Author Archives: Victoria Nyquist
The Year of the Worst Series Finales
Fair warning: spoilers.
Series finales are always bittersweet. It means that a beloved show is coming to an end but now we don’t have to suffer all of those emotional traumas. Generally, series finales tend to be great masterpieces that tie all loose ends. This year, on the other hand, we were presented with rushed and just down right disappointing series finales. It seemed like as each show ended, you’d hear someone on the Internet commenting, “well this beats [insert show that recently ended] for worst finale ever”
Dexter
I’m going to get this one out of the way. I have not watched this show, but I plan on watching it one day. I’m not going to go into why it was terrible in fear that it will ruin something from the first four seasons. That’s when you’re supposed to stop watching Dexter, right?
The Colbert Rapport: Will He Last on CBS?
Ever since 2005, Stephen Colbert has been ruling late night television on Comedy Central. Next year he will be leaving his post after ten years to take over for David Letterman on Late Show. This is a drastic change for Colbert, whose current show is a satirical version of The O’Reilly Factor. Will his current rapport with his audience get in the way of his success as himself on CBS?
Letterman announced his departure not even two months after Jimmy had taken over for Leno. I cannot say that I was surprised that by Letterman’s retirement. Everyone knew Fallon was going to be some serious competition. Fallon is more relevant and appealing to the precious 18-49 audience. He has a social media savviness that Letterman doesn’t have. So when Letterman “unexpectedly” announced his retirement, CBS needed a host that would supersede Jimmy’s popularity. Colbert already has a large and loyal audience from his show on Comedy Central, which make him a very good choice for Late Show.
The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale Review
Last night’s season finale of The Walking Dead left everyone feeling impatient for the next episode. Full of intense drama, fans of the show have to wait a grueling seven months until the next episode. All of the pieces were laid down since the beginning of the season, and put most of them together last night. There are still some things that need to be answered. Most notably, where are Carol, Tyreese and Beth? The finale proved that season four certainly made up for season two.
The episode seemed to reinforce the concept that people are the real enemy during a zombie apocalypse. We see Rick, Michonne and Carl avoiding walkers, but the only time their lives were in danger was when other people were involved. First, we see Daryl’s new group of friends finding Rick. Fans like myself were right in figuring out that they are the group from the comics called “The Hunters”. They are upset that Rick killed one of their men when they took over his home. Because The Hunters follow a Hammurabian code (eye for an eye), they feel like they are justified to kill Rick for killing their friend. Daryl comes in to save the day and pleads with the leader, Joe, that they are good people.
The Walking Dead’s “The Grove” Gives Viewers Another Reason to Drink This St. Patrick’s Day
With only two episodes left in this season, The Walking Dead has finally started to answer some questions that have been bugging viewers since the midseason finale. Last night’s episode focused on Tyreese, Carol, Lizzie, Mika, and Judith. On their way to Terminus, they find a home in the middle of nowhere. It seems to be the perfect place to start over; it’s secluded, has a water pump and a propane tank, puzzles, a doll, a big comfy dad chair. Basically everything is going to go back to normal, right? Of course not.
One of the first questions that last night’s episode answered was why Carol was teaching the children how to fight. To put it simply, it’s because of Sophia. Carol described her as “not having a mean bone in her body”. She wasn’t capable of killing anything, which was her downfall. Now that Carol has two surrogate daughters, she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to them. Carol can see a lot of Sophia in Mika, in that she cannot bring herself to kill people invading the prison or even a deer except she has no problem killing walkers. Lizzie, on the other hand, cannot bring herself to kill a walker, but can kill people. And animals, Lizzie kills animals too for some reason; probably because, as Mika put it, she’s not right.
Speaking of which, we also learned that Lizzie was the one feeding walkers outside of the prison. Which doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone since she has pretty much been friendly with walkers since she was introduced. So friendly, that she gets upset when anyone kills a walker. We see her have a near emotional breakdown after Mika shoots a walker right in front of them. Luckily, Mika calms her down by telling her to look at the flowers right next to her. Then she screams at Carol for putting down a walker that Lizzie was playing with. It’s hard to believe an eleven year old could hold that much crazy, but she does.
Hannibal‘s Kaiseki Leaves Us Hungry for More
Season two of Hannibal hit the ground running. Quite literally too, as the opening scene was a flash-forward of an intense fight between Hannibal and Jack Crawford. So far, we know that Hannibal is going to get figured out, and the rest of the season is going to be dedicated to seeing how that comes together. Season two started where season one had left off, Will Graham was framed for all of the horrible things that Hannibal had done and is now imprisoned. Even worse, his new psychiatrist is Dr. Chilton, who is still full of himself even after having all of his organs removed. At this time, only the audience, Will, and maybe Hannibal’s psychiatrist Bedelia Du Maurier know that Hannibal is last season’s big baddie “The Chesapeake Ripper”. It’s unclear, as of right now, what Bedelia knows, but she has made some implications that she knows too much about Hannibal.
This season is going to stray away from the first season’s formula of featuring a killer of the week. Instead, they are going to have a “big baddie” which has already been revealed to be Mason Verger, notably played by Gary Oldman in the film adaptation of Hannibal. It isn’t known exactly when Verger is going to show up, but last night introduced an unknown killer kidnapping random people based on the color of their skin. Also the feel of their skin, that was oh so creepily pointed out to the audience when the killer complimented a man’s smooth skin on the subway. Later, this man was abducted and found himself in a room of “dead” people. It’s unclear whether or not they are dead or in heroin-induced comas even though the coma thing has been done before. The last shot of the night revealed that the bodies are arranged in a way to make it look like an eye.
‘The Walking Dead’: “Claimed” Recap
Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead continued to follow the formula of showing only a few characters at a time. This week we followed Rick, Carl, Michonne, Glenn, Tara, and the new group of survivors. Fans of the comics knew exactly who they were, but were the new survivors were introduced to the audience as Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene. They are traveling to Washington D.C. because Eugene is a “scientist” and he is going to “save the world.” I think it’s safe to put those in quotes because you cannot trust a man with a mullet. Especially one that claims to be a scientist.
Michonne asks Rick what their plans are- whether they are going to stay in the house or continue to travel. Rick doesn’t have a clue, so he just makes her take Carl scavenging while he takes a nap. Rick is woken up by a group of strange men that have broken into the house. Since he is still weak from being beaten by The Governor, he hides under the bed. Things get awkward when a man walks into the room and decides to take a nap. Then things get really awkward when another guy comes in and demands to have the bed. Then things get super awkward when that guy chokes the other guy just to have the bed. He sees Rick hiding under the bed before he’s choked to sleep. Rick slips out under the bed while the both men are sleeping/passed out.
The Walking Dead “After” Recap
Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead showed how it’s going back to its roots. The show, finally making its way to the comic’s second compendium, picked up where it had left off in the midseason finale. The prison is destroyed and the group is split up. Rick and Carl are together, Daryl is with Beth, Glenn and Maggie have each other and Tyreese is with the girls. Michonne, on the other hand, is alone again. Each episode looks as if it’s going to focus on a few of the groups at a time. This week focused on Rick, Carl and Michonne.
Rick isn’t doing too well after being beaten up by The Governor. He has a hard time putting down a walker, and Carl ends up shooting it. Rick scolds him for using bullets because they no longer have a stockpile of ammo. He takes Carl into an abandoned home to recover. Carl just wants his father to take him seriously. Rick then sleeps for most of the episode, forcing Carl to prove that he can live without Rick. So, of course, Carl gets into trouble because it’s in his nature.
‘The Walking Dead’: “Too Far Gone” Recap
The Walking Dead is finally going back to the comics for its midseason finale. For the last two weeks, we’ve seen what The Governor has been doing since we last saw him, which has basically been to find a new group to lead. The episode starts out with The Governor lying about how Rick’s group is made up of horrible people. He quickly convinces the group to kill them in order to take over the prison. They don’t question him and blindly follow him to absolute destruction, which really shows that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
During the last two weeks, it seemed like The Governor had changed. He was caring for two women, Lilly and Tara along with Lilly’s daughter Meghan. The Governor was very paternal toward Meghan, not only because he’s “dating” Lilly but because Meghan is kind of like a replacement for his late daughter Penny. Meghan certainly saw The Governor as a father figure, even going as far as drawing an eye-patch on to a king piece from her chess set. It was her little way of showing how important piece of her life. It wasn’t until after her death that fans were certain that the Governor that we all know was back when he showed no remorse as he prevented her reanimation.
‘Sleepy Hollow’: “Necromancer” Recap
It seems that another ship set sail in Monday’s episode of Sleepy Hollow. Abbie’s sister, Jenny, was released from the mental institution and began working with Captain Irving. Fans voted for the ship name to be “Mr. and Mrs. BAMF,” but I think it should be something along the lines of Jirving. This is not going to distract fans from the favorite “Ichabbie” ship as the writers continue to tease us with all of the “will they, won’t they” tension. Thousands of fans cried out in delight as Abbie implied that candle light was romantic, to which Ichabod practically blushed and seemed to agree with that statement. Seriously, writers, you’re killing us.
‘The Walking Dead’: “Internment” Recap
Last night on The Walking Dead, things started to hit the fan. We not only got to see a rise of the problem inside the prison, but also outside. While Maggie helped clear out the people who had turned in the sick ward, Rick and Carl had to clear out the hundreds of walkers that took down the fences. Luckily, at the eleventh hour, Michonne, Daryl, Tyreese, and Bob came back with medicine from the veterinarian school. Thank goodness, because Glenn wasn’t going to last much longer. Hopefully, this solves the “virus” problem. Although, they haven’t figured out how the virus is spread.
In “Internment,” we got to see how much characters have changed. First, Carl has stopped being a little snot and does what he is told, like staying in that one hallway. Also, Rick lets him fight walkers together instead of sending him away on a “mission” to “protect” the prison when in reality Rick is just trying to keep Carl safe. It was a really sweet buddy cop moment when they were fighting walkers together. All it needed was some heavy synthesizer music and a cheesy catchphrase. I guess the cheesy catchphrase could be when Rick decides to go farming with Carl to avoid telling Daryl about exiling Carol. They share a peapod together which actually means “we’re just two peas in the same pod.”
Wait! What's A Dial? 