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June 19, 2013

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“The Walking Dead” hunk Andrew Lincoln talks zombie apocalypse!

September 11, 2012 by 2 Comments

The zombie craze has taken over Hollywood, and if it wasn’t for Andrew Lincoln I’d be hiding in my closet waiting for the fad to pass! Yes I am terrified of those soulless corpses who walk around eating brains but somehow the British babe makes watching The Walking Dead a pleasure.

Lincoln, whom I fell in love with after seeing 2003′s Love Actually, graces the October cover of Men’s Health (on newsstands today) and opens up about his transition from making a respectable living as an actor in England to slaying zombies on America’s most watched cable drama series for adults.

Sadly Andy, as he told me to call him when I met him at SDCC two years ago, decided to wear a shirt on the cover but confessed he is not so much into working out at a gym.

“I don’t need a trainer. I’ve got a zombie apocalypse to keep me fit.”

Here are a few more excerpts from his interview:

Andrew on his career before The Walking Dead…
“I’d played sort of jokey, Jack the Lad kinds of roles. Romantic roles. Period dramas.”

Andrew on why he doesn’t need a trainer thanks to his work on The Walking Dead…
“Of course I want to be in good shape and be fit, but I want to have stamina. It’s not an exercise in vanity. It’s about being able to do stuff. On Friday I did an 18-hour day, including travel. I was up at quarter to six in the morning and got home at half past midnight. The day before we’d been outdoors all day. It was 90 to 95, and the humidity was up. So I don’t need a trainer. I’ve got a zombie apocalypse to keep me fit.”

Andrew on six-packs…
“The whole vanity aspect of building up different muscles—I have no interest. I’m probably talking to the wrong magazine, but this six-pack phenomenon in acting, I just don’t subscribe to it.”

Andrew on his exercise regime…
“Eat less. Exercise more.”

To read the article in its entirety, click here and don’t forget to pick up the October issue of Men’s Health.

photo credit: Ture Lillegraven/Men’s Health

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REVIEW: The Walking Dead “Pretty Much Dead Already”

November 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Walking Dead took its midseason bow this week with some strong ratings and heartbreaking reveal. Sadly this season has devolved into hours and hours of banality that left me shuffling and drooling like one of the zombies. There have been a few moments of pure brilliance which is what keeps me watching.

Most of “Pretty Much Dead Already” was spent with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) jumping between trying to convince Herschel to let them stay on the farm and trying to convince Shane (Jon Bernthal) that they SHOULD stay on the farm. Rick goes so far as to help Herschel round up two wayward droolers stuck in the mud to show that he respects the fact that they are guests on his farm. When Shane sees this he loses a gasket and goes postal on them, forcing Herschel to face facts. He opens the barn doors and they slaughter the walkers inside. And then one last walker appears and stops them dead.

I’d like to lie and say that I knew Sophia was in the barn with the other walkers, but while I suspected a few episodes ago that she would turn up shuffling and drooling the idea that she was one of the barn walkers didn’t occur to me until the first few minutes of this episode when Shane started hollering about taking care of the situation in there. It didn’t make the reveal any less heartbreaking though, but I was surprised that Shane hesitated at all to kill her after his “fuck this” and “fuck that” speech. I suppose it had to be Rick to do it since he had spent the earlier part of the hour trying to convince Herschel that walkers were not people. It also served as a reminder to Shane that Rick can make the hard decisions when he needs to.

Maggie (Lauren Cohan) made peace with Glenn after he owned up to why he wouldn’t keep her secret and it looks like it’s all roses and rainbows for them…for a little while at least. She certainly doesn’t seem too keen on keeping her affection for “that Asian boy” a secret any longer. Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) seemed to finally let go of Andrea this week as well which leaves the group a little divided. I’m left wondering if the end of season two will result in the Atlanta survivors splitting up.

The Walking Dead returns in February and I’m thankful for the break. These first eight moved at a snails pace and I’m glad that the major problem keeping everyone from moving on has been resolved. It looked like the incident at the barn nearly broke Herschel so it will be interesting to see how he deals with it. And what will happen when the truth about poor Otis comes out.

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REVIEW: The Walking Dead “Chupacabra”

November 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

Is it just me or is The Walking Dead shuffling along at a drooling, brain-munching pace this season? After a great start the show seems to have stalled on I-20 with the rest of those cars and now they are too busy arguing and being pregnant and sexing it up to care about silly things like excitement and tension. And imagine my disappointment when the episode titled “Chupacabra” contained no chupacabra at ALL! Talk about a bait and switch!

Last week the only plot development of note was that Glenn (Steven Yeun) got some hot farmer’s daughter action while fetching supplies in town and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) found out she is great-with-child and I can only assume that she’s not 100% certain whether Shane (Jon Bernthal) or Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is the father. This week started out with an awesome flashback including some kickass shots of downtown Atlanta being napalmed into oblivion but ended up being all about Daryl (Norman Reedus) and his misadventures while searching for the still missing but most certainly still alive Sophia. After spotting her doll in the creek he takes a tumble and ends up with an arrow through his spleen which leads to a hallucinatory conversation with his brother Merle during which he gets told how things are gonna be. When he does finally climb back up the cliff and stumble back to the farm he is mistaken for a walker and almost gets his head blown off by Andrea (Laurie Holden) who suddenly thinks she’s Red Sonja or something.

Daryl is turning out to be one of the more interesting characters on the show. His inner conflict between the man he was and the man he wants to be bubbled to the surface a bit this week and I think Carol was the one who helped him resolve it, for the time being. Shane also revealed a bit more of the asshole he really is which I understand is more in line with his character from the graphic novels. I still wonder why Lori asked him to stay.

The situation on the farm hasn’t changed much. Carol suggests to Lori that they cook dinner for their kind host family which doesn’t sit well with Herschel who just wants them all gone. At first I thought he was trying to protect their little slice of heaven from outlanders but when Glenn heads to the barn for some more farm girl nookie and finds a herd of groaning walkers trapped inside I suspect there is more going on that we know about. I hope so because this Little Zombie on the Prairie business is getting boring quick.

The Walking Dead returns after Thanksgiving and then shuffles off into the Georgia woods until 2012.

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The Walking Dead: “Save The Last One”

November 1, 2011 by 3 Comments

The Walking Dead delivered another whammy of an episode on Sunday with “Save The Last One” and delivered a twist that left me speechless. Last week we left off with Shane and Otis facing down a couple dozen walkers in an abandoned high school while Carl fights for his life back at Herschel’s farm. Oh and let’s not forget the others still camped out on the highway looking for Sophia.

This week picked up with Shane (Jon Bernthal) shaving his head in preparation for the upcoming Hottest Man on Television Contest which he obviously already won. This was one of those teaser looks ahead so you’ll be left wondering for the rest of the hour why he’s shaving his head. I find that particular plot device a bit distracting actually. I’d rather let things unfold naturally but in this case it worked. When we jump back to Shane and Otis at the school things aren’t looking especially good but they manage to at least get out of the building with the medical supplies Carl needs. The problem is they are both injured and the walkers are hot on their tail.

Back at the farm Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Rick (Andrew Lincoln) worrying about their son Carl and Lori starts to question whether or not saving him is the best answer considering the current state of the world. Rick is understandably against the idea but there is a great moment where you can see him working it out in his head. Is it really better to keep him alive when there doesn’t appear to be any hope left? The fact that they don’t have a lot of time left to make the call isn’t helping much either. When Carl wakes up briefly and the only thing he wants to talk about is the deer he saw Rick finds a reason to save the kid and Lori agrees, but time is running out.

Thankfully Shane shows up with the supplies but he looks about ready to lose it and Otis isn’t with him. Shane explains he didn’t make it but doesn’t really explain why. And while the others work on Carl he wanders the house looking just a bit crazy. Once the kid is safe he heads upstairs for his shower and it’s there we learn just why Otis didn’t make it. It isn’t clear whether Shane’s decision to more or less feed Otis to the walkers so he could escape was so he could save Carl or if something else is going on. I never really did hold any ill will for Otis since he didn’t mean to shoot the kid and certainly made it clear he intended to make it right. But Shane’s transformation in this episode was startling. Jon Bernthal acted the shit out of that and it was a bit disturbing to watch. I think it is safe to say there will be Hell to pay.

There wasn’t much progress in the hunt for Sophia but Daryl continues to evolve and is darn right likeable at this point. I keep wondering if he and Andrea are going to hook up…if she manages not to kill herself that is now that she has her gun back. She did seem to consider the poor walker who had tried to kill himself a bit too long if you ask me, like she was weighing her options.

The Walking Dead sure doesn’t hold anything back. It is truly something to behold when a tv show can be intensely unpleasant and compelling at the same time. The glory of cable television I guess. I honestly have no idea what’s coming next and that’s exactly how I like it.

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REVIEW: The Walking Dead “Bloodletting”

October 24, 2011 by 2 Comments

Not much happened this week on AMC’s zombie party The Walking Dead and that’s okay. Mindless brain-sucking meat bags shuffling around in the Georgia heat gets old really fast so when things slow down for some good old character drama I get a little excited. I got even more excited when the episode kicked off with a flashback to a time before the zombie apocalypse when Lori was faced with Rick being shot in the line of duty right after they had a nasty fight. It was odd seeing Lori with makeup on.

When we left our survivors little Carl had just been shot by a hunter and we pick up with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) hoofing it through the woods toward a farmhouse. The shooter, a portly gentleman whose neck might be slightly red named Otis was doing his best to keep up, encouraged by a somewhat angry and worried Shane (Jon Bernthal). The farm belongs to Otis’ family and there is a doctor there. Nice coincidence right? Well don’t get too comfy because this doc is a vet but still thinks he can help the little tyke and what other options do they have? Rick wants Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) there but he can’t leave so one of the doctor’s kids heads out to find her while Shane and Otis head to the local high school to get some supplies to help Carl.

Meanwhile out in the woods the others (minus Dale and T-Dog) are still looking for Carol’s missing daughter but aren’t having much luck. Things get even hairier when Andrea (Laurie Holden) has a close call with a walker that really messes with her head. The doctor’s daughter shows up on horseback and saves Andrea, then whisks Lori away back to the farm. She tells the others how to find them and they head back to the highway where T-Dog has been trying to convince Dale to ditch the others and leave.

With Sophia still missing they send Glenn to the farm while they stay behind to make a sign telling Sophia where they went. Glenn (Steven Yeun) takes T-Dog along to get some meds because the infection from his cut has been making him crazy. Andrea is not handling her near miss with the walker well and Shane and Otis have run into another herd of walkers at the high school. Most of this episode was spent establishing how close Shane and Rick are and dealing with the gravity of Carl’s condition. You have to wonder if Lori and Rick are wondering if saving Carl is the best thing given the bleak outlook for their future. Of course a parent’s first instinct is to do anything to save the kid but I suspect as this situation draws on longer they will ask some hard questions.

And how much of what T-Dog was ranting about was fever induced? Daryl’s attitude toward the group and T-Dog in particular has certainly improved and he is by far the most resourceful one of the bunch. He did come to T-Dog’s rescue yet again this week when he produced his presumably dead brother’s stash of drugs. Things are looking bad for Otis and Shane at the school though. Funny how quick on their feet the zombies become when food shows up.

As I mentioned before I get bored with zombies very quickly so it says something about the writing on this show (to me at least) that I find it interesting enough to tune in every week. Having never read the graphic novel I have no idea what lies at the end of this tale. Something tells me it isn’t a cure or the revelation it was all a dream so I plan on enjoying the ride until the inevitable downbeat conclusion, and a nice low key episode like “Bloodletting” is a welcome distraction from all the brain-eating.

The Walking Dead airs on AMC every Sunday night at 9.

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REVIEW: The Walking Dead “What Lies Ahead”

October 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Season two of AMCs The Walking Dead picks up right where last season left off, with the group headed out of Atlanta after the destruction of the CDC. There is a new team of writers this year and it remains to be seen what that will mean, but so far we are off to a really good start setting a new ratings record for cable with 7.3 million viewers…before DVR viewing is accounted for. That ain’t too shabby.

Not far out of the city our roving band of survivors faces an epic traffic jam blocking their way, or what we in Atlanta like to call “a day on I-20″. Before they can make their way through the RV breaks down and while Dale works on fixing it the others start rummaging through the abandoned cars for supplies. They find enough water and fuel to get them all the way to Fort Benning where they hope to find help.

But this is a zombie story after all and just as the sun starts getting really hot Rick (Andrew Lincoln) notices a walker making its way down the road, followed by another and another until they realize an entire herd of brain-eaters is bearing down on them. Quickly and silently they drop to the ground and hide under the cars while the walkers pass. It was an incredibly tense few minutes of television and our group almost made it out unscathed. Before its over T-Dog is injured and little Sophia has been chased off in the woods with Rick in hot pursuit. Rick saves the little girl by drawing the walkers away but Sophia vanishes into the woods before he can get back. The rest of the 90 minute episode was spent looking for her. Before long they hear bells in the woods and figure the girl has found a church and is signaling them. Zombies aren’t smart enough to ring bells for dinner are they?

The church turns out to be a dead end and after disposing of some random walkers the group takes turns making peace with God before moving on. Andrea overhears Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and Shane discussing his intentions and she wants in on the deal. He isn’t sold on it but I suspect he will be. With Sophia gone the already damaged unit splinters even more. Carol (Melissa McBride) blames Rick for leaving her little girl alone. Andrea (Laurie Holden) is finding it hard to come up with a reason to live now that her baby sister is dead and Dale (Jeffrey DuMunn) isn’t too keen on letting her go. And Shane (Jon Bernthal), realizing he doesn’t have a place there now that Rick and Lori are back together plans on heading off on his own as soon as he can slip away.

With every zombie story there comes a fair amount of gore and this episode was full of it. The zombie autopsy in the woods was especially gruesome and made me wish I had waited to eat dinner after the episode. The Walking Dead is always good for a cliffhanger the finale ended with a bang that no doubt had viewers everywhere throwing things at the television. It is a brave move to focus the harm on the kids in the cast but it seems to have worked. The previews certainly didn’t give us any idea as to what becomes of the little ones later on. I guess we’ll have to tune in.

The Walking Dead returns next Sunday on AMC.

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REVIEW: The Walking Dead Finale “TS-19″

December 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Things were looking up for our resourceful group of survivors at the end of last week’s episode of The Walking Dead. After being splintered by a zombie attack that sent some folks off on their own those who remained finally reached the CDC where Dr Jenner has been holding court. After a few nervous minutes the front doors opened and it seemed that they had finally found some safety. One thing zombie apocalypses have taught us is that you are never safe for very long.

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