TV Blur (3/24-3/29)

I’ve been sick the past week so I wasn’t able to write any new posts on the TV shows I watch. So here are several briefs and comments in the past week of television.

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The Walking Dead – “This Sorrowful Life”

Grade: B-

Merle gets shot in the chest by the Governor and then is knifed in the head by Daryl. It was a tough episode for Merle, but I can’t say that I didn’t see his death coming. Another non-shocker was when Rick changes his decision to give Michonne to the Governor, but it’s too late because Merle already captured her and is on his way to deliver her. We get a heart-to-heart between two supporting characters, sort of feel for Merle, which is obviously the kiss of death in The Walking Dead. At least her went out in a blaze of glory by taking down several people at Woodbury.

Merle, like all of the supporting characters in The Walking Dead, has his own story and one that is worth telling. But the show hasn’t concentrated anything besides Rick, the Governor, and Andrea the entire season. I understand The Walking Dead is under a lot of pressure keeping its record-breaking ratings alive and displaying constant zombie-killing is essential, but it’s hurting the potential of the show that is post-Shane. Since his death, we haven’t spent much time at all with anyone besides the leads. Take a page from Game of Thrones, Mad Men, or Boardwalk Empire and develop the characters.

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How I Met Your Mother – “The Time Travelers”

Grade: A-

During the latter seasons of HIMYM, Ted has taken a back-seat to the other characters on the show. Marshall and Lily have a baby and have to deal with parenthood, and Barney and Robin are engaged and have to deal with their preparations. But Ted is still the main character, hence the title. So I do appreciate it when they decide to spend some time focused on Ted and his quest to find his wife instead of Lily working for the Captain, or Barney adding a new page to the Playbook. And that’s exactly what this episode gave us.

After plenty of gimmicks where Present Ted and Present Barney talk with 20 Years Later Ted and Barney, plus other future versions of people, the somber message was how Ted was lonely while his friends are all coupled off. But then he reveals that in 45 days, he’s going to meet his wife. These are the sort of hints and foreshadowing that made HIMYM so much fun to watch. Now there’s an actual short time-frame to when Ted will meet his wife. Fans rejoice!

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Revolution – “The Stand”

Grade: B+

Revolution returns for their second half of the first season with a bang! We left off with Monroe now having the power to run helicopters, so that’s bad news for practically everyone, especially the Resistance. Now that Rachel is with the gang, it’s growing more evident how she’s the most important person in this black-out world, and also enemy number 1 to Miles and now Randall. Why? Probably because she has the answers to all the questions.

The amplified helicopters are finally shot down by Danny firing a missile launcher, but not without the copters taking out Danny before crashing to the ground. All of the first half dealt with Charlie searching and rescuing her brother. All of that for nothing! I applaud Revolution for this death, just like how Ben and Maggie bit the dust early in the season. Revolution seemingly has no problem killing off characters, something major network series shy away from doing. But this all happened for a reason. Rachel cuts out a small chip-like pill apparently containing power. What the hell is that and what can it do?!

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The Following – “Guilt”

Grade: B-

My favorite part about this show is the story between Ryan and Claire. They’re the only two characters I really care about because how can you really care about any of the murderers? Emma is annoying, Jacob is now a badass for suffocating Paul, and Joe Carroll is just waiting for his wife to return. Who cares? But Ryan/Claire actually makes for some good TV. We get to see them this episode but we haven’t seen it enough so far and I’m afraid we’re not going to see them together for a while.

After Ryan desperately tries to keep Claire safe, she eventually leaves with Joe’s lackeys to see her son. Yeah I get it, she’s not thinking and all she really wants is to see her son again, but she’s entering a house of crazies at at the helm is her psychopathic husband. Yeah, real good choice, Claire. Oh and one last note, The Following does such a poor job at using flashbacks. Please just stop.

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New Girl – “Chicago”

Grade: B-

Sitcoms have it tough when they have an episode around someone’s death. It has to be done. Recently, How I Met Your Mother had one and now New Girl. New Girl takes the much lighter approach, but with little essence. Nick’s father dies and we meet Nick’s insane family. None of it is very funny. I laughed the hardest at Schmidt’s fear of open caskets.

What the episode did was display Jess to Nick’s family and show how she was able to diffuse their craziness and even fit in. After everything, Nick’s mom approved of Jess and she points out that it’s nice to have someone like her look after Nick. We’re just getting closer and closer to when Nick and Jess start dating.

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The Mindy Project – “Danny’s Friend”

Grade: C-

It’s Stevie. Oh, I was just answering the question that the title suggests in, Who is Danny’s Friend? This was a very uneven episode of The Mindy Project. While Mindy, Morgan, and Jeremy are trying to play detective figuring out why Danny’s been prescribing drugs off the books, Mindy has a run in with Heather who wants an available apartment in Mindy’s complex.

I’m excited that this show was renewed, but I really feel that The Mindy Project has to find its focus, and quickly. Like all the romantic comedies Mindy loves, the show’s strongest aspect is when it comments on relationships and friendships. Why not have that as its main concentration? I don’t know, but the show spends far too much time elsewhere. It needs to develop a story arc and keep with it.

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Smash – “The Bells & Whistles”

Grade: B

In the episode prior, Smash really stepped on the acceleration pedal and launched us to its current situation. There are two musicals we’re watching: Bombshell and Hit List. While it’s good to see different productions work out in different stages, the problem with this is that I doubt anyone enjoys both musicals equally. For me, Hit List is far more intriguing than Bombshell. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s new and fresh, compared to Bombshell which we spent all last season on, but probably also because it’s the underdog compared to Bombshell. All the broken pieces fell off of Bombshell and landed in Jimmy’s Hit List.

Sure, Jimmy and Derek bickering all episode was annoying, and Tom trying to befriend his cast was an obvious disaster. But they’re both trying, which says a lot more about Derek than Tom. Just one last comment, I really wish Smash just stopped covering songs Glee style because that’s when it’s at its worst.

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Nashville – “When You’re Tired of Breaking Other Hearts

Grade: B-

Juliette continues to be difficult as she ignores her label and throws an impromptu concert, which results in disaster. Maddie lies to her mom and dad and gets injured at the show. Meanwhile, Gunnar angrily mourns his brother’s death and skips out on showcasing him and Scarlett’s talent to Rayna’s potential record label. And Avery quits his current gig. Just a typical episode of Nashville!

First off, I could care less about Avery but this episode made you feel more for him other than that selfish prick who was wrong for Scarlett and dumped everyone just to be discovered. He seems to understand the mistake he made and is trying to stick with the only thing he knows: his music. Scarlett is offered a contract to Rayna’s label, but without Gunnar. If the show is going to split them up musically, I might stop watching because their music is the strongest aspect of the show, emotionally. And finally, who would’ve thought Juliette giving Deacon a puppy would’ve landed him a girlfriend?

Girls – “Together”

Season Two, Episode Ten

Grade: B-

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The second season of Girls has come to an end and it has left me feeling… uneven. I guess that’s the best way to sum up the sophomore season because there were a lot of good things throughout, a lot of great things, but also some bad. The season finale was good, but it just didn’t live up to the great episodes of the past season.

My main problem with the episode was that it felt rushed. It was the ending of another chapter and all of the characters’ stories had to end (sort of) to mark the conclusion of the season. Marnie and Charlie get back together, Shoshanna and Ray break up, and Hannah and Adam are reunited. It’s very mainstream in my opinion, which is something that Girls has done a fantastic job at staying away from. So what’s the deal?

More specifically, the Marnie/Charlie story-line just didn’t seem genuine. So just because Charlie is successful and rich, now she finds him attractive? I don’t believe that she still loves him from how poorly she treated him in the first season, unless she realizes how crappy her life became after they broke up. And has Charlie been hung up over Marnie all this time? We don’t know much about his character and every time he’s on screen, Marnie’s not far behind. All of these things just made this story-line very shallow and one-dimensional.

But enough of the bad, there were things that “Together” did very well. Throughout the season, Hannah faded in and out as the central character on Girls and in the finale, she certainly regained her status as the main story. Her OCD is very real and is distracting her from the rest of her life. She’s unable to write the pages to her book and is threatened to be sued of she doesn’t deliver. In the best scene of the episode, Hannah calls Jessa and leaves an emotional message, screaming at her for leaving her and blaming her for being alone when she needs someone to talk to.

Well ain’t karma a bitch? Hannah has been pushing away everyone from her life since the first episode and now it’s finally biting her in the ass. She’s selfish and lives in her own world, which she’s realizing is a tough one without the company of her friends and family. I’m still torn over the last scene when Adam runs to Hannah’s side by kicking down her apartment door and holding her in his arms. Hannah is manipulative, we all know that, but how sincere was her call to Adam? Or was he simply the last person she tried to contact? Either way, she got what she wanted, which is the attention of another wounded (ex)friend.

So Girls has made its way back to square one, with Charlie/Marnie and Adam/Hannah together, also with Jessa who knows where (but she’ll likely return), and Shoshanna and Ray single. But did they really have to cram everything into the finale? What was the purpose of that? Maybe there’s something bigger coming in season three, or at least I hope so. For now, I’ll just go one Facetime and run shirtless through the city.

The Walking Dead – “Prey”

Season Three, Episode Fourteen

Grade: B+

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A whole lot hasn’t happened in the past few episodes of The Walking Dead. While I loved “Clear” because of how it gave us some character depth and how Lennie James provided us with a decent actor on the screen for an hour, it was a stand-alone episode that didn’t move the plot along at all. And during “Arrow on the Doorpost,” there was some intense staring going on between the Governor and Rick, but after an hour all we had was an offer on the table for Michonne’s head while the Governor plans to wipe out everyone from the prison. There was atleast some plot, but it was more like pedaling on a stationary bike than actually going anywhere.

In “Prey,” we take baby steps towards what we know is going to happen, but it’s still a very solid hour of television. This is due to its strong focus on the Woodbury half of the war. Though I hate to say it, Andrea was the central character of the episode and really carried it along. She has this moment when she realizes that she’s on the wrong side of this fight after Milton reveals the Governor’s intention and how he wants Michonne dead. How many people have tried to tell Andrea that the Governor isn’t who she thinks he is? Probably everyone, but she finally realizes it herself and she just hopes it’s not too late.

Milton is in the same boat too. Sure, he’s been beside the Governor before there was Woodbury, but he finally understands that the Governor’s intentions have turned for the worse. But unlike Andrea, he’s not exactly willing to switch sides and turn on him just yet, which is why he prevents Andrea from assassinating the Governor up in the vents. But he does strongly disagree with the Governor’s plan and shows that by torching the zombie pits that the Governor planned to use against Rick. It’s nice to see Milton get his hands dirty, but it’s most likely going to cost him by the end of this season, you know, since the Governor has gone completely psychotic.

In the smaller story-line, Tyreese and Sasha run into Andrea when she jumps the walls. Before she leaves, she warns them that the Governor is crazy and they should get out of Woodbury asap. The problem here is that we know practically nothing about Tyreese and Sasha. They are extremely likeable and seem like genuinely good people, but aren’t those attributes to characters who die on The Walking Dead? They get shook up when they see the zombie pits, but in the end they’re persuaded by the savvy Governor that they’re with the good guys. I’m still interested in what happens to those two, but I wouldn’t be sad if they bite the dust soon.

But back to Andrea and her great escape. She ducks through an abandoned warehouse from the whistling Governor and just as she’s approaching the prison gates, the Governor pops out of nowhere and throws her to the ground. This is the only snippet that we see of Rick and the prison gang. Even though Andrea is arguably my least favorite character on the show, she started showing some promise as a woman who wanted to amend for her mistakes by alerting her friends of the Governor’s plan. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen as it’s revealed she’s shackled up. Poor Andrea.

Overall, it was great to see a Woodbury episode just before they go to war. We’ll definitely see more of the main group next episode as they figure out what to do with Michonne and how to prepare themselves for the fight. But the fact is that Woodbury is falling apart. Andrea turned her back to the Governor, Milton is next on that list and Tyreese has expressed his doubts in the cause. Oh, and the Governor is just a crazy lunatic now, instead of being that charismatic creep. It took a while to fully understand the Governor, but all he is now is on a one way street to war with Rick. And let’s face it, are we really expecting the Governor to walk away victorious?

Mad Men Season 6 Premiere

I am incredibly excited for Mad Men to return.

Movie Review: Larry Crowne

Larry Crowne (2011)
98 minutes
Rated PG-13
Directed by Tom Hanks
Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts

Grade: C

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Larry Crowne has a good set-up for a romantic comedy: a hard-working, middle-aged man gets laid off even though he’s arguably the best employee and must go to community college to get his degree. Think of this as Community if Jeff Winger was older and not a jerk. Tom Hanks stars as Larry Crowne and after being laid off, times are so hard on him he has to drive a Vespa. But don’t worry, there’s a cool Vespa gang at community college!

That’s what you can expect during Larry Crowne. This is a film that is awfully light-hearted and there is never really any doubt that Larry Crowne will find success. He meets new friends instantly, he’s offered a new job that he enjoys and he catches the eye of the public speaking teacher, Mrs. Tainot (Roberts). You already know how it’s going to end before it starts, but I guess that’s the case for most romantic comedies.

Julia Roberts is the most interesting and realistic character in the film. She’s unhappily married (to Bryan Cranston, a man who is excellent in any role given to him), drinks a lot and doesn’t seem to care about anything. She even gives Larry Crowne the stink-eye at first but falls for his charm and kindness.

There’s nothing special about this film and if you’ve watched a romantic comedy before, then you certainly don’t need to watch this one. Tom Hanks, in his prime, starred in far superior rom-coms than this, but there is an audience for Larry Crowne. It’s safe, predictable, and will put a smile on your face. It’s a film that people can enjoy to watch without any worry about straining their minds. There is nothing wrong with a movie like this, I just wish it was more involved.

Movie Review: Project X

Project X (2012)
88 minutes
Rated – R
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh
Starring: Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown

Grade: C-

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Movies about high school are full of cliches: nerds, jocks, partying, sex, college, alcohol, etc. Project X has them all and it doesn’t even try to hide it with any sort of moral or message that could benefit any teenager who watches. It’s an all out, rage fest of a film; unapologetic of its insulting and crude material and ignorant to its own stupidity.

But it’s kind of fun.

High school senior Thomas is persuaded by his friends to throw a party for his 17th birthday since his parents are going to be away. One thing leads to another and a thousand kids end up showing up to the party. Debauchery ensues and events during the party turn ridiculous such as a midget being thrown into an oven, a car being driven into the in-ground pool, and a lawn gnome containing dozens of ecstasy pills is broken.

This is your teenage fantasy film about a bunch of nobody’s fulfilling their ultimate dream of becoming popular after throwing the most epic party of the year. At first, you feel bad for Thomas because he really is a good kid, conflicted with peer pressure from his friends and craving to fit in at school. But all of these feelings soon diminish after he constantly makes bad decisions, snowballing the party into an absolute riot. Once again, this is a fantasy film for all those normal teenagers to get high off of.

Putting all the negative qualities of the movie aside, and there are a lot, what bugs me the most about Project X is how shallow the film actually is. At least attempt at any kind of positive message, or some characters that we can relate to or even have an emotional attachment to. But there’s none of that during Project X. It’s simply an enormous party and as the audience, we’re in the corner with our red solo cup just watching everything unfold without a care in the world.

Though I’m sure that this movie cares equally as little as we do.

Movie Review: We Bought a Zoo

We Bought a Zoo (2011)
124 minutes
Rated – PG
Directed by Cameron Crowe
Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church

Grade: B

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A family drama is a complicated genre because unless it’s an animated feature from Pixar or Dreamworks, it’s a tough task to keep the attention of both children and adults. We Bought a Zoo is a family drama that suits adults much more than kids, but it’s still a family drama nonetheless. Aside from the animals in the zoo, there’s not much to hold the kids’ focus for this 2+ hour film, but for the adults, it’s entertaining and heart-warming.

Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a single father because of the tragic death of his wife. He has two children, Dylan the rebellious son who has trouble communicating with his father and pours his emotion into his drawings; and Rosie, the cutest girl in the entire world who jumps for joy at the sight of the animals.

Two supporting characters really make an impact on Benjamin’s life: Duncan (Church), his brother and Kelly (Johansson) the zoo keeper. Duncan provides plenty of comic relief and also portrays the brother who speaks logic to his brother who seems to be acting on emotion. It doesn’t make sense to buy a house and a zoo when he doesn’t know anything about maintaining one. Even when Benjamin digs himself a hole and runs out of money, Duncan suggests he leaves the project after a good effort, but Benjamin is determined to see things through. Whether it’s for himself, for his kids, or maybe a bit of both, Benjamin places all of his chips in.

In the other corner, Kelly provides the passion for the animals and for rebuilding the zoo back up. She’s the emotional force behind the zoo and Benjamin feeds off of her enthusiasm and finds something he could help with in his quest to move forward without his wife. One of the things I truly enjoyed about this film is how Benjamin and Kelly’s relationship never blossomed to a distraction on screen. The story isn’t about Benjamin and Kelly finding each other romantically, it’s about the family working things out together in the means of the zoo.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable family drama with solid performances all around the cast. Based on a true story, the film deals with the loss of a loved one and a family trying to move on. It’s touching yet never tear-jerking during its most powerful moments, but it’s still a film that is a good watch for anyone.

Help Kickstart the Veronica Mars Movie!

There are TV-shows that I love, and then there are TV-shows that I LOVE! Veronica Mars is one of those television shows that I constantly find myself revisiting, and also the show that I can rekindle my celebrity crush for Kristen Bell. Putting that aside, from 2004-2007 Veronica Mars lasted three seasons but created a cult following for a show that was incredibly unique. A teen noir, private investigative father-daughter duo putting out crimes through school and the real world, with style! It was a show that was light enough to attract teens, but mature and intelligent enough to attract adults.

And after the third season was cut short, the Veronica Mars team led by creator Rob Thomas is trying to Kickstart the movie to finally end things the right way! There was a discussion of a movie after the series ended, but Warner Bros. didn’t feel there was a large enough audience to validate a major studio movie. But that’s not stopping Rob Thomas and his team! According to sources, he’s attempted to raise the highest goal Kickstarter has ever had for a project: $2 million.

The campaign started today and after a few hours it has already raised over $700,000 for the Veronica Mars movie. The Kickstarter project will end on April 12, which is 30 days from now. So do yourself a favor and gather all of your V-Mars, LoVe, marshmallow friends and pledge to the movie! If you don’t know what Veronica Mars is, watch the show and then pledge!

Speaking of, time for me to pledge. Now how much will I give? Hmm…

The Walking Dead – “Arrow on the Doorpost”

Season Three, Episode Thirteen

Grade: B-

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After the incredible episode last week that only focused on the trip that Rick, Michonne and Carl took to retrieve weapons, we return to the main (and only) story-line of The Walking Dead: the prison vs. Woodbury. And it reminded me how poor the writing for this season has been with its main story arc. Once we were introduced with the Governor, we knew that there was going to be a showdown between him and Rick, and between Woodbury and the prison. But that’s it. There is nothing else going on at all. It takes Michonne a dozen episodes just to speak up and become friendly. Andrea is tossing and turning trying to figure out who’s right, who’s wrong, and which side to commit to. There has been a few episodes that focused slightly on Glen and Maggie, along with Daryl and Merle. But nothing that lasts more than a few episodes.

This is what’s causing The Walking Dead to fail as a once thrilling and compelling television series. While it was necessary for Shane to be killed when he did, the show is seriously hurting ever since he died. He presented a conflict inside the group, a thin line between what’s right and wrong, a person willing to step up against Rick when he couldn’t make difficult decisions. That, along with Lori’s affair and her loyalty to Rick, was way more interesting than all this this Governor nonsense. But the writers made this decision and has was forced to stick with it.

With three episodes left, when will the final showdown happen? Game of Thrones showed the big battle on their penultimate episode last season, so will The Walking Dead do the same? Probably not since they waited until the last episode of season two for their most action-packed, when a large herd of walkers entered Hershel’s farm. But it’ll be the episode most fans have been anticipated since the beginning of the season.

“Arrow on the Doorpost” wasn’t a terrible episode. It had a very good fifteen minutes, mostly between Rick and the Governor exchanging jabs at each other in a testosterone-filled garage (no wonder Andrew got the boot). And I even though the exchanges between Hershel/Milton and Daryl/one of the Governor’s lackey while their leaders were drinking whiskey. It showed how in the grand scope of thing, they were all people. They had no direct bad blood between each other, only that their leaders are feuding. It reminded me of a short story called “The Last Spin” where two gangs settle their spat by sending one member each to a game of Russian Roulette. In that story, the two gang members bonded over their similar backgrounds, even though they were in gangs that hated one another.

But there were only a good fifteen minutes. The rest of the episode was full of Andrea being annoying, Merle going crazy, and Glen and Maggie shacking up. This is because there is only ONE story-line and when the show doesn’t address the inevitable battle, you get throwaway scenes like Rick chasing a ghost or Glen and Maggie fighting or Carol holding Judith.

Just three episodes left. I think it’s safe to play the game of, Who’s Going to Die? Make your final list of character who will be offed and who will survive by the end of this season. Here’s my list:

Dead:
– Carol
– Merle
– Beth
– The Governor
– Milton

Alive:
– Rick
– Carl
– Andrea
– Glen
– Maggie
– Hershel
– Michonne
– Judith
– Daryl

Movie Review: Funny Games (2007)

Funny Games (2007)
111 minutes
Rated – R
Directed by Michael Haneke
Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt

Grade: A-

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This post contains spoilers.

First and foremost, you probably hate this movie, and usually I try to defend a movie that I thoroughly like but in this case I can’t. It’s only natural to hate this film so there’s no point to defend it. It’s heartless, gruesome, and leaves an angry, empty feeling after it’s all over. Who wants to watch a movie that just pisses you off to no end?

But there is a point and Haneke is simply too good of a director to make a poor movie. Every little quirk and moment that pisses you off is what Haneke is trying to point out. Just take the opening scene when the happy, wealthy family is driving back to their home while listening to opera. Everything is pleasant and it could remind you of a moment from your childhood when your family were on the road on a beautiful afternoon. And then the death metal music BLASTS with the title Funny Games over the shot of the family. The family doesn’t hear the music that’s causing us to cover our ears. It’s strange. It’s unnerving. It’s a hint at things to come and how us, as the audience, are really separated from the characters in the movie.

What happens for the rest of the movie feels like a typical home invasion, psychological thriller, but Funny Games is much more than that. Two young men, played by Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt, appear at the family’s home. They’re kind, but a bit too kind, and definitely have a creepy way to them. Anna (Watts) wants them to leave, but they respond to her by saying she’s being rude. Anna wants George (Roth) to kick them out of the house, but he allows the men to explain themselves. Anna lets him know that it doesn’t matter what reason she has, he should do what she wants and if she wants them out of the house, he should kick them out. George should’ve listened because one thing leads to another and George winds up with a broken kneecap.

There are things that Haneke is trying to point out to us as the audience. One thing is how we’re so used to seeing these sort of movies before that we expect certain things to happen. They kill their dog from the get-go, so they’re really bad men. But at the end of the day, at least someone has to survive and kill the bad guys, right? Haneke shows you a movie where the bad guys don’t get caught and they don’t let their victims slip through their fingertips. Even when they do make a classic error and Anna shoots one of them, Michael Pitt is able to rewind the film to prevent that happening. Yes, he actually stop the film you’re watching and rewinds it. This is why you hate this movie.

Haneke is also commenting how we’re so immune to  violence in movies. With all of these sub-horror genres, do we even flinch anymore at the sight of blood? So he pushes the envelope by first killing off the family dog and then killing off the small boy. I bet you can’t name too many films that kills off the dog and the child in the same movie, but Funny Games isn’t like any movie you’ve seen before. Like you needed another reason to hate this movie.

You will be disturbed by this film, or at least I hope you are. I also think that’s what Haneke is trying to do; to make a film that is so twisted and demented even from all of the horror movies people watch every year. Can we possibly be scared anymore? There are also a few moments when Michael Pitt’s character breaks the fourth-wall and speaks directly into the camera. While this certainly wasn’t necessary, Haneke doesn’t want his point to go over anyone’s head. We’re all rooting for the family to survive and to escape, and even when there really doesn’t seem like any chance for them to do so, we still hope they make it out alive. But Haneke just plays with us by dangling that carrot in front of our faces before yanking it away.

Funny Games is not a film you’ll most likely enjoy, but it’s undoubtedly powerful and thought-provoking. It’ll remain in your thoughts for days after you watch it, and that’s the whole experience of watching it. You’re forced to think of what you just watched and you’re supposed to question why Haneke made such a film. If not, then Haneke’s message did not make an impact on you like it should have. Instead, you’ll just follow the herd of sheep to the next horror screening, as long as you know what to expect.