So it Turns out....

Andrew Lincoln? Not so annoying after all. For the moment.

The Walking Dead is not flawless, by any stretch of the imagination. It's predictable, sometimes obvious and rather full of zombie cliches. Survivors grouping together in a department store. I feel like I've seen it all before and my exposure to zombie material is roughly zero. Not only that, but the stupidity exhibited by some of the characters makes them contenders for Moron of the Month after only 3 episodes.

Character stupidity is a hard one to overcome, particularly when it's only a device to further the plot. Camping in the woods with plentiful zombie ground cover is an exercise is stupidity, as is the concept that we would willingly believe that Merle, handcuffed on a roof with a hacksaw would choose to hack off his entire hand. Rather than his thumb, or even the rather flimsy looking chain between the cuffs. Add these to the fact that the protagonists wife, on hearing that he is dead, supposedly jumps straight into bed with his best friend.

Despite the high moron count and the zombie cliches, I find it thoroughly enjoyable. Is it the zombies? Are they just so interesting (and rarely done in a televisual serial) that all the other concerns are overridden? Is it the cast or the writing? I don't know. But I find it engaging, even when it's annoying me. Still, that can only last so long. And I tell you, if the survivors don't get a move on and start looking for somewhere a bit more sensible to hide (clue: anywhere else), my patience will probably run out.

But for now, with episode 4 to watch this evening, I shall be enjoying my own personal resurrection of Andrew Lincoln.

And When it Was Bad....Well, at Least There's Fringe

Right?

I was so worried before the start of season 3. Season 2 had that iffy start, and JJ shows don't have the best track record when it comes to the third season. I was half expecting Melissa George to show up and instigate Operation: Shittify as usual. 

Fortunately, everyone's least favourite Antipodean has been nowhere to be seen and the season is wonderful. The show has somehow morphed stealthily into something genuinely good, rather than the hit and miss guilty pleasure that it started as.

In fact, I can count the annoyances this season on one hand. Which is impressive, as to be frank....well, I'm easily annoyed. I can overlook a lot of annoyances though, as The Walking Dead proves (more on that next time)....but I still count them.

My only major gripe so far is the seemingly necessary stupidity pills that Peter has been taking. How can he not realise that Olivia is not Olivia? The answer? Because the story line needs him to be ignorant. Which is a major annoyance. Peter is not stupid. Peter is intelligent, has a lot of common sense and is a master of reading people. And yet he has wandered around, in a post-coital haze, seemingly unaware of the imposter in his bed. Are we supposed to believe that suddenly regular sex has dulled the man's brain? Or are they trying to make us believe that Peter has known all along and is playing the game? Well that can't be true. If Peter knew, he would confront her immediately. And the story line would be over. I hate that it is simply the only way that they can run the story - by altering and degrading his character.

I'll let this one slide though (and I'm sure the writers of the show will be breathing a huge sigh of relief there) as the rest of the season has been exemplary. But I'll be watching. But not for another two weeks. There's another annoyance for you.

When it was Good, it was Very, Very Good.....

99.6% of the time, when watching Gossip Girl, my thoughts go along these lines. Why am I watching this tripe/why do I subject myself to such farcical rubbish/why is a grown woman watching a show designed and aimed at girls half her age? Generally, these thoughts occur when certain images are on the screen, ones resembling these:

 

But then, sometimes...there are these moments of glory. When something so ridiculous comes on screen that makes me think..."Yes, this is why I watch this show." Of course, all of these moments generally involve the same person. And this week is no different.

That would be the Chuckmeister, in a teeny robe. Holding a macaroon.

Swoon.

This show is ridonkulous.

Zombies, Cont.

There is a reason I am uneducated in all things undead. <whispers> I'm a big girly wuss. I must be about 15 years behind my contemporaries - the things that scare me now are things that they were minorly bothered by terrified of at 15. They built up a resistance to scary stuff and moved on. I stagnated and just avoid, avoid, avoid.

As such, I am only half way through the first episode of The Walking Dead. Pathetic? Indeed.

It's the tension that scares me. Someone jumping out in the dark, not knowing what is around the corner. And so, this:

scared the pants right off me. It's like a televisual version of Silent Hill. <shudders>


I'll be watching the rest of The Walking Dead today.

In the daylight.