The Walking Dead mid season return - Did it win me back?

The Walking Dead lost me about 2 years ago. I still watched it because it is my sworn duty but I have to admit I fast-forwarded through most of the last few seasons. Why? Because I thought it was boring and had a case of the "Game of Thrones" disease. What is the Game of Thrones disease you ask? It is an ailment that plagues shows that should and could be extraordinary, but instead, are crowd pleasers without focus. Perhaps I am narrow minded, and if this blog ever proved anything, it's that I surely am, but I do not appreciate shows that follow a myriad of characters in twenty different locations. In my opinion, good shows have a character core and a home. That's it. I feel like The Walking Dead has been losing its focus in the past years and that's why I was fast-forwarding through the many side plot arcs. In the end, whole episodes totally seemed beside the point to me. My fault. I made a point of keeping away from the fast forward button for this mid season return. I lied, I fast forwarded the credits.

I think I made a point several posts ago that kids were the worst in apocalyptic situations and I think writers and directors alike love to taunt us with this. They find a sort of vicious pleasure in torturing us with stupid bloody kids all the time. They even ended a mid season finale with a kid being a mother fucking dumbass. That's how much they love it. This episode was basically an ode to the stupidness of children. Is it me or are kids the worst thing in this show? It's not just Sam and his moron brother, it's also Enid and Carl (back in the day). They're all such a liability, they always need a pep talk or they need to be protected or they become psychopaths. I guess this is super accurate to what teenagers and kids are in real life but I have to believe that in this screwed up world, there is at least one badass kid out there who can cope with this shit. A kid who said, fuck being a moody bastard, I am stepping up, taking karate lessons and I am going to survive this shit. I can't wait to meet this kid! When you see Rick and the group with the most children, you know. You know it is just a disaster waiting to happen. And it is! Sam, the most annoying kid on the planet is remembering what Carole said to him when she was trying to scare him. Of course. I am wondering at this point if it wouldn't be smarter to knock these kids out and carry them like little piggies. Sam clearly argued that he could keep going but of course he couldn't, he's a pussy. Talking about kids, when the priest puts Judith under his tarp, the most random thought crossed my mind - can you imagine having to do this with a cat or kitten under your poncho? This would be a nightmare, much like doing this with a baby. I would be dead in the apocalypse, dead trying to save all the animals and miserably failing.

So what happened with the adults in this episode? Well, they showed they rock! This episode was adults vs kids and we all know who won. They started this episode with Daryl kicking ass right left and center. There was so much tension and there were so many twists in the first scene, it was very well done. In that very short amount of time I was frustrated, amused, excited, scared and shocked. That was a great opening scene. I also very much enjoyed that bit of spirituality talk in the church where Glenn says "they're still here, because you're still here". I feel like apart from Daryl, Glenn is the character that grew the most in this show. At least in the right direction. He's such an awesome role model, I love him. I really hope he'll stick around for a little longer otherwise I will be super upset. Just like I was during that "Sam screws up - 10th Edition" scene. To me it's like watching a sports game and seeing my team lose. I just can't take it. It makes me so angry. That's why I have made the conscious decision of never being a fan of any team again. I guess that's why I have given up on The Walking Dead too. It's just too frustrating and I hate when things go sideways for characters that I like. I am a coward.

I loved that scene for so many other reasons too though. It was somewhat funny, if you have no empathy for kids whatsoever, like me. I also loved how it was very quick and surgical and you have to watch these people who are still standing and shocked and freaked out remain stoic and understanding that in this world, you cannot show emotion anymore. Survival depends on it and this scene is a great concrete representation of what this means. The pacing was great in this episode, obviously it is a mid season premiere so there's a lot of things going on and no time to slow down. However, something happened towards the end of this episode that made me go "YES! This is what I have been waiting for!". Everybody knows I am a fan of superhero movies, of people kicking ass and being powerful. I feel like The Walking Dead has been lacking this for a very long time. The group we are following are just letting the world happen to them and they're not really taking charge. In this episode, they did, in a massive and very uplifting way. Obviously, they were led there by badass motherfucking Rick. This is what I need from The Walking Dead, more badassery. More uplifting, powerful moments. "No one gets to clock out today". Hell yeah!

This is 4/5 cats because kids ruin everything.

Scare PewDiePie - Are people going to pay for this?

Have you watched the new PewDiePie show? It's on Youtube Red, as I am sure you are aware, and unless you have already subscribed to the service because you either are a super fan of one of the creators or a weirdo, then you might have just seen the free episode Level 7. What did you think of it?

Basically, the show is all about putting Pewds in "scary" situations and record him. That's about it. I would have totally been down for that! I love Pewds reactions to ANYTHING so I would have watched that for sure. However, as I started watching, two things appeared very clear to me:
1. Pewds was super out of his element and kind of awkward.
2. The show was really cheesy and non organic.

In Level 7, PewDiePie has to walk through a mental hospital floor. That seems to be a pretty great start. Again, what I found interesting is Pewds personality didn't shine as much as in his own Youtube videos. He was sort of reserved and weird, I wanted to give him a big hug. Then, a doctor appeared and you figure out that Pewds is not the only person featured in this show and most importantly, the show is scripted and Pewds doesn't seem to work well with that. I understand that this is mirroring a video game level so some sort of interaction with other characters does make sense and is necessary. I think the issue I had with it is just the way Pewds interacted with that world. I am so used to seeing him at ease and just doing his thing that it was sort of cringe worthy to see him so out of his element which awkwardly put him between a spontaneous situation and a scripted experience. I wouldn't pay just to see this show, I would much rather watch his current free videos on Youtube. What did you guys think? Did you think it was a great show? Did you see anything worth paying for on Youtube Red? Do you think that PewDiePie could have done a better job at this without a crew and writers and money?
Because Pewds will always be a cutie, I give his new show a 3 out of 5 cats! Love you Pewds. Hugs/Bro Fist!

The Witch - Salem's prequel

Good witch stories are hard to come by, as we saw with the Magicians! I quite liked the TV Show SALEM so this movie was right up my alley. I had heard quite a bit about The Witch before watching it. It was praised at several film festivals for a while now and I am glad I got to see it.

The first half of this movie, while being very creepy and dark focused mostly on this family who got banished from their New England village. You could believe that the time period chosen is cliche for a movie dealing with magic but I will always love seeing a historical background to a more supernatural premise. I feel like it anchors it in reality and makes it very believable. Having a huge passion for history and supernatural, this movie really pulled the right strings for me. It did help that the production design and costumes were absolutely stunning, I enjoyed the fact that they spent some time reflecting on the wilderness that America was when settlers from England arrived. You really understand the struggle and the anguish people must have felt when moving to this new and untamed part of the world. This is one of the reason, apart from religious fanaticism, that made people turn against each other. In any case, the viewer is graced with beautiful landscapes and scenery, really planting the decor for this story.

The characters in the Witch totally drew me in from the get go. Everybody's performance was outstanding, especially the children's. I found myself hating some characters within minutes and rooting for others in the same amount of time. I really cared about everybody's fate, whether I wanted them to die in agony or prevail. The fact that most of this movie is about a family's dynamic in this harsh environment is very interesting and makes the whole story so much more enticing. The casting was so good that the characters totally worked on every level. Catherine, the mom, was so creepy it was really easy to hate her. The dad was just cutting wood all the time, Once he looked like a half naked Jesus cutting wood. I felt like it was the way to relieve stress back in the day. There was no gym so I guess cutting wood was the next best thing! The twins were also the most annoying characters I have seen. I just wanted them to get slaughtered quickly. In this stressful, tensed and quiet environment, they were only a source of disturbance and cacophony. They also scarred and tortured that poor little goat and I hated that. Urgh those kids. Speaking of animals, there is a sweet little dog living with this crazy family and I tried to find whether the dog dies online and couldn't find any information. So I had to keep watching. Well, the dog dies, and I wish I'd known because I would have stopped watching. I fast forwarded through it though. I hate movies where animals are killed or in pain or anything similar to that. If you are like me, just don't watch The Witch. Thankfully, the body count was pretty high on the human side too so I was happy with the balance.

The music and sounds in this film are what really stood out for me. A good "horror" movie always needs to play with sound and silence smartly. I felt like they totally achieved that beautifully. There's not a lot of dialogue in the first part of the film and often there is no noise at all, which makes for a very eerie and uncomfortable atmosphere. I imagine this to be much like it was in that time period though. For me, it not only added to the creepy supernatural nature of the film, it added to the realism of the situation. If there was one tiny fault I was forced to find with this movie it would be the fact that the first 20 minutes were slightly confusing and left the viewer asking many questions. However, it totally hooked me so I am not sure it was a bad thing.
There are some very disturbing scenes in the Witch. One of which involved a nipple and a crow and boy, I had a hard time watching that! Everybody in this family basically went mad and I love how the magic is, as it is in most Salem related stories, a metaphor for settlers insecurities and paranoia induced by religious fanaticism and need for survival. Religion is bloody crazy, this is what I will take away from this film, The Witch is very much a focused use case for the Salem trials within the family nucleus. It left me wanting more and stay within the world and follow the rest of the main character's story. That's a job well done!

5/5 CATS!