G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Yeah, I saw G.I. Joe: Retaliation on Easter morning.  No church for me, thanks.  Truth be told, it was more Mike's pick than mine, but it's not like I protested.  I'm always up for some mindless gun porn entertainment.

And that's exactly what it was.  Do you want to see The Rock walk around explosions in slow motion? If you're an American, the answer is yes.  Do you want to see guns, guns, and more guns?  Duh.  Do you want to see Bruce Willis sleepwalk his way through a role that, well, doesn't really require anything more than sleepwalking? Of course you do.  What's not to love about all of these things?  Swords and stunts and explosions and rock music and fighting for "America."  Love it.

Just don't expect a riveting plot.  Or a movie that doesn't feel like it's 2 different movies going on concurrently.  Or The Rock to cover up his arms.  Cuz it ain't happening.

Oh wait - best of all - Walton Goggins is in it.  Boyd Crowder lights up any movie he's in.

Justified

So this episode's going to be about the Marshals trying to leave Harlan alive with Drew Thompson, also alive.  And the Detroit Mafia trying to get Drew, likely alive or dead.

Tonin's man is knocking the teeth out of Boyd's mouth, but Boyd can still talk his way into helping him get around Harlan.  Boyd sends Colt to go get Drew.

The Marshal Convoy (a decoy, Drew is still back with Raylan and Rachel) starts out, but PTSD Tim feels like it's an IED trap, so they stop.  And indeed, Colt has Tonin's sniper on them.  After some witty repartee, Tim ends up protected and with them in his gun sights.  Booyah.  Then Tim and Art blow up the IED-laden car parked nearby so that they can escape.

Boyd figures out Raylan's holed up in their old high school.  Because Boyd just has that sixth sense when it comes to his BFF.

Another of Tonin's guy's finds Patton Oswalt at Arlo's house and tries to beat Raylan's location out of him.  Beats the holy hell out of him!  Patton stabs him through a nice juicy artery just as Raylan shows up.  Raylan brings Patton back to the school with him.

The mafia helicopter lands and Boyd and one of Tonin's guys enter.  Boyd can't talk Raylan out, so they call for backup.  They have a quick standoff, but then Art and Tim show up.  And anyway, Rachel and Drew are on the way out of Harlan - via a train.

This episode was chock full of awesome dialogue and chess-playing.  Loved it.

Justified

The Hunt for Drew Thompson has become the Hunt for Shelby.  He's headed to Mexico with Ellen May, but the airport and roadblocks don't work out.  So Ellen May heads to see Limehouse for protection.  Bubba!!!  Aw, man, remember when this show was awesome?  If the ghost of Mags Bennett comes back we can all be happy!

Boyd figures they're with Bubba and sends Ava.  Bubba's gonna charge them $150,000 for each.  But when Boyd brings the money, Bubba says he has to choose one of them.  That's a good dilemma!  Ava forces Boyd to take Shelby and leave Ellen May behind.

So now it's up to Colt to turn Shelby over to the Detroit Mafia.  Well, that's not going to go well.  Plus, Johnny made a deal with Raylan to let him know where Shelby's being picked up.  How does Boyd not yet know he can't trust Johnny?

The helicopter lands to get Shelby but then the Marshals show up.  Oh poor Boyd, everything's gone to shit.  Again.  Now everyone's trying to get out of Harlan before Tonin shows up.

Well, I enjoyed seeing Limehouse again and the ending was pretty badass.  And there was lots of good, bantery dialogue this week -- Art admiring Drew for pulling off this "badass shit," Raylan realizing he's become a frequent visitor of a whorehouse.  But screw Cousin Johnny.  For real.

Justified

So last week everyone died, but not anyone who meant much, other than Arlo.

Tim's dead friend texted him before he got dead, leading Tim to know it was Boyd's War Buddy.

Raylan picks Hunter up to transport him to his other prison.  He takes him to Wynn Duffy's RV instead, trying to get Hunter to give up Drew Thompson.  Hunter would rather die than give up Drew.

Boyd and Ava are house shopping, and it's a big-ass house (one Ava's momma used to clean).  Naturally, the real estate lady doesn't think they can afford it.  Boyd has a briefcase of cash, bitch.

Jurassic Park Preacher's sister comes to Ava's whorehouse looking for Ellen May, because EM called the church asking for guidance... yesterday.   Oops.  Ava and Boyd call Boyd's War Buddy in for a meeting, but Boyd trusts him when he says the Church Lady must be lying.  The guys go off in search of Church Lady, with Tim following Colt.  Boyd comes back after not finding her where he looked, and Cousin Johnny tells him Ellen May ain't dead.

Colt gets high and finds Church Lady.  He'd choke her to death if Tim wasn't there to butt in.  Boyd arrives and gets Tim to let him have Colt so he can resolve the situation.  Resolution involves a stern lecture until he confesses.  Gunplay blue balls!  He tells Boyd that he even had Shelby trying to look for her.  So Boyd heads to Shelby's house to see what he knows, but Raylan, Tim, and the gang are there because they're waiting for Shelby to show up....

Shelby is Drew, which was obvious I suppose and now it makes sense why he's been hanging around and interested in Drew Thompson for no real reason.  Not that any of this makes sense.  Why do I care about Drew Thompson again!?

Justified

So I always watch Justified on DVR-delay because 10:00 is past my bedtime.  Well, overnight, my Twitter feed blew up (OK, so it was really just my brother-in-law) with how awesome the episode was.  Damn, it's about time.  So I avoided the internet all day and I remain unspoiled.  Other than knowing there's lots of death coming.  Let's do this!  I want my show back!

Raylan goes to see Hunter, the old Sheriff who tried to have him killed and then went on to be the dad on The Killing.  Looking for Drew Thompson.  Again.  Some more.

Hunter tries to kill Arlo, but Arlo is a tough old dude and beats him up, beats a guard (to death?), and then is stabbed in the heart by Hunter.  Now at first I thought Hunter was killing him so he can get his deal instead?  But Raylan had offered it to Hunter.... so was he killing him to keep his mouth shut in general?  Let's hope they dumb it down and spell it out for me. 

So Boyd's being forced to kill that guy for those Rich Old Dudes.  Instead, he meets with Targeted Guy and tells him the deal, hoping the guy will pay him to not-kill him.  He doesn't. 

Wynn Duffy pops by to see Boyd to apply more pressure about finding Drew Thompson.  Boyd says he has 2 possibilities - why doesn't Theo Tonin just kill them both? 

Meanwhile, Ellen May's talking to Sheriff Shelby, coming close to telling him she's seen Ava kill Delroy.  And Ellen May - or, more likely, someone pretending to be her (*cough*Johnny*cough*)- is texting Boyd's War Buddy, blackmailing him for $20,000.  Which he steals from the drug dealer he's been seeing, after killing him.  Tim's Recovering War Buddy is in the drug dealer's house at the time, so of course he ends up with a bullet to the head too.

Arlo's not quite dead yet, but is expected to be soon.  Raylan eventually goes to visit him, still asking about Drew Thompson.  Arlo's last words to Raylan are, "Kiss my ass."  Jesus he really is a son of a bitch.  Was.

A cop (really a fake cop hired by Wynn Duffy) kills the Targeted Guy and one of the rich old kinky dudes.  Boyd made him do his dirty work -- nice.  When Wynn Duffy figures that out, with some help from Asshole Johnny, he's pissed.  The cop comes for Boyd, "arresting him" when Raylan comes by the bar.  Raylan's suspicious because he's been with Shelby and Shelby knew he'd be there and Shelby didn't say anything to him about arresting Boyd.  The cop threatens to shoot Raylan and draws - NICE TRY, ASSHOLE.  Another one bites the dust. 

Boyd's War Buddy leaves the $20,000 where the Texting Blackmailer tells him to put it.  And yeah, it's Johnny.

Theo Tonin's #1 guy calls Boyd and Boyd smooth-talks him. Then Boyd meets with his Rich Old Dudes to celebrate the death of the Targeted Guy, and then to let them know that he knocked off another of their friends too.  And that Boyd got Tonin to tell all the judges and cop buddies not to deal with the Rich Old Dudes anymore.  "I am the outlaw," proclaims Boyd.  Boyd wants $300,000 and a Dairy Queen franchise.  No shit.

Art makes Raylan take a week off because Arlo died, but he doesn't want to get kicked off the Drew Thompson case.  Raylan whittles him down to 2 days.

OK, so 56 people died.  But you can't placate me with that, show.  Keep up the good (better) work!

Justified

Remember that black dude (Jodi) that Raylan caught earlier this season?  Like the first episode?  Well, he got away after Raylan turned him over to his bounty hunter GF.  Shot and killed her too.  Oops.  The guy helping Jodi is from Mad Men, right?  Hard to tell because he looks so different.  But yeah, it's him.  The cool funny guy.  You know the one.

Jodi hella toys with Raylan.  Like, it's ultra-random (like most stuff this season) -- his Mad Men friend is a filmmaker and has Raylan watch a movie where he threatens him.  It's weird.  So Raylan heads to his bar/house and Jodi's there waiting.  Tries to pull on Raylan.  Nice try, dummy.  Raylan shoots him dead.  Duh.

Swinger's Party Time!!  Or as Ava calls it, Rich People Sex Party time!  Boyd immediately develops a fan club and holds court with a couple of the old rich guys.  The guys want Boyd to kill a guy who is screwing them over in a land deal.

Raylan goes to see Daddy in jail to find out who Drew Thompson is, but Arlo tells him to eat shit.

Johnny finds out from his No. 1 Whore GF that it was Boyd's War Buddy who hit her, and that he was looking for Ellen May.

And that's all we got.  Not enough actual swinging for me!

Justified

So I guess this has just become a Justified blog now, on account of nothing else is on (or I gave up watching everything else) and I just can't abandon this blog.  Even if Twitter and Facebook are way easier.  Some day I'll bring this thing back....

Meanwhile, nothing happens on this show so what the actual hell.  It's The Drew Thompson Wild Goose Chase Hour.  There's a lot of awesome dialogue though, particularly of the Boyd Crowder variety.  Boyd and his gang are looking for that Drew Thompson guy for Wynn Duffy.  Raylan's also hunting down Drew Thompson, via that annoying teenage braceface.  Her stepdaddy's foot was cut off (on account of him having a house-arrest-ankle-bracelet) and he was taken by 2 hillbillies working for Boyd's attorney.  (Huh?)  Stepdaddy was taken because they think he's Drew Thompson, but he swears he's not.  Raylan busts in just as stepdaddy's getting cauterized.  Stepdaddy says that if anyone knows where Drew Thompson is, it'd be that dirty cop from way back in Season 1.  The one who went on to become the dad on The Killing.

Boyd's War Buddy gets high and is desperately trying to find Ellen May AND more drugs.  He's also beating up hookers and then the guys who take the fall for him beating up hookers.  He's freaking nuts.

Meanwhile, Tim's getting roped into something with a recovering addict veteran buddy of his.  Tim's brought along as security when his friend goes to see Blossom's oldest brother.  Pretty sure that was him. 


Finally, Ava thinks that the "in" to get them more info on Drew Thompson is an invite to the old Sheriff's swingers' party.  Seriously.  Poor Ava's got an attack of conscience over thinking Ellen May's dead.  Boyd confesses to her that he's been stashing away cash... for a house.  And he asks her to marry him.  I swoon. Man, I love me some Ava and Boyd!!

Justified

Let's play a game called, "Is Something Going to Happen in This Episode?"

Winona's pregnant ass makes an appearance. For 4 minutes.

Arlo's brought in to the Marshal's Office to answer questions on the Drew Thompson case.  Drew Thompson being that guy they're hunting for from decades ago that I couldn't care less about and don't see the point of.  They're looking to make a deal with Arlo to find out about Drew Thompson in exchange for his freedom.  Jesus, he killed the State Trooper and gets to go free?  Raylan doesn't want that, so he decides to try to find Drew Thompson before Arlo can make that deal.

Meanwhile, Wynn Duffy is meeting with FBI Agent Ned Ryerson and a Theo Tonin guy in the Duffy-mobile.  Ned and the Tonin guy are BFFs and Ned has been protecting the Tonin guy for years.  Drew Thompson shot and stole from Tonin back in the day, so Tonin wants his ass.  Tonin's guy ends up shooting Ned in the head.  R.I.P. Needlenose Ned.

So Boyd's War Buddy lost Ellen May, but lies to Boyd and says he killed her.  Wynn Duffy visits Boyd and offers him cash to find Drew Thompson.  What's Boyd, a P.I. now?  I'd watch that show.

Raylan tracks down the little thief girl who stole the bag from Arlo's and started this whole convoluted mess.  Her stepdaddy told her to steal it, so Raylan visits him.   He tells him Drew Thompson's with the Hill People.  That sounds ominous.

Raylan walks up the mountain to find the Hill People, who greet him at gunpoint.  They throw him into a room... where Boyd awaits.  Tim and Boyd's War Buddy are both waiting for their respective guys at the bottom of the mountain.

Raylan and Boyd's lives are spared because Raylan's mother is the cousin of one of the Hill Women.  Can't kill kin.  She tells them Drew Thompson isn't there anymore, but is in Harlan.  Raylan handcuffs Boyd to a tree and goes off to find Drew.

Ellen May's hiding out in the Sheriff's office and the Sheriff wants her help in bringing down Boyd Crowder.  And Wynn Duffy is still working with Cousin Johnny to eventually take out Boyd.  I hate Cousin Johnny.

OK so still nothing has happened.  But I really liked the Hill People bit, plus Raylan and Boyd being reunited.  So there's that.

Justified

Raylan's GF and her husband have taken Raylan's $20k and gone to the backyard fights.  They're looking to get into cock-fighter management.  Seriously.  Raylan and Rachel work to hunt them down, including finding a store clerk that the asshole beats the shit out of. 

So the Jurassic Park Preacher is dead from the snakebite!?  Already?  That seems unceremonious.  That means Ellen May tries to come crawling back to the Crowders.  Ava thinks she's more trouble than she's worth so Boyd has Ava ship her off to his cousin in Alabama, a preacher who owns a motel and can put Ellen May to honest work.

Rachel had to go to work so eventually it's just Raylan who catches up to GF and Asshole.  They fight a bit and then GF tells Raylan his money's in the van, and she leaves while Raylan has Asshole arrested.  But his money's not literally in the van -- the chickens are.

Ava still doesn't trust Ellen May, and so when Boyd's War Buddy is driving her to the bus station and he gets a phone call, I know right away it's a call from Boyd telling him to kill Ellen May.  War Buddy is getting an attack of conscience though, and in his hesitation (getting himself straight in a bathroom with a little bump), Ellen May disappears.

Man, so far NOTHING is happening this season, right?  What the actual hell?

Justified

Boyd stops by the Tent Church to talk to Jurassic Park Preacher's sister and offer her money to get her brother out of Harlan.  She says it'll cost a lot more, like a new church built somewhere.  So he sends his old war buddy after them along with another guy, who is attacked by the snakes.  He brings the guy - with the head (and only the head) of the snake still attached to his face - to Boyd's bar.  Jesus Christ.  Gross.

Raylan's GF used to be a thief/con-artist with her (ex-)husband.  Because all of his romantic entanglements must be hella complicated and laden with criminality.  He also gives the ex the "get out of town by 6PM" bit.

Johnny's going behind Boyd's back to meet with Wynn Duffy.  Says he'll help Wynn kill Boyd.  Oh hell no.  Ass.

Raylan and Tim go to visit the ex-wife of the guy-who-didn't-fall-from-the-sky, who happens to be a (real) psychic.  The guy was a witness in some sealed case.  An FBI dude shows up and distracts our guys, and while she tries to sneak away she's actually kidnapped by someone.  A someone who is blackmailing the FBI guy somehow.  But who knows how, because the FBI dude kills himself in front of Raylan after telling him where they can find the woman.  She tells them that the not-dead-guy saw Theo Tonin, the big time Dee-troit gangster, murder a government informant.

Over at Boyd's, the doctor comes and removes the snake from the guy's face.  They figure out that there's no venom there.  So Boyd comes to the Tent Church bearing the gift of a rattlesnake.  The preacher's sister confesses that she's been milking the snakes of venom, unbeknownst to Jurassic Park Preacher.  JPP doesn't care and handles the snake anyway, and is bitten. 

Raylan comes back home to the bar to find his GF missing and his place ransacked, stashed money and all.  Oh lordy, here with go with Raylan chasing some crazy GF.  Also, this 30-year-old mystery thing better get somewhere quick because I don't see the point.  I'm enjoying all the random character bits, but I don't know what the plot's getting at.

Fringe

Farewell, Fringe, my love.  I still feel like this season has been meh.  But the previous seasons were amazing.  So it all evens out.  I'm going to miss my show either way.

I still don't get the whole Plan to Reset Time.  Baby Observer goes into the future at just the right time so someone's all, "Let's not create Observers????"  Whatever.  I don't buy it.  But OK.  He's important.  I get it.

Time to get Old!Broyles in on this.  He finds out where Baby Observer is being held, beneath the ruined Statue of Liberty.  Windmark's interrogating him but getting nowhere, just developing a bloody nose and a popped blood vessel in his eye for the trouble.  So it's time to bring out the tech to really get at this kid. 

The only way into the facility on Liberty Island?  Use the Other Universe.  Good thing Walter has some old Cortexiphan lying around to reactivate Olivia's ability. Plus they use the Other Universe Window to take a peek first and make sure the Observers haven't invaded there too.  All looks clear, so they go for it.  Time for a bunch of shots of Cortexiphan to the ol' brain stem for poor Olivia. 

OTHER UNIVERSE TIME!!!!!  My favorite place.  Chelsea Clinton leads in the Presidential race.  And Lincoln Lee is BACK!  He and Fauxlivia are married and have a grown-ass son.  And Fauxlivia is rocking some fabulous gray in her hair.  God, I love Fauxlivia.  I guess that's what the show was missing this season.  No crazy Freaks of the Week, no Awesome Dual Universes, no funny Walter food things.  Observers (and dystopian futures) were better in small doses.

Olivia crosses over into the room where they were holding Baby Observer.  Only they've moved him because they're going to disassemble him.  Now that doesn't sound good.  And Olivia's starting to kind of phase in between both universes, her Cortexiphan wearing off.  She gets to the kid just as they're about to strip him for parts, and they make it back to the Other Universe.  But an Observer follows.  Good thing Lincoln and Fauxlivia Lee take care of the situation.  Olivia makes it back over with Baby Observer.

Windmark finds out Broyles was behind the exposure of Baby Observer's location.  So he's pissed, as usual.  He figures out Broyles is going to meet our Team, so he has someone follow him.  Too bad Broyles is too smart for that and notices them following.  Broyles is captured. Uh-oh.

Donald/September built a machine in the lab whilst everyone was off gallivanting across universes.  He pays a visit to an old Observer pal to get a piece he needs.  Time to open a wormhole to the year 2167, and Walter has to accompany the kid.  Walter and Peter say a Sad Bishop Goodbye.

Oh but they can't get that piece they need from the Observer because the Bad Observers have caught up to him, killed him, and taken the tech.  Windmark knows they are trying to reset time.  Astrid comes up with an idea to use one of the Observer's "shipping lanes" as a wormhole. 


Donald/September says he should be the one to escort the kid into the future.  Yeah, DUH, you should be!  Walter doesn't need to do this shit.  Take your bald kid and get into the future!!!

There is some great grossness, and Olivia and Peter unleash all the different contaminants, poisons, and foreign bodies from the past 5 years into the ventilation system at Observer HQ.  Observers dropping left and right from various Freaks of the Weeks Greatest Hits.  Our Team gets whatever tech they need from Observer HQ to take over the shipping lane.

Windmark finds them and starts beating the crap out of Peter and Olivia.  Til Olivia summons her electrical powers and has him pwned by a car.  R.I.P. Windmark you bastard.

Donald/September is killed in a shootout running toward the wormhole.  So now it really is up to Walter to take the kid over.  Bye bye, Walter.

We're back to the point where Olivia, Peter, and little Etta are in the park.  But this time, no Observer invasion.  Happy ending, but what happened to my Walterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

This Week's Final Code: *sob*  LOVED and CLOSE  *I'll miss you*

Justified

Art breaks the news to Raylan that Arlo killed a fellow prisoner, and Raylan fills Art in on the Panamanian diplomatic bag found in the wall.  Art, Raylan, and Tim head out to track down Waldo Truth and his family, which turns out to be a family full of criminals.  The family is just the ultimate in white trash.  Waldo's been missing for 30 years since a pilot came and said he had a job for him.  Art remembers the pilot's name - he always thought he was the one who was pancaked in the driveway, but instead it was Waldo.  So where's the pilot and why did he fake his own death?

Preacher Billy appears to be actively trying to convert people in Boyd's inner circle - first the dealer, now Ellen May.  He ends up sending a bunch of creepy, singing children into Ava's whorehouse to try to recruit members.  So Boyd and crew show up to the Tent Church.  IT'S A MOTHERLOVIN' PREACH OFF!!!!  Boyd wins because he's way hotter.

And poor Boyd has another problem - a crew trying to sell heroin in his town.  The crew is part of Wynn Duffy's organization, so Boyd reaches out to become his heroin distributor in Harlan.  And Duffy's curious why Arlo killed his boy up in prison.  Jesus, everyone in Kentucky is tied to everyone else.


We've also got some random dude looking for fights, being randomly pushy with Raylan at the bar and then winning a backyard fraternity MMA fight. Dude turns out to be married to Raylan's GF.  Oops.

Fringe

It took me this long to catch up on Fringe, which clearly means I'm ready to let go.  Guess I'm just trying to make the separation easier, you know?

Tank Time!  In order to pull out the memory of September that Baby Observer planted in his brain, Walter decides to go into the Deprivation Tank.  Sans trunks, of course.  He figures out where September used to live (when he had hair) and the team goes to see if he's still there.  Along the way, we get a really touching Walter/Peter moment where Walter remembers things from the old timeline and says he loves Peter and they hug and get teary.  So what - someone's gonna die, right?

Windmark heads into the future to meet "The Commander" and there is much general Observer creepiness.  Windmark really has a hard-on for killing Our Team, which is odd because Observers don't get hard-ons for anything. 

Donald (September, a bit older now and still with hair), is indeed still in his apartment.  Must be rent controlled.  So Donald used to be the Observer September and then as "punishment" for helping the Team, he had his device removed and named himself Donald.  He tells us that hundreds of years from now, Observers just create themselves in labs - humans decided to sacrifice human emotion for increased intelligence.  And Baby Observer is September's kid, who was deemed an anomaly because of his brain development, so September hid him in the past.  Oh lord, now my eyes have gone crossed.

So Donald/September says they have to send Baby Observer into the future, to the point where humans made that decision to grow Observers, to prevent them from doing so, thereby never creating Observers.  They're going to reset time.  What Walter hasn't told the others is that, in order for the plan to reset time to work, he has to sacrifice himself.  Baby Observer showed him that.  See - told you someone was dying.

As the team tries to get wherever the team is going, Baby Observer is caught by Windmark.  Or maybe turns himself in.

This Week's Code: GRACE

Well, the show is nearly over - and the preview showed Lincoln Lee and Fauxlivia, so I'm kind of excited.  Can we get some Charlie before it's all over?  Maybe reset the timeline and then open like we did in the pilot?

The Oscar Nominations

I made sure to have the Oscar nominations loaded up live the second I got in to work.  They were announced at like 8:35 AM, and by 8:45, my Facebook status update read, "FU Oscars, back to work - no Kathryn Bigelow? Suck my left nut."  I didn't even have time to process the lack of Quentin Tarantino and Ben Affleck directing nominations as well.  What the hell?

Lincoln got the most nominations.  It was a great, historical biopic, but not the Best Picture of the Year.

Best Picture:

• "Beasts of the Southern Wild" - it's next up in my Netflix queue, mostly because the 9-year-old girl (who was nominated for Best Actress!) is supposed to be amazing in it.
• "Silver Linings Playbook" - I've been pushing Mike to see this for weeks; we've GOT to see it this weekend.  If there's time, with all the football.
• "Zero Dark Thirty" - winner winner chicken dinner
• "Lincoln" - what I said
• "Les Miserables" - really more about the acting than the film as a whole, but makes sense
• "Life of Pi" - I will never watch a movie about a kid stranded in an ocean with a tiger, I just won't.
• "Amour" - supposed to be good, but it's French.  So, you know, no.
• "Django Unchained" - OF COURSE
• "Argo"  - OF COURSE

Moonrise Kingdom was probably my Number 4 film of the year.  Couldn't have fit in a 10th nomination for Best Picture, you bastards?

In Best Director news, apparently Django Unchained, Argo, and Zero Dark Thirty - the three best movies I saw this year - directed themselves.  Cool.

Other Nominations I'm Happy About

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables."  But Sally Field, "Lincoln"??? No.
 
Best Actress:  Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty" and Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"  (no, I haven't seen the second one yet, but I love her so YAY)

Justified

Finally time to get back to Kentucky.  We binged on all of the Season 3 Blu-rays since New Year's -- Justified is such a marathon-worthy show.  But I'm ready for some new episodes.  All I've heard about this season is that it focuses on some old mystery rather than one Big Bad.

Flashback to 1983.  Old mystery confirmed.  A dude falls out of the sky and slams into the street outside what I'm assuming is Arlo's house, bricks of cocaine or heroin splattered on the ground along with his brains.

In present day, Raylan gets a call from a bail bondslady he used to bang, who wants some help tracking down a guy.  Since it means 3 grand, he'll be a bounty hunter, no problem.

Now we've got Patton Oswalt calling Raylan because a couple teenagers broke into Arlo's house.  The thieves had ripped open some holes in the drywall and Raylan and Patton find an old bag containing an old driver's license with the name of Waldo Truth.  Raylan figures out that Arlo hired the kids to steal whatever was in the old bag, but Arlo won't admit as much when Raylan visits him in prison.

Meanwhile, Boyd gets wind of a new church in town - Last Chance Holiness Church - that's getting people off drugs and hooked on Jesus.  Well, that's not good for Boyd's oxy business. An old war buddy of Boyd's shows up looking for him, and Boyd offers him a job cuz he needs some outside enforcer help.  And the Jurassic Park Kid is one of those preachers with the snakes that heals people.

Meanwhile, Arlo's a badass, slitting a dude's throat in prison when the guy asks him too many questions about that old bag.  So it's Justified: the Year of the Old Bag then.  Good to have you back; let's move on from the setup!

Les Misérables

Full disclosure: I'm a Les Misérables geek.  I don't see a lot of musicals, but I've seen it live twice.  Basically, the movie had to not-severely-eff-up and I'd like it.  Luckily, it was really well done.  Warning - the movie is (and feels) long as hell.  But at least nothing was cut out.

Now, the way it was filmed - with the live singing - was actually interesting and I loved it.  I didn't really realize until the end that there weren't any of your typical big musical-movie numbers.  The performances weren't big and grand, there wasn't singing and dancing -- they were much more intimate.  The way it's staged is more like you're there with the actors, not watching them.  It was cool to see the movie that way.  But I think it means the soundtrack itself wouldn't be any good to listen to.  The music didn't stand out to me, it was more about watching the performances in addition to listening to them.  For just listening, I'll stick with a stage cast recording. 

The performances were great.  However, the movie doesn't get better than Anne Hathaway singing "I Dreamed a Dream."  It totally lives up to the hype and is this amazing uninterrupted take (or at least it seemed that way) and is absolutely the pinnacle of the movie.  Not that the rest is bad, it's just not that good.  Everyone keeps slamming Russell Crowe, but I thought he was really good!  He fit this particular style of filmed musical, which is quieter and more "real" and less over-the-top.  Hugh Jackman has the bigger, booming voice.

It was just what I wanted in a movie adaption of Les Misérables.  By the end, the tears were streaming down into my cleavage.  Now that's a movie.

Fringe

Our team can't get Observer Baby to talk.  They bring him to Nina, who takes everyone to a convenient secret lab where the Resistance has been experimenting on Observers.  They've got a device that can basically read Observers' minds, but it doesn't work with the kid so they decide to try linking one of their mind's with the kid's.   

In the midst of tracking down all these secret labs and tech, the Observers find out Nina is working with our team, and locate her in the lab.  Soon it's R.I.P. Nina, who kills herself rather than have her brain probed by these assholes.  Luckily, she had stashed away Observer Baby so the team finds him after the Observers vacate the premises. 

The team takes the tech and Observer Baby back to the amber lab and hook up OB and Walter's brains.  Walter asks OB why he's important and he gets answered in a bunch of memory flashes, culminating in the revelation that September is Donald.  Man, I can't even remember what happened to September.  Didn't he die?  This show was complicated enough without rebooting this year.  Oy.

This Week's Code: SENSE

The Best Movies Are Out Now

I don't blog anymore.  That much is obvious.  To wit, I've seen a bunch of movies since September, and haven't said a thing about them.  And now I have to try to remember what they were, but I can't think of anything other than Lincoln.


So Lincoln was good.  It was great actually, especially for what could be a boring historical drama.  I actually think Sally Field is way over the top and annoying, but I loved Daniel Day-Lewis.  No shocker there, he's always good.  But I just wanted to hug Lincoln by the time it was over.  He seemed like a really cool guy, all chill and casual while also doing historically-important things.  We could be besties.

I was in New York this past weekend, and seized the opportunity to see Zero Dark Thirty.  It doesn't come out nationwide til January 11th and I was way too excited to have to wait that long.  It was amazing.  Like, A. May. Zing.  I love how it felt like you followed the whole story -- from interrogations to investigation to the raid on bid Laden's compound.  It was wonderful.  Kathryn Bigelow is such a great director - she excels at this war stuff so much, just making it feel real and tense and exciting.  Loved loved loved it.  Might be my Movie of the Year.  Also... god, I love Jessica Chastain.

 Finally, Santa brought me just what I wanted this year -- a new Quentin Tarantino movie, Django Unchained.  I am the World's Biggest QT Fangirl, so of course I'm going to love whatever he does.  Even if it stars Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio....

It was a quintessential Tarantino movie, naturally.  Just this time set in the slave-era South.  I love Christoph Waltz and he was wonderful in it.  I could listen to him speak all day.  I loved the first part of the movie best, with him teaming up with Django.  The dialogue was great, the music was great, the violence was over the top - everything you'd expect.  I feel like I might love Inglourious Basterds more, but who knows - it's early.  I've only seen Django once.  But I think my disdain for Foxx may keep me from full-on loving this as much.  He kind of plays Jamie Foxx all the time.... Then again, one could argue Christoph Waltz is the same all the time too.  Difference: Waltz is awesome.  Anyway, loved Django Unchained as much as I figured I would, and eagerly await Tarantino's next one.  You know what he hasn't done and should do?  Sci-fi.

But I digress.  There are still lots of year-end movies to see, like Silver Linings Playbook and Les Miserables.  They will all be Oscar contenders -- it'll be a tight race! At least I'll be a fan of whatever wins.

Fringe

Damn you, DVR, for screwing up and not recording Fringe on Friday.  Thank you, internet, for offering me other options....

The radio from the Pocket Universe is picking up a signal.  And Walter dropped acid.  This might be a good episode.  Walter has visions of a Tinkerbell type of girl as well as the chick who was burned to death in his lab. The team uses Convenient Resistance Tech to determine the source of the signal --  a skeleton in the woods.

There's a bunch of skeletons in the woods, and one of them is Sam Weiss, the awesome bowling alley dude from back in the day.  In their hunt for the source of the signal, they come across a couple in a house with a Child Observer.  The same one from the Pocket Universe, and the one they all encountered in the other timeline. Donald left the kid with the couple 20 years ago.  All they know is that he's somehow important to defeating the Observers, and he hasn't aged or spoken since.  They turn the kid over to our team, because that's what Donald instructed.

Then we get Walter reliving the past, with him crossing over to get Peter, etc., etc.  He's becoming the Asshole Walter he never wanted to be again.

This Week's Code: GUILT.

Fringe

Observer Peter is in full effect, with his transparent Wall of Crazy.  Windmark's out to get him and finds the Wall, realizing it means Peter can "run futures."  Peter does a lot of anticipating-everyone's-next-move tricks to outsmart Windmark, and fights him with all that blinking-out-of-existence stuff.

Olivia gets ahold of the tech/needle-thing that Peter used from their Resistance pal whose name I can't remember or understand.  She tells Astrid and Walter what Peter has done and wants Walter to take that tech and try to figure out a way out.

Goddammit, more of the Great Hunt for the Video Tapes.  The next one tells them to retrieve an industrial magnet.  Olivia goes to do it so that Walter can check out the Observer tech.  Walter's tests on the tech confirm that the brain gets, like, super-smart, and has no more emotions.

Olivia finds the people with the magnet - they've been holding it for years, waiting for Walter's return. Now Olivia has to transport this giant magnet back -- she's not gonna get stopped?  The Observers don't check for random big trucks on the roads?  The Observers don't find her, but some random thugs on the road ambush her - and they figure out she's got a bounty on her head.  The thugs call it in to the Reward Wire, saying they'll only meet the Observers in a "Truth Church" - a place they can't be read, I guess?

Peter shows up in the lab after his fight with Windmark to get his shoulder stitched up.  He feels no pain.  Walter says the changes will "soon be permanent" -- so I suppose there's hope for Peter to change back?

Olivia escapes the thugs, because she is Olivia and is awesome and rigs up a super awesome gun thing out of steam and Etta's bullet.  She is sure to retrieve the bullet.

Everyone on this show goes from Boston to NYC in 2.4 seconds.  It gets annoying.  Because suddenly Olivia meets up with Peter where he's watching Windmark to make sure he ends up on a trajectory that will lead to his death at Peter's hand.  But she convinces him to remove the tech from his brain so she doesn't lose him.  OK....  So does that mean Peter's whole transformation was totally pointless?  It's gotta have more repercussions down the road....

This Week's Code: PLEAD