Jim and A.Ron talk about the upcoming season three of SyFy’s The Expanse. We talk about our experience with the show (and Jim’s recent experience reading the first three books in the series by James S. A. Corey) and our thoughts about where we left off last season and where we think we’re headed. Other topics include our spoiler policy, our favorite characters, the Rocinante’s power level, and much more.
Jim and A.Ron are here to, sort of backhandedly compliment the latest episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead. It’s one of the better recent episodes, but the unfortunate thing is all of the moments and beats they come really close to nailing here are ones that have been so worn through mindless repetition to the point we’re incapable of feeling anything but boredom. But yeah, Andrew Lincoln, Denai Gurira, and Lenni James really know how to act, and work their professional asses off to sell this material. Oh, and Rat-Faced Jesus has a very satisfying character development. Just two episodes left! See you next week.
AMC’s The Walking Dead served up what A.Ron describes as a top 5 worst episode of all time in “Do Not Send Us Astray”. The show continues to find new lows in its regard for the audience’s intelligence, as they don’t even bother trying to plausibly setup any action set pieces or plot, it just kind of happens because reasons. We have at least five morgalizers at this point. Day turns to night turns to day and Maggie has been pregnant for like ten seasons now. There was a helicopter at some point? I think Father G. went blind earlier? The only thing I know is that we’ll be back for more next week. See you then.
“The Key”, which is the latest episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead continues to erode Negan’s aura of invincibility, as he can’t even keep Rick’s hands off his precious Lucille as he lurches from one insane and pathetic deal to the next. Simon’s had enough, and leads the rest of the Saviors off to war against the Hilltop. Meanwhile, Maggie makes a deal for The Key to the Future for a milk crate full of phonographic records, and Enid openly wonders if anything means anything anymore. You and me both, Enid. You and me both.
“Dead or Alive Or” crash lands back to Earth after the pleasant surprise that was last episode, and there’s no “Jadis makes chunky beef chili” aspect to take your mind off things. It’s the saddest traveling road show you’ve ever seen starring Father Gabriel and Dr. Carson. It’s Carol and Morgan morgalize over a young boy’s soul. It’s Daryl losing control over his refugee group because of arguing about the loyalties of Dwight. And Maggie making hard decisions on the Hilltop, which is the most interesting thing about the episode and so of course serves as the “C” plot. Can we get a second helping of that Zombie chili, ya’ll?
Premium
This is a podcast where Jim and I, using tools created for the purpose, randomly generate a title for a fictional TV show. We then pitch ideas to each other based on what that show would be like if it were real. We like to call it, “Quit Yer Pitchin’!”
Jim is off traveling the world this week, but Nina Perez from Project Fandom joins the lonely A.Ron to talk about the latest episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead which… isn’t half bad as far as these things go. Lots of Simon, an effective Rick vs Negan scene, and one of the most disgustingly awesome set pieces in all of The Walking Dead history combine to make for an entertaining episode. Sure, Rick’s back to being a loon, the garbage people are still garbage, and Oceanside has clearly lost their collective minds, but that’s why we said it’s “not half bad” instead of “pretty good”.
Jim and A.Ron are here to say goodbye to Carl, and to have the debate about whether or not we should be saying goodbye in the first place. While acknowledging this is an above par episode of The Walking Dead by AMC Studios standards, it commits several offenses, chief among them the decision to undercut a fairly effective scene of a father and surrogate mother saying tearful goodbyes to their son with yet. More. Morgalizing. Everyone involved is too good for what they’re doing, perhaps even including us, but we’ll be here to continue to catalog the decline of a once great television empire.
Premium
Come watch the episode with us. If it’s bad, we’ll make fun of it. If it’s good… well, we’ll still make fun of it, just a little less seriously.
We spin up Netflix’s Altered Carbon after we’ve decanted it for a few weeks, to see what we make of it in our final analysis. Cool concepts, excellent design, and decent sci-fi action are slightly undercut by sometimes silly and hammy execution, and a failure to take ideas to their logical conclusion. Still, we’re always down to ponder futurism and human singularities, so we dig it. It will be interesting to see if and how they decide to proceed with future seasons!