2015 was a rough year for me (Mark), divorce, moving, loss of job, all kinds of great shit. However, 2015 is over, and 2016 will be the year of fruition.
For one thing this blog is something in which both Dale and I are proud. We regularly read through all the posts (which you should do as well, or your nose will fall off), and we both agree that we really stand by this site.
Dale of the Dead was originally designed to be Dale writing about video games, shows, movies, and hockey. He does all that, but we quickly added things like some of the funny texts between us, and then I started writing as well. It seemed to work.
I have had blogs of one kind or another (some naughty even) since 2007, since I am old as fuck. They’re fun and if you work them hard, and smart, you can actually make something of them. They’re the 21st Century equivalent of having a band. You can fuck around in the garage with other dads (remember I’m old), or you can commit and put together something that you can take to the bars, clubs, and maybe even further.
2016 is our year to take things further. It’s the year in which we get our own URL (that’s a big one), write more, promote more, do more. Let’s see what this blog can do.
My wish for you all is to make 2016 the year in which you do what you wanna. If you’ve a dream unfulfilled, make it happen. Even if you fail spectacularly you’ll have the satisfaction of having tried. Regret sucks. It’s way worse than failure. Plus if you try there’s a chance, however remote, that you’ll succeed. If you do nothing, then nothing is what will happen.
Metal icon and Motorhead frontman Lemmy died yesterday, aged 70. This should not surprise anyone, but it affected almost everyone. Lemmy was the top trending subject on Twitter yesterday, and is till in the top 5 a day later. That wouldn’t have mattered to Lemmy, but I think it’s incredibly telling. Twitter is not known for it’s high population of metalheads.
Lemmy’s death affected so many people not because of the loss of a metal god, but because he was Lemmy. A restrictive society like ours needs outliers like Lemmy, or Keith Richards, or Hunter Thompson. We need people to have fun for us, since so many of us can’t have fun ourselves. Someone has to live life for the rest of us, and Lemmy was one of those people.
anybody but lemmy
I never owned a Motorhead album, and I don’t think I know any of their songs, aside from Ace of Spades, but I was bummed to see that Lemmy is no more. He was an original. He was hilarious. He was wild. He was able to live a life being Lemmy, and people paid for that. Rest in Peace, Lemmy.
Mighty Dale Upon Hearing He Had A Dentist Appointment
Everything Dale Does Is Epic
Including Quailing At The Thought Of The Evil Dentist Scraping and Drilling His Teeth
Mighty Dale is with is family for the holidays, so he is incommunicado, even though he saw Star Wars on zero day, and was supposed to write a post about it.. no worries. No bitterness. Things happen. Of course, nothing happened but he just flaked because his process was disturbed by guests. Whatever. Thank you, baby Jesus, for Dale’s terror. It helped.
He was ambushed with the appointment by his mother, an expert in such matters. He was already home, in his place of weakest power. What choice did he have but to submit to the torment of the evil pokey drilly things.
As this text record shows, I was his rock throughout.
GLOSSARY: Dale and I have a sort of shorthand we speak, like twins.
Penus – Might, force, strength. Raw power
Hockey – A more specifically focused power.
Both of these forces are portioned back and forth to whichever of us needs it at the moment.
He needed fillings
Dale is big on drama
this is why I gave you the glossary
See? It’s not so bad
VICTORY
Gerard Butler has nice teeth, because he goes to the dentist.
In episode 8 of season 1, our beloved Ash makes the return to the cabin where it all began. As you recall he ditched his crew after getting out the survivalist camp, fearing for their lives. Amanda followed him so he at least has backup. Ash attempts to dissuade her from helping, telling her, “Dontcha get it? Everybody dies here. It’s just a rule. Death. Taxes. More death. And I don’t pay taxes so all I know is death.”
Ash vs Evil Dead keeps being awesome. That’s why we write about it.
Evil Dead Redux
Lots of Callbacks to the Evil Dead Movies
There’s no way to make this episode without comparison with the original Evil Dead movies. The show embraces that, making numerous references to the movies without being hamfisted. This episode felt like an extension of the movies, more than any other episode so far. Of course the cabin is a huge part of it, but the whole vibe, framing, and pacing match Sam Ramie’s films in a very accurate manner. It pulls you in wonderfully.
“Long time no see, Linda. Don’t get up.”
Brutal Brutal Brutal
This episode is the most brutal yet, in many ways (it’s no diner fight). Poor Linda (played by what I assume is a New Zealander with a passable American accent) gets it again, and not the she wanted (dirty girl).
In a very Scooby Doo way Pablo and Kelly meet up with more New Zealand people in the woods. I get it. The show films in New Zealand so why hire Americans to fill bit part, when you can hire local. They were totally good. Kelly cockblocks Pablo. I guess she has feelings after all. Luck guy, Pablo. Now seal the deal. Kelly’s sexy as hell and I love her voice.
RIP Amanda
There’s lots of visceral mayhem. Ash and Linda. Evil Ash and Amanda, Evil Ash and Ash… it’s crazy. I guess I’m getting “brutal” particularly from the manner in which Evil Ash murders Amanda. It’s rough, but also hilarious because of what he says in the image below. Perfect delivery. Right when you’re gutshot at Amanda’s violent end, Bruce Campbell delivers a zinger that’s already on a t-shirt somewhere, I’m sure.
“Now that’s what I call cleavage.”
Kelly and Pablo To The Rescue
After Amanda eats it, Kelly and Pablo show up, only to see Good Ash with recently deceased Amanda. Words are spoken then Ash and Evil Ash have it out in a fight straight out of Mel Brooks. Two words. Soft balls.
We end with a cliffhanger, and one less hero on the team. I hope no one else dies this season. I’ve grown attached to Pablo and Kelly.
This show is fucking great, and it’s about the only thing that is, in this television wasteland.
Class act. I’ve watched most, but not all. Ima give em a shot.
You’re The Worst Star Tweets Me
To Help Me Through The Dark Time
If you’re one of our regular readers (either one of them really. Hi Anita! Dale’s a good boy. He eats his veggies) then you know that I wrote of the emptiness I feel since so many of my shows are between seasons.
Aya Cash, who is Gretchen on You’re The Worst, tweeted last night about watching The 100. I asked her to tweet what she thought of the show, as I need something to watch in this desolation. She not only replied to my tweet (which is a thrill because she seems to be awesome), but she gave me a list of shows to watch. Nice job. She even tweeted the twitter handles of the shows, which caused a mini flurry of likes and retweets that continue still. She’s friendly, helpful, and a good social media marketer.
Mighty Dale wrote about You’re The Worst not long ago, and I think that it’s safe to say that You’re the Worst has a staunch supporter in this blog. One day that will matter. Then the streets will run with blood and screams will fill the air. As our blog grows we hope to be able to actually help the shows, and actors, we love. Until then we’re happy for the little things, like tweets from people like Aya Cash.
Alright guys and girls, it happened. The highly anticipated, long awaited Star Trek: Beyond trailer has dropped. Now i’ll admit it here, I’m a Star Trek guy, always have been, when I was a kid I had a toy Enterprise. No Millennium Falcon for me.
The Trailer
Mighty Dale Speaks
So let’s talk about the new trailer shall we. Star Trek: Beyond is the first Star Trek movie to not be directed by JJ Abrams, who is busy with Star Wars. Star Trek: Beyond is directed by Justin Lin of Fast and Furious fame, and fuck me, does it show.
So we start off with “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys playing, reminiscent of the first movie as it was playing when we were first introduced to young James T Kirk. So we have Justin Lin immediately trying to connect to the best film of the series thus far, ok. That’s fair.
We also see Scotty arriving what looks like the bridge of a ship that is not the Enterprise. Now, not only is Scotty on the bridge of this ship but so are Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. This looks to be a ship that is not space born leading me to believe this is some crashed ship that the crew uses later in the film.
Enterprise Entropy
The next shot we see is the beloved USS Enterprise getting torn to shreds by some kind of space swarm. Are these manned ships? I don’t know. They seem to have a swarming insect-like quality to them. This is immediately followed by wanton destruction, and Uhura and Scotty looking vexed. We then get a shot of Kirk’s reflection presumably in some sort of escape pod before we see the horrible sight of the USS Enterprise, the beautiful, mighty Enterprise getting DESTROYED……………..again.
WHY?!?!?!
Why can’t we just get a movie with the Enterprise and the Enterprise crew doing Star Trek stuff? Is that too much to ask? Apparently.
So we catch up with Kirk leaving his pod on some planet with the voiceover saying “We have no ship, no crew, I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this one.” It’s safe to assume the Enterprise has gone tits up and Kirk and Co. are trapped on a hostile planet. It also seems that they’ve all been scattered, Spock and Bones off somewhere together, Kirk on his own and Scotty in a dire cliff predicament. This is when the worst part of the trailer hits, apparently Starfleet training involves motocross, because that’s what we see Kirk doing, some kind of X Games jump on a motorcycle.
We then get our first look at Sophia Boutella as our nameless alien woman, and she seems to enjoy kicking the fuck out of bad guys, and using her staff (staffs are popular these days). There’s also a scene of what looks like San Francisco, where Starfleet is located, under attack by the very same swarm that attacked the Enterprise.
Not Again
God, I hope they don’t do another attack on Earth. We’ve seen that twice already. The crew has embarked on their 5 year mission into deep space. Enough with fucking Earth, please.
Sophia Boutella in Star Trek: Beyond
We then see a lot of explosions and stunts some fighting and possibly a look at Idris Elba’s thus nameless villain, who is scaly and kind of looks like a rejiggered Ferengi, but I doubt it.
Possibly Idris Elba’s unnamed baddie
Starfleet In Peril…Again
We then have a scene of Starfleet crew members being herded somewhere by our bad guys, with Uhura and Sulu look sufficiently terrified after seeing something horrible.This is immediately followed by a scene of Uhura screaming through a window, with a baddie behind her. Considering he hasn’t just killed her I imagine she’s being forced to watch something horrible happening to somebody she knows.
The final shot of the trailer is what I believe to be the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s motorcycle jump. He is being beamed onto the decrepit ship we saw at the very beginning, and he grabs Sophia Boutella’s character mid air and they both beam together.
Kirk grabbing Sophia Boutella mid beam
More Sizzle Than Steak
There’s not much in the trailer by way of plot, but there’s definitely more than a few hopes. Hopes that I can cling to. The main one being that they somehow take this movie off planet and back into space, with enough time to really make this a movie with spacecraft.
Sadly I think the Enterprise is done, or at least this Enterprise is down. If it stays as destroyed as it was when the crew abandoned it than there is no way they can continue their 5 year mission. However, one thing worth noting is that in the very beginning of the trailer, when it showed Kirk, Spock, Chekov, Scotty and Uhura on the bridge of a shitty looking ship, Spock is wearing a jacket with a Starfleet patch that says USS Franklin. It is my theory that the Franklin crash landed on that planet, and it’s the only escape for the Enterprise crew.
Now what we know about the USS Franklin is that it’s a Constitution Class Federation Starship, just like the Enterprise. Hopefully Kirk and Co. will be able to repair the it and get it in space, where it will become a new Enterprise. Or Justin Lin could just shit all over us, whatever. Happy Star Wars week, mother fuckers
You see the patch on Spock’s arm that says USS Franklin
Dale’s Columbo Impression
One more stray observation. Alice Eve’s Carol Marcus seems to be nowhere in this trailer. What the fuck happened to her? She left with the Enterprise crew at the end of Into Darkness, which means she left with the Enterprise on their 5 year mission, so unless they dropped her ass somewhere along the way, I don’t see why she wouldn’t be here. It’s a mystery. I hope this movie doesn’t suck.
I have been binge reading the books, and then the comics, of author Mike Carey, and I think you should as well. Mighty Dale and I discussed such above. huzzah.
Seriously, though, the Felix Castor books are absolutely top notch. Carey takes the template of his comic series Lucifer (which you should also read), and from it creates the world of British exorcist Felix Castor. It’s similar to both Constantine, and the Harry Dresden books, but of a higher order. The writing is very good, as well as the stories. Harry Dresden books are fun, but it’s not literature. The Felix Castor books run at a higher level, intellectually, while still being fun. Read them. Read them all.
Seriously. I am so glad I gave Mike Carey a try. He’s great.
There is no hope. You know it. I know it. Mighty Dale knows it. The only force moving my fingers on this keyboard is duty. I must use my remaining strength to leave a message to those that follow, those who have the fortitude to last until late January for shows like:
Supernatural
The Walking Dead
The Flash
Arrow
It Gets Worse
The shows above have abandoned us, but they will return, like Papa after a long bender. They’ll be back with fried chicken and a movie from Redbox. Some, however, are like mama. They just left with only a nicotine stained kiss that you barely remember, because you were asleep. Here are the fuckers who just bailed.
You’re The Worst – Season 2 is over.
South Park – Season 19 is over.
Sunbeams are just God pissing on us all
The most despicable of all teasing whores is yet to come. Game of Thrones, that hot girl who lived with you for a few weeks last year, and was the filthiest, sluttiest, dirty talkingest chick in the whole world. Where every night was a threesome with her even hotter friend? Yeah. Then she bounced with your Xbox and your brother’s ashes…. yeah. That’s Game of Thrones. That bitch will be back in April. Right after you can look yourself in the mirror again and say that it’s gonna be ok. She’ll be back and she’ll pierce your dick with her vampire fangs, and you’ll love it.
I know there’s one episode of Z Nation left, but that’s like having one beer in the fridge. Ash vs Evil Dead can’t do it alone, even though it’s great. It’s only half an hour long, and once a week. That’s like …. I can’t even come up with a simile. It’s not enough. It just isn’t. I’m going to start listening to Adele I guess. Fuck it.
Might as well just watch NCIS, or JAG, or … shit I don’t know. Cooking shows, I guess. There’s a shit load of them. That big headed chick with the tits is hot… I guess…. I’m going to lay down for a awhile. Wake me next month.
I watched Z Nation mainly because I love zombies, like millions of other folk. The first season was … just terrible. It tried to be somber and serious with “I give you mercy” and the like. Things like killing zombies with the Liberty Bell seemed stupid, rather than purposely cheesy, because of the incongruity with the serious tone.
When they repeated the joke with a giant cheese wheel, in season two, it worked. See?
That’s just ridiculous, but now that’s the point.
No more. Season 2 dumped all the pretense of seriousness, and just went the Evil Dead route. That was the best decision they could have made. SyFy typically churns out utter crap. They’re the Little Debbie of networks. That’s ok. Nutty Bars are fucking awesome, but they’re made to be eaten alone, in one’s room, all at once, in one marathon of self harm and loathing.
Z Nation is junk food but they embrace it. That makes it so much better. I enjoy it now. I laugh at the absurdity, and it’s obvious that the show does as well. That goes a long way toward making a show enjoyable to watch.
Season Finale Next Week
I really enjoyed last night’s episode (the penultimate for this season). It was everyone’s “origin” story. Nice, short, and to the point. I liked it. Doc’s was (of course) silly, but showed his native altruism. Addy kills her hockey team’s best forward (that was great), and everyone else pretty much is what you expect. The best one, imo, was Citizen Z. He’s in prison for an Edward Snowden kind of whistleblower/hacker thing, and the NSA offers him a deal.
Zombies. It’s as simple as that. Z Nation. Z is for Zombies.
Ah, You’re The Worst. I watched you one day out of sheer boredom, and you turned out to be one of the best shows on my long list of shows. Season 2 has just wrapped up an extremely strong season. We had character growth without losing the bastard factor.
When the show first started it was about cynical dicks being cynical dicks and interacting with other cynical dicks. The second season really pushed it to a new level.
I’ve heard the opinion that Gretchen’s clinical depression is a way to pander to young high school age girls who think their problems matter and believe that mental health issues is a way to make them seem interesting, a sentiment shared by our sweet friend and my co author Mark (Mark here. I never said that. I said it was stupid to humanize assholes on a show about assholes). (Dale again, He totally said that)
Feeeeelings
I don’t believe that Gretchen’s clinical depression was mere pandering. There is no way people can possibly be as shitty as Gretchen and Jimmy without some deep underlying issues. Where this season really triumphed was not in showing Gretchen sinking faster than a bowling ball, but showing how she was handcuffed to Jimmy and he was drowning too.
He tried so hard to understand what Gretchen was going through, but was completely unable to understand. Granted, Gretchen did eventually become annoying and her depression began to weigh on the show. I believe this was done on purpose to put the viewer in Jimmy’s position. Mark believes this was a bit heavy handed, and led to a couple of dud episodes.
Depression > PTSD?
One thing that annoyed me was Edgar’s PTSD. It predates Gretchen’s depression and it seems odd to not deal with that before springing more mental illness on us. It’s has been a source of laughter and was swept under the rug in favor of Gretchen. Mark sees this as evidence of pandering to 20/30 something yearning for love and meaning. A pillow fort and company is all it takes? Welcome back Gretch, we missed you more than you can know. Hopefully in season 3 we’ll truly tackle Edgar’s issues and the deep inner pain he must constantly struggle with. Edgar deserves peace too. Plus he’s not an asshole.
Slow Burn
The season was a slow burn, Gretchen felt off from the beginning, and that all culminated in her sneaking out of Jimmy’s house with her burner phone in the middle of the night. We all automatically thought she was cheating, but in the end she was simply driving to a spot she liked and crying alone in her car. After that it was all a slow motion train wreck. One thing about this season that rings true to the character is the moment Jimmy begins to flirt with the bartender Nina, and the viewer couldn’t blame him, Gretchen wouldn’t give him an inch. Remember? Assholes.
For an incredibly douchey and average looking Brit, Jimmy gets some top shelf women
Resolution
The finale was in my opinion the strongest episode of the series to date, everything seemed to come full circle. Gretchen wasn’t completely her old self again but she had made a giant leap towards becoming the Gretch we know and love. It also puts all the key characters in the same place, literally and figuratively. Like the season 1 finale, there’s another party at Becca and Vernon’s house, and again it turns into a disaster. Thanks in no small part to Vernon’s special trash juice.
The wonderful thing about the finale was found in the final moments. Everybody seems to be relatively good, and by relatively good I mean not completely shitty place. It mirrored real life. When it rains it pours but for the most part when the storms have cleared they’re all still standing. Some barely, but still standing.
dale of the dead 