More Than One Lesson

It seems that as the quality of the The Walking Dead increases week-by-week, the moral convictions of its protagonists decrease. On Sunday night’s episode, entitled Clear, we discovered the fate of Rick’s friend, Morgan, whom we last saw back in the first season. As powerful as the scenes featuring the interaction between Rick and Morgan were, the scenes which left a lasting impression on me are the bookends of this episode.

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The past two weeks of The Walking Dead have raised a lot of questions regarding leadership, most notably the mental competency of Rick Grimes and his ability to effectively lead by example. Rick’s skills in the first two seasons helped his group to survive and persevere while learning to trust one another. they’ve been surviving and living, but in fear of anyone and everyone unassociated with them. From Glenn to Hershel, and most recently his own son, Carl, it also seems that the majority of the members living within the prison are having a difficult time maintaining confidence in Rick.

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After a 2 month hiatus, The Walking Dead returned on Sunday night. With it came the same level of tension strewn among each of the characters that was established earlier this season. After an opening that quickly resolved the last episode’s cliffhanger ending with a showcase of gunfire and smoke bombs, the episode steers back into exploring the current standing of Rick’s group, and how well he’s holding everyone within it together.

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Every few years, I take a step back, examine my taste in film and television, and realize how much it’s evolved. As a child, my favorite films and stories incorporated aspects of adventure, fantasy, and science fiction. As a teenager, my fascination with the juvenile humor found in raunchy comedies was a point in my life I now find quite embarrassing. I never get rid of the movies I collect, so I can take a look at my DVD collection (featuring some movies I never intend to watch again) and can see the changes.

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It’s going to be another 2 months until The Walking Dead comes back with another batch of 8 episodes to complete this season, and I’m immensely looking forward to it. In the past few episodes, the series has evoked feelings within me that I haven’t had since Lost was airing.

That reference might not sound appealing to everyone. To me, Lost currently remains to be my favorite show of all time. When it aired, I had never watched any of HBO’s original series, so the show introduced me to the possibilities and quality in a television show. The show’s run, and especially its finale, garnered a lot of backlash from viewers who had become invested and were dissatisfied with the show’s ultimate destination. What Lost all came down to, in the end, was its characters. Now, maybe I’m alone, but if I want to engage with and invest in a show, the most important thing for me are characters. While the mysteries and sci-fi elements of both Lost and The Walking Dead make them inherently geeky (a quality that never loses points in my book), what makes each of them great are the relationships, trials, and evolution of their characters. Similarly, while the show title of Lost was really referencing the “lost” state of the characters’ souls, I use the same approach when looking at the name The Walking Dead.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

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Recently, I’ve found myself truly engaged by The Walking Dead. Just under a month ago, I wouldn’t have believed that to be possible. Halfway through the second season, watching the series on a weekly basis had nearly turned into a chore. The show, like the characters within it, seemed to know that it had to eventually move in a certain direction, but was unwilling to pick up and move. I didn’t want to dislike the show. It had a simple and intriguing premise, which offered it the opportunity to explore some interesting aspects of human survival and perseverance. Within the first few episodes of this season, I felt like the show was finally hitting the right pace for my preference, and was finally beginning to explore human nature faced with a world that’s free of civilization and the laws that accompany it.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

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In my previous post I explored some Christian aspects found within Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. I had mentioned Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) as one of two characters whom I found intriguing from a Christian viewpoint, the other being John Blake (Joseph Gordon Levitt). The basis of both characters’ spiritual arcs depends on looking at the portrayal of Batman (Christian Bale) within the film as an allegoric representation of Christ. Through that lens, Selina’s arc mirrors that of someone struggling to accept God’s Grace.

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Since its release in July, I’ve had a hard time not thinking about Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. My interest in it began to fade late last month, but then I finally had the opportunity to see a 70 mm print of it on in IMAX, and my appreciation of it increased all the more. While I don’t think it’s the best film in Nolan’s Batman trilogy, it provides a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the story and character that was introduced in Batman Begins.

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A few weeks ago, a new series premiered on ABC entitled GCB. I had been made privy to the show a week prior, when an ad for it ran during the Oscar telecast. My first response was “what does GCB stand for?” The next day, I discovered that The show’s initial title was Good Christian Bitches, and was then changed to Good Christian Belles, then it ultimately became GCB. Apparently, ABC decided that leaving the B ambiguous and using an acronym as a title would draw more people in.

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Over the Christmas season, the primary gift I received was a nice collection of blu rays. One of them happened to be Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Upon this most recent viewing of it, it reminded me of how much I love the X-Men franchise and how compelling the character of Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is.

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