Rob Batchelor, Author at We Got This Covered

New Girl Review: “Sister III” (Season 3, Episode 18)

Schmidt and Abby flaunting their relationship bugs the rest of the New Girl gang, and each of them reacts in different ways. While Nick, Coach, Cece and Winston react with disgust at their overt display on the sofa at brunch, Jess looks at them with envy. They've only been dating for a week and already living together, having sex every which way they can, and in the midst of the honeymoon period. Schmidt certainly seems to be enjoying himself, even if Abby doesn't seem as into him - she's enthusiastic, sure, but can you imagine her wearing jewellery made by him? She's in the midst of what we later discover is the usual cycle for her, but Schmidt seems to be buckling up for the ride. He's in it for the long haul, but is she? I did feel sorry for Schmidt when she upped and left without so much as a goodbye. After three episodes we've really got to know Abby, and Linda Cardellini really seems to have been enjoying playing her, but her time with us came to its natural end, and the narrative purpose for it all was revealed - to bring Cece and Schmidt closer together.

Rob Batchelor Mar 5, 2014

Reviews

TV

The Walking Dead Review: “Still” (Season 4, Episode 12)

I'm really starting to like the stripped-back approach that The Walking Dead is taking with regards to its storytelling in recent episodes, stopping the forward momentum of the events of the story to take a few moments with each character to regroup and to get to know anew. I know Daryl has been a force in the show since the very beginning, but how much do we really know him? How much can we really know him? Sure, his relationship with his brother was completely screwed up, but that's as much as we know really. This week, we get a renewed understanding of just what makes Daryl and Beth tick. We see how their lives have changed since the incident, and how their relationship with each other has evolved since the prison break.

Rob Batchelor Mar 3, 2014

Reviews

TV

Parks and Recreation Review: “Anniversaries” (Season 6, Episode 14)

While Leslie is trying to bring together the warring factions of Pawnee-Eagleton (or Eagleton-Pawnee, depending on the power of your moustache), Ben is doing his level best to demonstrate his love for her on the eve of their first wedding anniversary, to catch her on the hop and get one over on her in the gift-giving game. This is typical Ben, lovely Ben, the Bennest Ben being just as Benny as he can be. That his perfect efforts are thwarted at every turn by Leslie trying to make things perfect between Pawnee and Eagleton is pleasing in two different ways - 1) It provides an ironic counterpoint to Leslie's efforts, and 2) it allows for some gleefully surreal moments between Ben and Jerry (called Larry in this episode), the joke on their names having only just dawned on me. How did I not see this pairing on the horizon? Jerry acts as a stand-in Leslie for when she is busy with city council business, ending up in a massage, a horse and carriage situation, a Spanish cooking class and a salsa lesson along the way.

Rob Batchelor Feb 28, 2014

Reviews

TV

New Girl Review: “Sister II” (Season 3, Episode 17)

I like to think of Abby as Jess' Id. She's the uncontrollable version of Jess that we did see a bit of before her arrival, usually when Jess was drunk, and the familiar chemistry she has with Nick is reminiscent of how he is with Jess as well, but with everything turned up to 11.

Rob Batchelor Feb 26, 2014

Reviews

TV

The Walking Dead Review: “Claimed” (Season 4, Episode 11)

The central thrust of this week's The Walking Dead is still "get the guys back together so they can hang out again," and it really does feel like we're gradually, ever so gradually, working towards that. Characters are starting to meet each others' orbits, and starting to tread where their friends have trodden earlier on, all working towards reaching this mysterious "terminus," the Sanctuary that we get one step closer to actualizing in this episode.

Rob Batchelor Feb 24, 2014

Reviews

TV

The Walking Dead Review: “Inmates” (Season 4, Episode 10)

Last episode was all long takes and silence, with minimal cast and things left unspoken. This instalment of The Walking Dead takes us slightly back towards some semblance of normality, reuniting us with a few more cast members and tying up a few more loose ends. I guess this will carry on into next episode too, which I have a hunch might follow directly on from the events at the end of this episode. It's about setting ourselves up for what's to come, about getting all the pawns together into the right places on the chessboard to enable whatever the hell is going to happen in the season finale, which is titled "A." Whatever "A" is, Lord Satan himself only knows, but whatever or whomever it is, we're working towards it right now, so I suppose we'd better buckle up.

Rob Batchelor Feb 17, 2014

Reviews

TV

New Girl Review: “Sister” (Season 3, Episode 16)

Last week's New Girl seemed to suggest that Schmidt was back on track, with the wind at his back, and that he had finally gotten through the difficulties of the last few months. Has that momentum sustained itself? Yes, it has. Schmidt is completely back on form this episode, with his trademark mix of confident douchiness and casual Yiddish manifesting itself in what might be the apotheosis of all Schmidt plots to date. While it's not the emotional center of the episode, I wanted to start off by talking about it because I think the foundations of the trajectory that the show is setting up for the characters in the tail half of this season are being built right here.

Rob Batchelor Feb 12, 2014

Movies

News

New Trailer For The Double, Starring Jesse Eisenberg & Jesse Eisenberg

I could take or leave Jesse Eisenberg if I'm honest - he's always been a low rate Michael Cera to me - but the combination of British comedy maestro extraordinaire Richard Ayoade and everyone's favorite Russian dweller in the depths of human sorrow, Fyodor Dostoevsky, just about has me bursting in the trouser area. Ayoade's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's short story The Double, concerning a man who encounters his doppelganger who then goes on to take over his life, may not be quite the popular hit of his previous film Submarine, but it should still be great nonetheless.

Rob Batchelor Feb 10, 2014

News

TV

HBO Releases New Game Of Thrones Season 4 Featurette

Ever experts in building hype, the cats at HBO have released a fully-fledged preview featurette in celebration of the upcoming Game of Thrones season 4 premiere. Entitled The Foreshadowing, it not only gives us a glimpse at what will unfold in the coming season but also depicts some of the cast answering questions from fans on Twitter. Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss also discuss plans regarding the future direction of the show, which fans of the novels will know to be chaotic, to say the least.

Rob Batchelor Feb 10, 2014

Reviews

TV

The Walking Dead Review: “After” (Season 4, Episode 9)

The devastation left by the events that took place in the last episode of The Walking Dead is dealt with beautifully in "After." I've had my problems with the show in the past, but the rollicking fun of the last few episodes has gone a long way to overcome those troublesome beginnings. I never thought I'd say this, but the show's strength is in the power of the elegiac, melancholic moments it conjures amongst the bloodshed. It also helps that we're invested enough in these characters by this point to actively care about their survival.

Rob Batchelor Feb 9, 2014

Rob Batchelor

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