Trait of the Week: Straight talk relationship advice, with a hostile edge
In our eighth episode of iZombie, Liv thinks about sex. A lot. She has it, she listens to a morning sex talk show, and she dispenses advice on it. But those three things may only last for so long.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps iZombie: Shock Jock”
Trait of the Week: Maternal tendencies
This week on iZombie, Liv eats the brains of a young pregnant woman who was a bit Gone Girl‘d before giving birth and dying. Lov then fusses over her friends and family, while contemplating the fact that as a zombie, she can’t have children.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps iZombie: Baby Mama Brain Drama”
Trait of the Week: Agoraphobia, hardcore video game muscle memory, hacking
After Major got himself beat up last week, he looks to Ravi to stitch him back up. “I’m a social worker. My insurance covers about one bandaid a year.” Liv is concerned, both for Major and for Ravi’s skills as a medical practitioner for living people. They fuss like a married couple until Major reminds Liv that he “rocker blocked” Liv and Lowell at the funeral. LOL Meanwhile, Blaine‘s Zombie Sugar Mamma Jackie didn’t get her brains, so she attacks a poor delivery boy for her fix.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps iZombie: Death by Birthday Card”
Alternatively titled: If you’re a zombie, how come you’re not white?
You: Gosh, Connie, you can’t just ask why people aren’t white1!
In this week’s iZombie, “Flight of the Living Dead,” Liv eats the brains of a former sorority sister, Major continues to look for Jerome and Eddie, Ravi is still my favorite character, and a new zombie love interest enters Liv’s life with the hottest hot sauce around. Then we’ll get into the question of the week: Why don’t Zombies of Color have obvious zombie markers like the Caucasian characters do?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps iZombie: What About the Zombies of Color?”
NOC is recapping iZombie! Here’s a bit of background on the show before we dive in to this week’s episode.
iZombie is The CW’s newest series. Based on the DC/Vertigo comic book of the same name, it tells the story of Olivia Moore (she goes by Liv. Liv Moore), a former heart surgeon, who went to a boat party that went badly. The boat was attacked by some dudes on an experimental drug, and she was swiped in the arm on the way over the side of the boat. She wakes up with white hair and an intense craving for BRAAAINNS.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps iZombie: Where Veronica Mars Meets Chuck Meets Pushing Daisies“
Yes, folks, there is a thing more dangerous than a feral, brain-munching horde of zombies: A straight white man who swears that he will do everything in his power to save and protect you and your children.
If you didn’t learn this one, primary lesson from five seasons of The Walking Dead, then you might need to go back and rewatch them right quick, ‘cause this is a lesson that isn’t just applicable in the Zombie Apocalypse.
In this week’s epic and appropriately bloody season finale, we got to see this truth played out in spades in the aftermath of Rick officially Losing. His. Damn. Mind after tackling his new lady’s (in his mind only) husband Pete — which spiraled out into the street where they commenced to beat each other to a pulp — until Michonne knocked him out, ostensibly to save him and the townsfolk (and us) from himself.
Continue reading “Love Story of the Zombie Apocalypse: Real-Life Horror in Walking Dead“
Years ago, before the TV show existed, a fellow Asian American comic nerd suggested I check out this series called The Walking Dead. I read through the first trade paperbacks and have kept reading, (admittedly begrudgingly the last couple of years) ever since. I was impressed that there was an Asian American male character, Glenn Rhee, a pizza delivery driver and weed dealer who seemed like a good hearted, normal kid.
When the show rolled around, I wasn’t feeling it at first, but I did like the actor they selected for Glenn, Steve Yeun. Of course, anyone paying attention to the show knows by now that Glenn is a fan favorite regardless of race and that the actor, Steve Yeun, is considered a hottie. Those of us Asian Americans on pop culture watch, of course, also appreciate the added layers: Asian American men are seldom portrayed as likeable, desirable guys in Western pop culture.
Continue reading “A Ghost Among Zombies: The Curious Omission of Glenn of The Walking Dead“
by Phil Yu | Originally posted at Angry Asian Man
AMC hit zombie drama The Walking Dead returns for its fifth season this Sunday, October 12. Last season left off on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Rick and his merry crew of walker slayers finally reuniting, but captured and locked away in a train car by some mysterious new adversaries. How will they get out this jam?
And of course, we get to see Steven Yeun as our favorite Asian American zombie apocalypse survivor Glenn Rhee. According to this interview in Entertainment Weekly, Steven says Glenn “is a leader” in season five.
So check it. To celebrate the return of The Walking Dead, I’m giving away some official Walking Dead Series Five Action Figures by McFarlane Toys. Who wants a Glenn action figure? Scroll down for details.
Continue reading “Giveaway: Win a Walking Dead Glenn Action Figure”
Originally posted at Super Justice Force
The recent death of celebrated author Walter Dean Myers has seemingly left a void in that corner of Young Adult literature that is aware of representation and diversity, and produces works of fiction populated with a rainbow coalition of characters. It seems like every week I’m reading something about the lack of diversity and representation in YA (as well as comics and films and whatever else you care to throw into the mix), much like this piece. And now that Myers is gone, he can join the list of authors frequently cited as those that did the most for those who are represented the least.
Unfortunately, while he was alive, a significant amount of what was written about the lack of diversity in YA failed to mention Myers and his work — which speaks to a problem almost as bad as the lack of diversity itself. That problem, of course, is the lack of dialog about those books and those writers who do put in the work to ensure diversity and representation.
If I had only one sentence with which to review Toshiro, a new original graphic novel from Dark Horse hitting store shelves this Wednesday, it would be this: Buy it the day it drops. If I had another: Wait in line if you must.
This isn’t hyperbole. Toshiro — written by Jai Nitz with art by Janusz Pawlak — is the reason I read comics.
So a friend of mine wrote me a message on Facebook that went a little like this:
Question: how the heck do you get through to someone that thinks natives need to just get over it?
Answer: Shake them? I never advocate shaking people, but maybe something is loose in there. Tell them to take a Native American Studies Course (it ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it).
But if I’m being honest, lately, when this comes up — and isn’t it telling that it comes up often enough that I can begin with “lately” instead of “well the last time, a long time ago, man I can barely remember that time?” — I like to tell them about The Walking Dead.
Continue reading “Why I Teach ‘The Walking Dead’ in My Native Studies Classes”
This Sunday night at 9pm on AMC, the fourth season of The Walking Dead is set to resume. To prep for the return of Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Tyreese, Daryl and company, flashback to Episode Seven of Hard N.O.C. Life when … Continue reading Hard N.O.C. Life Rewind: The Walking Dead Returns
The holiday season has arrived and if you have a difficult time finding the perfect gift for your nerdy friends or family members who love table top games here are five themed games that are worthy of consideration.
Zombicide
Z
ombies are the cat’s meow these days thanks in large part to the popular cable television show The Walking Dead. Zombicide is a miniatures board game that comes with 71 miniatures. Each round zombies spawn on the board adding to the horde so the game board can quickly fill up with zombie miniatures. This is a cooperative game where 1 to 6 players try to figure out how to accomplish a particular mission goal and control the approaching zombie horde in the process. Meet the victory condition and the team can celebrate a well-earned respite from the undead.
This is my recap for The Walking Dead season 4, episode 8 — the mid-season finale — titled “Too Far Gone.” Please also check out our live-tweeting session #NOCemdead, featuring me at @Reappropriate and J. Lamb through @TheNerdsofColor.
And, here we go! Spoilers ensue, after the jump!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: And It All Came Tumbling Down”
Welcome to my recap for The Walking Dead‘s season 4, episode 7, titled “Dead Weight.” Also look for our Sunday night live-tweet session: #NOCemdead, including J. Lamb through @TheNerdsofColor and me through @Reappropriate, with a quick guest appearance by Keith via @the_real_chow.
And without further ado, on with the recap! Be mindful of spoilers!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: The Governor’s Endless Groundhog Day”
Welcome to my recap of The Walking Dead Season 4, episode 6 (“Live Bait”). Also check out our live-tweet coverage from J. Lamb (@TheNerdsofColor) and me (@Reappropriate) that took place Sunday night!
And without further ado, click on for the recap action (and spoilers)!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: From the Ashes of Woodbury”
Welcome, faithful zombie fans, to yet another edition of our The Walking Dead recap series! Today, I recap Season 4, episode 5. Check out also our live-tweet coverage of the episode as it aired from J. Lamb at the @TheNerdsofColor Twitter handle, and me at @Reappropriate!
Please be aware: there will be spoilers. You should already know this by now.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: Fighting Against the Tide”
Welcome to our recap of The Walking Dead, Season 4, episode 4! Please also check out archives of our live-tweeting coverage of the episode as it happened (#NOCemdead) from the official @TheNerdsofColor Twitter account, with bonus contribution by me through my @Reappropriate Twitter handle.
And now, on with the recap!
Spoiler alert! This is a recap. You know the drill.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: Truth and Consequences”
Since it’s Halloween, many of us Nerds have horror movies on the brain, especially me.
I fondly remember being about 8-years-old and watching horror classics like The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Despite countless nightmares and near bed-wetting experiences, I continued to want to be scared because I fell in love with the genre. There was such diversity in the types of horror films I could watch, from ghost stories like Poltergeist and psychological thrillers like The Shining, to slasher flicks like A Nightmare on Elm Street and vampire-themed classics like The Lost Boys. My favorite films were B-movie cult classics like The Evil Dead trilogy, which combined comedy, zombies, and the supernatural all into one. But scary sci-fi gore fests like Alien weren’t too far behind either.
Although there was much diversity in the types of horror films that I watched, there wasn’t a lot of diversity in the cast of characters that populated these films. All of the movies mentioned above feature a cast of mainly white characters and families. As a half-Korean fan of horror, I always longed to see more characters of color play significant roles in American horror movies. Of course there are plenty of Asian horror films, but I honestly can’t remember any Asian characters in mainstream American horror films of the last three decades — which is why we love Steve Yeun so much around NOC HQ.
And while you might find the occasional black character attending camp or staying in a cabin in the woods, black men were usually the first to get sliced, diced, or axed in a slasher flick, as evidenced by Bao‘s “Not Gonna Make It” collection, posted yesterday.
I wrote in one post during The Nerds of Color’s Walker Week that The Walking Dead is noteworthy for depicting one of the most racially diverse zombie survivor casts to-date: it features a band of survivors that has included (among others) a Mexican family, an Asian Indian doctor, two Deep South “rednecks” (a pejorative term that the Dixon brothers would probably enthusiastically reclaim), a samurai-sword-wielding Black woman, and one of the most progressive characterizations of an Asian man on television. This is a show where women kick ass just as readily as men, and where the divisions of race and class have largely disintegrated in the face of humanity’s near-annihilation.
It’s ironic, therefore, that The Walking Dead could have such a blatant “Black Man problem,” one so obvious it has spawned a million memes.
(This post contains spoilers of all events in The Walking Dead up to Season 4, Episode 3. Please read on with care.)
Continue reading “The Walking Dead’s Ongoing Black Man Problem”
Welcome to our recap of The Walking Dead, season 4 episode 3, titled “Isolation!” Hat-tip to Twitter user @LaJoliePoeta for inspiring the title of this post. Also, please check out #NOCemdead, for archives of our Sunday evening live-tweeting of this episode by resident NOC, J.Lamb through our @TheNerdsofColor handle.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: Diary of an Angry Black Man”
The Walking Dead, AMC’s smash-hit zombie apocalypse action-drama, owes much of its success to the general interest in and support for gore-infested violence by American audiences. This season’s premiere raked in 16.1 million viewers, and devoured more 18-49 year old view attention than this season’s N.F.L. games. Thanks to Jenn Reappropriate’s conference commitments, I watched and live-tweeted “Infected!”, last-night’s episode , and my perspective and mild spoilers follow.
Robert Kirkman’s dystopia appealed as a comic because, during most of its run, the narrative focus highlighted human survivors. Rick’s post-traumatic insanity, Sophia’s alternate mental universe, Carl’s sociopathic nihilism, and even Michonne’s clumsy sexuality all fell within what reader would recognize as human responses to the unreasonable events presented by The Walking Dead. One of the most useful moments in the comic happens somewhere in the Prison, when Rick, in a frenzied monologue, explains the nature of the new world no meek can inherit.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Walking Dead: Blackened Catfish”
With The Walking Dead breaking ratings records and topping direct market sales charts, what better time to discuss the undead phenomenon on Hard N.O.C. Life? So we wrap up Walker Week with an in-depth look at both The Walking Dead comic and television series and the genre of zombie fiction writ large.
Continue reading “Zombies! NOC ‘Em Dead with Angry Asian Man”