UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Das Book

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Clint

Expectations can definitely play a role in your reaction to a movie. The greater your excitement and hopes, the easier it is for a film to not meet them. Conversely, if you start off from a position of “This is gonna be crap” or “I’m only watching this because the remote’s out of reach”, there’s every possibility a movie might not only exceed expectations (faint praise, since the bar is set low) but actually end up feeling like it was an entertaining use of your time.

I really don’t remember The Book of Eli making a big noise when it was first released. Even now it’s got some pretty anemic scores both from a critical and commercial sense, and despite its post-apocalyptic Western sensibilities I think it was Dawn who stuck it on our Netflix queue, not me. The disc proclaimed a 118 minute runtime, which meant nearly two hours… already a violation of the unofficial guideline some of my friends and I have adopted where we feel like a movie’s ideal length is around an hour and a half. It’s a guideline, not a rule… after all, I’ve admitted several times here how I enjoy some of the classic movies with a slower sense of pacing… but we’re definitely living in an era where most of the time movies that go two hours (or more) really don’t need to. I don’t want to be checking my watch as my ass goes numb waiting for a film to figure out how to end itself.

Anyhow, I bring this particular bit up because The Book of Eli managed to feel like a 90 minute movie for me, and I say that with my compliments. I can see people being turned off as it tilts thematically between stabs at philosophy and scenes of almost cartoonish ultra-violence (mind you, the kind of cartoon that includes geysering neck blood).  I might just be used to that sort of thing after watching so much anime, but the violence remained grounded just enough so as not to be rendered entirely devoid of weight and meaning… even despite the unfortunate decision to use CGI for some of the combat scenes in a setting which cried out for the grit and dust and just sheer physicality of practical effects. Bloodily slaughtering a bunch of bandit mooks is no big thing, but the named characters were still people to care about.  I suppose I’m reminded in several ways of the tone in Escape From New York… and again, I say that with my compliments. I’m an unrepentant child of the ’80s.

I don’t think it’ll be any major spoiler to say that Denzel Washington’s lone drifter character is carrying a book, and that book is supposedly the last existing copy of the Bible. That may or may not be true, but  America (and presumably the rest of the world) suffered nuclear armageddon, or something close enough to it, and in the wake of that it’s declared people sought out and burned any copies that survived since a lot of blame for the war fell on religious motives. The post-war generation doesn’t even know the concept of saying grace before a meal… which again seems a bit far-fetched, but without it we don’t have the central conflict where the one other guy in the wasteland who remembers the Bible (played by Gary Oldman, and I’m a big sucker for Gary Oldman villains) wants it so he can use its words to control and oppress. “People will come from all over, they’ll do exactly what I tell ’em if the words are from the book. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. All we need is that book.”

Yeah, this is… not a subtle movie. But it does have some surprisingly smart moments, especially in the twist at the end (foreshadowed at several points when you start thinking back on them). So despite Book of Eli arguably having nothing really fresh to offer in terms of visuals or plotlines, I didn’t check my watch, my ass didn’t go numb, and I’m actually going to remember this film for awhile. I say that with my compliments.