Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Transgender Model Talulah-Eve Brown Threatened With Acid Attack



Model Talulah-Eve Brown, a former contestant on Britain's Next Top Model, has revealed that she was threatened with an acid attack and transphobic hate speech on the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Taking to Twitter to share her experience, she wrote, 'I'm never one to go on and on about the trolling I receive but when people threaten me with an 'acid attack' it's just hard to fathom what goes on in people's minds in order to say sickening things like that.'


A source close to Talulah-Eve told the newspaper The Sun that 'People can be so hateful and be quite ugly. She's used to being yelled at in the streets, even before she became famous. This acid threat has definitely knocked her for six. We've all seen how it's become something of a trend.'


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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters 2 #3 – Comic Review



Originally published on Set The Tape

‘The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are on the run. The ghost of Darius Dun, a crime boss whose assassination was ordered by Splinter, has summoned a group of demons – The Collectors – to abduct the Turtles, all in an attempt to hurt Splinter. Luckily, Donatello reached the Ghostbusters for help before the dimension-hopping demons caught up with him.

‘To confuse the trail, the boys in gray split up with the mutant heroes and went on random runs through the infinite dimensions. They take a quick pause to allow their portal technology to recharge, finding themselves in vastly different surroundings!

‘Peter Venkman and Michelangelo appear in Zoo Amsterdam, a city of anthropomorphic animals, where Peter was mistaken for a demon by that dimensions paranormal investigators – the Ghostbusturtles! Ray Stanz and Raphael found themselves in a frozen forest, ambushed by Scandinavian specters! Winston Zeddmore and Leonardo wind up on a world of pure war, narrowly defying death at the hands of an unfeeling army of androids!

‘Back in the Ghostbusters’ home dimension, Ego Spengler and Donatello work on a trap that will send the Collectors directly to the containment unit, a prison they can’t escape from… if the two teams can manage to trap them in the first place. Donatello has an idea about how to make that happen…’

The third issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters 2 continues the story of our two heroic teams working together across the mutli-verse to stop supernatural forces, whilst managing to pack a lot of fun and action into its pages.

Following on from the surprise little reveal in the previous issue that Venkman and Michelangello had discovered a group of turtle Ghostbusters in a reality full of animal people, Venkman gets captured by these Ghostbusters, who are named Harold, Dan, Ernie, and Bill after the original Ghostbuster actors (a very nice touch). This leads Michelangelo alone to rescue him. This is a great set up, because it reminds the audience, and Venkman, that behind Michelangelo’s humour and loudmouthed joking, he;s a ninja. He can track people, he can sneak into places, he can jump out of the shadows and surprise you. It’s also a good counterpoint to their story from the last issue, where Michelangelo has the emotional beats and didn’t get the chance to shine as an action hero.

Over in the snowy wilderness of the dimension that Ray and Raphael found themselves in, it appears that the two heroes have found themselves thrown out of their bodies and reduced to ineffectual spirits whilst their bodies have been taken over by Viking ghosts, who are using them to fight each other. Whilst this is great for Ray, who is absolutely loving that he gets to experience something like this and finds the whole thing fascinating, it’s the worst thing in the world for Raph.

Raphael is desperate to be able to take action. He cares about the things that he believes in so much that he’s always the first in line to put himself in harms way, is always the first to take action; so to be unable to interact with or touch anything at all is the worst kind of punishment for him. It’s a great decision to make him the member of the Turltes in this position, as it really challenges him in a way that we don’t always get to see.

Unfortunately, with the issue ending with him and Ray stuck in Ray’s body together things don’t seem to be resolved for the character, and I can see the next issue pushing him to realise that he will need to put aside his lone wolf style brashness and learn to work with Ray in a way that he hasn’t with anyone else in the past. It’s also looking like it will be allowing the creative team to further explore his emotional state and his motivations as Ray has already picked up on some of his inner thoughts and emotions, commenting that even when with his family he feels incredibly lonely. I very much look forward to seeing how this will resolve with the two of them.

Over in the Terminator apocalypse, Leonardo and Winston get a surprise appearance from a group of toad mutants, who manage to steal their dimensional travel device, forcing the two of them to fight to get it back. It;s fun to see Winston and Leo work together this way, the two most straight-laced members of their respective teams, Leonardo with his strict sense of training and discipline, and Winston with his military background.

Instead of dragging the action out it ends fairly quickly, in part because the book doesn’t have the room to have a full scale fight, but also to showcase how good the two of them are compared to their opponents, they don;t need long to beat them even if they are outnumbered. Back in the Ghostbusters home reality Donatello and Ego continue their work towards a way of trapping The Collectors, ans making an arsenal of proton powered ninja weapons. We get to see Donatello going one on one with a giant ghost armed only with a glowing staff, and the result is as great as you’d think.

The inclusion of proton powered weapons for the Turtles is a genius idea, and one that I’m eagerly awaiting the team to be able to use at some point. Whilst most team-ups mean that characters are able to come together to fight an enemy using their own individual skills, the Turtles fighting ghosts would never work without them being given proton packs, which takes a little something away from what they can bring to the table as ninjas. Giving them these weapons means that the two teams can work together whilst still being who they are, the Trutles can actually fight ghosts the same way that they can their other foes, and that’s a great concept. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we get to see both teams in action together.

What this scene also gives us, however, is a chance for the two members of each team who spent some time dead since their last team-up, a chance to talk through their experiences. It’s a unique experience that neither one can really discuss with their respective teams in the same way they can with each other. Here they have someone to talk to who has gone through something similar, who knows the kind of trauma and mental toil that they have experienced. It’s a great scene that gives a good look into the minds of both of these characters, espescially Egon, who very rarely opens up about his feelings.

The story is definitely heating up in this issue, driving towards the inevitable conclusion against The Collectors with both teams coming back together. Thankfully, the book is able to deliver both action and character development as it works to keep its players separate for now. It’s a story that could easily fall flat if in the hands of a less competent creative team, thankfully here it’s being done in such a way that it’s a genuine pleasure to read.


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Tuesday, 21 November 2017

CW Release Full Trailer For Crisis On Earth-X Crossover Event



The CW and Warner Bros have released the first full trailer for the upcoming crossover event between The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl, titled 'Crisis on Earth-X'.

When all of our heroes gather to celebrate the wedding between Barry Allen (The Flash) and Iris West, including Supergirl from Earth-19, Nazi's from a 53rd parallel earth, Earth-X, arrive to ruin proceedings, along with evil versions of some of our iconic heroes.


'Crisis on Earth-X' stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers/Supergirl, Caity Lotz as Sara Lance/White Canary, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory/Heatwave, Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe, Wentworth Miller as Citizen Cold, Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer/The Atom, Maise Richarson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe/Vixen, David Ramsey as John Diggle/Spartan, Rick Gonzales as Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog, Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt/Mr Terriffic, Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/Black Canary, Nick Zano as Nate Heywood/Steel, and Russel Tovey as The Ray.

The crossover event airs on 27th November.


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Labour MP Caroline Flint Wants To Protect Women's Spaces From Trans Women Who 'Look And Sound Like Men'



Caroline Flint, Labour MP for Don Valley, has spoken out against the transgender community on the Transgender Day of Remembrance in an interview with Evening Standard.

In an interview that begins with Ms Flint discussing being sexually assaulted on the London Underground, before she moves on to discuss transgender rights, and her fears that 'women are getting left behind in the trans debate'.

Ms Flint voiced her concerns that allowing transgender people to access women only spaces could endanger women and girls, 'Young women have told me that they have been in gender-neutral toilets and men have come in, not trans men or women but men, and been abusive and intimidating. These are everyday things, like Topshop making its changing rooms gender-neutral.' She said.

'With the best will in the world, in a changing room there are young girls wandering around in bras because it's seen as safe. Having men in there would change that. I don't know why debate around this has become adversarial. We need to think through how to support those from the trans community but not in such a way that compromises women's and girl's rights.'

Ms Flint then went on to say that she feels that transgender women should be excluded from domestic violence shelters, 'It's important that women feel safe there. It's difficult to judge if someone says they define themselves as a trans woman but for all intents and purposes look and sound like a man.'

The article continues on to include Ms Flint's fears that trans people are trying to impose transgenderism on children when they choose to dress in a way that doesn't match their assigned gender.

She states that she feels 'that a wider group of voices wasn't heard on the women and equalities committee.' The inquiry that she referrs to published a report in 2016 that called the government to make improvements to the Gender Recognition Act, chiefly to reduce the number of hurdles that trans people are required to go through in order to legally change gender.

Despite claiming that she 'absolutely supports trans rights' this is not the first time that she has spoken out against the trans community, having previously intervened in a debate in parliament claiming that gender-neutral toilets put cisgender women at risk of sexual assault.

At the time she cited evidence that cisgender women would be put at risk in gender-neutral toilets from a case where a student at the University of East Anglia placed cameras in gender-neutral toilet. After it was pointed out to Ms Lucas that the case in question was a cisgender man placing cameras in a female only toilet facility she still refused to retract her comments, even going on to complain about gender-neutral facilities because men 'urinate in the sink'.


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Supergirl ‘Damage’ Review



Originally published on Set The Tape

The latest episode of Supergirl pushes Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) to her limits as she faces the consequences of her past actions, and the series finally brings the brewing conflict between Alex (Chyler Leigh) and Maggie (Floriana Lima) to a head.

Lena Luthor has never had an easy time on the show. Being the younger sister of the worlds greatest villain, a man who stands against the worlds brightest becon of hope, means that she was straight away put into a position where she was tarred by the same brush before she could even make her on screen debut. When her mother turned out to be the head of a shadowy group that was trying to kill any alien and was willing to even put civilians in danger to do so, she was able to solidify her stance as being different from the other Luthors by standing against her.

Thanks to the Daxamite invasion at the end of the last season Lena finally showed the public how much she differed from her family when she helped Supergirl to stop the attack on Earth. She’s come so far and fought so hard to be seen as a good person, so this episode hits harder than you’d expect when it appears that she is responsible for poisoning a load of children, even if this was an unintended side affect of stopping the Daxamites.

McGrath plays Lena beautifully, and manages to play the anger and hurt that the character is feeling in very believable ways. It’s painful to see this very strong woman reduced to a mess, drinking alone, wallowing in her misery. She’s been such a strong person up to this point that it comes as a genuine shock to see her unable to handle the situation.

Towards the end of the episode when she confronts Morgan Edge (Adrian Pasdar) she’s taking a step down a darker path, one that is much more in line with the rest of her family, but you can’t really feel like she’s in the wrong for wanting to shoot someone who was willing to kill children just to get back at her. The fact that she even went on to tell Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) to let her die to stop more people from being put in harms way shows that despite this moment she’s still the good person we’ve come to know her as.


This episode manages to showcase just how strong the friendship between Lena and Kara is, with the latter refusing to allow her friend to give up and take the blame for the situation. I’d been a little dubious about their friendship in the past, but seeing it here it’s really obvious that it’s a good inclusion in the series, though there were a few moments in the episode where I was expecting Lena to reveal that she knew Kara was Supergirl. It seems like it’s only a matter of time until Lena does find out that Kara and Supergirl are the same person, hopefully this won’t be something that will drive the two of them apart, as this episode shows just how good their friendship is and it would be a real shame if we were to lose that from the series.

One of the things that the series has lost, however, is the relationship between Alex and Maggie. After a number of episodes that established that Alex wanted children, and that Maggie didn’t, this finally becomes an obstacle that the couple could not avoid. With neither side willing to budge on their stance on the matter it meant that their relationship couldn’t really go any further, and this episode they finally parted ways.

This may not be the last we see of Maggie, but it’s certainly the end of one of the better couples the series has had. Whilst it’s sad to see the two of them no longer together, and the end of the only long term LGBT+ relationship still happening in the CW’s DC Universe, it’s nice to see a television relationship end over very big real life things rather than the usual trope of one of them having been cheating.

The episode manages to showcase just how strong some of it’s female actors are, and even lays the seeds for further season arc developments as Samantha (Odette Annabel) discovers that she’s bulletproof. Whilst the series has lost a great relationship, it’s also showed just how strong the one between Lena and Kara is.


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Batman: The Telltale Series – The 5 Best Batman Games Ever



Originally published on Set The Tape

Batman has been around for close to 80 years, has been in thousands of comics, dozens of films and television series, and man, many video games. But with the character having been around for longer than we have, how do you know which Batman games are worth playing? Here’s a list of 5 of the best Batman games, ever.


 5. LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (PS3, PS4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Windows)

The third entry into the LEGO Batman series is definitely the best, with players not only able to take control of Batman and Robin, but a whole host of DC heroes and villains in a story of galactic proportions.

Like all LEGO games, the gameplay is simple, and appeals to both children and adults, though it does occasionally feature some rather fiendish puzzles. Despite this simplicity the game is very addictive, and will keep you playing for hours.

Because it’s story focuses on other characters from the DC Universe as much as it does Batman, it’s the least Batman centric game on this list, but still manages to keep the caped crusader at the centre of the game.


4. Injustice 2 (PS4, Xbox One, Windows)

The follow-up to the successful fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us, Injustice 2 stepped away from the idea of ‘what if Batman and Superman had to fight’ and took on a more complex story, one where that fight is over and Batman is trying to put the world back together.

This may be a fighting game that features characters from around the DC Universe, but it’s heavily a Batman story, more so that the first game. His characterisation is well thought through, and his interactions and relationships with other characters are enjoyable to watch, even when they’re with his enemies.

Thanks to a very strong fighting mechanic, challenges, and unlockable character customisation options, Injustice 2 is a very strong game with massive replayability.


3. Batman: The Telltale Series (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows)

Set early within Batman’s career, Batman: The Telltale Series tells an episodic story where you not only play as Batman, but as Bruce Wayne too. Taking control of both sides of the character you will investigate crime scenes, build relationships, and make choices that will shape the story around how you play.

Despite some people worrying how Telltale would craft a Batman game when it was first announced, their ability to tell an interesting story with well thought through characters proved to silence any doubters.

With a second season of the Telltale series being released soon the game may end up increasing in quality as they continue to tell one of the most compelling Batman stories put to games.


2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows)

The first game in the acclaimed Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Asylum stunned audiences and critics the world over as it produced one of the best Batman games ever made.

Fusing together a well made story (written by comics legend and long time Batman writer Paul Dini), seamless combat, and stealth, Batman: Arkham Asylum was the first game that actually made players feel like they were Batman.

With puzzles to solve and collectables to unlock the game managed to pace out its story without it feeling overly long, and set the template for how developers have approached superhero games ever since.

Let down only by a weak final boss, Batman: Arkham Asylum only just misses out on the top of the list.


 1. Batman: Arkham City (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, Windows)

The hotly anticipated sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City builds upon the first game and improves upon it in every way. The sequel offered players an expanded and more intricate story, new characters, improved combat, and a new place to explore.

Having expanded upon the first game in size and spectacle, Batman: Arkham City is the high point of the series, and is still one of the best gaming experiences available on consoles. Incorporating dozens of nods to the comics, and even bringing obscure characters into the series, Batman: Arkham City remains the best Batman game on the market.


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Monday, 20 November 2017

Assassin’s Creed - 10 Years On



Originally published on Set The Tape

With the latest game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Origins, newly available, and the series celebrating the 10th anniversary of the game that started it all, now seems like a good time to take a look back at the original game in the series.

Assassin’s Creed was one for the first games that I picked up when I bought my Xbox 360, along with Gears of War and one of the Ghost Recon games. I didn’t like it the first time that I played it. I’m not sure why, but there was something about the early stages of the game that just didn’t click with me. After a few days of playing it I ended up putting it aside, and even went and traded it in a few weeks later.

It wasn’t until years later, when I played and loved Assassin’s Creed 2, that I thought about going back and trying the first game again. This time, I absolutely loved the game. I don’t know why it didn’t click with me first time round, but I came to realise that it was one of the better early games on the Xbox 360. One of the things that I enjoyed the most about the game was the level of freedom that it gave you. It wasn’t an Elder Scrolls game, you couldn’t just go anywhere and do anything, but it was far from rigid in the way that it let you progress the story or completed your missions.

The game designed itself around this semi-rigid structure, building the world around you as you progressed through the story, yet giving you multiple options on how to traverse the environments, which included the free-running. Thanks to the success of the series, and the fact that many other games have tried to emulate (or outright copy) this, it’s become just another game play mechanic, but at the time the ability to scale buildings and leap from roof to roof was extraordinary, and one of the features that drew many gamers to try out the game simply to see it in action.


Whilst the game hadn’t yet perfected this, or the combat system, these would prove to be very solid foundations that the franchise would build upon over the last decade. Despite some elements that make the game stand out, there are a few areas in which the game really does drop the ball quite a bit. The segments of the game that are set in the modern day are very jarring, not least because there’s very little to do in these moments. This is something that the later games would go on to correct, having you fight people and traverse building sites, yet here the modern day sections simply bring things to a halt.

Whilst the main body of the game doesn’t suffer from this kind of dullness, it does struggle in some other ways, particularly in how annoying NPC’s can get. Within an hour of playing the game you’ll have heard pretty much every line of dialogue that the civilian characters have, meaning that you’ll get annoyed when you hear the same phrases spoken time and time again. If you can overlook some of these design flaws, and some clunky controls that haven’t yet been perfected, there’s a good game to be found here, with some interesting game play elements, collectible challenges, and mysteries to be unlocked.

Possibly overshadowed by some of the later games in the series, Assassin’s Creed is the title that started it all, and well worthy of another look by people both new to the franchise, and veterans of the series.


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Star Wars: Rebels 4×03 – ‘In The Name Of The Rebellion Part 1’ – Review



Originally published on Set The Tape

The third episode of Star Wars: Rebels final season finally reunites the crew of the Ghost on the Rebel base on Yavin 4. After an opening two parter that only showed Hera (Vanessa Marshall) in holographic form, and didn’t show Zeb (Steven Blum) at all, it felt slightly jarring to suddenly have the band back together, though it was welcome. After the wait between seasons (and then two extra weeks) it was good to see the family reunited, even with the newer additions like Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and Kallus (David Oyelowo) in the mix.

Unfortunately, the episode seems to be all geared towards a point where it would split the group up yet again to go into the second part of the story. Hopefully this will be something that the season will refrain from doing too much. Whilst it is always good to have an episode or two spotlighting a particular character, with so little time left with the crew of the Ghost I want to see as much of them together as a family as possible.

As well as bringing back all of the regular cast, this episode also brought in two of the big leaders for the Rebellion, Senator Organa (Phil Lamar) and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly). With the series looking set to spend a lot of time on Yavin 4 now that they’ve lost Chopper Base, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of the inner working of the Rebellion, especially at this pre-Rogue One point, where they are less inclined to take direct action against the Empire.

‘In The Name of The Rebellion’ not only looks at the rebels, but expands upon their relationship with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) that was hinted at in Rogue One, and goes a long way to explain why he and the rebel leaders don’t get along. Despite being on the same side of the conflict, there’s a very different clash of viewpoints as far as how to take action goes.

Saw is a freedom fighter that has lost too much and been fighting too long, sliding further and further away from the man he started as and becoming so close to a terrorist. Whilst it’s only hinted at in the episode that Saw doesn’t care about civilian casualties, in some of the Expanded Universe lore Saw is more than happy to kill hundreds of people at a party just because it will hurt the Empire. He’s not a pleasant person, and we’re beginning to see that more here as he argues with Mon Mothma.


It’s sad that Ezra (Taylor Gray) appears to be buying into Saw’s idea of taking more outward action against the Empire. Perhaps it’s because he’s still a young man, or maybe because he doesn’t know that kind of person that Saw really is, but it feels like something of a step backwards for the character.

The action is fairly light this episode, and whilst the scenes at the Imperial relay station do get quite creative with the characters on the moving satellite dish, it does feel like it lacks some of the spark that previous episodes have given us. However, if episodes are willing to give more time over to character development and universe building the way this one has, I’m willing to lose a little action for that.

The episode ends with Ezra and Sabine (Tiya Sircar) having to flee their mission with Saw and Ediro Two Tubes (nice Rogue One callback). How this will play out is anyone’s guess, though I am hoping that by the end of the second part Ezra will have come to realise that perhaps Saw’s way isn’t the best after all, reaffirming his commitment to doing things the way the Rebellion wants.

Whilst not a particularly strong episode in itself, hopefully it will go on to work well as part of the larger story that is being told once the second part of the story airs.


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Batman: The Telltale Series – A Few Other DC Characters Who Deserve Their Own Game



Originally published on Set The Tape

Telltale are continuing to wow audiences with their incredible character driven video games, and are now about to release a second series of their much beloved Batman title.

With so many wonderful characters in the DC Universe to choose from, who else would deserve a Telltale game of their own?


Booster Gold

The greatest hero you’ve never heard of. Booster Gold is a hero from the future, who travelled back to modern day to seek fame and fortune. After becoming one of the guardians of the timestream alongside the Time Master Rip Hunter, Booster learnt to be a real hero as he protects all of reality.

Booster is a hugely underrated character, and one that deserves a video game focus. With the ability to travel throughout time, this opens the door to any setting, and the ability to have decisions in the past affect future settings, something that Telltale would do brilliantly.


 John Constantine

 John Constantine is a magician, and an arsehole. A working class occult detective, Constantine is known for his cynicism, ruthless cunning, and constant smoking. Despite outward appearances of not caring, Constantine is driven by a passion to do good and combat the evil forces in the world, even if it costs his own soul.

A game centred on Constantine would be able to combine both classic superhero elements, as well as a darker horror vibe. The game would be able to draw on the DC universe’s deep occult mythology to show gamers a side of the comics they’ll not have seen before.


 The Flash

With the popularity of The Flash television series, it would be easy to make a leap into video games for the character.

The game would be able to take a similar approach as the Batman game, splitting the action between The Flash and his alter ego, Barry Allen. The Flash could handle the action when it comes to fighting villains, whilst Barry could use his forensic scientist training to solve a mystery of who the villain is and how to fight them.


The Green Lantern Corps

 The Green Lantern Corps are the intergalactic police force of the DC Universe, made up of thousands of members from across the universe. The GLC offers the chance to have an extensive cast of characters to draw upon.

Telltale could easily craft an interesting and engaging super hero/cop drama mash-up story from the source material, and can set action literally anywhere within the universe. Possibly the biggest scope possible within the DC Universe, there’s very little limit to what could be done with the Green Lantern Corps.



 Teen Titans

The Teen Titans are easily one of the most popular and recognisable superhero teams around. With dozens of members to choose from, including some of the most iconic characters in the DC Universe, there are so many variations of the team for Telltale to draw upon to create their own story.

A game based upon Teen Titans could split episodes between characters, shifting the player from one team member to another, it could focus on the drama of having a group of teenagers living and working together, and it could even include their most iconic villain, Deathstroke. With so many of the heroes and villains of Teen Titans so beloved by fans it would lend itself well to video game development.


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The Walking Dead 'The Big Scary U' Review



The season of 'All Out War' continues at a slow pace in this latest episode as we're given a look into some of the inner workings of the Saviours, and get to see a different side to Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as we catch up with him and Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) trapped by a group of walkers.

Negan has been something of a one note character since his first introduction, a man to be feared, someone that commands the respect of his people, someone who forces women to be his wives/sex slaves, and a guy who keeps making awful dick and ball jokes whilst talking about people shitting themselves.

Other than the intensity of his first appearance and the killing of both Glenn (Steven Yeun) and Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) Negan has been something of a let down, constantly swaggering around talking lick a college frat boy and trying to look tough through sheer force of numbers backing him up.

This episode, however, adds a little more nuance to the character. We learn that he is very much keeping his people together, with the Saviours falling apart without him around to keep order. In the few hours he was trapped inside the trailer with Gabriel we see that his people have to deal with power and supply problems, a mutiny from the workers, and in fighting between their leaders. Whilst this does add credence to Negans statements that he helps people by keeping order, the fact that so much went wrong without Negan around for a few hours was quite ridiculous. Do the Saviours experience these difficulties every time he leaves the Sanctuary for more than five minutes?


Despite this slight ridiculous over exaggeration of just how quickly their small society falls apart without one man, we get some good scenes between him and Father Gabriel, particularly the insight into Negans past and his first wife, who died of a long term illness when the apocalypse happened. Unfortunately, half of these scenes are dragged down with more of Negan constantly talking about dicks, balls, and shitting.

It's a shame that the character is reduced to having to make these kinds of comments, to be reduced to puerile banter instead of being able to be a grown-up. We saw in his first appearance that he can be menacing, we've seen here that he can be quiet and contemplative, even deep, so please, stop making him so stupidly irritating.

The episode also shoehorns in some scenes with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Daryl (Norman Reedus), as they continue on from their story in the previous episode where they try to capture some large calibre weapons. Whilst that in itself is all well and good, and carries on the story of the conflict between the two opposing forces, having the two characters disagree about how to proceed and get into a physical fight feels so pointless.

The show did this a couple of weeks ago when Jesus (Tom Payne) and Morgan (Lennie James) did the exact same thing in regards to killing Saviours. If this was the first time this had happened it would still feel out of place, but at least wouldn't feel like a rehash of an idea that was dull weeks ago.

The Walking Dead appears to be struggling to keep quality and story going as it takes interesting concepts and character development and bogs them down in ridiculous dialogue, over the top moments, and poor storytelling decisions. It's of little surprise that the series is suffering with its lowest ratings since 2011.


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