James Philbrick

During The Walking Dead 's mid-season finale, audiences were shocked to discover Carl Grimes had been bitten by a walker. Carl, played by Chandler Riggs, has been part of the show since its first season in 2011 when Riggs was only 11 years old. Audiences across the world got to watch Riggs grow up as both Carl Grimes and Chandler Riggs. It really sucks to see him go and it will definitely affect the rest of the series.  Carl's death shocked both audiences and fellow cast members. "I always thought Carl was going to be the one who led the show forward," Andrew Lincoln told  The Hollywood Reporter , "that Rick would hand over his boots and revolver when he walked off into the sunset in season 28." Unfortunately, that dream will never come true.  Rumor's of Carl's death on the show have been around for years. When the rumors resurfaced, I thought nothing of them, even though they were a bit more convincing this time. The rumors i...

Originally I wasn’t going to write a review on this episode, but after watching, I just had to talk about it.  The episode started off slowly, and it just seemed like a lot of pointless shooting and slow-motion shots of character's faces. Once the episode got going, I really enjoyed it. This episode was one of the stronger episodes of the series and really was a game changer. And I'm not just talking about the main death of the episode. First off, let's talk about Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Negan has been one of the strongest Walking Dead villains since Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal). It's hard to compare the two characters since they are both great in their unique ways, but it is clear Negan is the villain the show has been lacking. In some sick and twisted way, I understand what Negan is doing and why he is doing it. It may be wrong, but a great villain is someone who thinks they are doing the right thing. Negan truly thinks he is helping people an...

Once again, The Walking Dead completely drags out the cold opening. They are just beating a dead horse when they show Gregory in terms of flashbacks.  We already know what he did, why he did it, and why we hate him, so why waste that much time on a flashback? It doesn't help that his character is so unlikable and has no redeeming qualities. Once the episode started to get going, I had a great time! After waiting 4 episodes we finally get to see what Gabriel is up to and it is worth it. Gabriel was introduced way back in season 5 and since then has been a hit or miss character. I didn't think his character was all that interesting after being around him for 2 seasons, but this new episode proves he isn't the old Gabriel we know. We get a nice throwback to how far Gabriel has come since he was first introduced and his interactions with Negan were the best parts of the episode. These two characters are polar opposites and now they are stuck together and...

The Walking Dead aired 'Just Some Guy' last night and it was the fourth episode of season eight. 'Just Some Guy' focused on Ezekiel and his downfall. The episode starts off with a familiar scene. Ezekiel is once again making his "and yet I smile" motivational speech. However, the scene takes a dark turn as the audience goes from seeing the Kingdom army cheering and surrounding their king to the Kingdom army dead and piled on top of their king. This scene had emotional depth for Ezekiel but failed to deliver an emotional response towards the nameless army. The special effects crew did a great job with this scene and the episode as a whole. This episode had much better special effects than the previous episodes and I didn't see anything that made me feel disconnected from the show. It was interesting to see Ezekiel so broken. Ever since his first introduction, he has constantly put on a show for the good of his people. He never broke charact...

The Walking Dead aired 'Monsters' last night and it was the third episode of season eight. 'Monsters' was the first episode this season to disappoint me and cause a loss of interest. First off, the cold opening was extremely weak. It was choppy, disorganized, and edited awfully. I'm not sure what the producers were trying to do, but it didn't work. The opening consisted of several fades to black and confusing voiceovers for no apparent reason. I really thought something was wrong with my TV or my network. Audiences were also given more motivational speeches as if we don't know what the characters are fighting for. We already know the impact of the war and what is at stake, so do the characters in the show, so there is no need for constant reminders. This cold opening should have been left out or edited in a completely different way. It was not a good start to a mediocre episode.   After last week's cliffhanger, I was extremely excited to...

Walking Dead aired “The Damned” last night. The episode is the second of the eighth season and included fast-paced action, a throwback to the first season, and fresh new ideas.   Even though the show is now moving quicker than usual, it is still an improvement on the storyline from The Walking Dead comic series. This episode was everything I wanted from the comics. The comics are very fast-paced, which is a major strength. However, I wanted the war with the Saviors to be fleshed out more. The show took a weakness from the comic and satisfied all fans with their additions to the storyline.   Another one of the strengths of this season is the war mood is much more evident than it was in past seasons. In season 3, the "war" with the governor didn't feel like a war at all. Half a season was spent talking about war and then there was little payoff. This has been a common theme in the show and this season sets out to change that.  Season 8 actually fe...