Norman Reedus takes centre stage in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, a brand new spin-off series in this undead TV universe. Here's everything we know about it so far.
Summer already feels like a distant memory but who really cares when the best television season of the year has arrived. When the trailer for HBO’s Westworld hit the Internet earlier this year, excitement levels went through the roof. The sci-fi/western hybrid, developed by Jonathan Nolan (younger brother of The Dark Knight’s Christopher Nolan) and Lisa Joy, is based on the 1970’s film of the same name and follows a group of people in a futuristic theme park called ‘Westworld’, where artificial beings are the main attraction.
After THAT cliff-hanger ending to series 6, the internet has been wildly speculating about who exactly our brand new villain Negan will splatter with his barbed wire covered baseball bat he’s named Lucille. It’s only just over a month until The Walking Dead returns so let’s grab a bat and get swinging.
San Diego comic con, the world’s biggest convention, is THE place to be for Hollywood. The Flash premiered a new trailer for its third season, showing the consequences of Barry’s (Grant Gustin) rash decision to save his mother from dying in the season two finale. In this new world, Iris (Candice Patton) and Barry never meet, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) is a billionaire and Wally (Keiyan Lonsdale) is Kid Flash. Barry’s decision to change history will have a ripple effect across the Arrowverse, most notably impacting John Diggle (David Ramsey) in a mysteriously big way.
AMC’s Preacher is the TV adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s popular comic series of the same name. Developed by Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen and Sam Catlin, the show stars Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custor, a man with a dark and mysterious past who returns to his hometown of Annville, Texas, to take his father’s place as a preacher. Teaming up with his assassin ex-girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga) and an Irish vampire named Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun), the new preacher in town is now determined to “speak forth the Word of God” and save us all.
The key moment in the latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead titled ‘Blood in the streets’ was small but it counts. A moment in which it was revealed (not the best word I grant you) that the mysterious Victor Strand was in a relationship with the man he stole money from and later became a business partner with. The man, one Thomas Abigail (hence the name of the boat) is who we can only assume is waiting in Mexico and as the first gay relationship in the show, it’s a relief that it was done with delicacy.
If you haven’t seen it, though, whatever you do, don’t go into Better Call Saul expecting Breaking Bad. Very broadly speaking, Breaking Bad is a show about crime, Better Call Saul is a show about Law and it’s these differences that set the shows apart and make Saul as relevant as it is. Within a handful of episodes, Saul has evolved from a potentially unnecessary prequel to something exceedingly necessary, not because of its relation to Breaking Bad, though it also bore the same qualities, but because of its pace.
The greatest asset Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have to their name is that they play the long game. Admittedly, Better Call Saul takes the slow approach far more than Breaking Bad did, primarily because this isn’t a show about drugs and gangs, this is a show about lawyers and people taking in rooms.
With the 6th season of The Walking Dead having just wrapped up and the 2nd season of its spin-off about to arrive on our screens, I’ve been thinking, could Fear the Walking Dead end up being better than it’s parent show?
For the last 3 seasons, The Walking Dead has seen a significant upswing from the poor doldrums of Season 3, improving its story building and characterisation with each passing season. It still has issues, none more evident than in some of this season’s weakest story lines but, despite that, the show has continued to surprise with some episodes that could be included among the shows very best. The 2nd episode, JSS, saw the arrival (and death) of the Wolves, as they snuck into a largely undefended Alexandria and Carol, in full on sneak mode, helped bring them down.
If you don’t want to know, look away
The season finale is approaching. One episode left and the question on everyone’s lips is who exactly will meet Lucille. Let’s take a look at the possible victims.
There will be spoilers
It’s a little frustrating being a fan of The Walking Dead. We had a great solid run of episodes for a while but it seems that the last two have sadly fallen back on old problems. Namely killing for shock value and unnecessary character stupidity.
It’s remarkable how engaging Better Call Saul is, it’s nothing like it’s predecessor and most of its running time takes place in a law firm with characters talking. Plus the conversations are generally always engaging and interesting.
No, not because of excess gore, I can handle that any day of the week, it was because of the extreme sense of foreboding that this episode carried through it. As it happens, it wasn’t a gunshot but rather an arrow and sadly, it was poor Denise that bought it. Until her untimely demise, Denise had learnt about the struggle of living outside the walls, coming across the leftovers of a small child and almost dying at the hands of a walker.
Kim Wexler spends the episode struggling to get out of a hole that Jimmy dug for her, sort of, and despite her best efforts, she just can’t get back out on top. Towards the end her conversation with Chuck is very interesting indeed, setting up a potential friendship/partnership that could put Jimmy off of his stride and shows great development for the two characters.
Another great, if less so than last weeks, episode that has some interesting developments for the plot as well as the characters. After last week, Maggie and Carol have been taken by four of the Saviours, where they hole up in an abandoned building, as you do. The episode takes place pretty much entirely in here and in the process the two women come out of the other side different people.
This was the best episode in an excellent run of episodes and it’s proof that The Walking Dead is one of the most surprising shows out there. Since Scott M. Gimple arrived as showrunner, the show has seen a massive upswing in quality, with some missteps, and it’s just wonderful to see an episode like this that still leaves you gasping. It was exactly the sort of thing that leaves me smiling and as Rick arrives back in Alexandria, telling Carol that they’re gonna have to fight, it’s a superb moment as we understand that Carol just wants to bake cookies, or rather, she doesn’t WANT to kill, she just has to.
Quite a late review so I’ll keep it short. It was another intricate and hugely enjoyable episode with some great shipping moments for Jimmy and Kim, a clever bit of wrapping up for Mike, Daniel and the baseball cards and another sign of Jimmy’s transformation to Saul when he fakes evidence to get the cops off Daniels tale.
The show has famously had a problem in killing off its black characters, as does it’s sister show ‘Fear the Walking Dead’, and whilst there is a strong sense that it isn’t a resolved problem, there is a stronger racial diversity than the show has yet had. The show has always had a problem with killing of its character gratuitously, such as Beth last season, as well as the fairly unnecessary deaths of both Tyreese and Noah, two black characters, who got decent send off’s, but didn’t have much of a strong legacy behind them. You have the core main characters, Rick, Michonne, Daryl, Carol and Carl, who I don’t think will get killed off that easy, but, beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess who will go next.
This is The Walking Dead at its best. Everyone’s reasonably happy, despite a food shortage, and nobodies behaving like an idiot. Trouble is, this is the calm before the storm and judging by the forecast, this is not gonna end well.
This was the best episode of The Walking Dead since Carol took down the Wolves back in episode 2 of the season. Not because of some massive shock, body count or mass amounts of zombie killing, no, this episode shone like a beacon in the gloom because it was essentially a light-hearted romp interspersed with some loose ends being tied up. It’s a light-hearted joy, where Rick, Michonne and Carl play happy families with Judith and Rick and Daryl go on a supply run joshing each other and taking pleasure in getting one over on newcomer Jesus.