Couch Potato: TWD and Some Movie Rentals

Return of the Prodigal Crossbow

Bridge of Spies & The Big Short

As usual, let' get some non-TWD viewing stuff out of the way first.

This weekend we rented Bridge of Spies. It was a well-made movie, and as a fan of period movies, I like how they tried to recreate the late 1950s in atmosphere and sensibility. It was a time when the Cold War felt like war. Tom Hanks delivered a good performance. All that said, I did not like the sense that I got from the movie - as if the director was saying - "look at how we were - shouldn't we be ashamed of how paranoid and militant we were?" That hits one of my pet peeves in historical entertainment, whether written or on-screen. I want the story to transport me to the era, and if any judgements are going to be made, I want to make them myself. Nothing is more annoying than having the author or director telling, or worse, manipulating, me into how I should judge people from the past. Specially, as in this case, actual historical (not fictional) people. So as a historical movie, I felt it failed.

Over at my favorite blog is a recommendation for another movie to rent: The Big Short. Let me quote from the reviewer, who calls it "a damn good movie":

About ten years ago some guys realized that the housing boom was about to go bust. Even worse, it was gonna take a bunch of big Wall Street banks down with it. So they figured out how to make a shitload of money off the destruction of the US economy.
And those are the good guys in the movie The Big Short.

Go read the whole thing and enjoy the movie clips as well.

TWD: "Twice As Far" equals twice the shock

What did you think of last night's episode "Twice As Far" of The Walking Dead? The basic set-up is that Dr. Denise (Tara's sweetheart) talks Daryl and Rosita (who, having been dumped by Abraham has now slept with Deanna's son whatsisname) into accompanying her on a run to see if a tiny pharmacy has medicines. Meanwhile Eugene has also talked Abraham into accompanying him on a different run to an unknown destination.
I'm too lazy to recap the whole episode so let's just skip to the spoilers and reactions which are below the jump.

Spoilers Ahoy!

I mean it - don't read if you haven't see the episode yet!
Denise learns and grows and winds out with an arrow head sticking out of her eye. Alas, Tara, you won't even here about this as you are on a two week run. Eugene saves the day with something even more "ew! I can't believe he bit that!" than Rick's famous throat-rip. Eugene recovers from a bullet graze, rewarded by a new respect from Abraham, the original soulless ginger. Carol helps Daryl bury Denise (who by the way had a twin brother Dennis who we are to assume is dead). Apparently this is the last metaphorical straw for Carol and she runs away from Alexandria in the night, leaving a note that basically says that she can't love anymore because loving means killing and she can't kill anymore. Daryl is on his bike with his newly recovered crossbow to go after her as soon as he finds out. The episode ends with the reminder that there are just two episodes left in the season.

What does this mean? I think it means we won't see Carol or Daryl until the season finale (they wouldn't leave them out of the season finale, would they?) We might not see Tara and the others with her until then too. I guess Carol needs to go on some kind of walkabout a la Morgan to regain her moral center. Speaking of Morgan, who do you think will end up in the nice little jail cell he just constructed?

Will the season finale be a showdown between Alexandria and the "We Are All Negan" Saviors or is that too predictable? Who will survive season 6?