Syfy’s “Z Nation” S1Ep5 “Home Sweet Zombie”

Posted by Steven Lewis on October 11, 2014

After a rampant, blood-soaked four episodes into the first season of Syfy’s “Z Nation”, the fifth episode showed signs of slowing down the film’s onslaught of zombie bashing and disemboweling humans and drives a nail deep into the emotional side of most of the characters. This doesn’t mean that “Z Nation” is turning for gold to bronze, but rather taking a path change that will keep the show fresh because sometimes, you know, carnage can get a bit old (yeah, right!)

Roberta, Garnett, and the rest of the survivors land in Tornado Alley country where a nasty weather storm is brewing and they must find shelter before mother nature starts to rain down flesh devouring zombies on them. Low of supplies, they bunker down at Roberta’s hometown home while also trying to find her long lost husband who may or may not be one of the living dead. As the wind whips all around them with debris and, literally, zombies, Roberta searches for her husband while the others just try to stay bolted to the ground.

Like I was saying, “Home Sweet Zombie” focuses on more on character development especially with Roberta, Addy, Murphy, and a little bit between 10K and Cassandra. Roberta struggles with the memory of being called to National Guard deployment without waiting her firefighting husband to come out to say goodbye and in part the reason why the group goes to her home. Roberta, through the first four episodes, doesn’t lose much of her cool and, in fact, she is downright ruthless, but episode five gives her character more girth than an icy vein zombie fragger.

Addy’s memory is triggered by the thunderous storm outside. A memory that recalls the death of perhaps her undead parents – my theory. She becomes distant and paralyzed by quick flashbacks of knives giving mercy to zombies. This is isolating Mack from his ever-fun and beautiful girlfriend. Addy’s story will come soon and maybe in the next episode much like Cassandra’s story did – a two part episode displaying their background.

Being a possible answer to the human race’s survival, Murphy pessimistic attitude and outlook on life has been nothing but a pain in the ass for the team who didn’t exactly want to take this road trip mission to the west coast in the first place. Gradually, Murphy is coming around to the idea of being with the ground mostly because of the fun loving Doc character. However, Murphy is struggling internally. The virus antidote might not be working and Murphy feels to slow transformation into a Z. To thwart the group from suspecting his physical transformation, he shaves his head and facial hair making him even more creepy. His scene with one of the zombies speaks to this notion and we’ll have to see what happens with Murphy in later episodes.

The little thing between 10K and Cassandra is more sexual than anything else. The tension between them can be cut with a knife. Nothing really more to say there.

“Home Sweet Zombie” is the “Sharknado” homage episode. Both “Z Nation” and “Sharknado” are produced by The Asylum so there lies no surprise here that this idea was concocted. Plus, witnessing zombies fly through the area spattering into trees and overturned cars can’t be beat. You won’t see that on The Walking Dead. Not a bad fifth episode and I’m sure we’ll see mroe of our fair share of zombie massacring through the rest of the season, but take this episode for what that is – character development.

American Horror Story: Freak show… freakin’ hell

Posted by charlottekenvyn1994 on October 10, 2014

American Horror Story: Freak Show
Season 4 Episode 1 “Monsters among us”

Evan Peters as Jimmy Darling.
The scene in which he pleasures an ordinary housewife with his lobster-like hands.

American Horror Story hit our screens after a largely anticipated return. We were quickly introduced to Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) and the other characters. Jessica Lange performs brilliantly and it was a surprise to find out that she isn’t just fame-hungry. She’s paraplegic and fame-hungry. Evan Peters is back with lobster hands, playing Jimmy Darling. We meet the very likeable Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson). The relationship between the two is funny and very entertaining to watch. We see Ma Petite played by Jyoti Amge, who is actually the smallest woman in the world – claiming a Guinness Book of World Records title. Providing the terror in the first episode, and possibly the title, is Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch). If killing an innocent couple isn’t enough, he also keeps two young children locked up and terrifies them to the point of torture. “There’s a big story that explains the clown and what he’s doing that’s based on an urban myth we uncovered” revealed director Ryan Murphey. It is the fourth season that will explain to us what we are eager to know about Twisty, so stay tuned.

Kathy Bates comes across far too tame playing the bearded lady. Her acting skills are capable of providing a more sinister and malicious character… but this could be exposed throughout the season. We will meet Angela Bassett next week who is Desiree Dupree, the three-breasted lady (and according to her a “full-blown hermaphrodite”). We are also yet to meet con artist Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts) and strongman played by actor Michael Chiklis.

Erika Ervin, Jyoti Amge, Evan Peters and Mat Fraser (Amazon Eve, Ma Petite, Jimmy ‘Lobster-hands’ Darling and Paul the illustrated seal).

We know from the previous seasons to expect; brutality, rape, seduction, distressing scenes of violence, racism, discrimination and so on. Sensuality and seductiveness has always been a huge part of the show which has interested us, the mature audience, because of its candid approach. I have never had any issues with the previous scenes of this nature, sure I’ve been like “what the hell” during rape scenes but it’s never disgusted me to the point where I feel nauseous. That is until now. Prior to watching this episode I generally perceived that the freaks were ostracized from the “normal” townsfolk. I wrongly assumed that the freaks would be considered vermin, and that even making eye contact with one could result in receiving the cold shoulder from ordinary people living in the area. What I see instead is quite the opposite. In one scene Jimmy Darling, who has lobster hands, can be seen pleasuring regular women with his deformities. Women are literally lining up to pay for this. We see him moving his lobster hands towards the woman’s sex, leaving absolutely no room for doubt that he is prostituting his deformed hands. This left me feeling slightly bewildered more than anything because I just cannot believe that that many women, if any, would be sexually intrigued by this man with lobster-like hands. The moment of nausea smacked me in the face when we see Elsa Mars watching a video reel. A young woman enters threatening to expose all of the shenanigans happening behind the scenes at the freak show. It soon becomes clear that the young woman was willingly high on opium and whilst she was so, she took part in a sex orgy with the freaks. This is the most unsettling scene American Horror Story has offered us to date. Pepper getting excited like a child in the clip intensified my feeling of horror and I was left feeling utterly shocked. If the programme continues to show these depraved acts, which I’m sure they will, I’m not sure how much my stomach will be able to handle.

Jessica Lange and Jyoti Amge (Paraplegic and world’s smallest woman)

Syfy’s “Z Nation” S1Ep3 ‘Philly Feast’

Posted by Steven Lewis on September 28, 2014

Living in the Philadelphia area, the “Philly Feast” episode was quite the treat to see the “City of Brotherly Love” be taken over by the undead. Once again, Syfy and The Asylum grotesquely explode every bit and piece of body part in this episode never letting dismembered zombie appendages get old.

Z-Nation writers didn’t wait too long to bring in the cannibal group. Every apocalyptic show has a cannibal group. Z-Nation just happens to reveal them in episode three under the ruling thump of Tobias Campbell played by Rick Rivera (happy National Hispanic Heritage Month, Rick). Now, I love me some good cannibal groups because they’re always the wild card, but this group lacked pizzaz and notoriety. Pisay Pao’s Cassandra character couldn’t quite play up Tobias’s long pig enthusiasts. However, the ending result of the full on assault on Tobias’s camp was well executed in a ‘classical’ fashion. Cassadnra’s backstory now looks to be wrapped up tight and we won’t have to explore that anymore in the foreseeable future, but I still feel she has more to hide or she has more up her sleeve with her new found friends in Addie and Warren.

The scene with the Liberty Bell had me rolling with laughter and giddy with the sight of zombie bashing mayhem. Z-Nation continues to make the implausible plausible and yet somehow make it look totally believable with the ridiculous zombie fraggings and though I do like all the characters, Nat Zang’s 10K has to be one of the standouts. His sniper character is the hardest the kill and I’d like him to reach his goal of 10,000 kills.

Can’t wait for next week’s episode!

Syfy’s Z-Nation S1E2 “Fracking Zombies”

Posted by Steven Lewis on September 20, 2014

$frackingzombies$

Following a successful premier, Syfy’s Z-Nation follows up with a great second episode that develops more on a couple of character backstories while still raking in the gory bits and pieces of flesh and bone of zombie deaths. Z-Nation can deliver unsuspecting turns making this show unpredictable and entertaining.

Still considered to be a carbon-copy of The Walking Dead, Z-Nation slowly begins to journey itself away from the widely popular AMC series. I’m also seriously impressed with the special effects that Z-Nation (zombie stuck in the truck carriage, burnt to a crisp zombie, and zombie fuel tank) and while the series is not gored up by effects guru Greg Nicotero, there does lie some great talent behind Z-Nation’s blood.

The characters are starting to come to light with Pisay Pao’s Cassandra and her pack of dark secrets and as well as Keith Allan’s Murphy character and his struggle to maintain his convict past. Critics might be a bit harsh at first, but I think Z-Nation’s like-ability will come around with critics and see that’s not to compete with the drama of The Walking Dead. Instead, Z-Nation will stand on it’s own to dead feet and come out on top as an entertaining zombie series.

American Horror Story: Freak Show

Posted by charlottekenvyn1994 on September 18, 2014

It’s back! “American Horror Story” returns on FX for its fourth season: Freak Show.

The first episode is expected to air on 8^th October 2014 at 10pm. Hopefully we are provided with more gripping storylines like all the previous ones that we know and love. This season is set in 1952 and will follow a freak show trying to survive in Jupiter, Florida. Dark entities flood the town and both the outcasts and normal townsfolk must fight to survive the fearsome rush of darkness. Much loved favourites are back for our viewing pleasure; Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Grossman and Emma Roberts.

Slender man?

A two-headed woman, a strongman, a bearded lady, a fortune-teller, a three-breasted woman and a man with lobster hands are amongst some of the characters we will see. It is rumored that Slender Man may make an appearance and although this hasn’t been verified the Official Teaser #10 (see teaser below) backs this up. The video shows the legs of a tall man holding the hand of a little girl. His top half isn’t visible which intrigues us all the more. Slender Man is a mythical creature, inhumanely tall and skinny, who preys on little children. He is rumored to kidnap them but it remains a mystery as to what he does with them beyond this. If Slender Man and freaks isn’t enough, this season is also reported to feature a killer clown. Some people believe American Horror Story is mediocre, but most people are anticipating the return of the most suspenseful and nightmarish television show around. Don’t miss it!