Creator Robert Kirkman and Producer/Showrunner Glen Mazzara Talk About What’s Coming Up on Season 2 of THE WALKING DEAD

On February 12^th, the hit zombie series The Walking Dead returns to AMC. Picking up just where the last episode and big reveal left off, that huge event rocks all of the characters to their core, leading some of them down surprising paths in the last six episodes of Season 2. While zombies are always a terrifying threat, a new human threat is looming, as the capacity for humans to hurt each other proves infinite.

While at the TCA Winter Press Tour, executive producer/writer/comic book creator Robert Kirkman and executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara talked about the slow build-up during the first half of the season, how the second half will accelerate the storytelling, the decision to introduce a new human threat, fan favorite characters from the comics who will likely appear sooner rather than later, the hope to bring Lennie James back at some point, and whether the possible concept ideas that former showrunner Frank Darabont had for Season 2 could ever have happened. Kirkman also talked about where the comic book series is headed, and the types of comic book titles he’s looking to release through his publishing label. Check out what they had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers:


Question: Where does the first episode back pick up?

GLEN MAZZARA: Five seconds later. After the finale, finding Sophia in the barn is just a huge event that rocks our characters and changes everything on the farm. So, I think the stakes are much higher and people are dealing with a lot more. The storytelling becomes denser and just brings everything to a full boil. 

Looking back, do you regret taking several episodes to look for Sophia?


ROBERT KIRKMAN: I think it was important to take the time to get to know our characters. It’s a good thing to lull people into a false sense of security, when the characters are experiencing a false sense of security. I think their time spent on the farm made the Sophia reveal that much bigger of a payoff, but is also going to inform just how the last six episodes are interpreted. I think, if they didn’t have that moment of calm, where we got to know our characters a little bit better and we got a sense that things were looking pretty good for them, this farm would have been a great place for them to be. In the next half of the episodes, we’re going to see that the farm isn’t that great a place. You have to build up what they have, before you can take it away. That’s really what makes the story more interesting. 


MAZZARA: Yeah, I think we have a story that we’re telling over 13 episodes. That first half had a great payoff, and the second half accelerates the storytelling. I don’t know if we’d say that we regret any of the episodes that we did. I’m proud of those episodes and, if some people feel that some of those episodes were slower than others, I could argue that we were spending time with our characters. 

Were you surprised that audiences had a hard time with the slow build?

MAZZARA: Well, I could make the case that that’s true for a certain segment of the audience. People have expectations about the show, and the show is a difficult show to write because, if we have a zombie attack every week, people say it’s the zombie-of-the-week. And, if we don’t have zombies, people say there are no zombies. So, it’s a challenging situation. I think that we’ve looked at making each episode as interesting and as compelling as possible. I think we get better at that, as it goes on. There might be some folks who would love for the show to be more of a video game. I’ll say this: the show is improving. If there were episodes that felt as if they were stalling, or that they weren’t under threat, and that perhaps the farm felt too safe and the threats were outside off the farm, a lot of that changes, in the back part of the season. I think that things pick up. It just becomes more accelerated. The stakes are higher, it’s more action-packed and it’s more interesting. By the end of these six episodes, hopefully those fans will agree that this is a thrill ride because we really do feel there are huge pay-offs, coming up in each episode. You won’t have to wait for just the last episode. Maybe there weren’t pay-offs, along the way.

KIRKMAN: I think that building to that reveal of Sophia was a pay-off that we were working towards, and I think we did a good job of working towards it. I would also like to say that the Sophia reveal is really the beginning of an escalation that takes us all the way through to the end of our season. We started out searching for Sophia, and then things got a little bit heightened, when we found her in the barn. That’s going to lead to a lot of conflict. That’s going to lead to a new threat on the horizon, that you’ll see in our first episode back, which is really going to dovetail into a big series of events that’s going to lead us to our finale. So, having that big escalation would not work as well, we feel, if we didn’t have those episodes. We recognize this criticism, and it is valid, but we are working on a 13-piece puzzle that, as a whole, should be seen in a different light. We’re hoping that, when it’s all put together, people will see that it all came together in a good way. 


MAZZARA: I think people will be satisfied, by the end of this run. You learn how to do a show, as you’re writing it. The story material reveals itself, so if there’s a way to break down that criticism and look at it moving forward, that’s valid. 

Read the rest of the interview here.

The Secret Circle, Season 1, Episode 13: Medallion

So, after completely destroying its canon in the last episode, Secret Circle went on hiatus for a week. Now it’s time to catch up and see if they can put the pieces back together again.

And we begin with teen angst. Adam just can’t believe Cassie dug up her father with Jake. I mean with Jake – how could she! And just when the sad Wed Lettuce eyes were finally starting to take effect, that’s so sad and mean! How could you not have invited Adam to your grave desecration! (Exhumation of her father’s corpse is less important than the fact she did it with Jake.) Adam continues to have a little pout about the big bad Jake.

I could almost, ALMOST, see Adam, the Wet Lettuce, as having a point by saying that she’s going really fast to find out about her power, taking risks, for no good reasons. Except he made common sense all about jealousy because the Wet Lettuce doesn’t want Jake coming between them (because they kissed once and now they’re fiiiiinnnnalllllyy together. One kiss man. One. I know it’s been a while for you since you broke up with Diana, Chief Scooby, but seriously, one kiss. Does that even count as an “us” for Jake to get between?) Never mind that there’s no real reason to be hurried here, never mind that there’s actually. Never mind that the Witch Hunter rituals are about 8,000 times less threatening than a guy just stabbing you with a nice, common knife.

Ok rant over. On with what I will call (with deep reservations) the plot.

Cassie meets Lucy Gibbons, a psychic who was on the boat during the big witch hunter fire. As a younger woman, she saw Cassie’s spectral self visiting Jake’s memory and told Cassie to get out – she’s not tracked Cassie down since her memory of that fire has changed to include meeting Cassie. And she’s here to warn Cassie about the Witch Hunters (the guys who really need to just get a gun). Then she disappears again.

This causes Cassie and Jake to do some unwise experimenting with dark magic, as you do, which ends up with them in awkward, accidental sexy hold while Adam comes and catches them. Angst and jealousy, yay. And Adam is again using Common Sense because they have a whole circle of magic to protect themselves – they should be playing with THAT magic that they don’t understand rather than Cassie’s magic that they don’t understand. What a choice!  

Cassie, naturally, chooses dark magic because Sexy!Evil Jake says so and they go tracking down Lucy who has a ritual to open up the Blacoin amulet to allow more lovely dark magic they can’t control. Sadly, Adam has decided he needs to protect Cassie from herself by stealing her amulet! Go go patriarchal, patronising control! Though Adam does redeem somewhat by giving it back and saying he has no right to make decisions for her. See, this is the problem with Spunky Agency, because while I think Adam is grossly out of line and patronising to try and make this decision for Cassie, Cassie’s own awful decision making makes me think someone has to! Also, again with Adam’s opposition being all about jealousy when there are perfectly sensible reasons to oppose Cassie’s black magic palooza.

The Vampire Diaries Season Three: Episode Thirteen: Bringing Out the Dead

 

When I reached the end of this episode, I kept thinking that the writers probably saw this episode as a real game changer, and then proceeded to laugh my ever lovin' ass off.  I don't even know where to begin talking about it.

Last episode, Damon finally got smart and pulled the dagger from Elijah's body, and sent him back to Klaus, with a note in his pocket informing him that they needed to have a chat.  This is exactly what Elena should have done when she returned the vampire cheerleader known as Rebekah to Klaus.  Elijah comes out of his coffin swinging, but then Klaus promises to tell him everything, and reminds him of his oath of loyalty to him. 

Before going off to meet with Klaus, Damon and Stefan have yet another spat, in which they both agree that they don't trust each other.  This of course has everything to do with Elena, because clearly they have both acted numerous times to protect each other from the threat of other vampires.  Beyond being a beautiful young woman, I simply don't understand the fascination with her.

This week, sheriff Liz got pulled out of the plot box long enough to tell Elena that the dagger they found in the dead man, only has her fingerprints on it.  Suspicion is immediately placed on Meredith, but Elena casts that aside, simply stating that she does not believe that Alaric can have that kind of bad luck with women.  Yeah logic, she has none.

In the meantime, it seems that Bill Forbes was attacked and killed when he was in the hospital, but because Dr. Fell had injected him with vampire blood to cure his wounds, he is now essentially a vampire.  All he needs to do to complete the process is to consume human blood. The ever so noble Bill decides that he would rather die than become a vampire.  Don't you love how self preservation instincts just flew out the window there.  I have never liked Bill and his aversion therapy, but he is the only gay character on the show, and I am disgusted that the writers so easily killed him off.  I am further disgusted that he choose suicide, because  he couldn't live with what he had become, in a culture in which gay teens are committing suicide. Is anyone who isn't a minority ever going to be in threat of dying on The Vampire Diaries?

Caroline decides that she is going to force Bill to drink blood, but Elena intervenes to lecture her about respecting Bill's choices.  Really?  Is this woman for real?  Since when does she support a policy of non interference? This is a woman who has had Jeremy's mind cleared out, and his memories erased on more than one occasion, though she knows that he is specifically against this.  All of a sudden she is advocating for the bodily autonomy of another.  I suppose that because this didn't effect her, and the people that she supposedly loves, allowing them to choose is no big deal. Hypocrisy much? Elena does take care to point out that she knows what Caroline is feeling, because her father is also dead. Funny, I don't remember Elena having to watch as her father chose to die, but yeah, she can empathize with everyone.

Caroline stays with Bill and he comforts her by saying that no parent is supposed to outlive a child, and that this is what it means to be human. Oh Bill, so noble until the very end.  He dies as Caroline holds his hand, and Liz watches with tears in her eyes.

In the meantime, who should show up but Matt.  They really need to give his character his own storyline or get rid of him.  What purpose does he serve?  At Elena's house they walk in and find that Alaric has been attacked and there is blood all over the house. Elena begins to cry and is upset because she can't lose anymore family.  She asks Matt to wait with her for Alaric to wake up. Question, how come the magical ring worked this time, but the last time it failed and Alaric had to have some of Damon's blood to live?  I suppose consistency is not something the writers are big on.  It turns out that the good doctor was in surgery at the time of Alaric's assault, and is now officially cleared of attempting to murder the council members. Ooooh the smell of more mystery and yet another bad guy.

Review of Blood Cross by Faith Hunter: Book 2 of the Jane Yellowrock Series

 

Blood Cross is the second book in the Jane Yellowrock series.  When we last left Jane, though she had saved the day, Leo, the master of the New Orleans was not pleased, believing that she had killed his son, rather than killing the killer of his son.  In Blood Cross, Jane must hunt a dangerous rogue who is creating vampires and killing witches. 

But things are far from that simple - with witch magic and vampire powers coming together to try and overcome the ancient curse of the vampires - the fighting of reveals far more about the history of vampire kind

Beast is still pushing Jane and we learn that any maternal feelings Jane has actually belong to beast who refers to children as kits.  I really like this division as socially it is falsely constructed that all women love children and feel protective and loving around them.  Beast also wants to mate, and Jane is worried that the closer they get to the new moon, the more likely that Beast will choose one from her two suitors.  I love that Beast showed no shame in her sexual desires, though did find it problematic that this suggested mated was meant to be a sort of completion of Jane.

Jane herself is a wonderfully strong character. She's driven, arse kicking, completely lacking in spunky agency, capable of looking after herself but not ridiculously over perfect. She has doubts and concerns but she is never weak with them. She sets her own agenda, and covers it in a lovely lashing of snark and defiance that never drops into ridiculous Keillie Independence. About the only thing I didn't like over much beyond the mated=completion was the age-old trope of the protagonist blaming themselves for things that are not their fault and beyond their control.

In this novel we are introduced to our first gay token however he has no role beyond a 2 second reference. His name is Deon and he is the new cook over at Katies.

On the monitor, I watched Deon, who was slight of form, about five-seven, and gayer than a nineteen fifties chorus-line dancer, as he washed his hands before tackling sushi. (pg 173)

We don't anything about him beyond that fact that he is gay and chef. The rest of the novel is largely spent on heterosexual and cisgender characters; however, there is still plenty of appropriation going on:

Bliss was still in the witch closet (or maybe she didn't know she was a witch?) and any mention of magic use made her uncomfortable. (pg 60-61)

This is but one instance of many in which Hunter uses terms like coming out, or closeted to talk about a supernatural creature revealing its identity publicly.  This language is appropriation and does not consider the harm that the phenomenon of the closet causes to GLBT people.

Hunter also through in some transphobia for fun:

Existence is not Entitlement, Erasure is not Acceptable

As we have often made note of in this space, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian, Horror, and Steampunk is often filled with the erasure of GLBT people (note: a universal erasure applies to trans people) disabled people and people of colour.  The default as with all forms of media is to fall back on the most privileged bodies at all times. And it’s wall to wall - not only will the protagonist always be as privileged as possible, but so will most of the people who surround them as well.

And in the few cases were marginalised characters do exist, all is not rosy. It’s very rare for us to get more than a single token character; in fact, sometimes we’re lucky to get that - often we will see the odd marginalised face in a crowd scene, or someone referred to in passing without any real ‘screen’ time at all. When we do have them, the characters are often hollow. They have no real traits or personalities, no goals, no personhood - they’re just a placeholder for the necessary inclusion cookies. And, were that not problematic enough, usually they exist to serve the privileged protagonists - side-kicks, best friends, entourage, never people in their own right.

Of course, in the few occasions when they do have some traits, they normally fall into ridiculous, stereotyped tropes that are hardly progressive and serve to further “other” them while maintaining the supremacy of privileged people.

As we have mentioned in the past, gatekeepers do effect the ability of writers to include historically marginalized characters; however, they are not solely responsible for the dearth of representation.  Just like everyone else, writers are born into a discourse that privileges certain bodies and unless they have made a conscious effort to decolonize their minds and consider a world which may be outside of their lived experience, the tendency to repeat dominant social narratives becomes normalised. Even with writers who are aware of this phenomenon, they often fall into the trap of hunting for inclusion points by introducing the gay uncle or a wise negro to fulfill what they deem to be a quota rather than investing in these marginalized characters to the same degree that they invest in characters that come from a dominant sub group.

And this erasure costs. Our children grow up forever seeing themselves as not worth talking about, their stories not worth telling. And when they see themselves? They see themselves as less, or they see some caricature that’s supposed to be them but is barely human. This is why even today when Black children are asked to take the “doll test” they routinely invest the White doll with all positive traits and the Black doll with negative traits. Children learn at an early age to internalize the negative images and messages created by media, and this inevitably follows them all the days of their lives.

Review: Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Book 7 of the Dark Hunter Series

Susan is a journalist. An investigative reporter. Or she was before she lost everything when one story blew up in her face. The scandal of her mistake brought her down and stripped her of everything, her job, her boyfriend, her reputation, her home and everything she owned. Now in Seattle, she’s reduced to writing shock headlines for a dreadful supermarket tabloid – bat boy and Elvis sightings.

And then her whole world is so turned upside down that it makes her paper’s convoluted headlines seem almost sensible. Her best friends are talking about vampires in the police department, she brings home a cat that turns into a gorgeous naked guy – that she’s allergic too. And police are battering down her door and accusing her of murder. 

Ravyn, the former Arcadian Dark Hunter, has his own problems. The Daimons have allied with the mortal authorities in an effort to bring down all of Seattle’s Dark Hunters. Already one of them has fallen, arrested and left in a daylit cell and he himself was captured by animal control in his cat form. Rescued by Susan, he drags her into a world where the Daimons have changed all the rules and the only safety he can find is in his family’s sanctuary – a family that loathes him and blames him for so many of their loved one’s deaths centuries ago.

Now they have to save the city from the Daimons, try to keep the Dark Hunters alive and deal with the added complication of familial angst, were-hunter bonding and Savitar dropping the enraged and troubled Nick Gautier in their laps.

And, of course, Acheron is never around when you need him

Ok I’m going to start with some social justice issues then come back to the plot.

We do have some POC Dark Hunters in what is becoming a habit – whenever you have group scenes of Dark Hunters you will get the odd few who are POC. They show up, we’re given quick introductions showing they’re from Egypt/Japan/Sudan and then, of course, they have to leave because Dark Hunters can’t spend too much time together without draining each other – which is great and has good storylines, but we end up following the Nordic Greeks and other European Dark hunters

And yes, I put in the Nordic there for a reason – I’m no expert and please correct me if I’m wrong, but these extremely tall, pale folks aren’t what I picture when I think of Ancient Greeks and Romans.

We has some GBLT-ish inclusion here. In that Stryker – yes the big big bad guy, the leader of the Daimons, the ultimate evil guy, was in an orgy of men and women, showing what a perverse evil bad guy he was. But the orgy may have just been for blood (Daimons and Apollites must drink each other’s blood).

And we saw Zoe (briefly, for about 10 seconds). The Amazon. The man hating Amazon. The man hating Amazon with a sharp tongue who gives Acheron grief. Guess what? She’s a lesbian! I tell you I am shocked, shocked by this revelation.

Right – y’know erasure was good. Let’s go back to the erasure.

As to Susan, the lead female character – I have to say I love her. She’s prickly, she’s snarky, she’s strong and tough. She has been thrown up to her neck in the supernatural but neither falls apart in a sobbing mess nor does she completely take it in her stride (which would be unrealistic). She can kick arse (albeit a little convolutedly) she’s sensible and she’s generally a character I love. And, unlike previous books, the love is fast but not ultra fast and they have a little time for lust and spending time with each other before the twu luv woo-woo comes down.

Cover Snark: Bring on the Mantitteh!

We have done several cover snarks now that show endless depictions of women in body twisted, leg cramping positions to show their spilling cleavage and asses firmly held in extra-tight leather.

After so many sexualised images of women in these ridiculous poses, we feel the need to balance a little: BRING ON THE MANTITTEH!

 

It may tell you nothing about the book, nothing about the plot and nothing about the characters but ripple, waxed torsos decorate many a cover and sell many a book. And, of course they’re wonderful code for the steamy content within. (Actually, since we’re not the biggest fans of Paranormal Romance compared to Urban Fantasy, we often regard the Mantitteh as a warning sign for a book we won’t enjoy that much - MANTTITEH! Be warned, humping lies within!)

Review Being Human, Season Two, Episode Three: All Out of Blood

 

Things continue to escalate for the worst with the three roommates.  After what can only be deemed a nightmare, a dark shadowy figure seems to be following Sally and she feels that it is out to get her in someway.  She is absolutely desperate for escape and when she learns that nurse Zoe Gonzales helps people to reincarnate into babies that are dying, Sally sees this as her chance not only to escape but to have a new life.  Neither Josh or Aidan are particularly supportive of the idea but do agree to sit down with Zoe to discuss Sally's potential.  Unfortunately for Sally, Zoe determines that she is too angry due to her attempt to kill her ex boyfriend.  In desperation Sally tells her that she is being stalked by a dark creature, but instead of softening Zoe's resolve this hardens it because in the body of a baby Sally would be completely defenseless. 

Taking things into her own hands, Sally enters the nursery when Zoe is not there.  She finds a little boy that is not disturbed by her presence and contemplates entering the child when the dark figure appears behind her, terrifying the child.  Sally screams for the dark figure to leave the child alone and pops out of the nursery.  When Zoe finds her, she is initially upset with Sally because of her initial intentions but agrees to help her because she chose to leave the child alone.

I decided to talk about Sally first mainly because Josh, Aidan and Nora's stories are interlaced to a large degree this week.  Josh rents two storage containers and buys a camera in order to record their change, but Nora is not enthused by the idea at all.  She wants to change with Josh, but he is adamant that this is dangerous. 

At the hospital, Aidan goes to use his key card to get some bagged blood only to discover that he has been locked out.  It seems that  the administration believes that the blood is being taken so that junkies can test clean on their blood tests.  This means that Aidan has lost his blood supply. For someone who is so determined to go clean, how is it that he didn't develop a back up plan? It's ridiculous because he has always known the repercussions of not being able to get blood when needed.