I still haven’t gotten around to playing Season Two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, but I’ve been a bit busy/crazy lately. Now I’ll have even LESS time to get to it thanks to the second half of Season Four of the hit show popping up tomorrow. Thankfully, it’s not a long half-season, but on the other hand, I’d love it if shows didn’t split into halves where you wait around staring at a wall for months between episodes. I don’t like binge watching too much at all (I save it for shows that are dead and gone), but I do like regularity. I say feed prunes to the writing staff, cast and directors on all these shows so they can grasp the concept of a season starting up and not being over until we get a week to week set of shows without minding the gap.
Yeah, I’m talking to YOU, Mad Men (already shot and done as a series, but keeping us waiting what, a year more for those final shows? Yeesh. I don’t even think I’ll be interested when it kicks off again)…
February 9th isn’t far away at all, especially the way time flies these days. That first half of the season ended on a pretty wild note of highs and lows for the survivors, so it’ll be interesting to see where things go once the last bunch of episodes this season roll out. I’m still NOT a fan at all of shows splitting up into waiting times like this, but it seems to be the new “normal” despite the big breaks in time that drive folks like me batty. Still it’s better than what AMC is doing to the final season of Mad Men, spreading out those final episodes over TWO YEARS, meaning way too much waiting around for a series of resolutions that will already be ancient by the time viewers get to see them. Oh well…
*DING!DING!! DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!!* Translation: Since Gilligan IS the Skipper, he knows it all. Check out the man himself unboxing the gift that keeps on giving, one of the best shows on TV and yeah, you want it even if you’ve seen every episode multiple times and can run lines with the family pet (who wants to bit the heck out of your foot for making him watch all that TV when it wanted to catch up on naps and playing with your shoe). I think I need one of these. Or one for each hand. I’ll give the second one away as a gift, you know…
And not those of you who lounge around the house in your jammies chilling in front of football games until your arteries lock up. The Walking Dead is back for a fourth season and this one looks to be even more grin than previous ones. That’s a refresher on what happened last season below in case you’ve forgotten already. I don’t know about you, but after that Breaking Bad finale, Sundays have been DEAD in terms of good TV. OK, well, there are a few things I do watch, but yeah… Ol’ Walt is definitely missed!
ONE: Jesse Pinkman speeding away in that El Camino. Like many viewers, I figured he was going to find his son, Brock and spend some quality time with the kid now that he’s been orphaned since that penultimate episode’s shocking scene. But, noooo... it looks as if he’s speeding off to Hollywood for an ill-advised detour (which might not be the best idea if you know how crappy video game movies usually turn out).
TWO: Walt had to die at the end (of course), but if you read between the lines, it’s a great possibility he also got some minor redemption in the eyes of his son, Flynn. I thought of a sort of coda scene with Junior at home with Skyler in front of the TV watching the news and seeing that Walt had been killed in a shootout with those drug dealers and as soon as the car Walt rigged up with that M60 appeared on screen, Flynn knowing what went down. The news would also mention that Hank’s body was found thanks to a mysterious phone tip and here, I could see Skyler and Flynn hugging it out with a few hankies. Of the more amusing bits through the last few episodes, his revenge on Lydia was probably the ultimate against someone who was even more evil than he was. She tried to have his family killed by Todd and the gang, but Todd respected Walt for teaching him to cook, thus that scene in the previous episode where only a warning was delivered…
If you’ve seen every episode, you know that some of Walt’s plans that went wrong really saved his bacon because they failed and didn’t get him into even more danger with assorted people who’d have killed him without half a word. This was a MUCH longer post, but I lost a chunk through a tappy accident before I could save. yeah, I fat-fingered a delete, folks. That’s actually a good thing, as anyone who hasn’t seen Breaking Bad yet needs to do so from the beginning just to watch all the pieces fall into place during the five seasons the show aired. Vince Gilligan and his writers COULD have ended the show after the fourth season and it would have been just “good”, but VERY unsatisfying. Thankfully, Gilligan and his corner-painters extraordinaire were able to blow fans away with a perfectly powerful final season that’s going to resonate for years to come. TV writers, you’re ALL on notice, no matter what you’re working on, is all I’ll say…
OK, I don’t own a DVR here, so I’m going to be playing catch up this week with a LOT of stuff. I’m sticking with Breaking Bad and Talking Bad tonight (both are extended shows and will take up the better part of tonight), but it’s also the night that Showtime’s Homeland kicks off its third season followed by the premiere of Masters of Sex (still a coin toss as to whether or not I’ll commit to another new show). Meanwhile, on HBO… the awesome and hilariously outrageous Eastbound and Down is back from the “dead” for one final go-round on HBO, followed by Hey Ladies (which I currently don’t watch). TCM has a couple of Hitchcock flicks running all day until midnight, but as I’ve seen them all a few times, it’s all about AMC tonight. THANKFULLY, I’m not a sports fan or a network TV viewer or my poor little head will explode.
OK, back later… probably not until after midnight when I’m through processing the chaos BB is no doubt going to end on… whee.
If you’re lucky enough to live in and around New York City and have been to the Museum of the Moving Image any time since July 26th, you’re probably more than aware that there’s been a very cool exhibit based around AMC’s Breaking Bad that’s running until October 27th, 2013.
Those in the know about this also know about tomorrow’s really special viewing party for the show’s final episode that’s going to draw in BB fans and toy collectors thanks to the fine folks and AMC teaming up with Mezco Toyz. Tomorrow’s events include a raffle of some of Mezco’s popular Walter White action figures with the already sold-out screening.
Details below the jump. If you’re interested you can most likely pop into the museum to see the exhibits but not the screening unless you’ve got a ticket from somewhere or someone. Fat chance on that happening at this late date, but a bag of blue can get you anything I hear…
Ha! I’m still alive, folks. I was glued to a few other projects today, so updates have been nonexistent. That and I was sort of saving up my strength for tonight’s penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, which thankfully is supposed to be 75 minutes long (as is the final episode). I figured a few of the final eight shows would be a tad longer thanks to so much that needed to be wrapped up, so I’m happy to see the end rushing up and having enough room to breathe as things come to a close (even though a bunch of characters won’t be breathing when that final episode ends). Speaking on endings… Poor Dexter is going out with a confusing whimper with a terrible final season packed with too many characters, silly plot twists and (I can’t believe I’m saying this), TOO many killers in a truly confusing mess that seems to be every idea tossed into a big bowl, stirred around and dumped in front of the cameras. Bleh.
I still have the new season of Boardwalk Empire to catch up on, but I’m holding out until Breaking Bad is all done with. Thank goodness for HBO on Demand and what’s hopefully going to be a slow Saturday night in about two weeks…
Just a friendly reminder that The Walking Dead kicks off Season 4 on October 12, 2013. If you’d like to give yourself a mild heart attack before that day and you’re in the NYC area, feel free to check out The Walking Dead Escape, the LIVE event where you can be a Survivor or Walker as you either try to make it through a tricky obstacle course or try to stop people from doing so.
As awesome as that latter event sounds… I won’t be attending, as I value my life too much to be trampled to death by some screaming fans. However, YOU can register and step up to the plate and have the time of your life. Have fun if you do go and if you’re a Walker, don’t even think of wearing that makeup job you get on the subway or anywhere else in the city. We’re crazy enough here without having to get freaked out by some grinning tourist dressed as a zombie. And you don’t want to run into a crazed homeless guy who thinks it’s the “REAL” zombie apocalypse and decides to do you in with that shopping cart he’s pushing around (ouch!)…
Well, it may be DOOM! for Breaking Bad on AMC, but everyone’s favorite legal eagle, Saul Goodman will get a second shot at life when all is said and done. AMC’s PR department dropped this short note around to a bunch of entertainment sites to-day:
AMC and Sony Pictures Television confirmed today that they have reached a licensing agreement for a spinoff of Vince Gilligan’s landmark AMC/SPT series Breaking Bad. As conceived, the new series is based on the show’s popular Saul Goodman character with the working title Better Call Saul. Plans call for Saul to be a one-hour prequel that will focus on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman character before he ever became Walter White’s lawyer.
Which means that there’s a good chance this show will be popping up sooner than later. As it’s a prequel, there’s that very tantalizing element here that perhaps ol’ Saul won’t be around when that Breaking Bad finale rolls around, but I won’t even start speculating about that here. However, I will say that I guess this was going to happen during Sunday’s show when Saul’s early entry at the car wash led to he and Walt talking shop with a HUGE billboard for Goodman’s law firm in the background that tied in nicely to the very funny fake site AMC put up recently. As long as Bob Odenkirk stays healthy and stays away from sinking cruise ships, air shows with faulty planes, auto races on bad days, slippery bathtubs, angry pets, well-armed ladies of the evening or other modern hazards, I predict this quirky show will be a winner once the pilot gets done and screened.
And yes, the title of this post refers to this being “old” news already even though it’s only a few hours fresh. I’d have posted it sooner, but I was working on a review and running a virus scan. Ah well… Not the first, but the most entertaining is my motto (today at least. For another hour or two at best)…
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 