My Star Wars The Clone Wars rewatch was nearly derailed in season one by a slew of Jar Jar episodes. Seasons two and three were Jar Jar free and it was such a massive improvement. I’m on season four now. Jar Jar is in two of the first four episodes. I want to quit again.
It’s unbearable.
Major Fear the Walking Dead Spoilers ahead. If you’re planning to watch this incredibly terrible show, stop reading. You have been warned.
Back in the days of the first two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead I was at the height of my use of Reddit. I went to the Fear subreddit after every episode and chimed in on the episode specific post. I was one of the few positive people. Most people were really down on the show but there were a few of us who were optimistic.
During season three, when the show hit it’s meteoric peak, I started drifting away from Reddit. I don’t think I visited very often, but the few times I did it was clear everyone was loving the show. Well, most everyone.
For the last few weeks I have been logging in and giving a short list of things that were especially stupid in my eyes. There were some seriously stupid things in this week’s episode. This is what I posted:
My favorite idiotic moments from this episode:
All of the focus on the radios, but that’s every episode so it doesn’t count for this one.
When the walkers ate Daddy Padre and he just stood there calmly while they were eating him. Bonus points for his very much un-eaten walker self wandering around later in the episode because the swarm of walkers didn’t eat him, they just bit him a couple of times and then fucked off.
Madison smashes the mirror and everyone sees Padre brother in the office and they all act like they know exactly who he is. Not a single character had the obvious reaction of, “who the fuck is this clown?”
Daniel’s memory is back? Because of tea? My mother died in February after years of dementia destroyed her brain. I am fucking insulted by this little story line. I really wish my mother could have saved her life with that fucking tea. Fuck you, Fear. Fuck you right in your fucking eye.
I think there are 10 episodes left, right? I don’t think I am going to make it. I am just hate watching for completeness sake now, but I barely made it to the opening credits without screaming at the screen. This is literally, objectively, unequivocally the worst show ever.
Me
In explanation, the stuff with the radios. We’re supposed to be something like 10-15 years after the fall of civilization and every single character on Earth (according to the show) carries a walkie-talkie that works perfectly and has a battery that still charges without issue and they all talk to each other on the same frequency. It’s utterly idiotic.
Further explanation, last season they talked about a secret location called Padre. Now, magically, we find out that Padre isn’t a place, it’s a person. Or it’s a place. It might be two or three people. It might be two or three people and a place. Or a place. The show can’t seem to decide. Daddy Padre is the original Padre. Padre brother might be the current Padre, or his sister is, or both he and his sister are, or neither of them is. We can’t really tell because the show keeps changing its mind.
Daniel is a season one character. He was awesome in season one. He started getting a little mentally unstable in season two. He’s dealing with something that looks a lot like early stage dementia by season four or five. In this week’s episode he makes his first season eight appearance and he’s basically back to his season one self. He sort of credits his return to mental clarity to a drink that he’s slurping as he walks down the street. It’s so fucking insulting.
My post ignores the real dumbest thing in the episode. The bad guys kidnap kids from their parents to spare them the pain of their parents dying. So to keep them from suffering the loss of their parents… they lose their parents. I shit you not, that is the bad guy’s justification. Someone wrote that, and someone else said it was okay to film it and put it on television. Again, I shit you not.
I really don’t know if I am going to be able to continue hate watching this show. I don’t think I can take it. In my Reddit post I said there were 10 episodes left. There are actually only nine. There is a mid-season break, and one of the new Walking Dead spinoffs is going to debut during that break (Dead City, the one where Maggie and Negan go to Manhattan) and that show might actually be really good (I hope). So maybe I can fight through it. If I do, there are likely to be a lot of venting and bitching posts around here. Probably on the Reddits too.
You have been warned.
I just put on last night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. I haven’t even made it to the opening credits yet and I’m already so bored. It’s just awful, awful, awful.
There are only 10 episodes left in the series (I think) and I just can’t handle it.
I don’t think I am going to be able to make it to the end. Completist be damned, this show is just too terrible to stomach. I really don’t think I can take any more.
Fear the Walking Dead’s eighth and final season kicked off last night. I’m watching the episode now as I close my exercise ring on this Monday morning.
Why, oh why do I keep doing this to myself?
Why is being a TV show completist even a thing? Why am I compelled to watch what is clearly the worst show on television, and quite possibly the worst show in the history of television? This show hasn’t been anything other than awful since the second half of season four. This is the start of season eight and I am still torturing myself.
Why?
Ten minutes into the season premier and it was clear that all of the things that made seasons five, six, and seven unbearably terrible are still in play. After three seasons of shit, we’re still introducing new characters in the opening segments, they are still somehow… I don’t even know. It’s just stupidity, left and right. I still have five minutes to go and the walkie-talkie count is up to about nine, I think. Fear the Walkie-Talkie.
This show couldn’t possibly suck more, and yet here I am watching. What a fucking idiot.
I wanted to make sure we did something nice for Jen today so I made breakfast. It’s the least I could do. Harry is here this week and he’s a night owl so we planned breakfast for 10:00. I made scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. Pretty much the only breakfast foods I know how to make. Everything came out okay. Nothing was spectacular or anything. I did my best but it should have been better. My step kids’ mother deserves the best every day, but especially today.
We are planning on a visit to the cemetery to visit my mother today. I know it doesn’t really mean anything but I think it will make me feel a little better. I hope so at least.
Unrelated note: Star Wars The Clone Wars episodes eight and 12 have Jar Jar. That’s two too many. I was hoping that would be it for the first season. Then I got to episodes 17 and 18. Jar Jar is in both of them. Oh, come on. Four out of the first 18 episodes? I am seriously wanting to stop watching. It’s just not worth it.
I’m not going sunrise chasing tomorrow. I’m way too tired.
Unrelated note: Earlier today I bitched that my Clone Wars binge watch was nearly brought to a crashing halt by season one episode eight focusing on Jar Jar Binks. I made it to season one episode 12 and… it was another Jar Jar.
Fuck.
It’s time for our two new cats to prove their worth to the household. Yesterday we started seeing clear signs that they were stalking something. The hunt was on. Last night Harry got a brief glimpse: a mouse. Later, Jen and I also saw it hiding in a tiny space between a cabinet and a wall. I tried getting it with a broom but failed miserably.
The cats were hyper vigilant throughout the night but haven’t had any success yet. There was a moment this morning where I heard them attacking from the next room, and also heard their prey squeaking in terror. I felt kinda bad, but that’s the price you pay for invading our home.
The cats have two responsibilities in this house. One is to be adorable and let us pet them and snuggle them. The other is to eliminate small furry invaders. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain, Robin and Lily. I have full confidence in your mousing abilities. Make Daddy proud, girls.
No problems last night as far as stomach pain goes. I was a little nervous before bed. I was a little queasy. Not bad, but just aware that I wasn’t at 100%. I was also so thoroughly exhausted that I couldn’t really think straight. I turned in at about 11:00 but I forgot to clean out my CPAP mask so I went to sleep without it. I woke up at about 3:30. My first thought was, here we go again. Then I realized what woke me up. It wasn’t in my stomach, it was on my stomach. Miss Lily had jumped on me and was very insistent about showing me some affection. I gave her what she wanted. She doesn’t really show me any attention like that, so I wasn’t about to say no.
Once she had her fill I tried going back to sleep, but I was pretty much awake. I just sort of laid there for a while, then I got up and got a new CPAP mask out of my closet. I had to deal with Miss Robin who ran inside while I had the door open and wouldn’t come out. I swapped out the drool’d in mask for the new, clean one and went back to bed. I got to listen to an attack on the mouse before I fell asleep. My alarm was set for 7:00am but I snoozed it until a little before 8:00. So the good news is, no stomach issues or anything health related. The bad news is I didn’t sleep through the night the way I was hoping. The lesser good news is that I did snag about seven hours of sleep that I very much needed, though I am still feeling really tired this morning.
Here’s hoping tonight continues to show improvement.
I was afraid of this. I have fully committed myself to binge watching all of Star Wars The Clone Wars. There are 133 episodes. It’s going to take a while. I know I tried doing this once before but fell off the wagon very early. Why? What stopped me?
During this morning’s faux jog (pronounced, yog) I found out. Season one, episode eight… the entire episode focuses on Jar Jar and it is just as insufferably awful as you would expect. I made it through without vomiting but it did sap my re-watching enthusiasm by about 65%. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back to the X-Files for a couple of days.
If I don’t get a haircut today I am going to go insane. Just warning you. Ya know, in case I start posting things that are more insane than normal. If I do, you’ll know why.
Yup, two nights of weirdness in a row leads to ol’ Robbie being one sleepy red head.
Hey, I had a couple of packs of guitar strings from amazon delivered today. Will that inspire me to do some actual guitar playing this weekend? I sure hope so.
What else is on the agenda for this weekend? A haircut. My hair hasn’t been this long since the early days of the pandemic. It’s starting to look like 1993 around here. Is that why I have listened to Nirvana more or less around the clock for the last 2+ days? I made a playlist of just the expanded editions of the three Nirvana albums this morning (Apple music has expanded editions of Bleach and In Utero, and two expanded editions of Nevermind) and I have been steam rolling through them as I work today. I’m on the last track from the first of the two Neverminds.
Hey, speaking of Nirvana and the glory days of the 1990’s, I had a pop culture worlds colliding moment this morning. I managed to sneak in this week’s episode of Yellowjackets before work (barely). After a couple of days immersed in the atomic explosion that is Nirvana, wouldn’t you know it the episode’s creepy opening was accompanied by Something in the Way playing on the soundtrack? How cool is that. It’s like they knew where my brain was right now and fed right into it.
I need a nap… and a haircut… and to do some dishes before we make dinner… and to listen to all the live tracks on the 30th anniversary edition of Nevermind.
Two hours and 36 minutes left in the work day. You can do it, Robbie.
I was incorrect. Apple Music does not have one expanded edition of In Utero, it has two. One Bleach, two Nevermind, and two In Utero (one of which includes the unofficial first Foo Fighters song, Marigold [which is next in my iTunes queue]).
My X-Files rewatch is in season three. Deep Space Nine is still in season two. Strange New Worlds is almost done. Before all of this started I rewatched The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. I recently rewatched Rebels. Over the last week I rewatched Andor (best Star Wars Disney+ show by miles and miles) and two nights ago I started rewatching Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I don’t want to stop with the two non-Star Wars shows, but I am really feeling the ol’ Galaxy Far Far Away vibes right now. Three more episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and I’ll be out of live action shows on Disney+. Does this mean I am going to have to watch The Clone Wars from start to finish? That would include both seasons of The Bad Batch as that is really just The Clone Wars part two, right? Clone Wars has episodes with Jar Jar though… do I really want to go through that again? On the other hand, it would be a good prep for Ahsoka, which comes out in August.
On an unrelated note, I restarted another thing from last year this morning. The Great Spider Hunt of 2023 is on like Donkey Kong. While running in place this morning (yogging) I saw a HUGE sucker crawling up the wall behind my desk. I removed him/her from the equation with extreme prejudice. I expect there to be hundreds more to follow over the next couple of seasons.
On another unrelated note I haven’t played my guitar yet this month. I have a bunch of little song ideas, mostly just riffs, in progress, but I only have one song form sketched out and I haven’t plugged the guitar in at all. I still haven’t played through the King of Tone pedal after 5+ years on the wait list. Sigh of frustration. I’ll figure it out.
Okay. Time to go shower and get ready for work. Happy Tuesday, said the ancient 52 year old.
This week has been rough. I didn’t expect it, but three days of window project turning the house upside down has messed me up in a big way. Being sick on Tuesday didn’t help. Waking up at 2:00am with a stomach ache today and not being able to get to sleep until around 4:00am certainly hasn’t helped either. After eight ounces of water and a protein bar this morning I feel a little better, but the stomach ache is still there, just milder than it was.
It got to Jen too, and both of us being on edge lead to pointless, stupid arguments and I hated it. Hate hate hate it. I can’t apologize enough for being an ass. Then today, after very little sleep last night and very little sleep every night this week and being broken in general for days, I watched the series finale of Star Trek Picard and let’s just say… I’ve been following these characters through TV shows and movies since 1987 when I was 16 years old and watched Encounter at Farpoint with my father… I’m not ashamed to admit it… but I balled my eyes out a few times. I am just an emotional train wreck right now.
Season three of The Mandalorian ended yesterday and it was wonderful. Season three of Picard ended today and it was wonderful times 10. I am just a sucker for story lines about parents loving their children that are designed to violently yank at your heartstrings and I am fine with that.
Then on top of all the other shit going on, both home improvement wise and science fiction wise, I went to punch in to work just now and realized I forgot my friggin’ laptop charger in the office yesterday. FFFFFUUUUUUUUU! Jen bailed me out with a sweet USB C charger so I can get through the day. I just hope when I go to the office after work tonight the charger is still on the desk I sat in yesterday. Cross your fingers, kids. I don’t want to have to buy another charger.
Okay. I am punched in to work now. Everything is well. I’m being added to meetings left and right so it’s starting to look like a busy day. Busy is good. Busy is better than too quiet… sometimes. I guess it depends on what kind of busyness it is, you know?
Right. Work. Post this drivel and get to work, Robert.
Inside the Red Head's Head 