Five Year Lag

Five Year Lag


Episode 2: Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead Spin-Off, and Dead Space

January 23, 2015

In this episode we talk about our thoughts on the Sons of Anarchy series finale, the upcoming The Walking Dead spin-off, Greg rants about explicitly labeling TV shows as ‘scripted’ vs ‘un-scripted’, the Dead Space series of video games, the iOS app iTV Shows 3, and the New Kids on the Block summer tour announcement!


WARNING: This episode contains SPOILERS! Consider yourself WARNED!


TV & Movies

Sons of Anarchy


Jax kills Unser, Gemma and August Marks. But before killing Marks, Jax has an interaction with the recurring weird homeless woman, who has a number of rumors about who she is and what she represents. Kurt Sutter (the creator of SoA) has stated in many interviews that she “is Jesus Christ”. She has appeared in quite a few episodes, but very few of her appearances has her saying anything. In the last episode she tells Jax “It’s time.” and gives him her blanket that he uses to camouflage himself to kill Marks. If she is Jesus Christ, why the fuck would she help a psychopathic, megalomaniac with gun tourettes kill another human being? Other people think Sutter is being coy and wants to let the fans decide what she is, some saying she is the Reaper or the Angel of Death (we pretty much agree with this rumor). Still others think she is the ghost of Emily Putner, the woman John Teller killed when he was in his fatal accident with the semi. Unfortunately this seems to be another “Let the fans figure it out!” moment.


 


Sons of Anarchy


Original Channel: FX

Original Run: September 3, 2008 – December 9th, 2014

Total Seasons: 7


The Walking Dead Spin-Off


Spoiler TV found leaked information about the new spin-off from the his show, The Walking Dead. The pilot episode seems to be titled “Fear The Walking Dead”. The plot seems to be completely separate form the comics or the current show story line, albeit set in the same world, just in a different location with completely new characters. It also seems to be very family-focused, centering around two small families and their struggles in the new “zombie” apocalypse. Oh, and it starts before the outbreak and lets us see what happens to the characters as the world starts changing around them.


 


The Walking Dead Spin-off


Channel: Unknown

Airdate: Unkown


 


Greg’s Rant


Why the FUCK are we now explicitly labeling shows as ‘scripted’ or ‘un-scripted’? I mean, seriously, have we been so saturated with “reality” shows (and if you think those “reality” shows are unscripted, you are…O.K., Sheryl is telling me to be nice here) that we need to tell people that shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Sons of Anarchy” aren’t real, we have a serious issue. I mean, I would love to see the first “reality” show starring half-decomposed corpses walking around L.A., but for fucks sake, are we serious with this shit?


 


Gaming

Dead Space


The Dead Space series  was an exceptional series of games that skillfully merged sci-fi space adventure with survival horror, with a strong, STRONG emphasis on survival horror (which is why Greg couldn’t play most of them, he’s too scared). The first game gave us awesome mechanics like strategic dismemberment, using a mining laser as a main weapon, and awesome zero-g environments. The games ambiance and environmental effects are out of this world amazing. The story is very involving and interesting, but we wont give it away, we want you to play it. The sequel moves the story along nicely, with polished mechanics, and even better environmental ambiance you came to expect from the first game. The sequel also includes a horde-mode style multiplayer mode.


The real fun came with the third installment, with the co-op multiplayer mode. Greg actually jumped in with Sheryl on this one, completing the entire game as a duo. The story is as deep as you would expect, but instead of just making the secondary player a bland, generic additional gun, they actually made the off-character a CHARACTER. He even has his own storyline that you discover throughout the game. He even has his own scenes which Isaac can’t even see or be involved with. We thought this was a very well thought-out and implemented feature.


 


Dead Space

Released: 2008

Developer: Visceral Games, Publisher: EA

Genre: Sci-Fi Survival Horror

Origin: $19.99 Steam: $19.99


 App of the Week


Gregs App pf the Week is iTV Shows 3, an iOS exclusive app that handles keeping track of all of the episodes for each show you watch in a very slick, elegant and simple UI. It does cost $2.99, but it is well worth it. The only downfall is that when the developer updates the app to a new major version, he makes it a separate app, which does incur another charge. However, this does not happen very often, and when he does do this, it is well worth coughing up the extra cash. If you haven’t drank the Apple kool-aid yet, Android has a very similar app that I haven’t used in a few years but when I did, it was he top of its game, SeriesGuide. SeriesGuide offers a ‘lite’ version that does most of what you would want or need it to, but also offers a paid upgrade that adds quite a few more options. The upgrade costs $5.99.


 


iTV Shows 3 ($2.99)

Developer: Antoine Gamond


 


SeriesGuide (Free)


Developer: Uwe Trottmann


 


I’m Feeling Lucky


The New Kids on the Block (is that even close to being relevant still?) are touring again this summer! That’s right, your favorite band from the late 80’s and early 90’s is back and running the circuit with TLC and Nelly!