Daredevil

After a couple of episodes of Marvel's Daredevil -- obligatory, "Now available on Netflix!" -- one thing that really stands out to me is just how hellish life is when you're not on SHIELD's helicarrier. Throughout the Avengers/Marvel Universe movies, we get a sanitized version of the results of the kind of violence that meta-humans and gods can unleash (not to mention the aliens) on a city. Those gargantuan Chitari flying whale-things in Avengers easily topple buildings and the Hulk is smashing everything that is and isn't moving but you never get a sense of the human cost behind all that destruction. Thousands must have died in the "Battle for New York." Never mind that "The Council" was going to nuke Manhattan, there must have been massive causualties on the ground.

Daredevil doesn't really get into that aspect of the Battle for New York, but it has featured the aftermath as a boon for organized crime to rebuild sections of the city and swindle huge amounts of cash into their bank accounts. What Daredevil has done is bring the Marvel Universe right down to the streets, grime and garbage included. (And at the end of the second episode, we go under the streets in one intense round of combat.)

TV Theme Songs

Something about TV theme songs really appeal to me. It might be because they're short, usually have memorable lyrics, and conjure up whatever good feelings I might have associated with the show. Bojack Horseman (on Netflix) features an instrumental opening that is currently buzzing through my brain. Here's an extended version:

House of Cards

After multiple recommendations, my wife and I started watching Netflix's "House of Cards."

I didn't know what to expect because the only thing I'd heard about it was that it was a "political show" so I was surprised when it started with Kevin Spacey's character killing a dog with his bare hands as he looks right at the audience and spouts a short monologue.

Granted the dog had just been run over by a car and would have probably died anyway, but the fact he finishes off the animal in such a manner while offering information to the audience like an ice-cold, grown-up version of Ferris Bueller had me wanting to watch more.

Most of the time I have no idea what's going on -- not being the kind of person that's knowledgeable about the inner workings of the US government -- but I’m still enjoying it, mostly because of Kevin Spacey and the calm reasoning of his character. Just a few episodes remain so I'm glad season 2 isn't far off.

French Zombies in "The Horde"

I miss going to the video store to rent movies but the advantage of Netflix -- being able to browse movies, watching each one for a few minutes to see if it grabs me -- outweighs that loss. Plus, I've watched some really good films and TV shows that I otherwise wouldn't have. (And it also allowed me to completely avoid some trash.)

One of those non-trash films -- at least in my opinion -- is The Horde. (It's no gem, but it held my attention.)

It's a good zombie flick, especially if you can stand the extreme gore. The biggest problem is that the description of the film obliterates the surprise, the sudden "Oh, we have bigger problems right now!" turn of events that turns the plans of some corrupt cops to kill the drug dealer responsible for the death of one of their own into a scramble for survival.

Their revenge plot isn't going so well when the bad and badder guys come under attack by super strong and fast zombies. These aren't the kind of zombies found in The Walking Dead. These ones are more along the lines of 28 Days Later. And from what the survivors can see from the roof of the apartment building it's pretty much the end of the world. What ensues is survivors alternating turning on each other and working together to escape the building to (hopefully) reach a nearby military base. The end is rather stark and depressing but it wrapped up the way the zombie apocalypse probably should.

I just wish the film description was misleading or omitted any mention of zombies. If the description focused on the revenge aspect of the four corrupt cops, that probably would have been enough. Make the zombies an actual surprise.

The Horde also suffers the same problem as nearly every other zombie film. Though it's set in the "real world" zombie films don't exist. No one automatically says, "Shoot for the head!" There's always this drawn out process of figuring out how walking corpses might be put down. That's just kind of irritating. If I saw a shambling horde of zombies coming down the street right now I'd know to aim for the head.