lunabee34

1. I called all my CongressPeople and asked them to oppose Steve Bannon's appointment as President-elect Trump's chief strategist. It took less than five minutes to make all three calls which were each answered after the first ring. All three are Republicans, so who knows what effect, if any, my calls will have.

2. Reviews of the last two weeks of The Walking Dead:

Last week: What is so frustrating as a viewer of the show is that we get the big picture. We see how easily Neegan could be overcome. No one is truly loyal to him. He has no friends. He has built such an enormous cult of personality and fear that it would truly take just a small nudge to destroy the whole enterprise. This was evident in this episode and also in this week's episode; if they'd posted a sniper who shot him the second he pulled up, the whole thing would be over and would crumble. Sure, Neegan's lieutenants would jockey for power, but none of them have the kind of sway that he commands, and I think most of his people would grab whatever they could and just get the hell out of dodge. The character in last week's episode even says, "It's one of him and all of us."

I will say, this episode made me sympathize a great deal with the people Neegan has working for him. It's clearly rape central, with women given out as prizes for loyalty. The episode opening with Sherry taking that pregnancy test is chilling. Josh says that Dwight reminds him of the Misfit from "A Good Man is Hard to Find," but I don't think Dwight is that amoral. Now that I know their back story and what Neegan has done to Dwight and Sherry since their return, I'm much more sympathetic than I was when they stole Darryl's stuff. That scene in the stairwell where they both lie and say they're happy and that their current lives are better than being dead is really sad.

Misc points of interest: humans are the real monsters continues to the theme; I found it poignant that the guy who's trying to escape ends right back up at Neegan's compound in death; pretty sure the picture they show Darryl is of Glenn's dead body.

This week: I keep trying to figure out why I'm bored with Neegan because JDM is a great actor, and I have no complaints about his performance. I think it's how fragile Neegan's hold seems from the outside and also how sick and tired I am of Rick. LOL I will admit that it will be satisfying when Rick decides he's had enough and beats the shit out of Neegan and wrests back control, but I don't care about his guilt and his pain and I certainly don't care for them making Carl act like a dumbass just to highlight that he still has the resistance that has been snuffed out in Rick. I was grateful that he finally said out loud that Shane and Lori being together wasn't wrong or anyone's fault because they thought he was dead.

Mad props to Father Gabriel for stepping up and thinking quickly (You are creepy as shit, indeed). I am glad to see that he and Rosita and Spencer and Carl and Aaron and others still have some fight in them.

Neegan took their mattresses just to burn them. Wow. What a dick.

3. We saw Doctor Strange. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the cloak; I think it and Mew-Mew should star in their own short film. The movie had just the right amount of humor and pathos, and the special effects were pretty awesome. I did not care for some of the effects when the Ancient One sends Strange on the mind trip to teach him a lesson, but I did like everything with the buildings/the landscape moving and telescoping. At the beginning when he's getting dressed to go accept his award, I kept thinking, has he wandered out of his movie and into a Matthew Mcconaughey commercial? LOL