When it remembers how to rain around here, it does it up in style. We had heavy rains overnight on Sunday, and more again through the night last night. Badly needed. Maybe now I can stop watering the lawn.
I watched part 1 of The Walking Dead on Monday evening via OnDemand. I’m not a huge fan of zombies (though since I watched two zombie movies in two day, to an outsider that statement must look strange), but I think this one is a winner. Frank Darabont’s direction is excellent. After the opening prologue, and a blistering shootout scene, the story built up gradually as things were revealed a bit at a time to the protagonist. I was a little confused about how much time had elapsed. When he meets up with Morgan Jones (Lennie James from Jericho, who seems to end up in the post-apocalypse fairly often), he’s told that the outbreak has been underway for a month. Was he in a coma that long unattended? If so, how did he survive, both physically and from the zombies? That wound of his didn’t seem to bother him all that much after the first few minutes of the episode.
It’s always fun to see some of Darabont’s stable of players, like Jeffrey DeMunn and Laurie Holden, show up. I had lunch with Ms Holden during the filming of The Mist, along with a number of the other cast members, which was a memorable experience. I also watched one of the “making-of” clips via OnDemand and saw another familiar face: Greg Nicotero, special effects expert. David Schow took Rich Chizmar, Johnathon Schaech and me upstairs to the special effects workshop in Shreveport so we could see some of the creatures he was creating for The Mist, which was an incredible adventure.
The human dramas that are playing out in The Walking Dead are what will bring me back a second week. I certainly didn’t expect Rick’s wife and son to show up so soon, and in those circumstances. And the scenes in the streets of Atlanta were great—especially the swarming scene at the end. And whose voice was that over the radio in the tank?
Jerry Brown is the governor of California? Again? Governor Moonbeam! That’s a real blast from the past. And speaking of blasts, if you haven’t seen the George Takei video where he calls Clint McCance a douchebag, and not just once, you have to google it up.
Castle wasn’t as stunning as last week’s episode, but it featured a lot of good detective work and a pleasingly convoluted scenario. And didn’t Beckett look good when they went to the strip club? I see Wendy from CSI and Cameron from House were back on Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother respectively, though I think Charlie’s new girlfriend has run her course after meeting his personal stalker.
After Jacob Hale accuses Salazar of blackmailing him by recording their conversation on his iPhone, Salazar quips, “I got an app for that.” Apparently Sons of Anarchy also has a new app that allows people to access “appisodes” that explain some of SAMCRO’s backstory. It costs 99¢ and there are a number of complaints that it crashes on some configurations, so I have tried it out yet, but I may.
A lot has happened since SAMCRO got to Ireland, and yet not much has happened. They’re still looking for Abel. Everything else is just drama, a lot more than the gang expected when they got on the plane to fly overseas. I was surprised when nothing happened at the border crossing, as I was expecting more of the same, but Jimmie O had a different plan up his sleeve. Two of them, in fact. I hope that Laim O’Neill gets his comeuppance before this is all over. And Trinity springs into action to help defuse the situation when Jimmy O shows up in Belfast. As predicted, she and Jax are getting closer than they should, but at least Gemma is now aware of this potential problem. Question is, what will she do about it?
Back in Charming, Unser is starting to put two and two together to arrive at Jacob Hale as the source of his new problems, and he might have to start doing some real “coop shit,” as Tig so eloquently put it. So, Salazar has Jacob Hale in a bind, and now he’s got Tara and her boss Margaret, too. Surprise, surprise, Margaret has a gang tattoo on her back! Who saw that coming?
