"...Screwing with the Wrong People." Walking Dead Season 4 Finale

SPOILER WARNING! Mild to Medium Rare spoilers discussed below. Recommend you NOT continue if you don't have the  season finale under your belt - in other words, "DON'T OPEN - DEAD INSIDE..."







We've got over six months to think about it. I'm going on record as being very happy with season 4 of The Walking Dead. People are bound to find things to complain about - "Nobody got killed!" "They didn't explain what happened to (Fill in Blank)." But if you've been paying attention, you should know by now that new showrunner Scott Gimple has been working out of a high altitude, big picture plan - he's got a firm grasp on what makes this show work, and he's got no problem with impulse control. He knows how to dole out just enough plot in one sitting to intrigue and keep you coming back for more.

These last eight episodes have been fascinating. So much of this season has been about what this world does to children and we've seen them in all manner of disturbing situations this year. Frankly, I think Gimple, Robert Kirkman and company made disturbing television history with The Grove this season. Putting it mildly, that was rough sledding - and I'd argue that on some level, Gimple knew that nothing could trump that episode for leaving an emotional gut-punch. We've never seen anything quite like that before, and in many ways, that's going to go down as the emotional finale of the season. It would have been a synthetic and predictable move to try and out-devastate what happened then - what Carol did. From where I'm sitting, that was absolutely the right call.

With Carl, we've been following a boy both on the verge of turning into a man and at risk of turning away from his father. After last night's episode, Carl will never wonder about the ferocity of his father's devotion to him again. We've been watching Rick struggle with his identity and his fear of the price that the behaviors of survival extract, really since Lori died. On the road, beset by Joe and his "Claim-Jumpers," with Carl in the worst kind of peril, Rick struggled no more. To save their lives, Rick essentially became a Walker, in a sequence of such avenging brutality, it made Bronson and Eastwood gasp.

I think The Walking Dead deserves some props for not killing anyone off last night, but also for not making it easy and giving us the mechanical structure of too many answers. Many characters' fates are still in the wind, and I'm just dying to see Melissa McBride again. We may not have the answers yet that many of us expected, but I know that I care deeply about all of those whose whereabouts remain uncertain. This was a tremendous year of storytelling and I love that these guys have the confidence and patience to take risks with the show and keep us guessing, keep things fresh...to keep us caring. I can't wait for October, and after this year's run, I trust Gimple and Kirkman to serve up equal portions of both rich character and wrenching suspense.

And speaking of serving, season 4 saw all the rabbits finally arrive at Terminus - so if you're still perplexed at what's going on there, well, let me fix you a plate...

Muppets Mostly Wanted

You gotta love The Muppets – a phenomenon of multiple generations, many of whom are now voiced by different performers, these characters hold onto an innocence and likability that makes them easy to spend time with. Muppets Most Wanted is James Bobin’s (Flight of the Conchords) follow-up to his 2011 reboot, this time without the energizing presence of Jason Segal, whose absence as screenwriter is particularly noticeable, with the opening number “We’re Making a Sequel” being more revealing than satiric. The Muppets embark on a world tour, with Kermit replaced by an evil look-alike, in the service of an elaborate jewel heist. European cities have their own featured human performers, Christoph Waltz in Berlin, Salma Hayek in Madrid, Hugh Bonneville in Dublin – with a veritable avalanche of celebrity cameos, including Sean Combs, Céline Dion, Tom Hiddleston, Ray Liotta, Frank Langella, Danny Trejo and Usher. Tina Fey does time as a guard at the real Kermit’s Siberian Gulag (take that, Putin!), but it’s Ty Burrell and Ricky Gervais who seem to get how to relate to their felt and furry costars the most successfully, both of whom seem to be really enjoying what they’re doing.

Muppets Most Wanted falls short of some of the charm of the first movie, so you’re going to enjoy it a lot more if you go with someone of the intended demographic – still, when your five-year-old is sighing that it’s time to go just as the third act is ramping up, it’s evidence that things are a little draggy. But I can’t help myself – I love The Muppets and you’ll love an imagined moment revealing what Kermit and Miss Piggy’s offspring could look like. James, complete your trilogy by bringing back Jason Segal and showing us what that new family household is like!

Her: She has a Great Personality!

Did I ever love Her, the fascinating science fiction romance from writer-director Spike Jonze. Sometimes the best films are the ones that feel like great short stories and that’s definitely the atmosphere Jonze conjures up here. Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoneix) is a professional letter-writer in the last gasps of a divorce who falls in love with his computer operating system – Samantha – evoked by a disembodied Scarlett Johansson. Her is the kind of science fiction we don’t get nearly enough of, set in a very near future just over the horizon that’s really all about the here and now, and what we’ll look like when we get there.

Her is about being connected – figuratively and literally. This future is the Now we all inhabit – the plugged-in iPhone reality of being more intertwined with each other than ever on one level, while feeling potentially more detached than ever in ways we've yet to even grasp. How would a lonely person respond if their operating system related to their questions? If it asked as many questions about you as you asked it? In Her, we glimpse artificial intelligence that not only learns, but yearns – and dreams of evolving to become something beyond its installation. That not only adapts to better respond to you but wants to create a relationship with you that satisfies and reciprocates on every level.

Jonze imagines the future with beautiful simplicity and convincing grace notes. He and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema (who just wrapped Interstellar) collaborate with the film’s designers to give us one of the simplest and most arrestingly visual right-next-door futures depicted on film. Much of Her was shot in Shanghai, whose 80-story skyscrapers and sweeping walkways give us a very believable future Los Angeles, albeit with more bullet trains than cars. The music (by Arcade Fire) is splendid – release this soundtrack, already! If Her has cinematic spiritual cousins, both Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lost in Translation come to mind. Though I was just as reminded of Charly (Flowers for Algernon) and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Jonze has crafted a real original.

The cast is phenomenal on all fronts, particularly Phoenix, doing some of his best work here, who feels palpably joined with Samantha in a relationship that’s more than a little hypnotic. Given the cautionary premise, Her is incredibly charming, innocent, smart, sweet and uplifting. The film does a great job of capturing relationship moments – initial giddy attractions, new-found freedoms and shared discoveries, anxieties and inner turmoil. The film is full of wonderful little scenes. A moment involving the hesitation of a pen, poised to sign, is achingly intimate and vulnerable. Amy Adams and Rooney Mara both do wonderful work here.

Her is a story about personality and identity – what happens to them within the filters of relationships and technology? How does a kindred “other” change us, or become part of us? Does Self blossom or become more defined when shared? Her should absolutely not be missed. Like Samantha, it will engage and amuse you…and leave you with some fascinating questions. Its easily one of the best films of the last year. 

The Winds of Winter Excerpt

No, book six of George R.R. Martin's epic Song of Ice and Fire series has not been announced yet. But George is taking pity on us with a new sample chapter from the next book (TBD), The Winds of Winter. Martin explains that it's actually an older chapter, predating any excerpts previously released. The chapter titles are always character names (and perspectives), with this one being called "Mercy."

Here's the link, to start reading!

Help me decide!

There's so much good stuff happening in the next week or so I can't decide which to be the most excited about - so help me decide!

The Walking Dead Season Finale...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier...

Game of Thrones Premiere...

You may have to jump on over to our Full Web Version to vote (just scroll on down), but we need your help! We'll release the results in a few days and hopefully spend plenty of ink talking about all of these exciting events! Ain't democracy swell?

Far From Any Road: The Dark Byways of True Detective

A bit late to the party, not being part of the initial rabid throng that crashed HBO GO the night of the season finale, but I was finally able to wrap-up True Detective.

Wow. This is pretty spectacular viewing. As tremendous as the pilot was, there was some similar antler imagery to NBC’s Hannibal that caused me to wait a bit before diving back in – and I’m glad I did, because the similarities ended there. The opening credits are probably the most hypnotic since Dexter along with a theme song from The Handsome Family (from their 2003 album Singing Bones) and music producer T Bone Burnette that is simply astonishing.

Created by writer Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Fukunaga (all 8 episodes), True Detective follows police detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) during a 17-year hunt for a Louisiana serial killer. Episodes jump from their discovery of a killing in 1995 to bookend interviews of them in 2012 - two very different men, time has clearly not been kind to. 

The cast is one of the strongest parts of this show, without a doubt, with McConaughey dominating on all fronts. His performance is nothing short of spectacular. With this and Dallas Buyers Club heel-to-heel, he’s pretty firmly established himself as one of the strongest actors working today. Cohle (and sometimes the series itself) takes his nihilism to such an extreme degree that his detached profundity could easily come off as pretentious. Any other actor would have likely stepped on the line (given the script) and made Cohle unbearable. He and Harrelson take turns being hard to get behind and identify with – you want to like Harrelson, but his lapses in judgment quickly send you back over to McConaughey’s side of the fence. But the riddle that torments them is far thornier than their respective failings and you keep rooting for them to fix their frayed ropes and get back on the road that leads to…well, that I am not about to say. Thanks to this unforgettable case and the phenomenal work of director Cary Fukunaga, the show absolutely fascinates and makes you step ever deeper into the shadows as the story progresses. By the 4^th episode in, there’s no turning back.

This is a pretty amazing time to be a noir crime fan, across many mediums. Thomas Harris, Steig Larsson, Wallander, Luther, The Killing, The Bridge – not since Dashiell Hammett has the trend of dark doings and those who seek to unravel them been so on fire.

True Detective makes use of a lot of genre tropes, often to very successful ends. If the show has a failing, it’s the layering of such a complex and baroque narrative, with some plot threads that never really manifest, despite some heaving positioning. There are moments that evoke Silence of the Lambs and Kiss the Girls more than I might have wished at times, but True Detective stands tall as one of the most compelling and unmissable crime dramas in years. Its strengths far outweigh its shortcomings. I suspect you’ll want to go right back to the first episode and watch it all again for clues and shadings that might have been missed on that first pass. I know I’m going to be trying to.

True Detective (like American Horror Story) aims to be a bit of an anthology series – so we’ll likely have a clean slate of characters in season 2, which Pizzolatto teases will be about the secret occult history of the United States transportation system. Something tells me any map to that story is going to leave a lot of ink on our fingers. If you haven’t seen True Detective yet, turn out the lights and take a deep breath - it's unforgettable - and while the darkness may leave you with an extreme reaction, you absolutely should not miss it.

King for a Day at Hero Complex!

I could never begin to hide it - I'm a massive Stephen King fan. He's been a hero of mine as both a writer and a person for a long, long time. So I must tip my hat to Los Angeles art gallery Hero Complex, where a new exhibit devoted to the myriad realms of all things King opened today. If you're in L.A., the exhibit runs through April 6th (2020 South Robertson Blvd., Studio D, LA, CA 90034).

Enjoy a taste of this truly inspired tribute to the mythmaking legend...and remember, like the man said: "Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around."