And yet again it's Manic Monday. The most despicable day of the week, the most relentless and vile day there is, ripping us out of the snugly comfort of the past weekend and throwing us head first back into the grey routine of everyday life.
But rest assured that there are ways and means to brighten this grim day. Today, I give to you two videos from the official Vanity Fair YouTube channel featuring Ross Marquand. Most of you might know him from his portrayal of Aaron on The Walking Dead. However, Marquand is not only an actor, he's also a masterful impersonator.
So, in order to relax a bit on this least favourite of days, lay back and enjoy watching Marquand do some spot-on nano-impressions of a whole bunch of popular movie stars.
Do you know what it’s like to watch a TV show and you really get sucked into the story and feel all the joy and pain of your favourite characters as though it was your own? And do you also know those moments when the intriguing world of the show is invaded by one or often even more characters, whom you come to hate from the bottom of your heart, so very, very much that you go down on your knees and pray to some higher entity for them to die a terrible death?
I’m sure that you all know what I’m talking about (or at least I hope so) and the face of that very character is probably ghosting through your head right now. Does wishing for someone to die make us bad people? I don’t think so. I mean the directors likely meant to provoke that very reaction in their viewers. Otherwise I really can’t comprehend how they can make some of their characters so utterly detestable.
So here’s my Top 3 of characters on whose graves I’d like to be dancing.
To be honest, I watched Finn’s death with a teeny-weeny tear in the very back of my eye, after all, the Spacewalker used to be my favourite character in the entire show. But that’s the thing. He used to be… In the first season of The 100 Finn Collins (Thomas McDonell) was funny, charming, brave and most importantly he had some spine. He did not bow to Bellami’s initial rule of “Whatever the fuck we want” and was always the first to oppose violence. He also did cheat on his pretty awesome girlfriend, but I’ll leave that aside for now.
In season 2, the camp’s “voice of reason” turns from a pacifist to a cold-blooded madman and only because his new girlfriend Clarke (Eliza Taylor) vanishes. Finn is so obsessed with finding her that he casts aside all his former principles and just goes about killing everyone he only assumes to be remotely connected to Clarke’s disappearance. And everyone around them, too, for good measure. This change in my former favourite was just a pain to watch (especially because it wasn’t even well done.) That’s why I was almost glad Finn died, after he finally got a chance to redeem himself to some extent, before the directors could get another chance to drag his character through the mud.
I think I don’t have to justify Joffrey’s presence in this ranking. Doesn’t everyone who watches Game of Thrones wish for his death from the very moment of his first appearance in the show? You really have to hand it to actor Jack Gleeson for portraying his role so brilliantly malicious that he could make an entire fandom hate him.
After all the atrocities he put the Stark family and his uncle Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) through, and not to forget his prepubescent yells of “I am the King”, I spent pretty much all of his screen time whispering “die already” to myself. And that although I knew from the books when exactly it would happen.
So when his wedding with Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) finally took place, my nerves were raw with anticipation. My hatred for him rose into unimagined heights as he humiliated his uncle, and then the moment was finally there. He drank his wine, staggered, began to choke on his own vomit and my face was split in two with a gloating grin. A truly befitting death for the most pathetic king of the Seven Kingdoms. And if you think my reaction to the death of a fictional character was exaggerated, have a look at this compilation of purple wedding reactions:
I’ve had a very hard time deciding whether to put Joffrey of Andrea on the top of my list and as you can see Andrea won the race. After all, Joffrey Baratheon had a great impact on the plot of his show. I don’t think the same is true for Andrea (Laurie Holden). If there has ever been a useless and painfully annoying character in the history of television, then it’s without a doubt her.
Especially the first seasons of The Walking Dead have an abundance of terrible, unlikeable characters and you wouldn’t really mind if all of them died (and in the course of the show most of them do, actually.) I could have filled the entire list solely with The Walking Dead characters. Therefore picking out the worst of them was by no means an easy task, but in season 3 Andrea literally annihilated her competition. It already started in season 2, when she is anxious to prove herself capable of handling a gun and then almost shoots Daryl (Norman Reedus) in the process. And it only gets worse from then on. She abandons her friend Michonne (Danai Gurira), without whom she wouldn’t even be alive to begin with, and then hooks up with the Governor (David Morrissey). Andrea was the worst possible mash up of selfishness, stupidity and stubbornness and we’re really glad she’s finally gone for good.
I hope this post was a refreshing change to all the sappy Christmas stuff. Feel free to satisfy our curiosity and tell us whose death you celebrated or which characters you would like to see dead.
Has there ever been a person on this planet who said “Daryl Dixon? Nah… don’t like him.” Of course not, at least no one who watched past the first few episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010 - ). So how come that a character, who was created solely for the TV show and is not even a part of the comic books, commands such unconditional love from The Walking Dead fans?
When I started watching The Walking Dead I was vaguely aware of the hype going on around Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), but when he made his first appearance I thought that’s THE Daryl? He wasn’t really what I expected. I mean his first words on the show were “Son of a bitch” shortly followed by “All gnawed on by this…. filthy, disease-bearing motherless poxy bastard!” and all this while kicking against the carcass of a deer that has been mutilated by a walker. So the first impression he left was that of a short-tempered, vulgar redneck with anger management issues, the kind of guy you’d feel uneasy about meeting at night in a deserted alley. And while the following episode about the search for his no less angry, vulgar and in addition to that also racist brother didn’t alter the aforementioned impressions, I did begin to warm up to his character. And more and more so with every further episode. The qualities that made me frown at the beginning have come to appear as some of his best qualities against the backdrop of the raging Zombocalypse.
While most of the people around him just seem to be playing camp, Daryl is the real deal. He’s a survivalist, the natural enemy of the walkers. He has abilities that seemed redundant and old-fashioned in the modern world, but are more needed than ever in these post-apocalyptic times. Daryl can hunt his own food, read tracks, he has a great sense of direction and sharp instincts plus he can use a crossbow, which seems like a better suited weapon than a noisy, walker-attracting gun.
We don’t know much about his past, but Daryl says: “You want to know what I was before all this? I was nobody. Nothing.” And I believe he believes that to be true. The Dixon brothers grew up in a mountain region in North Georgia. Their parents were both alcoholics and their father apparently also physically abused them. Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) spent a lot of his youth in juvenile detention and left Daryl alone to fend with his father, claiming later he didn’t know he was beating him, too. There is no indication in the show that either Merle of Daryl ever had a real job or had any access to higher education. Merle was a drug addict and after being dishonourably discharged from the military, he only drifted through life, taking his brother along with him, who did everything he told him. So by today’s standards you could say they were both nobodies, people who didn’t possess any value to society. But that drastically changes once everything goes down the drain.
There is a paradigm shift and what used to be important for humanity, like formal education, politeness, fashion and culture, gave way to the only thing that matters now: the art of survival. So it’s not surprising that throughout the show the tough, ruthless individuals seem to fare the best. But don’t get me wrong, Mr. Dixon is nothing like that. Of course he’s tough – he’s got the biceps, the loose tongue and the guts to prove that, but he is by no means ruthless. Quite the contrary. He and Glenn (Steven Yeun) are probably the most good-hearted characters on the entire show.
Daryl appears to be a lone wolf at heart, being not particularly fond of company, feeling trapped when confined by four walls and preferring to stay outdoors, despite the possibility of walker attacks. Not to forget that he is riding a motorcycle, again despite the possibility of walker attacks, although there is more than enough room in the cars with the others. Nonetheless, he never seems to lose his faith in humanity and is loyal and caring towards his friends. He never turns on Rick (Andrew Lincoln), despite his oftentimes questionable decisions, and keeps on searching for Carol’s (Melissa McBride) lost daughter Sophia (Madison Lintz), even long after her own mother has given up on her. Then there is his brother. Although Daryl condemns Merle’s actions towards the rest of his group, who have come to be like a family to him, he’s nevertheless averse to leaving his brother alone. And since there is no way for Merle to become a part of the group again for obvious reasons, Daryl decides to leave it, too, out of a sense of responsibility towards his flesh and blood. Admittedly, when watching that scene, all I thought was “Noooooo!” But actually, the fact that Daryl sticks so unconditionally to his brother made him rise even further in my estimation. He’s not the kind of person to leave anyone behind, just because it might be the easier, more comfortable thing to do.
Never one to shun potential dangers or confrontation, Daryl is usually the first to volunteer for whatever needs to be done, and by now there is probably not one member in their group who has not, at some point, been saved by Daryl or relied on his aid. He is the kind of guy you want to have around when the world is nearing its end. Whenever he’s on screen, it feels like everything is going to be okay somehow, so in case of danger: Keep Calm and Hide Behind Daryl Dixon. He even took out a freaking TANK all by himself. How badass can you get? And apparently the need for a Daryl transcends the realm of the show. Just have a look at this picture Norman Reedus uploaded on his Facebook page:
It takes a while for him to open up to those around him and lower his guard, but the realisation that he is a cherished, indispensable part of the group and of course his growing friendship with Carol, clearly help speed up the process. It’s like Carol tells him in the first episode of season 4, “you’re gonna have to learn to live with the love.”
here we are again. It's Manic Monday and as it happens it's also "Embrace your Geekness" day. And what a fitting day for it to be "Embrace your Geekness" day the Monday after San Diego Comic Con.
Whether you are still recovering from your #SDCC experience or just need a little pick-me-up at the start of the week, let's take a look back at a few exciting things that happened in San Diego this weekend:
First off, how about that Star Wars panel, eh?
And what about the new Batman v Superman trailer? Gives us a whole new perspective on the movie compared to the first trailer we got don't you think?
Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful 8 is looking sharp and mysterious in this new film poster:
Fans got to see a new Mockingjay Part 2 trailer at one of the biggest SDCC panels:
Lovers of British quality TV got treated and teased to news on Sherlock and Dr. Who:
Those preparing for the zombie apocalypse got what they paid for with a season 6 trailer for The Walking Dead.
Of course any proper Comic Con recap that's worth anything has to have an honorable mention for geek gods Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion's new project Con Man. So here it is:
Phew, that was a lot! And that's not even scratching the tip of the iceberg of what was going on this weekend. What were your SDCC highlights? Let us know in the comment section below or on our social media.
Fran Darabont, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert, Robert Kirkman
Starring
Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Lauren Cohan, Chad L. Coleman, Michael Cudlitz, Jeffrey DeMunn, Danai Gurira, Laurie Holden, Emily Kinney, Andrew Lincoln, Melissa McBride, David Morissey, Norman Reedus, Chandler Riggs, Michael Rooker, Scott Wilson, Steven Yeun
Guest Stars Worth Mentioning
Synopsis
Based on the eponymous comic book series by Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead deals with the fate of a group of survivors in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. They search for someplace safe, but the masses of “biters” and “walkers” make that a nearly impossible endeavour.
Yay or nay?
The Walking Dead is the ideal show for fans of World War Z or the Resident Evil movies and video games. But even if you haven’t (yet) succumbed to the current zombie hype, the show provides you with lots of drama, love triangles and of course many an action scene that’ll make your heart beat faster.
