Month: March 2015

For the season five finale of the Walking Dead the writers tried something new.  Instead of a giant battle with lots of dead people, why not tie up a few story lines.  That is not to say the finale was not tense, and it did supply some good action, but it was more of a slow burn.  I think it was a nice change for once.  Not every finale has to have tanks and explosions (though those are things I love).  Plot development can be pretty satisfying too.

The juxtaposition of where they started this half season to where they ended it was quite nice as well.  In the first episode they were betrayed by what they thought was going to be a safe haven, and in the end they were setup to be possible betrayers of an actual safe haven.  The characters have been pushed so far they are willing to take what they need from very nice, well mostly nice, people.

It will be interesting to see what the crew will have to do to try and keep their new home safe.  There are a lot of bad people in that world, and they seem to be getting worse, and if the people of Alexandria think Rick is bad, they have no idea what is going to start coming for them.  I am pretty sure that the town’s population is going to decrease quite a bit.

So all in all it was a good season, with an interesting, but not terribly eventful finale.  It also gave me probably my favorite line of the show by Rick, “I was thinking, how many of you people am I going to have to kill to save your lives?”  Perfect Rick.  A little crazy, but 100% true.  We will see if Rick has to kill any Alexandrian’s to save their lives next season.

Mrs. The Paladin and I just finished watching The Fall on Netflix. Weighing in at only 11 episodes (5 episode in Series 1 and 6 episodes in Series 2), The Fall follows the Northern Ireland Police as they investigate a series of murders perpetrated by a serial killer. The Fall’s unique take on the police procedural is that we know who the killer is and even follow him for large chunks of time. This gives the show a much more psychological thriller vibe as you are watching the game of cat and mouse between the killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) and Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (a very NOT Agent Scully, Gillian Anderson).

The Fall is pretty adult, dealing with adult themes, and can be very uncomfortable at times; especially when it juxtaposes Paul Spector’s life as a husband and father with his life as a killer. It can be difficult to watch the man you just saw sneak into a woman’s house in the scene before kiss his daughter goodnight in the next scene. Another facet of the show is how Paul is an interesting foil to Gillian Anderson’s Stella Gibson because the two are similar in some ways – they are both highly intelligent, bristle at authority (in Gibson’s case it is patriarchy), and are driven by strong sexual urges. Of course in Gibson’s case she upholds the law while Spector shirks the law.

Series 3 was just announced this month and should be out by the end of the year, which helps with the ending of Series 2 which doesn’t end with a cliffhanger per-say, but left room for the story to continue. Neither Mrs. The Paladin and I were very satisfied with the ending however. The whole time you’re thinking Spector’s got one final trick up his sleeve… and yet it just don’t happen.

If you are looking for a dark, patient, psychological thriller than I suggest giving The Fall a try, although you might want to wait until Series 3 comes out to give you a better ending.