Hey, you know I'm going to say it. "I told you so!"
For quite a while now, I've been saying that TWD has been on a decline both creatively & in quality. The season 9 premier was awful, the second episode was no better. It all boils down to the lack of sympathetic characters, characters that continually act in contrast to their established personas & redundant story lines.
There were many mistakes made during it's run, the first in my opinion being the firing of Frank Darabont. He set the tone for the fantastic first season. He should have remained onboard to guide the show but instead we got that abysmal second season.
The third season was great. After that, predictability set in. It seemed that the zombie gags were the only refreshing thing each episode!
The handling of Negans character was awful. At no time did I find him believable or even threatening. The murder of Glenn, even though it was an eventuality, seemed anticlimactic & it turned off a lot of regular viewers. Killing Carl was just plain stupid. Now, with the main star leaving, I don't see it really progressing in a positive direction for the fans.
Daryl Dixon is the one character who has grown, developed but yet retained his core and is the single exception to the entire show. If there is to be a future for TWD, they need to focus on him.
This is going to sound rude but I noticed in the first two episodes that six of the main characters are in an interracial relationship. Nothing wrong with that but it seems a bit forced within the story. I mean, the writers think of everything before it gets filmed don't they? So, no one thought it as redundant to have all these people in interracial relationships? It was a conscious decision to have that many up front in the story. Every lifestyle gets a representative in Hollywood.
The story is just...without substance at this point. It's "Interpersonal Relationships 101" for the zombie apocalypse. Romero said that TWD was a soap opera. Romero was right.
I will watch TWD until it dies a slow, boring death.
For what it's worth, I watch "Z-Nation" on SyFy Channel & enjoy it! It's got a comical side that makes it actually fun to watch! They keep reinventing the zombies in new, strange ways.
Maybe if TWD wasn't such an emotionally pummeling experience in depressing hopelessness every single second of every episode, they might have made it.
"Bone Tomahawk" DVD Review
I've read alot of great things about this movie since it was released. I finally had a chance to watch the film this week.
"Bone Tomahawk", written and directed by S.Craig Zahler is a rare gem of a film. It's an unusual Western, one that deals with cannibal troglodytes killing citizens in the small town of "Bright Hope" in the late 1890's.
The cast:
Kurt Russell plays Sheriff Franklin Hunt. Russell is one of those rare actors who is always fun to watch. He shines in this role.
Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Sid Haig & David Arquette round out the perfectly cast ensemble.
Each character is as fleshed out with authenticity by the actors in such a natural way that it's nearly impossible to dislike any one of them.
The troglodytes are horrific, both in appearance & action. The local indigenous tribes refer to the forbidden area as "The Valley of the Starving Men". A local Indian guide known only as the "Professor" tells the Sheriff about the troglodytes but refuses to take them. He instead shows them where they are on a map.
The design of the troglodytes provides a new twist to the "cannibal native" trope. These cannibals implant bones in their throats that penetrate the windpipe. They use the horrific sound to communicate & warn each other. A truly creepy sound that adds to their monstrous appearance.
The film does not flinch from the gore of the kills, whether it be a gun shot or a slaughtering of a living human being for food by the troglodytes, they show it all.
I recommend this film for many reasons: story, acting, action, horror, locations...just a great film.
If the old addage of "never judge a book by it's cover" is true, then "Bone Tomahawk" proves it.
I've often written about my lifelong fascination with the writings and personal life of famed weird fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
One aspect of his life that I have never written about is his "racism". I have not written of this because it is always a hot button of serious debate amongst fans & scholars alike. These debates never solve or even further the understanding of the man's writing's or his life. Useless as it is to debate whether his work loses meaning because of his personal beliefs, I am finally going to join in this quagmire to offer my own thoughts & feelings regarding this topic.
Oh, I am quite sure that some of you reading this will be gnashing your teeth & railing against your smartphones at what I am going to say. I first say to you this: be patient & thoroughly read this blog entry to it's conclusion.
There is little need for an introduction about Lovecraft as undoubtedly if you've had the interest to read this far, you already know who he was & have read at least some of his writings. It would be an unnecessary and redundant exercise.
So, let's get to the heart of the matter.
H.P. Lovecraft had racist views that spilled into his writings. Yes, indeed he did. There is no argument that this is true.
Lovecraft was a frail & faulty human being, as we all are. The era in which he was born & raised cannot bear the full responsibility in the creation of his feelings - as not all people at the time held the same feelings as he did. The era certainly had a part in it, although I believe it was only partially responsible.
Many factors make people feel as they do. Humans are a vastly intricate, almost incomprehensible, conglomeration of many different things. Many aspects of which will never be understood. No one on Earth is exempt from this most basic realization.
Every single one of us have feelings that we share & some that we don't. All of us.
We all internalize those feelings that we have been told are undesirable concepts for "normal" people to possess.
All feelings that a person has is valid. It is how one acts upon those feelings that make them right or wrong.
That was true in Lovecraft's era & it is true today.
To look back in time & condemn this man for his thoughts & feelings is ridiculous. To strip away his work & posthumous notability is wrong for us to do.
Our current "enlightened" status is systematically destroying or rewriting the past. Lovecraft is a victim of retroactive political correctness.
Great works, like Lovecraft, must be preserved as they were written & left untouched. We can derive meaning from the work in all of it's ways, good or bad. Determining the "worth" of written work is totally up to the reader and not the imposition of a moral judgement from a group of people acting retrospectively.
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Stowe has been heavily edited. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Twain suffered the same fate.
Why? Because some of the words in the books are condoned as offensive by modern society. Are the words offensive? Yes. Should the works be edited? No. Have Twain & Stowe been stamped as bigoted racists? No.
So why has Lovecraft not been afforded the same luxury as Twain & Stowe?
Lovecraft's image has been removed from literary awards, essays written condemning the man for his views, his work pulled from school libraries...
Lovecraft was simply a man. A man with faults. A man who created the greatest science fiction and horror mythos ever written. His personal feelings crept into his work as alien hybrids, strange invaders, mysterious forces & incomprehensible madness.
He was a flawed human being as we all are. No better, no worse.
