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I love these side stories; as Gabriel and Aaron (two of my favourites) go out in search of food, we're seeing the immediate aftermath of a war, rather than six months or a year later when our gang is back on its feet. OneMore was like a 45 minute snapshot of the changed world. Some of the imagery, like the blood tarnishing the beauty of nature, the burned family with the flowers, the door flapping in the wind, was so emotive ... the cars nothing more than rusting, dusty, useless lumps of metal.
Then there was the delapidated shop with the lottery machine outside, and the scene on the rooftop; the couple lying on the mattress, the words 'Save Us', presumably for passing helicopters —must have been there since the early days. Shame they didn't have Rick's GUTS plan to get them to safety.
Few scenes epitomise eleven-years-on survival in a post apocalyptic world more than a priest and a man with a metal arm and a mace for a hand playing cards for bottle tops and drinking $2k whisky by firelight in a forgotten old warehouse, having just eaten wild boar.
Aaron: 'The fact that people would pay that much to get drunk is a huge part of what was wrong with the world.' Loved it!
🧟🧟🧟
As for old warhorse Mays, the custodian of the warehouse—that whole scene had such a feeling of the Wild West about it, and enforced Russian roulette is one of those storylines that never gets old.
Earlier, when drunk, the idealistic Aaron insisted that the world could go back to how it was (presumably minus people playing $2K to get drunk), whereas the more pragmatic Gabriel insisted that it couldn't. When Aaron said, 'You have to remember who you were', I could feel Glenn's echo across the years, saying 'it's still who we are' as he let the crazy man out of the box in No Sanctuary....
... who then tried to kill Rick. Later Gabriel said that he'd only made the observation that 'evil people are not the exception to the rule, they are the rule' because he was drunk, but maybe the truth is somewhere in between their opposing outlooks.
After Aaron tried to resurrect the former role that he missed so much, that of helping people and bringing them back to the community, it was Gabriel's more realistic, jaded view that no doubt saved a lot more bloodshed. 'He killed his brother's family' . I'm not sure that Aaron had quite cottoned onto the story in the words Mays didn't say about his brother stealing the last of his food, though they certainly found out the consequences of the brother's actions when they went upstairs. Had Gabriel not smashed Mays over the head with Aaron's hand, it could have been Jocelyn or Dante all over again.
A quieter episode, but one with so much good stuff in it. It could have stood up as a play on its own: two men with different outlooks, wandering the wilderness in a destroyed world. I liked how it was the man with the killer hand who retained his faith in human nature, but the priest who, despite what he said to Mays about forgiveness, saw the world for what it is now. Oh yeah, and the scene when Aaron laughed as he helped Gabriel out of the mud, then got covered in it himself... 😁😁
Next week... what happens to Ezekiel, Eugene, Princess and Yumiko?
Should be so close, but they're always moving apart...
~ S10 x 18 FIND ME ~
Directed by David Boyd
Written by Nicole Mirante Matthews
Wow, that was a hard one to watch... that scene at the end.
The harshness of that aside, I thought this was an unexpected and fascinating episode, and I've found that I keep thinking about it. But first, affairs of the heart...
Where does Daryl's heart lie? When Leah said that he had to decide whether he belonged with her or his 'other family', he put them first —because, although he clearly loved or at least had strong feelings for her, she wasn't his 'brother' Rick, or Carol, Michonne, Judith.... his ties to those people are too strong ever to be broken, or even emotionally loosened.
'You ain't gonna lose me...I've just got stuff to do.'
Unfortunately for Leah, she did the crazy thing many people do when they want all of someone who isn't all theirs to have—she asked him to choose. Never ends well, that one.
So Daryl goes back to his own camp, only to have Carol visit him again, and tell him, in a roundabout way, that she's putting Ezekiel and Henry first, from now on. The hurt on his face when he said, 'You don't need my permission to move on with your life. You're telling me I should move on with mine?' said everything. Despite her being with Ezekiel, she had always kept him in a special place in her heart to which no one else had access, but now she was saying to him that her Kingdom family were more important. When he'd just chosen her and everyone else over Leah...
Thinking Carol had said, 'I've moved on and so should you', he went back to find Leah—only to discover that it was too late. Did she leave? The photo of her and Matthew was gone. Would she have left Dog, though? Who thinks she's going to resurface?
He was so brutal to Carol at the end, but that was him screaming out; that's what people do when they feel bad about themselves—they lash out at others. And he's hurt—after all that he'd been through out there, he went home only to have it all go tits up yet again, and see Carol sail off on her boat. Remember, we weren't there in that year or so after 9x16 The Storm and before Season 10, so we never saw how bad it was for him when she left ... but Daryl is never okay when she's gone.
Remember that other time she took off, at the end of S6 - how could anyone forget the scene when he found her?
All those awful things he said to her at the end—I believe they came from the guilt he feels about Glenn, about Beth, about Hershel (remember when he cried in 4x12 Still, blaming himself because he'd stopped looking for the Governor?)...
Seeing Maggie again must have brought all that to the fore. He feels guilty about not being able to find Rick, for knowing he failed Leah. As for Connie, she's one more person he's cared for and (thinks he's) lost, but he uses it to lash out at Carol for all the times she's left, because he's so broken up inside about every damn thing.
I wondered what would have happened if Carol had said, 'Does anyone ever blame you for Glenn? No, they don't.' But because of Ed, she's been conditioned to accept punishment and feel bad about herself, rather than to say, 'Hang on a minute. You did something that was actually a bit worse.' It was heartbreaking to see her so rejected by him, and so cruelly - even though it was only the 'hit them before they hurt you' thing, that Daryl has been doing since he was a kid. Walk away from them so they can't walk away from you....
TWD episode titles often seem to have more than one meaning... I thought this one referred to Daryl and Carol asking each other, silently, to 'find me', as well.
🏹🏹🏹
Inner turmoil apart, I loved this episode. The cinematography was amazing, of course... and it was good to see Daryl something other than asexual; the immediate attraction between him and Leah was so clear, right from the start.
Maybe she was too like him... and she wasn't with him in Atlanta, at the farm, at the prison, at Terminus, and in that clearing in the woods with Negan.
🏹🏹🏹
Another reason I loved this episode was that, rather than just being told that 'Daryl lived out in the woods on his own for six years catching fish and eating snakes', we find out exactly what DID happen. Back when he still had two wings on his waistcoat. And that it was more obvious than before that Carol had taken fairly constant care of him all the time he was out there.
I liked how both of them, at the beginning, looked tired, worn and dirty, and as if they really had been through all they have. These are tough people. Hard as nails, in some ways. Strong, resilient....
...and as @smoking_reedus said on Twitter said yesterday, this isn't a romcom, it's about survival. It's about devastating pain and loss, while trying to keep yourself alive—anyone expecting hearts and flowers between Daryl and Carol is going to be disappointed. I truly believe, though, that they'll get through it—maybe not until Season 11, but they will.
~ They've still got New Mexico ~
(But please, please, can we have some happiness for Carol before that???)
The latest in my series of mini TV and film reviews, with trailers and 'where to watch'. If you have trouble finding where any show/film is available, try typing 'where can I watch *name of show*' into whatever search engine you use (I haven't looked on Netflix for any of these).
If you would like to see more posts, please click here: Lately I've Been Watching. If you get as far as the bottom, 'Older Posts' will take you to more.
Please note the subtle difference between half star ratings; a 3.5 or 4.5 might be rounded up or down, depending on what I thought of the programme.
Series: Your Honor - Season 1 (Amazon, Showtime)
5* plus ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Anything with Bryan Cranston and Michael Stuhlbarg (Arnold Rothstein in Boardwalk Empire) is a 'must see' for me, and this was terrific, all the way through. Cranston stars as New Orleans judge Michael Desiato, whose son commits a serious crime... by accident. Stulbarg is marvellous as the local mob boss. As Desiato tries to protect his son, he becomes further and further drawn into a web of deception and danger from which there is no escape. The 10th and final episode ended with great drama, and if there is not another season, I'm protesting!
Film: Body Brokers (iTunes, Amazon)
5* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Love love love Michael Kenneth Williams, and he was as awesome as usual in this film based the true story of rackets associated with the drug rehabilitation industry in California. Gripping all the way through.
He's not mentioned on the official trailer, which is curious as he is one of the three co-stars, but Jack Kilmer (son of Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley) is terrific as Utah, an addict sucked into the sleazy world of Wood (Williams) and his colleagues. Maybe Melissa Leo has a more demanding agent....
Frank Grillo, as the sort of sleazeball he was born to play, is great, too - but again, it seems odd that he's the main picture on the posters, when the main characters were clearly those played by Kilmer and Williams.
Film:Silk Road (Amazon, iTunes, Fandango, Google Play, Microsoft)
5* ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
About the now incarcerated for life Ross Ulbricht (played by Nick Robinson), who created the famous dark website on which you could buy narcotics. I'd never realised it was so short-lived; it only existed for 2 years. Jason Clarke plays Rick Bowden, the 'Jurassic narc', a troubled older cop demoted to cyber crime, who begins to piece the story together ahead of the FBI; I am not sure how much of this was fabricated for dramatic effect. Anyway, I was absorbed all the way through, and can't help thinking how sad it is - Ulbricht clearly has a great mind, all gone to waste.
Most compelling, kept me interested all the way through. Police Chief Jo Evans (Alison Tolman) discovers a child alone on a beach; she has lost her memory. Jo and her family take her in, only to discover that she is no ordinary child, and their association with her will put them all in danger. AI-based scifi thriller - also stars Clancy Brown and Terry O'Quinn.
Series: Brave New World - Season 1 (Peacock)
3.5* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I haven't read Aldous Huxley's book (I am ashamed to say) but am told this is a pretty good representation of it. A future world, a 'New London' above the ruins of the old world, in which everyone looks youthful and beautiful, family and committed relationships are prohibited, as is privacy, sex is the most popular recreational activity and the new age, golden zombies are kept happy by constantly taking 'Soma', the drug that dulls uncomfortable emotions.
Citizens are graded from Alpha+ to Epsilon (grunt, servant), and your grade is immovable.
Outside this world is the land of the Savages ... one of whom is more connected to the people of New London than he realises.
I wasn't too sure at first, but it got better and better. Except for the final episode of the season, which was a disappointment. Harry Lloyd (Viserys in Game of Thrones and a ton of other things since) was excellent as Bernard Marx, who pushes all that is New London, but whose head is a mass of confusion. Definitely worth watching if you like this sort of thing, though I've just read that there won't be a Season 2, unless it is picked up elsewhere.
Documentary series: The Lady and The Dale (HBO Max, Amazon)
4.5* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
True story - four episodes about Liz Carmichael, who, in her original incarnation as the male Jerry Dean Michael, led an incredible life on the run, escaping criminal justice. That is, 'on the run' with his wife and five children. When Jerry became Liz, fame was achieved in the shape of The Dale, a three-wheel car that seemed all set to revolutionise the industry. Then there was the flower-selling business...
A fascinating story, so well put together with clever, unusual graphics; these alone make it a 'must watch' (and gave it an extra half star from me!). There are lots interviews with those who knew Jerry/Liz, including the sons and daughters, who appear to have had a happy, loving childhood. And I found myself really liking Liz. One of those stories that you would think too far-fetched, if it were presented as fiction!
From Wikipedia: set approximately 15 years in the future, when a company called Soul Connex has developed a test that can determine the person you were most meant to love with 100 percent accuracy. People who take the test either learn of their soulmate and have the choice to pursue that person, or they get a 'your soulmate hasn't tested yet', until they do...
Some of the stories were great, some less so. Varied and well thought-out. I liked 1, 2 and 5 best. Loved Sarah Snook (Succession) in #1, as a wife who doesn't realise what she's got until it's gone, and Charlie Heaton in #5, as a shy young man working on a farm who can't move on from the fact that his soulmate has died.
(Is the testing reliable or is it just a con, though? Will people tend to jettison their perfectly happy lives, just because a computer has told them that this other person is their 'soul mate'?)
Film: Lapsis (Amazon)
4* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very strange and clever, subtle satire of the 'gig economy' - about an alternative future, quantum computers, and the practice of 'cabling', in which the hard-up can earn money by laying cables around the country, by hand. One review says: 'Somewhere beyond our current dystopia and the future imperfect lies the wily, charming Lapsis.' Yeah, that'll do for me. Definitely worth a watch.
Documentary series: Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults (HBO Max, Amazon)
3.5* ⭐⭐⭐
Four episodes about the weirdest cult ever, that started in the mid-seventies. The leaders are 'Do' and 'Ti', named after the Sound of Music song, and they encourage believers to wait for the space ship that is going to arrive and transport them to Heaven's Gate, or the 'next level'. Of course, the followers are all mighty strange and looking for meaning to their lives, and of course the space ship never arrived. Twenty years on, a hard core do the suicide pact thing, believing that they will reach a blissful other world.
The documentary features interviews with the family members who lost people to the cult, and some former followers, one of whom is still a believer, but left because he couldn't live without jerking off 😅, which was forbidden. Much of the film is very blurry, as it's taken from the Heaven's Gate home movies, and I would have liked to see more background about the people. Interesting, though.
Mini Series: The Company (Amazon)
4* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Three one and a half hour long episodes about the Cold War and the CIA. Good, but I didn't love it as much as I hoped to. The second one, about the troubles in Hungary in 1956, and the Bay of Pigs fiasco, was by far the best.
Film: Boss Level(Hulu)
3.5* ⭐⭐⭐
Fun time-travel/action romp, starring Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson and Naomi Watts. Worth watching, if you expect nothing more than a fun time travel/action romp, rather than a serious film!
Series: Blood- Seasons 1 & 2 (Amazon)
4* ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dark family drama starring Adrian Dunbar, set near Dublin, in which a daughter suspects foul play following the death of her mother. The first season was okay, the second one better, as the family become involved in some dodgy goings on. It's good, and I shall definitely watch another season if there is one, but it lacked that 'oomph' that makes a series really memorable.
Riveting, right?! Thanks to all concerned for this great start to the bonus 6 😁.
Lydia was such a good choice for the 'where we're at now' summary at the start, and it's promising that Michonne was included in the recap, which I hope means that we will get to see her again, wherever she is ('under the same sky, looking at thesame stars'), not to mention her reunion with Rick. Also, great to see 'Lauren Cohan' back in the titles!
The scene we've all been waiting for, when Maggie came face to face with Negan - I thought it was perfect. Afterwards, Angela Kang said that dialogue was originally present, but they quickly saw that it made more impact without. She's so right. I don't know if it would have been possible to convey the enormity of what Maggie felt in mere words, but her face spoke volumes. That's some acting - saying so much by saying nothing at all. As for Negan, he just looked tired, and almost regretful.
I can't begin to imagine how this is going to play out; maybe at first, she will just avoid him, but now Hershel junior knows about how his dad was killed, and is old enough to understand who this guy is...
...and isn't Hershel just perfect? He's the image of Glenn (genius to put him in a baseball cap!), and I loved how, afterwards, Angela showed those two couple of scenes from S1. I know we've all seen them so many times, but it's never not a good time for a Glenn scene!
When Daryl looked up at him, sitting in that tree, he had a kind of wonder on his face, like he was seeing his old friend again. 😍
🧟🧟🧟
That was a tense moment between Carol and Maggie, when Carol revealed, in words of one syllable, the truth about how Negan got out and why, and what happened the night Hilltop burned. It was absolutely the right thing to do - to tell it to her, straight, so that Maggie would know the score from the off; it showed respect for Maggie's feelings, not to bullshit her. I wondered if Carol has had so much grief from everyone about the things she's done that she thought, what the hell, I'll just say it. And who could blame her? It was brave—and totally Carol. ('Did you kill Karen and David? 'Yes.' *walks away*)
In every conversation between Daryl, Maggie and Carol, you could feel all the years and memories between them, all that they have endured together. During that enormously touching scene when Maggie talked to Daryl in the shelter—in which Daryl, as always, said so much by saying so little—she felt safe enough to show her vulnerability. She trusts him, because they go back to the beginning, when she was the farmer's daughter and he was the rebel with the crossbow...
Bit of a reminisce here...when, with Cole, Elijah and Kelly, they went in to clear out the walkers so they could sleep there, I was immediately taken back to when Daryl and Maggie were part of another group of five, clearing out the walkers before they could shelter at the prison, in 3x01 Seed.
RIP T-Dog and Glenn. Miss you, Rick
(one more!) ... and when Maggie and Daryl were leaning up against the door, desperately trying to hold the Walkers in, it made me think of 5x10 Them when everyone else was asleep in the barn, and Daryl saw that Walkers were trying to get in; Maggie was the first to jump up and help him.
Back to the present, and this Cole guy put my back up straight away - when he started being critical about the prospect of living in Alexandria, I thought Daryl was going to say, you don't have to come... I can see there being some friction between the two of them, especially as it looks like Cole is Maggie's right-hand man. I look forward to seeing him put him in his place (go on, Carol!) (Or Negan? Or Gabriel?).
Interesing to hear how Maggie has spent the last few years, and hear her talk about Beth, Glenn and Hershel—and that Georgie has gone to some town out west—will this be the Commonwealth?
Once Home Sweet Home......
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Kelly was an inspired addition to the crew in this episode, just the right person to go along with Daryl, especially with the missing sister situation, to which Maggie can so relate... I think we're going to love Elijah, and he seems like a handy person to have around. The scenes through the woods were proper TWD scary—and even the name 'The Reapers' is enough to send a shiver down the spine! And what did Suicide Man mean by 'Pope marked you'? It was almost brushed off at the time, but one of the things I've always loved about TWD is how things are said or seen and you don't realise their significance until later (like when Michonne walked past the 'Wolves Not Far' graffiti in 509 What Happened and What's Going On),
When the group reached what Beta and the Whisperers had left of Alexandria, Cole said 'Home Sweet Home' in a derisive, sarcastic fashion, but he didn't know that to Maggie, it is. It's the place where she lived with Glenn ... and Abraham, Sasha, Enid, Deanna, Carl, Tara, Noah, Rick and Michonne. Though now there's a cuckoo in the nest...
Stuff I'm hoping for:
Maggie talking to Judith about the day she delivered her, and more about Lori.
Negan not doing anything to backslide the progress he's made...
Everyone appreciating Carol and all she does for everyone, again!
More Rosita, and Rosita and Gabriel as the power couple :)
Daryl and Carol getting closer... please, can we have a little bit of that before the season ends (and I don't want to think about this Leah woman until I've seen the next episode!)???
Eugene meeting Stephanie....soooon!
Cole getting put in his place.
More Aaron, more Alden, Kelly and Luke - and more from the background characters still there from S5 - Scott and Barbara!
Just a bit of happiness for Ezekiel?
Daryl and Carol talking to Hershel about the Glenn they knew even before Maggie did.
