ShadowDog's

Second Annual (41 Hour) Dead Zone Marathon!


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Hours 16-19

Ground Rules

1) Start marathon at 6am EST on June 11th. Finish marathon (All episodes from Seasons 1, 2, and 3) by 10pm EST on June 12th, just in time for the premiere episode of Season 4! Finish by watching that episode.

2) Watch at least one episode per hour, meaning I can take no longer a break than 15 minutes per hour.

3) Post at least one episode commentary at the top of each hour. Also post regularly at Official Dead Zone board to prove I am still awake.

4) Diet Pepsi amounts are marathon totals, not per hour.

5) Because I've already marathoned Seasons 1 and 2, those seasons will be viewed this time with audio commentaries on.

Reader Feedback
"My son is quite Mad. Where did I go wrong? Break a leg." -Dexter I "Good luck! Please don't be insane after this. ;-) Besides sanity is overrated. :-D" -MSR "When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." -hallfan
"Treadmill? Stationary bike? You need to conserve your strength! LOL!" - brattytxn    
     
Current Hours

Hours 1-5

Hours 6-10

Hours 11-15

Episode Commentary Key:

Visions: Prolonged marathons tend to cause hallucinations - er - visions.

Grouch of the EP award: There are some GROUCHY people in this series! Who was the surliest person in this ep?

General Remarks: What I thought of the ep, in general.

Commentators: Who commented on this episode? (where applicable)

Commentary Highlights: Again, where applicable.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: TEE HEE!
Trivia Question: Every now and then I'll ask a trivia question. Be the first to answer!

2.3 "Ascent"

Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 60
Visions: After 16 hours of this crap, I saw Death, so I don't blame Walt.

Grouch of the EP award: Death. You got plenty of notches on your belt, leave Walt and Johnny alone!

General Remarks: This is a wonderful backstory episode for Walt. This is the first time I felt connected to Walt on a personal level. I didn't like Death walking in at the end. It felt like a wrong turn to me, especially the cheesy dialogue. But the rest of the story was so strong the ending didn't really bother me.
I really liked seeing some of those scenes we didn't get a chance to see in the pilot like Sarah telling Walt that Johnny has waken.

Commentators: James Handy, Chris Bruno, and Jill Blotevogel

Commentary Highlights: Boy, every commentator loves the opening credits, don't they? And every one thinks we don't know the story about the credits song. But any commentary featuring Chris Bruno is a winner. And Jill had a great shot about Nicole being too skinny to give birth and that is why it is so painful.
The kicker was Chris's closing rant about having to wear a condom on his head in the final scene.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "Well, it just shows that Death does His research." - Jill, remarking on the fact that Walt's Dad/Death is the only person in the history of the show who has a Maine accent ... despite the fact that the show is set in Maine.
"Well, we put a man on the moon but we haven't come up with a hospital gown that doesn't completely humiliate you!" -Johnny, walking out of his room wearing a hospital gown.


2.4 "The Outsider"

Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 66
Visions: Oooo, I just saw Dana appear in my living room and offer to make ME a sandwich! WOO HOO!!! Throw in some PIE and it's called love baby!

Grouch of the EP award: Dana's Boss. You snippy, hypocritical Dana sleeper wither!

General Remarks: This was an interesting premise. I really liked the "Big Brother" aspect of people harassing Johnny and it was interesting to see a show where there was no clear villain and no easy answer. (how do you really fight big business?)

Commentators: Anthony Michael Hall, Shawn Pillar, Craig Silverstein

Commentary Highlights: I'm becoming really repetitive so assume that the commentators have a great, smooth rapport and are fun to listen to. That's because it's true for almost every episode. One great line: "The thing I love about this episode is that really at the heart of it is this little love story between this geek and this really hot chick." - Shawn

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "You're writing stories about the guy and sleeping with him, and you don't find that a conflict of interest?" - Dana's boss
"No. When I slept with you to get this job that was a conflict of interest." - Dana, in reply
"I slept with you after I hired you. That's a big difference." - Dana's boss
"And it was great." - Shawn Pillar in the commentary, channeling MST3K


2.5 "Precipitate"

Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 66
Visions: Was it as vision or did they mention Stephen King in this episode? Is that like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps?

Grouch of the EP award: Book Store Boss. You writer discouraging PUNK! (points finger) You're fired!

General Remarks: Funniest episode of the Dead Zone hands down! And despite how laugh out loud funny it was, they still managed to slip some drama and heart in there. Fantastic!

Commentators: Anthony Michael Hall and John L Adams

Commentary Highlights: Funniest and funest commentary EVER. JA and AMH are awesome separately so you knew they were going to be dynamite together!

Funny line of the ep/commentary: Last year I listed a large number of funny lines from the episode, so I will do the same for the commentary this season.

"I heard you had a family of four living in that beard." - AMH on JA’s beard in this episode.
"I did man, I had a some endangered species living in there. Some birds, you know." - JA

"By the way, for all the fellows out there, this doctor was as fine in person as she is on television." - JA
"I thought you liked dudes?" - AMH
"Man, you were supposed to keep that on the DL! Damn! You can’t tell people nothing!" - JA

"Man you should have seen the website when Michael got naked! WOO!" - AMH

"And he gonna talk about me loving dudes!" - JA, reacting to Johnny dressed as a woman

"He just pimp slapped me like I owed him money." - JA when the Scary Biker Guy dispatches Johnny and Bruce. "Man you gotta stop coughing on me, man." - JA when the homeless guy coughs on Bruce "I'll play the straight Robin to your Batman." - JA on Bruce's role in the show.


2.6 "Scars"

Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 72
Visions: Toggling between two commentary tracks and rushing to finish this second episode in one hour left me too busy for visions.

Grouch of the EP award: Fisher is not a bad guy but he comes across as pretty grouchy.

General Remarks: There was the choice of two audio commentaries for this episode so I switched back and forth to sample both. Also, if you watch enough 45 minute episodes back to back you eventually get to a point where an episode ends at 30 minutes past the hour, the next one ends at 15 minutes past the hour, and the third episode finishes right on the hour. That allows you to have two episode summaries in one hour. This finally happened this hour.
The episode itself was just okay. I'm not a fan of "ripped from the headlines" stories, but Stillson episodes are always awesome and this was no exception. Stillson stole every one of his scenes.

Commentators: Track 1: Armand Mastronianni and Craig Silverstein Track 2: Sean Patrick Flanery and Robert Chynoweth

Commentary Highlights: Track 1 was okay, but Flanery has a charm and energy that made his track more fun. Flanery's take on acting methods is interesting and he comes across as very humble and is most likely very easy to work with. I also love his Hitler answer, it's a fresh take. Even when Flanery is irritated, like about the photo they used for Stillson's campaign posters or asking him to emulate AMH's interpretation of his character. Their mock Canadian accent routine was hysterical.
Not to be outdone, the Track 1 guys make interesting confesses such as they fought for ways to get Sarah out of the kitchen because she was forever baking cookies in Season 1, so this is why they made Sarah a Stillson volunteer. (which is odd because she also had that job in the original novel). They also had a good story about James L. Brooks inspiring the wallet scene.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "I love music. Sometimes I don't like to wear headphones because it makes you look like an arrogant prick but I just love music." - Flanery


2.7 "Misbegotten"

Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 78
Visions: None, still holding strong.

Grouch of the EP award: Johnny. Can't blame him a bit!

General Remarks: I really enjoyed this episode. It had a little of everything, humor (especially between Sarah and Dana), horror, mystery. Fun for the whole family! (Note: I've noticed that the more time goes by, the longer my entries have become so I'm going to make an effort to shorten things where possible.)

Commentators: Nick Marick and Lloyd Segan

Commentary Highlights: "The first thing i did was look up the meaning of the word Misbegotten." - Nick Marick on his approach to directing this episode. Lloyd was really good penetrating Nick's directing style, giving us insights he probably wouldn't have thought to volunteer otherwise.
Also, commentators are cute when they try to avoid "spoilers" as these two did in this one. We've seen the episode before or we wouldn't be listening to the commentary!

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "I have talked to her for a while. Then I called her once and cancelled." - Johnny, on how he and Dana are doing.
"So you're screwing up again?" - Bruce
"You could say that." - Johnny


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