Catching Up Again

So, here's some blurbs on things I've watched over the past, I don't know, while.

Will they make it?

I was afraid Fear The Walking Dead would turn into too much of an exploration of whys and hows of the zombie apocalypse, which is sort of contrary to the whole point of The Walking Dead. To my surprise, there was no real explanation of how this infection or whatever started. But we did start to see how civilization starts to break down and how fragile the bonds that keep us civil actually are to begin with. The minute survival is at stake and the shit hits the fan, it's a free for all. And no matter how much people try to hold on to social contracts, eventually, they will get pushed to a breaking point. How they come out of that breaking point will determine if they survive or not. I am excited to see this show continue since I have no idea where it will go next. Ruben Blades is the man, period. 

The Inbetweeners is a show from the UK about 4 boys in their late teens, dealing with being 4 boys in their late teens. It's funny as fuck and it's much more real than anything I've ever seen on the topic before. In a way it's a relative of Freaks and Geeks and Superbad, but British, which is somehow even better. Every episode makes me wish I wish a Brit more. They really do get the best cursing and turns of phrase. 

Brilliant.

I liked about 75% of Sons of Anarchy. I think it went too long and that finale was a fit of heavy handed, pretentious vomit. Still, there was enough interesting stuff in there that Kurt Sutter's next series seemed like it deserved a shot. But, The Bastard Executioner had me bored, angry and asleep within 30 minutes. It just comes across as the next in a long line of Not Game of Thrones shows. To be fair, Vikings, which I like a lot, is in that line. But Vikings got me with a historical perspective, interesting characters and, well, Lagertha, from the get go. Nothing like that in Bastard Executioner. No thanks.

Speaking of Sons of Anarchy, Hand of God on Amazon, starring Ron Perlman is a bizarre show about a judge who hears the voice of his brain dead son, giving him information about the people responsible for raping his daughter in law and thereby leading to said brain dead son to commit suicide. It's not very good, though. But I can't help but think that this is where Kurt Sutter would make this a good show. He'd find a way to take the over the top concept and situations and somehow make them so absurd they'd be more believable. There was potential here. 

Vikings Season 1: The Binge Begins

Once we were about 3 episodes in to the first season of Vikings, on Amazon Prime, my wife found out that the version we were watching was the edited American version, not the original from Canada. We were both instantly disappointed but too deep inside to turn back. If you watch it on The History Channel, you're seeing this version as well. So, less blood and no titties for us, I guess. We'll just have to double up on Game of Thrones.

This guy!

Anyway, the show is interesting because I guess it's supposed to be somewhat historically accurate, I mean it's on The History Channel, after all (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!) Seriously though, it seems accurate. Nobody's running around in a horned helmet or anything. Instead our main character, Ragnar (who reminds me of Charlie Hunam's Jax from Sons of Anarchy), is just a simple guy who dreams of more, because the fucking beautiful, vast land by the water and mountains that he lives on just isn't enough. So he defies his leader and sails west to discover/raid England for the first time. And that act changes the path of history. And of course as things get bigger they get more complicated. It's not quite Westeros, but it's still intriguing. 

There's something very weird about finding yourself in a position where you want to root for characters who are raiding and pillaging innocent people. It's easy to say they are reprehensible and the show doesn't pull (m)any punches in how it depicts their willingness to kill and otherwise terrorize the nameless peasants. But we spend so much time seeing their humanity that by the time we get to the raids, this is our team. At the same time, we're dealing with a society that is much less patriarchal than you'd think. Women go on raids with the men and can be warriors as well. This society does not treat them as property, though there are slaves and prostitutes and arranged marriages. But a strong woman is still honored and respected. And that leads to the best character on the show, by far: Ragnar's wife, Lagertha. I could give a few examples, but basically, she is not to be fucked with and at the end of the day, the main reason to watch the show. I suggest discovering for yourself if you haven't already. I'm late to the party, though, so no spoilers.

Do not fuck with her. 

The end of season 1 leaves us at a cliffhanger and a crossroads that I won't spoil. We have actually seen the first episode of the second season and can tell you that while that cliffhanger is resolved pretty quickly, the crossroads was very real and the show is headed in a very different direction for all the characters. In particular I sense huge things for Lagertha, which is fine with me. If we were in too deep by episode 3, there's absolutely no turning back now. I'm all in.