacho's place of business (his dad's auto body shop), and tells Nacho that if he doesn't return the baseball cards, he is going to tell his uncle Tuco that he has been doing side business, and Nacho decides that the wrath of Tuco is not worth the trouble, and so he says he will return them after hearing Mike's offer (more on that later).
We then go to the meeting between the two firms, and everyone is surprised to see Chuck show up. After the meeting, Chuck tries to talk to Jimmy, but Jimmy really doesn't want anything to do with him. They have a brief conversation, and then Jimmy leaves. It is very clear in this scene that Chuck is being nothing more than an instigator, and it is eating at Jimmy that his brother would only come out to (hopefully) see him fail. I still think that the dynamic between the two and whether or not Chuck is really out to sabotage him or if he genuinely is hoping that Jimmy will just come into his own and prove him wrong. I think it is the former, but I guess only time will tell.
Nacho, Mike, and Pryce all show up at the normal meeting spot, and Pryce gets his baseball cards back. In exchange, he has to give up his yellow Hummer, which Nacho is planning on breaking down for scrap, and so he is making a good profit off of the deal. Afterwards, Mike tells Pryce that he is going to need to go to the police station to tell them he found his baseball cards, but first he calls Jimmy to go to the police station with him.
To get the cops to accept that Pryce found his cards and can drop the case, Jimmy tells them that what he was really hiding was some sexual fetish videos that he had made. This is a big whopper, but it reminds me of some of the excuses that we saw Saul Goodman make in Breaking Bad, where he just goes so over the top, that its hard to question him on it. To take this even further, he actually has Pryce make one of his "squat cobbler" videos to show to the cops so that they won't think he's making it up.
At the end of the episode, Jimmy and Kim are eating pie (yes, the ones he bought to make the video with, but these were the "untouched" pies). Jimmy relays the story to Kim, and she gets visibly up when she finds out that he fabricated evidence (the video he made), and tells him that he could lose his license to practice for doing something so stupid. She says that she doesn't want to ever hear about anything like that again, and he says, "Don't worry, you won't ever hear about it again." We all take this as he just isn't going to tell her about it when he does it again, as opposed to realizing that what he did was stupid and not doing it again.
As I said above, I felt that the episode was a better than last weeks, but I was still hoping for it to pick up pace a little more. There is still a long ways to go in the season, so I'm sure that it will pick up a bit in the next few episodes, but I just keeping waiting for something big to open up, and it just hasn't happened yet.
There were several very strong scenes in the episode. When Mike goes to visit Nacho at the auto body shop, I think this was one of the better scenes in the series so far. Mike just adds something extra to all the scenes he is in, just as he did in Breaking Bad. The other scene is the end scene with Jimmy and Kim. The way it goes from all fun and games to being so serious, it was a very well filmed scene and really reminds me just why I started liking the show to begin with, and Breaking Bad before it. The writing is just so well done, and the way these scenes are filmed, they just suck you in and make you hungry for more.
My rating for the episode is 7/10
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