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Since getting a bit off track with the holiday season, I decided it was time to get back in the saddle with the G33kpod Mid Season Report Card.  First up, The Flash.

The second quarter of The Flash’s first season continued the growth and promise shown previously.  The highlight of that was clearly the much hyped Flash/Arrow crossover.  First and foremost, this was not a publicity grab.  Both the Flash side of it and the Arrow side were well thought out and some of the most entertaining tv so far this season.  They were two partly separate stories, not just a part one and part two.  I was taken aback by that because I always assumed they would take the easy two parter road for these episodes, and was not expecting two mostly self contained stories geared toward the audience of that specific show.

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The episodes also showed a conflict, resolution, and growth in the relationship between Barry and Oliver.  Made me want to see the two team up every three or so episodes.

The other major development was The Reverse Flash

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We finally see Barry face off against the man who murdered his mother.  I was expecting this plot thread to last at least until the end of the season(and it might still), but it seems like they may be revealing things much sooner.  All signs point to Harrison Wells having a strong connection to the bad guy, if not being the Reverse Flash himself.  I didn’t feel like we actually know much more now than we did before, but I was not let down at all with the movement of the plot.  Could use a bit less pining over Iris but somehow I don’t think that is going to change any time soon.

And then the big news…

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They are really doing Firestorm!  Looks like a homeless man on fire right now, but I am guessing that might change in the latter half of the Season.

Overall Grade: B+

Paul will whine about it, but it’s better than a B-!  The show is great, but is still finding it’s voice.  I feel like if first quarter had let loose like the last quarter the grade would be higher.  Plenty of time left to bring that up to an A by the end of the season.

Part 1 of the Heroes Expo recordings! Including Interviews with Mike Kingston, Mike Borkowski, Sal Otero and Mike Raicht. Meet our contest winner Jack Corbett. The guys discuss everything from Disney Infinity to Batfleck  and Paul has a disease?

 

Opening theme is: Thrashing Around from http://www.purple-planet.com
Closing Theme is: Channel Intro Germany by Lino Rise
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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TWD’S season premiere broke all sorts of records, and it’s immediate followup placed third highest rated episode AND beat Sunday Night Football’s demo number AGAIN!  How is that for follow through?!

My first thought right at the start was that I don’t recall Glenn even having any lines last week, and this week all he gets is mistaking a broom and some boxes for a walker?  That’s harsh.  Maybe they want to turn him in to an idiot so we won’t mind when they kill him.

The crew find a creepy preacher in the woods who is clearly not all with the apocalypse.

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There is some definite weirdness here, and Father Gabriel is clearly hiding something.  Rick has no problem telling him right to his face that he knows he is hiding something, and if that something hurts someone in the group, he will kill him.  Rick was even more take charge this week.  I think weepy unsure Rick is gone.  Now we have strong leader Rick who is going to bump heads with Abraham.

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The church is a nice place for them to decompress and is sufficiently creepy.  At first I thought it was the same church they ran across while looking for Sophia, but apparently is an all new location that they built in six weeks.  Makes me wonder if they would spend all that time and energy on a set if we weren’t hanging around for more than just a few episodes.

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Carol and Daryll got spend quite a bit of time together this week.  She does not want to talk about what happened with Lizzy and her sister, and he does not want to pry.  There is more cuteness going on there, but the big thing is they see the car with the cross on the window that took Beth, and are off after it.

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I truly hope this isn’t a pointless and dull side story.

 

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Anyone who has read the comics knows the scene where the Terminus folks are eating Bob’s leg is almost straight from the books, only with some characters moved around.  I think we may know where this is heading as it would seem we are in the “Fear The Hunters” arc of the book.  Episode two seems a bit early for the big reveal, so we will have to see how this pans out.

Finally there was a scene in a flooded basement with some water logged walkers which was fantastic.

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These were some of the best walker makeups ever seen on the show period.

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There was sloughed off skin and all sorts of nasty ickyness.   Especially this one with an exposed vertebrae.

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It looks far too decomposed to be a threat, but it is moving and chomping.

Here is the promo for next week’s “Four Walls And A Roof”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=quvmRIkbCTw

 

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Two weeks in a row Doctor Who has managed to deliver a near classic episode.  This wasn’t just good, it was “remember what this show is capable of” good.  Scary monsters done with great SFX, and a possibly moral dilemma that impacts the whole season.

We are introduced to the “Boneless”.

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They are creatures from a 2 dimensional plane.  They are bleeding in to our world, and basically flattening people and things in order to interact with them.  In this case that means stealing the bodies of the people the have killed.  There are some amazing effects, such as the “2d-ing” of objects and they Boneless taking on flawed 3d reproductions of their victims.

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The “wrongness” of how they looked and moved just added to the overall creep factor.  It was hands down one of the neatest effects I have ever seen on the show.

This story also involved them leeching energy from the TARDIS to interact with our 3 dimensions, causing it to shrink on the outside eventually trapping the Doctor inside.

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Clara is left outside to “play The Doctor”, and she does a great job.  So well in fact that it seems the are setting up a big moral question for the end of the season:  Clara was mad at the Doctor for being callous, lying, and basically being a huge dick in order to do what had to be done to save people.  In this episode, she proves just as adept at all of those things as he is.  When she goes looking for kudos for saving the world on her own, he points this out to her in a not so subtle way.  One has to wonder if this is chance, or if he is deliberately putting her in these situations to show her what it is like to be him.

Finally this episode had two moments that had my family laughing out loud.  Remember when I said the outside of the TARDIS had shrank?  Well the inside had not.

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And then there was The Doctor needing to move the TARDIS out of harms way when he was all on his own.

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Looks silly,  but the scenes were played relatively straight, and cause much laughter from the kids especially.

“Flatline” was fantastic, and seems to show the trajectory  for the show now that the weirdness of a new Doctor is starting to fade.  Here is a promo for next weeks “In The Forest Of The Night”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDRFsj9RkgA&feature=player_detailpage

 

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Something interesting happened while watching this last weeks Z Nation.  I didn’t groan.  I didn’t shake my head.  My wife didn’t say “Oh SYFY.”  This is during the episode where they make a Sharknado reference.  There were zombies caught in a tornado being flung around and they played it straight for the most part.

Oh my god, this just might not end up being the train wreck I expected.

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There was lots of zombie action, most of them looking quite good.  We are not talking TWD good, but better than in past weeks.  I get the feeling that the production team is getting better as time goes on.  There were also some neat gags with fireman zombies that I haven’t seen anywhere outside of Left 4 Dead.

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Effects wise there was never a question that this episode would be heavy on cgi.  Other than one hiccup, most of it was handled well.  Zombies being flung half a mile by the tornado looked about as good as it could have been done, even on a bigger budget.  One particular zombie bounced off the ground right in to a tree, leaving a huge blood stain.  That one was so good we had to watch it three times.  The Asylum may not always be known for quality, but I think this shows they are growing as a production company.

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Lastly, it is clear that Murphy is not as out of the woods as we thought him to be.  The vaccine that stopped him from turning in to a zombie a year ago must be wearing off, as his wounds are starting to rot and his hair is falling out.  The crew thinks he cut his hair, but it was falling out so I think he just pulled it out off screen.  He does not look good.  I had noticed the past few episodes he had been looking worse, and I think they handled the transition with great care.

So I am more excited about the show than I had been.  It is getting better, and I hope they can keep up the momentum.  Here is a promo for next weeks “Resurrection Z”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R19cKYEHf9c

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There is not a whole lot to say about last night’s Supernatural.  It was a very entertaining episode where the plot only inched forward, but the character moments were exceptional.

First there was the “breakup ” of Dean and Crowley.  Dean does not want to work for the King of Hell and says so in a very physical and violent way.  He basically dares Crowley to do something about it in front of his minions, and that will not sit well.  I think I see a big confrontation coming where Dean might find out just how powerful the King Of Hell is.  At one point Crowley is looking and pictures of his phone like one would an ex.  Seems like he really thought himself and Dean would make a good team, and will come back with the vengeance of a scorned lover.

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There was also the first meeting of Sam and demon Dean.  Jared  did one incredible scene last night when he sees Dean for the first time.  Just the look on his face before the commercial cut was the best acting we have ever seen him do.  My wife even said he looked terrified.  Unfortunately the reunion is interrupted by “random guy” from last week, who it turns out is not a hunter.  Dean killed his father years ago, who in a flashback looked to be a demon, and he witnessed the whole thing.  He tries to pick a fight with Dean, gets his ass handed to him, and distract Dean long enough for Sammy to get the cuffs on him.

So next week it looks like we are going to get Sam vs. Dean.  Had to happen.  Hopefully we can start to get an idea of where this is going.  Again as well, Castiel had some good scenes but it didn’t have any impact on the plot.  I really hope they fold him in to the story proper.

Here is next weeks promo, “Soul Survivor”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9LvZYJAeB5U

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Last night Variety let loose an exclusive that Marvel is moving ahead with the Civil War storyline!  Apparently that role that Robert Downey Jr said he would play in the Marvel movies that wasn’t Iron Man 4 is in Captain America 3, which will kickoff the Civil War story.  They went over the details on how it almost didn’t come to pass, and how this is the start of something that will carry over in to the next seven movies.

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This also gives insight in to the rumors that Disney has been working a deal with Sony to borrow Spider-Man for some of their movies while letting Sony retain the standalone movie rights.  Spider-Man was at the heart of Civil War, where the Superhero Registration Act required all powered beings to reveal their identities to the government and act as a police force.  They would get proper training, pay, and time off.  Basically making superheroes official, legal, and accountable.  Iron man was for it, Cap was against it.  At one point Iron Man convinces Spider-Man to reveal his identity to the world, to convince other heroes it was the right thing to do.  That didn’t end well.

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This is big news folks.  Huge in fact.  I cannot wait.

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In the new spirit of not recapping every damn turn of events, I want to say last night’s TWD was a great opener to what promises to be an exciting and gut wrenching season.  There were no major character deaths and it was as close to a happy ending as we ever get with this show.

Key take aways:

Carol is a badass.  She blows up the Terminus camp in one of the coolest effects the show has ever done.  She really saves everyone.  The whole cast fights like hell, but they never would have made it if she hadn’t intervened at just the right time.

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Rick also is in full ass kicking mode.  He doesn’t think twice about taking out the Terminus residents.  It is nice to see him finally be strong and focused for the most part.  I was also suprised to see Terminus Mary bite the dust.  When they cast Denise Crosby in the show I expected her to last longer than two episodes.  Silly me, this is The Walking Dead.

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Other than that, it was lots of action, and a lot more character development you appreciated if you watched the show.

Carol and Daryll were reunited in a very emotional scene.

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Then America collectively teared up.  I think we cared more about this than Judith being reunited with her dad and brother.

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Rick was on the ground A lot.

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And then after the credits and the preview there was a stinger!  I would have missed it if I wasn’t planning on watching The Talking Dead afterwards.

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Who is that man dressed sensibly for almost any apocalypse scenario?

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Morgan!!!

There is clearly a moral issue at the heart of this episode about judging those who have done what they had to to survive, when you have done what you had to to survive.  I am sure this is going to be explored more in depth as I do not think we have seen the last of the Terminus folks.

Here is the promo for next weeks “Strangers”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBrYKX2i4Sc&feature=player_detailpage