Of War, Walking Dead, & Wizards

Finally got around to seeing Inglourious Basterds.  Tarratino's alternate WWII history is a great mix of intertwining storylines and superlative acting.  I really enjoyed this quite a bit.  Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa was just brilliant and played the bad guy with much relish. Polished, refined, charming, and able to speak several languages including English, French, and Italian; Landa is very much a coiled snake that lulls his victims so they lower their defenses and then he strikes with lightning, brutal violence.  Brilliant!

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The Walking Dead works so much better when the cast is pared down to minimum numbers.  For the first time in awhile the danger of the zombies felt palpable again.  Also a much overdue episode for some quality screen time for Micchone. I really liked how the show used Carl to give us a glimpse into her character - though how she got the picture out of the cafe begs question.

I place this one with the season premiere as my favorite episodes of this season.

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Finished Dresden Files: Blood Rites, the 6th book in the series, by Jim Butcher.  Man, Butcher really puts Harry through the ringer.  Dresden showed more power as a wizard than ever before but the cost of that was a permanent(?) physical infirmity and the discovery that his newly found power is tapping into a source of dubious nature.  We learned more about Harry's family background and the discovery he has a half brother, who just happens to be a vampire.  Harry finds upon his body a sigil mark of a talisman he believe securely locked away. He also learns his mentor, Ebenezar McCoy, is the Wizard's clean up man, who gets to break all the rules that he taught Harry should never be broken, and all other Wizards live by.  Powerful stuff.

All that and the slow teasing that the feelings between him and his long time police contact, Karrin Murphy, maybe moving beyond friendship and heading towards something more.  Given Harry's track record that would be a dangerously bad idea.

Oh and Harry ended up with a dog too.  Of course it is no ordinary dog.