We just made it through the most anticipated weekend of entertainment in our lifetimes. Starting Friday with perhaps the best sandwich at Taliercio's, Avengers: Endgame did not disappoint and was just about as epic as expected. (More on that later this week.) But by Sunday, I was drained and needed a big-time pick me up. I wouldn't say I was disappointed by the PEC I ate (I was), just like I wouldn't say I was disappointed by what was touted as the most epic battle scene ever put on film. While the Battle of Winterfell was definitely a huge scale battle episode spanning almost 90 minutes with some very cool visuals, there were definitely some writing decisions that had me scratching my head. Here are my takeaways:
-First things first, WHY WOULD YOU JUST SEND THE ENTIRE DOTHRAKI HORDE CHARGING INTO THE ARMY OF THE DEAD. Of course, the visual of the scythes on fire was awesome as each one quickly burned out until totally quiet. But was that the only reason they made that decision; because it would look cool?
-Seems everyone had the same complaint throughout that you couldn't see anything. I guess that's the point they wanted to make? To show how chaotic and shitty it is to fight a battle during a "blizzard" at night. (The episode is called "The Long Night.") Good thing the dragons (and I guess Melisandre) were there to provide some firelight.
-The scene with Arya sneaking around zombies in the Great Hall of Winterfell was like something out of a horror movie. As spotty as the writing was in this episode, the directing in the entire series has been incredible (except when they light scenes terribly and you can't tell what's going on).
-Night King had an overwhelming lead in this battle, with almost every extra and secondary character being killed. Him surviving the dragon fire with a smile and then reviving every person who died to his army gave him an exceptional edge and provided high drama for the remaining survivors.
-And then he blew it. After Theon made a valiant piss-poor effort at the Night King (he did mow down a lot of undead with his bow), Arya came from the clouds with a knife hand switch move for the ages while Bran sat there like a Duntz. That's it, White Walker storyline finished.
Look, there's no denying the accomplishment of this episode and how spoiled we all are as viewers to witness a TV show on this scale. It's just incredibly obvious to me how the quality of writing differs between the man (George RR Martin) who brought us this incredible, incomplete story, and the showrunners (who brought classic writing accomplishments such as the screenplays to Troy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine). So what we're left with are two seasons of essentially fan-fic with very cool scenes but incomplete or incoherent writing in regards to the rest of the series. Where does this leave us with the final three episodes? I hope we will return to the political drama that made Game of Thrones in the first place. And there better be a better explanation for the Night King in one of the hopefully many twists remaining in the final three episodes. There's about a total of 15 people left alive in Winterfell (all main characters) and Cersei has an army of 20,000. How will they succeed in taking the throne?
Holmdel Bagel Market is located on 35 in the same plaza as suburban mainstays such as Chilis, Texas Roadhouse, and TJ Maxx. Its a cute little nook of a storefront that has, you guessed it, bagels, though the placement of a Rook Coffee next door might have taken away their clientele only wanting a morning coffee. Let's get into how they stack up:
Bread Rating: 5.8/10 (Pretty underwhelming bagels for a place with "bagel" in their name)
Pork Roll: 5.5/10 (I'm not sure what brand of pork roll they used but it tasted a bit like bacon. In fact, it might have been "Canadian bacon" which is just inexcusable. It was cut thin and they did put a good amount of meat on there I guess is the positive here.)
Egg Rating: 5.2/10 (Eggs were scrambled which just does not work on a breakfast sandwich. Trust me I've made that mistake many times!)
Cheese Rating: 6.5/10 (Average, at least it was melted.)
Sandwich Composition: 5.5/10 (It's already tough to nail the breakfast sandwich on a bagel but it's even harder to do when the egg is off. After the first bite, the egg was off the sandwich completely and I had to put it back on with each bite.)
Overall Rating: 5.7/10
Price: $4, cash only.
Holmdel Bagel Market is located at 2102 NJ-35, Holmdel, NJ 07733.
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