Couch Potato: Seasons 2 of FTWD and Outlander, plus Wolf Hall & Mortdecai

wee Jaime Fraser on Amazon

Season 2 begins for Fear The Walking Dead and Outlander

Some non-FTWD couch potato stuff first: So season 2 of Outlander started this weekend as well. I'm not going to review or recap it mainly because I only happen to have Starz for free temporarily but not for long so I probably won't be able to watch all of season 2 until who knows when. But I will say that season 2 started out really strong, with a great way to keep viewers interested. Tobias Menzies once again shows what an incredible actor he is. Also, check out the little Jaime doll I found on the left - isn't it adorable?

This weekend I finished Season 1 of Wolf Hall, which is one of TV shows included in Amazon Prime. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it, since I remember the book to be rather grim, but I thought the TV series was really good, mostly because of Mark Rylance's excellent performance. He is able to portray Thomas Cromwell as this quiet, forbearing, patient, subtle, and loyal man, which makes him sound incredibly boring, but no. He's also deadly. I can't describe it, I just know I was completely on his side throughout the series.

We also watched Mortdecai, which is a heist farce starring Johnny Depp. It bombed at the box office, but we enjoyed it. If you liked Johnny English you'll probably like it too.

On to Fear The Walking Dead. SPOILERS AHOY!
(UPDATE: Some content added to the end)

LAST WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE YET!

Cruising in the Apolcalypse

Episode 1 of the second season of FTWD is titled Monster. It starts off right after the last episode of Season 1 ended, with Travis shooting his ex-wife in the head in an act of euthanasia since she has been bitten. They are on the beach and their son Chris is freaking out because his dad just shot his mom; also a horde of zombies has overrun the beach house and is closing in on them.

So they all have to scramble onto Strand's yacht, whilst fighting off some zombies. Chris refuses to leave his mom's body, so they bring her too. Apparently they leave a lot of supplies though, although that doesn't seem to matter though as Strand's yacht seems well-stocked. Strand himself stays mostly at the pilot's wheel, apparently not sleeping. The only person he seems to welcome is Nick, for reasons unclear. He tells Nick it's because he has the focus that will get him through the apocalypse, or something like that.

Strand also seems to be the only one who acts like they are in an apocalypse. All the other people on the boat are still in various phases of pre-apocalypse thinking. Which mostly translates to them moping around the yacht instead of kissing Strand's feet in gratitude for still being alive. These people - I'm not surprised that Strand is so grumpy. In fact I'm just curious about why he's keeping them around. Does he have some eviil plan when they reach San Diego, if that is where they are going. Just saying - Strand seems shady, doesn't he?

Meanwhile, mopey-pouty crew have been acting like toddlers in a kitchen that hasn't been child-proofed. They come across a boat full of people yelling for help, and Madison runs to Strand demanding that they help them. Strand basically rolls his eyes at her, and surprisingly, Travis agrees with him - helping these strangers would put his own family at risk. More pouting from Madison and from Alicia. Travis tells Alicia to monitor a CB radio to find out what's going on in the world, probably thinking that will keep Alicia busy and out of harm's way. Alicia managed to meet someone on the radio, a guy who says he and his brother & sister-in-law are on a leaky boat. They get friendly. Yeah, that's not risky at all, and she chattily shares a lot of stuff, including their location. "See you soon," says her mystery friend.

They hold an ocean funeral for the ex-wife and Travis says some nice things. Chris stomps over and rudely dumps her body into the sea then stomps off to a cabin. Travis chases after him and tries to comfort him, and Chris punches him, crying that if Travis had waited Chris could have done something. I feel bad for the ex, as I don't think anyone said a prayer for her during her funeral at sea. I would have thought Daniel or Ofelia could have said an Ave Maria or something.

Still in a snit, Chris jumps into the water while the rest of the crew are at lunch, dining on an eel that Daniel caught. They all freak out, and Nick jumps in after him to rescue him. Chris shrugs him off saying he's just going for a swim. Nick laughs and starts swimming around, only to meet a zombie underwater. It's from the boat they saw earlier, which is now an overturned, smoking husk, its passengers floating zombies.

Meanwhile, Strand sees a vessel approaching them fast on radar. He guesses that this may be whoever attacked the other boat. He tells everyone to get back on board.

End of episode.

What did you guys think? Do you have a character you love, or one you love to hate?

UPDATE: 

Kid the younger, a big TWD fan, wanted to add some thoughts:
Fashion - Nick needs a change of clothes. He is still wearing the clothes he swiped from the old guy in season 1. Both he and Chris needs haircuts. And for that matter everyone needs new outfits.
Supplies - the boat needs more weapons. Instead of alcohol, they should have guns in those cabinets.
Daniel is doing a good job. Everyone else is annoying, except maybe Strand, who had a good speech with his three rules.
Chris had a decent right hook too.
"Jack" is a nice name but Alicia has gotten them all into trouble by talking to him.
mom cant write so i had to revise this thing post, v bad before i saw it - very funny, kid.