Bring Me The News – Game 1 of the best-of-five playoff series between the Twins and Yankees starts just after 6 p.m. [CDT] Friday, but some fans in Minnesota could have a hard time watching it at home.
MLB Network has the exclusive rights to the first game of the series, with Games 2, 3, 4 and 5 scheduled to be televised on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). If you don’t subscribe to a package on Comcast that includes MLB Network, you’re out of luck in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul market is not among the Comcast network that is included in MLB’s partnership with numerous cable/streaming providers to offer MLB Network for free as a bonus Oct. 1-11.
Another great move by Major League Baseball. As if it weren’t bad enough that the game was being televised exclusively on a premium channel, MLB is going to give that premium channel away for free that day to most of the country, but not to the home market of one of the teams in the game. Because that’s how you grow the game!
This is worse than the NHL airing playoff games on Golf Channel. At least most people who have cable get the Golf Channel. Airing a playoff hockey game on Golf Channel, while ironic, is not much different then airing it on USA. MLB Network, though, is available in roughly 20 million fewer homes than USA Network.
When the NFL airs a game on cable, the home markets of the teams in the game get the game on free TV, too. But what the hell does the NFL know?
If there’s any justice in this world Twins fans will flock to alternatives like YouTube TV in droves for the free trial and then cut the cord for good, kicking Comcast in the teeth.
Hollywood Reporter – Seinfeld will be master of a new domain starting in 2021. Netflix has landed worldwide rights to the iconic sitcom in a five-year deal with distributor Sony. The show will move from current rightsholder Hulu when its deal is up in 2021…First reported by the L.A. Times, the deal will bring Seinfeld’s global streaming rights under one roof for the first time. Hulu’s current $150 million-per-year deal is for domestic rights only; Amazon has held rights in most other territories around the world…”Seinfeld is the television comedy that all television comedy is measured against,” said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. “It is as fresh and funny as ever, and will be available to the world in 4K for the first time. We can’t wait to welcome Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer to their new global home on Netflix.”…Acquired series like Seinfeld, Friends and The Office are huge drivers of usage on streaming platforms. Nielsen consumption data for 2018 said Netflix users in the U.S. watched about 85 billion minutes of The Office and Friends — the equivalent of about 25 hours for every Netflix subscriber in the country.
This is a Power. Move. by Netflix after losing all the Marvel properties due to the mouse launching its own streaming platform in Disney+. Oh we can’t have Iron Man 3 anymore? Alright, well I guess we’ll just go acquire the most popular TV show of all time. Imagine being good enough at anything that people will pay to watch you? Now imagine being so good that people (Netflix) will pay ($150M per YEAR) to watch you from 20 years ago. Mind boggling shit.
Seinfeld and The Simpsons have shaped my sense of humor more than any other TV show, movie, stand up comedian or any other form of pop culture in America. I can make a Seinfeld or Simpsons reference for anything and do so just about every day, much to the chagrin of my family and friends. I actually went out of my way one time to go meet the Soup Nazi in downtown Boston a couple years back.
There are few shows better suited to 11 pm reruns than Seinfeld. A 22 minute episode with multiple plot lines where I can zone in and out and fall asleep watching reruns from 20 years ago. Granted Seinfeld is on about 75% of the time I’m home on a channel somewhere anyways, but thats besides the point. Now I can watch any episode of Seinfeld at any time and that is exhilarating for a couch potato such as myself.
Netflix *really* needs to invent a random next episode option though because there is nothing worse than searching for an episode to watch. How many people spend more time browsing Netflix than actually watching Netflix? Its why theres 50 things in my queue that I never intend to actually watch. I don’t know what episode I want to watch, just play something goddamnit.
Particularly in this day and age, people like to discuss what they are currently watching on T.V. I say particularly in this day and age, and I specify “currently”, because we’ve passed the time when there is a “TV season” of sorts that lasts from the fall through the spring and then you’re stuck watching either a handful of summer shows or reruns. The advent of streaming services and On Demand means that at any given time you could be at the beginning, middle, or end of your ingestion of a brand new show, whether it is still running, just ended, or has long since gone to the TV heaven in the sky (sup Twin Peaks?).
Perhaps the most satisfying part of discussing T.V is suggesting a show to a friend, having them actually watch it, and then having them actually enjoy. If you go 3/3 then that is legitimately cathartic, but convincing someone to allow your suggestion to skip their predictably endless queue is a reward in itself. But it’s a tricky science, there’s some salesmanship involved. The sugestee has to be willing and the suggestor has to have enough of a hook to make the show worth giving a shot to. Indeed I’ve tried in vain to convince my own EIC to watch Peaky Blinders for years now to no avail.
A common question one might receive when suggesting a T.V show is “what is it like?” Someone asking this is looking for a reference point. An example in their memory bank they can leverage to determine if said program is worth taking time out of their busy schedule to indulge in. And this is where I get to the point of the blog. Because although shows like Euphoria have come along before, it indeed has its unique qualities, most notably in the production and presentation, that makes the “what is it like?” question an interesting one.
Firstly, to get this out there, we don’t, and won’t stick to T.V here with these comparisons, to use the plural of “comparison” should I ever play this game again. It’s fair game to reference movies as well. As the only difference, from 1,000 ft., is the amount of time those involved wish to take to tell a story. Cool? Cool.
But with that said, to bring up past showcases of teenage disenchantment, struggles, issues, and longing, we should start with a couple of small screen predecessors all the same. While I don’t see a ton of similarities with the two big names from the 90’s, Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life, they did feature female leads who are sort of outcasts, and of course totally over it. That sarcasm that evokes the 90s never went away, particularly when it involves teenage girls. There are some tiny similarities between Euphoria and The O.C, in terms of economic status being a key pillar of high school coolness, but that could be said of legit 50% of T.V and movies that focus on human interaction. Then there is Degrassi, which Euphoria has been compared to a lot. I just don’t see it. While the long-running Canadian show was possibly the first to dive into issues as deep as teenage domestic violence, the entire feeling of the show wastoo sentimental, at least to me. As I’ll get to later, Euphoria isn’t want to sentimentality.
In terms of having a couple of characters from each archetype represented and explored, it is easy to start out on the movie side of things with “The Breakfast Club”. I see a lot of the Hughes classic in Euphoria. The major difference of course is while the new HBO hit deals with substance abuse, sexuality, and volatile relationships, the ultimate 80’s movie dealt with angst and pretty much angst only. It’d be too easy to look at a movie like Thirteen and make connections. That movie, however, did not aspire to find hope the way Euphoria does.
So where does that leave us?
If you asked me, Joseph of the House Ballgame, Scriber of the Outrageous, Fighter of the Inanimate, the “what is it like?” question, I’d bring up two examples.
1. Skins 2. “Rules Of Attraction”
If you’ve read any of my stuff or have seen my avatar, you know I’m an ardent fan of Skins, the mid-00’s to early 10’s anthology about the life of hard-partying, harder-loving teenagers in Bristol, England. I describe it to friends as a more blue-collar, degenerate, debaucherous version of the The O.C, but that is just simplify things for an ignorant audience. Skins consisted of three pairs of two season (plus an odd “where are they now”-ish season). Each consisted of an (almost) entirely new cast, centered around a group of (sometimes unlikely) friends in their last two years of high school. They drank. They fucked. They loved. They hated. It got both really real and completely over the top, to speak from the perspective of someone who has been through high school before. Where it really intersects with Euphoria is where it uses a single character for the centerpiece of each episode, seeing the events of that episode through their lens and allowing the audience to feel their feelings. Due to the fact that it was located in Europe and not the US, and Europeans are in fact not pussies, it also dove into issues much more problematic for audiences to process. From abuse, to abandonment, to eating disorders, to substance abuse, to mental illness WELL BEFORE it became such a common topic, Skins feared no unturned stone. It also had a way of being honest with who its characters were. Even when complete assholes were given redemption stories, the show never shied away from the fact that they were indeed still assholes.
“Rules Of Attraction” may have come as a bit of a curve ball on my list of two comparisons. Mostly because it is about college students. However, it does share a couple of common elements with Euphoria. The first is that like Skins, it focuses in on a character at a time, dissecting them down to the marrow. You see what led them to that moment in time, the good and the bad. Whether you want to know or not.
The second part of what makes the Bret Easton E;lis adaptation so similar to Euphoria, at least for me, is a bit more nuanced. Despite the hope and dare I say underlying inspiration that Euphoria seemingly wants to purvey at times, it also presents. in my opinion, its character breakdowns in a cold, clinical way. These are their backgrounds, these are their traits. These are their flaws, that probably won’t be fixed. Not matter how sad, how terrifying. How fatal. “Rules Of Attraction” features the same, emotionless description of the players involved, though perhaps with even a hint of menace.
So at this point you’re probably asking yourself why the hell you should watch this show. To see the youth of today in such turmoil can’t possibly be a source of entertainment can it?
Yes, yes it can.
To more fully flesh out the plot, Euphoria is told through the voice of Rue, a Jr. in high school who takes us through her struggle to get and try and stay sober (opiates is implied as her drug of choice) by describing the lives and circumstances of a number of her as mentioned archetyped high school classmates, only a few months removed from a near fatal overdose. How she weaves her tale of High School’s complicated universe and ties it all back to her own life and harrowing journey is where the magic lies. Is she telling us all this because she sees a little of herself in everyone? Is she worried that she might? Or is she embittered that they all think they have it so bad but none have it as bad as her? I know, teenagers, amirite?
There’s something to be said of all options, for as in depth as Rue examines her peers, she allows us to see her own self examination as well – the losses she’s suffered, her undefined sexuality, her vacillation between apathy and deeply caring about her sobriety. Most of the time you can’t help but care for kid. But sometimes, ya, she’s kind of an asshole.
The show builds and progresses well, although it eschews episode-to-episode cliffhangers for slower builds and mid-installment twists and conclusions. You’ll be happy for Rue and her crew one moment, especially best friend and possible love interest, trans free spirit Jules, and you’ll be crushed and afraid for them the next.
Euphoria has been picked up for a seasons 2 and as I hear the actress that plays Rue’s stock is skyrocketing it could be last which is a shame. I don’t get why they had to end Skins (fucking Brits letting the ratings drop more than all that tea probably. Zinggggg). There’s no reason they can’t morph Euphoria itself into a similar anthology-type show should the Rue character not be sustainable. That said, HBO is not as attached to long runs the way Showtime is so that isn’t probable. But I digress. Watch the damn show. Feel some feels. Maybe you went through some similar shit or maybe you observed it from afar. Either way maybe you’ll learn something about yourself, in hindsight.
Just hearing Jane’s Addiction “Superhero” instantly gives me a dopamine dump and brings me back to a simpler time. Entourage first aired on HBO 15 years ago yesterday, July 18th, 2004. Big Z and my affinity for this show is no secret as its been prominently referenced on The 300s many times over the years. Entourage really was a perfect storm for a lot of guys my age. It premiered in 2004 when I was 15, which is ironic because the running joke is that show is only funny to 15 year olds. Well, I’m a grown ass man and I still will sit down and throw on a couple random eps of Entourage every now and then. The show was a mega hit on HBO, but never really found its footing in syndication. I know Big Z argues its because the show’s plotlines are too short and scattered for one random episode here or there to really make any sense unless you’ve already seen it. A procedural this is not.
Now, I say this without a drip of sarcasm or embarrassment, but at one point in my life I had both this poster
as well as this poster
scotch taped to my dorm room walls.
An excellent show, for the first few seasons at least, that would NEVER get made today because 1.) It ripped on Hollywood elites like no one had before and 2.) the PC Police would shut that shit down before they even filmed the pilot. Can you imagine a show getting greenlit today where Jeremy Piven tells his gay assistant that he looks like Michelle Kwan in drag? No shot.
A lot of people say shows like this don’t age well because there are definitely some homophobic, misogynistic, insensitive tones throughout the series, but thats bullshit. The show was made in 2004. It made jokes about what played in 2004, not 2019. So its not really fair to criticize a TV show for that. Christ, just look at the racist shit Archie Bunker used to say on All in the Family while laugh tracks boomed in the background. But again that show first aired in 1971 so its not really fair to scrutinize it the same way you would today.
Anyways, call it frat boy comedy if you want, but the show did win six Emmys, including three by Jeremy Piven for the iconic role of Ari Gold. Along with the Simpsons, and Seinfeld, Entourage is one of the few TV shows that I still quote to this day in just about any situation.
Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.
Full disclosure, I know this aired two weeks ago, but my cube life has been consumed with more work than your average bear so lets just roll with it…
After 73 episodes and nearly a decade of television, Game of Thrones came to its long awaited conclusion, after reaching a critical mass in pop culture (to its own detriment) this season.
Name a show that ran as long as Game of Thrones did that ended well. Its not easy to do after years of growing fandom and the expectations that come with it. The Sopranos? I thought my TV died. Lost? Nope. Dexter? *shutters* Hell even Seinfeld’s finale was a disaster.
So a show that started out as a weird fantasy world with politics intertwined into every scene became a media juggernaut and with that came the weight of expectations from not only the diehard fans but now the people that binged the first 7 seasons out of peer pressure just to catch up in time. I did the same exact thing with Lost and it made it so much easier to rip on the show’s missteps and banish it to “garbage tv” when the finale didn’t satisfy my expectations. I think we saw a lot of that this season in Thrones as twitter and Facebook were overflowing with criticism. While I think the show earned plenty of deserved criticism (the goddamn pacing), it also was getting roasted for minutia like a Starbucks cup that nobody noticed until an eagle eye viewer tweeted about it. I’m not here to apologize to disappointed fans, but people need to put their experience into perspective.
You can love a show and criticize it at the same time.
Game of Thrones was an incredible series and probably my favorite show of all time. Thrones has a 9.4 rating on IMDB overall, but the final season was rushed and it will forever bug me how this show could have gone down as the GOAT if they just took the time to work in a few more episodes (or even another season) to properly justify certain character storylines (the Mad Queen) and motivations (Jaimie returning to Cersei).
My only complaint with the final season is that most of the character’s final scenes make sense, but how we got there doesn’t necessarily fit. So lets break down some of the key highlights from the last episode of Game of Thrones.
The shot of Khaleesi with the outstretched dragon wings behind her was just an incredible visual and devilish cinematography.
Jon Snow battled with his love, his honor, and his duty to finally kill Khaleesi and officially become the Queenslayer. Tyrion threw one reason after the next at Jon trying to convince him why Khaleesi needed to die, but even though he knows Tyrion is right Jon can’t bring himself to say it. The only thing that gives him pause is when Tyrion asks what he thinks will happen when his sisters refuse to bend the knee. In the end Jon had to hear it from Khaleesi directly and hear her delusions of grandeur growing as she spoke. Khaleesi, as Tyrion said to Jon, believes she is just and good and is destined to make the world a better place. She doesn’t see it as murdering innocents, she sees it as freeing the people and starting a new world void of tyrants. It kiiiind of sounds a lot like ethnic cleansing as George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones is rife with criticisms of war and what often comes with it. Once he hears the delusions from Khaleesi he knows that she can’t leave that room.
Small criticism here. I know that Jon has been alone with Khaleesi plenty of times and Drogon was laying outside the front door, but where are her guards? Theres not one soldier protecting the new Queen of the Seven Kingdoms? I think that scene would been a little more convincing if Jon had to kill a couple of guards while struggling with his moral guilt, but I suppose its such a powerful reverse course because he has to kill her and *only* her.
In the ultimate irony, Khaleesi never actually sat on the Iron Throne. Tough break.
Visions Are Never Wasted
A+ foreshadowing from the show that became known for never wasting a word or a shot as Khaleesi’s vision from Season 2 of her walking through the Throne room was dead on. Except what we all thought was snow falling for the better part of a decade, was in fact ash.
Drogon Grieves
Drogon melting the Iron Throne was one of my favorite moments in GOT’s long history. Theres a scene from early in the series when Tyrion talks about how dragons were once though to be smarter than people. This was an emotional moment as Drogon senses something is wrong, after Jon stabs her, and flies to the Throne room only to see whats happened before heartbreakingly nudging the lifeless Khaleesi.
Preparing for death by fire Jon readies himself, but Drogon looks at him and then at the Iron Throne before unleashing hellfire on the throne as if to say it was this damn chair that killed her. Pretty brilliant distinction for a dragon to make in that moment.
You want to talk about breaking the wheel, this is how you break the wheel.
Another callback was how they actually decided on the new King because before the episode I was talking with the Mrs. about how Khaleesi never decided on a plan of succession. Back in Season 7 Tyrion tells her about how the Iron Islands pick a leader, how the Nights Watch votes on a leader etc. and she blows him off saying we’ll figure it out once I have the throne. Well they had to break out that plan of secession a lot sooner than Khaleesi would have ever expected.
Tyrion’s Faith Waivers
After following Khaleesi blindly for multiple seasons, Tyrion had begun to waiver a bit in Season 8. He saw the Tarlys burned alive, he learned of Jon Snows true lineage, and he had those treasonous discussions with Varys (before he too was burned alive). Despite all that, Tyrion still felt Khaleesi would “do the right thing.” Well after she went the other way on that one and burned down Kings Landing, Tyrion finally reaches his breaking point when he sees the buried bodies of his siblings underneath the Red Keep. It’s a pretty powerful moment because despite all their flaws, despite the fact that his sister literally wanted him dead, he still breaks down and weeps when he sees what has happened to Jaime and Cersei. They died because of him and breaks him.
I Can’t Believe They Made the Backpack King
In a scene that seemed more Benioff and Weiss than it did Martin, there was a council meeting comprised of the most important lords and ladies of Westeros. There were the Starks, the Vale (including an older Robin Arryn whom the internet got a little too excited about – he’s 18), the unnamed “New Prince of Dorne,” even Yara Grejoy. They all give their thoughts on who should be King, but its a speech from the best actor on the show in Tyrion that unites them all. Rather quickly I might add…
Whether it was a character decision made by the showrunners or a directive from Martin himself I don’t know, but Bran’s transformation into an emotionless (read: sociopath) and largely boring character the past two seasons has been a head scratcher. This massive point in the story would have been a lot more powerful if Bran had ANY sort of character development or at least on screen relationship with any of the other characters. Instead it looks like a guy drawing the short straw to lead the group project that nobody is eager to take on. We never really get a true understanding of why Bran is the Three Eyed Raven, why it matters beyond the fact that he remembers neat history tidbits, or why anyone should really even care. Sure, he is the memories of men, but why does that matter? Why did the Night King want him dead so badly? As The Ringer puts it:
The purpose of Bran’s position as the Three-Eyed Raven, moreover, is only shallowly explained, which seems important when the basis for his assumption of the throne rests on his ostensible role as storyteller. Earlier in Season 8, Bran tells the assembled war council at Winterfell that the Night King wants to kill him because he is the world’s memory. But his predecessor lived isolated from the world, huddled in a cave far beyond the Wall, not sharing that memory with any living human. He’s not the first Three-Eyed Raven, either, Bran reveals, but rather just the latest in a long line of memory holders, The Giver–style. How can we square one Three-Eyed Raven who lives apart from humans and one who rules them, and assume they fulfill the same strategic function?
It is odd for Bran to have gone through so much yet have it mean so little in the grand scheme of things. And I’ve watched enough time travel movies to understand why he can’t just come out and tell everyone what will happen in the future. So when Bran responds to Tyrion’s offer to be King “Why do you think I came all this way?” I don’t really quarrel with that. The people that died to get him there though miiight feel a little different.
Pivoting to perhaps my least favorite character on the show in Bran after years of build up for a sudden twist fell a little flat for me. This is something that required a more thorough build up of Bran’s character and motivations (not someone who literally wasn’t in Season 5) in order to justify. The Ringer again summarized this frustration perfectly:
More importantly, for a show that has disregarded or downplayed so many elements of the fantasy genre since surpassing Martin’s books, the turn to the character most connected to those very fantasy elements at the end underwhelms. If Bran were to become king, why cut him from a full season of the show?
I will say this show is the ultimate when it comes to misdirection. How many times did people mention how Bran was now the Lord of Winterfell only to have the Three Eyed Raven reply he didn’t want it? And how many times did we hear Tyrion and Varys talking about how the best ruler is the one who doesn’t want it? We always thought they were talking about Jon Snow when it turns out it was Bran the Broken.
We all knew Khaleesi had to die one way or the other and I think it would have been a little too predictable for Jon to be made King at this point. So while I don’t like Bran being named King, I would have been just as mad if he did nothing this episode and literally served no purpose for 8 seasons.
It was a little too clean how quickly we went from Jon murdering Khaleesi, to Jon being the Unsullied’s prisoner, to Grey Worm 1.) letting the lords and ladies vote to choose a new King and 2.) immediately listening to Bran because he’s been king for all of 90 seconds.
I will say the show did a great job of wrapping up most of the character’s storylines for better or worse. While the final season was ill paced, every character’s final actions all made sense, just not necessarily how and when they got there. Grey Worm taking the Unsullied to Naath to tell stories of Missandei and retire to a place where the people are peaceful, Arya taking a Stark ship to explore the unknown, Sansa becoming Queen in the North, and Jon going back north of the wall with Tormund and GHOST!
Must have been a tough couple of weeks for the writers to swallow their pride after everyone on the internet ripped them for not having Jon pet Ghost when he left Winterfell. “Just wait two weeks you morons!” Although, after seeing how quickly the Starbucks cup was digitally removed, it would not surprise me if Benioff and Weiss just filmed that scene and threw it in there last minute to appease the masses.
Sansa is and Forever Will be a Boss
They name her little brother King of Westeros, and her first reaction is basically “I love you, I think you’ll be a great ruler, but…No, we are the north. We’ve seen all the nonsense thats come from the seven kingdoms.” Think about it. Sansa’s entire life has been filled with hardships all because of that damn iron chair. Her grandfather and her uncle died at the hands of the King sitting on the Iron Throne. Her father died because he wouldn’t take the Iron Throne from Joffrey (and Cersei). Her brother Robb died trying to avenge their father and overthrow the King from the Iron Throne. As they say, the Stark men don’t fair well in the capital. So it doesn’t matter if the King is her own brother now; the North gained it’s independence, it rebelled against the Baratheons/Lannisters, it overthrew the Boltons, and it resisted Khaleesi. The North will remain independent as it was for thousands of years before the Targaryens landed in Westeros.
I don’t know about you, but I’m turning my attention back to the Game of Thrones books now to fill the hole in my life. I’ve only read the first one so hopefully by the time I finish whats left George RR Martin will have finished at least one new novel. I have to see how Martin decides these same characters get to these decisions or whether they go in an entirely different direction.
Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen’s Short Lived Romance
What made the whole Jon and Dany story feel a bit stilted to me really had nothing to do with the writing or the show runners; the two actors just seemingly lacked chemistry. Especially when compared to Jon’s first love interest on the show, Ygritte, which I guess isn’t necessarily fair to compare since Jon and Ygritte literally got married in real life. But hey thats what actors do; they pretend
You could really feel the passion between Jon and Ygritte and all the trials they went through from Jon taking her prisoner, to Ygritte saving his life, to Jon breaking his Nights Watch vows to her untimely death. When Ygritte was killed at the Battle of Castle Black it crushed Jon Snow and changed him forever. I just never felt that passion between Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington. Obviously it was a storyline that wasn’t too hard to see coming with their romance, their conflict, and her ultimate death, but I never felt like the two characters really dug each other. It had to just be a chemistry thing too because Khaleesi’s scenes with Khal Drogo and even with Daario Naharis felt very real. I know Jon Snow is the brooding, stoic character from the North, but so was Ned Stark and his early scenes with Katelyn Stark just laying in bed together showed a couple truly in love. So I didn’t truly feel that “love is the death of duty” in the finale of Thrones, but thats not necessarily the show runners’ fault.
What was the point of the Night King at all?
Why did the weirwood trees allow Bran to see visions?
The symbols that the white walkers used to seemingly taunt the children of the forest with; what was that about?
What ever happened to Jaquen Hagar?
Why didn’t Aria ever use her Faceless Men tricks after killing all the Freys?
Why
Soo while no show will ever approach Lost territory in terms of unanswered questions, Game of Thrones left me with a lot of loose threads that I though would have at least been referenced. In the end, this whole GOT world shows us just how great of a television series an 800 page novel can become, but the wheels certainly came off a bit when Martin’s guidebooks dried up. Once he stopped plotting the hows and the whys (and a lot of the dialogue word for word), Bennioff and Weiss lost a bit of the shine. It also will forever piss me off that these two hit the Wrap It Up Box on one of the most successful shows of all time so they could write a couple Star Wars movies.
All in all, Game of Thrones started off strong, became one of the most influential shows in television history, and staggered a bit to the finish line, but will forever be remembered as a series that changed television forever.
PS – Peep the poster for Season 1 below… The answer of who would sit on the Iron Throne was IN FRONT OF US THE WHOLE TIME!
On Sunday nights, being the cinefile that I am, I like to watch a movie in the approximately two hour window leading up to when I’d like to go to bed. Personally, this is an ideal way to end the weekend and ready the body and mind for the week ahead in the best way possible.
This practice obviously involves an arduous selection process that is not for the faint of heart. First of is my mood and pickiness. Do I want a comedy? A drama? A thriller? Then there is the shear volume. Netflix, all the premiurm channels, new on demand movies I’d be willing to pay a few bucks for. This weekend was particularly rough as aside from Saturday’s festivities I did nothing but watch movies and TV so I had a recently viewed palate to make do with.
Always a sucker for a solid coming-of-age movie I went with one. It was a disastrous choice. There was too little going on with too many people. None of it made me care about any of it. About 30 minutes in a realized I needed something else. However at that point I was also getting tired. I didn’t have the energy for a 90+ minute endeavor. Then I remembered….
In searching for the latest British (kind of obsessed with across the pond entertainment right now) fare on Netflix, I came across a comedian named Daniel Sloss. I watched the trailer to his special (actually two) and added it to the list. On this sleepy Sunday night I went back, found the first special, “Dark” was only an hour long, and started watching.
Let me tell you this was the best stand up special I’ve seen in years, and this side of Segura and Burr. Sloss combines a lot, but not a frantic amount, of energy with supremely crafted, utterly intelligent jokes, all told with an almost shrugging wit and humility.
What makes this special however, is how without even trying to do so Sloss gives the middle finger to PC culture in general. The special is called “Dark” because of some of the topics of Sloss’ jokes. This isn’t “dark” humor in the vein of Anthony Jeselnik however, these are jokes based on the harder, more emotional. and more painful experiences one may have to walk through in life, but that are, as Sloss points out, indeed real things that happen to us and that need to be addressed. Basically, you don’t have a right to be offended by what other people are going through, or by their need to somehow find humor in it.
There are even some serious moments in “Dark” (I admittedly haven’t watched the second of the two specials, “Jigsaw”, yet). I understand that isn’t for everybody. But his ability to work his way through those intermissions and bringing you out laughing on the other end is not only relatable, but a sort of metaphor for life itself.
So I IMPLORE your to take the time to watch this kid do his thing in the coming days. Joey B stamp of approval through and through.
As soon as I saw my guy Aaron Paul on the screen I shouted WESTWORLD at my TV because I’ve been waiting for this. Adding an actor like him to a show at a crossroads like Westworld currently sits is huge. Westworld ended an up and down Season 2 with a peak at what could happen with the hosts making their way into the real world. It seems like they’ve fully integrated and/or taken over the real world in a terrifying way. As Aaaron Paul says he’s just searching for something real, which could bring Westworld into a suddenly much more relatable show. This could potentially transition Westworld from a pure sci-fi show about robots into a more literal commentary on a dystopian future.
Oh and we get Kid Cudi in something other than “How to Make It In America” so thats exciting.
Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.
Oh man that episode was a doozie and the meme makers of the internet did NOT disappoint. So lets get right into the best of the best. The 300s Game of Thrones Meme of the Week Award goes to the one below because it was my exact reaction when watching the same scene.
And while I think some of the criticism has been more than fair, the internet is reallyyy dumping on Benioff and Weiss so here are a few aimed at the showrunners in particular.
Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.
The Mad Queen has arrived. The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones final season kept the promise that so many seasons before it had; delivering the biggest blow right before the finale. An absolute spectacle for the ages as Khaleesi turns full heel and embraces the role of The Mad Queen as she literally burned Kings Landing to the ground. I was leaning forward in my chair in suspense for about 40 minutes straight. What started out as violent efficiency by Khaleesi turned into legitimate terrorism as the Dragon Queen became the very thing she vowed not to be; a tyrant. How did we get here?
“Alright then, let it be fear,” Daenerys says to Jon Snow after he rejects her affection on Dragonstone.
This is a central theme that the last Targaryen has struggled with for years, but most explicitly in Season 8. She has continuously walked the line of being the beloved savior, freeing slaves, being the voice for those without a voice, and taking what she wants simply because she can. With great power comes great responsibility and after seven seasons of Khaleesi balancing that responsibility while she became only more powerful, she ultimately decides to throw it all away in the name of rage and revenge.
“I don’t think she decided ahead of time that she was going to do what she did. And then she sees the Red Keep, which is, to her, the home that her family built when they first came over to this country 300 years ago,” showrunner DB Weiss said on the Inside the Episode. “It’s in that moment on the walls of King’s Landing, when she’s looking at that symbol of everything that was taken from her, when she makes the decision to make this personal.”
The sped up arrival of Daenerys unhinged has been a bit too convenient for my liking, but the show has been hinting at this for years.
“I’m not my father,” Dany says to Ser Barristan in S5E2 to which Barristan replies: “The Mad King gave his enemies the justice he thought they deserved and each time it made him feel powerful and right. Until the very end.”
All of Dany’s closest friends and most trusted confidants are all gone. She’s too strong for Jon Snow, as Varys puts it, and Tyrion has lost her trust after repeated lapses in judgment. Barristan, Jorah, and Missandei were the only three people who were ever really able to temper Dany’s worst impulses. And all three are dead.
“I am not here to be Queen of the ashes,” Dany says in S7E2 to her small council when discussing the best way to take Kings Landing.
Oh and lets not forget about these gems from Season 2.
To quote another pop culture behemoth in Avengers: Endgame: Khaleesi “did exactly what she said she was going to do.”
My only complaint with this storyline is the same critique I’ve had about this entire season; the pacing. In a matter of 5 episodes Daenerys has gone from the savior of Westeros, the liberator from tyrants, and the beloved Khaleesi to the Mad Queen? She has suffered some tragic losses in Jorah, Missandei, and her two dragons, but to use that as justification for destroying an entire city and burning thousands of innocent citizens alive is a pretty big leap.
With that being said, George RR Martin’s books have become absolute must reads just to see how the godfather handles the same storylines.
Whats even more shocking is how Khaleesi has turned into the type of person she hated the most (arrogant, entitled, and cruel) just like….her late brother Viserys Targaryen. She has been shattered by her inability to gain the love and support of Westeros, despite quite literally saving the country from death. To her dismay, it is Jon Snow whom the people still love and champion. It is a stunning parallel with Viserys as Khaleesi has become just like her brother (who was killed for those same qualities).
Every time a Targaryen is born the gods flip a coin. Well it seems like the coin landed on the wrong side.
— Robert of House Glasgow (@therobkabob) May 13, 2019
One of the most incredible scenes in the episode and really the series was Khaleesi finally unleashing her dragon’s power to take out her enemies singlehandedly. It was glorious to see, if not a little inconsistent. Khaleesi *easily* takes out a hundred ships and just as many Scorpions after losing a dragon to just one of those pesky jumbo crossbows in the previous episode.
I understand she was taken by surprise somehow (she forgot about the Iron Fleet according to the showrunners…) in Episode 4, but thats just not great writing. Too often the end has dictated the circumstances required to get there, which has become a problem primarily since the show has passed the books. Without Martin’s elaborate game plan to lead the way, Benioff and Weiss have had to piece key events together with various plot devices. Just imagine the damage she could have done with 2 if not 3 dragons?
One of the deeper cuts were the various Wildfire explosions going off throughout the city as Khaleesi lit up Kings Landing. Aerys Targaryen’s old Wildfire stash was still buried underneath the city, going off like fireworks in the trunk of your car that you forgot about.
Again, we’ve been building to this for quite some time. Go back to Khaleesi’s vision she saw in Season 2 in Quarth at the House of the Undying because this is incredible foreshadowing, intentional or not.
Winter never came for King’s Landing, but Khaleesi did.
Sansa Was Right
Something I’ve been saying for a while now is what if Sansa wasn’t just being a distrustful or jealous sister? What I wrote last week:
“Sansa just does not trust Khaleesi and maybe she sees something that everyone else is blind to because they either love Khaleesi, they admire her, or they fear her. Sansa has none of those emotions towards the Dragon Queen so maybe its more than just being spiteful; maybe she really doesn’t believe she’ll be a good ruler…So maybe we need to start treating her disdain for Khaleesi as more than just unnecessary drama.”
What if she truly saw something in the Dragon Queen that unsettled her? Sansa is arguably the best politician in all of Westeros. Trained by Littlefinger, she survived Joffrey, Cersei, and Ramsay Bolton all while uniting the north and saving Jon at the Battle of the Bastards with the Knights of the Vale. She was often referred to as the key to the north to boot. Well after “The Bells” it sure seems like Sansa had Dany pegged from day one.
RIP to Varys
Varys, as always, was the only one that saw the big picture. He could see Khaleesi losing her grasp on reality/sanity/decency and tried to get ahead of it, but nobody wanted to listen. They all saw the same signs, but everyone was blinded for their own reasons. Tyrion is the Hand of the Queen, and Jon Snow loved her but more importantly he swore himself and the North to her (that damn Stark nobility). Varys cared only for the Realm aka the common people and Varys knew the people were screwed.
Ring the Bells
The aptly titled episode refers to the bells that ring in Kings Landing when the city has surrendered. It means the war has been won. Well when Tyrion repeatedly says they need to stop the attack if they hear the bells ringing I became suspicious. Would Khaleesi think that maybe the bells are a trap of sorts by Cersei? Not really. Actually she just didn’t care and merely used the bells as the soundtrack to her rampage.
Thrones offered zero character development for these guys and now we know why. They didn’t even make it out of the locker room before Khaleesi came out of the goddamn walls to blow them away.
The Cleganebowl
It would be hard to do justice to anything that fans have been clamoring for after 7+ seasons. While I don’t think this was the amazing sword battle we all expected, it was visually stunning. The shot of the two brothers fighting on a crumbling stair case in the Red Keep as Drogon flies behind them burning the city to the ground was incredible.
This battle royale also showed just how indestructible The Mountain really was, something thats been apparent since his resurrection, but never really deeply explored. Not to quote the Avengers too many times in this Thrones blog, but Sandor my man:
The Hound saving Arya’s life by talking her out of a suicide mission for vengeance was a rare emotional moment for this character. Arya’s the only one he’s ever really had any affection for and vice versa so he’s the only one that can snap her out of it and send her away.
Arya
Arya has repeatedly said “I’m going to kill the queen.” About halfway through that episode I realized she’s rarely said I’m going to kill Cersei; only “the queen” specifically. Well, once Arya got caught in that hell fire and saw more and more innocents getting scorched it became pretty clear to me that Arya was always going to kill the queen, maybe just not the one she thought.
Fine, you want more foreshadowing?
And I looked, and behold a pale horse
and his name that sat on him was Death
— Drake France Jaculina (@DrakeJaculina) May 13, 2019
Khaleesi:
Don’t be surprised when Benioff and Weiss tell composer Ramin Djawadi to take a few plays off in order to let Arya do her work with Coldplay playing in the background.
Something that has been in my opinion shockingly underutilized is Arya’s game of faces. We literally spent multiple seasons learning about this and how deadly the faceless men are. Arya has become one of the most lethal killers in Westeros and did take out the entire Frey House, but since then we’ve seen zero use of this pretty rare talent. Will we finally see Arya break it out in the series finale? Could she kill someone like Grey Worm in order to take his face and get close enough to the Queen? We’ll see, but this is another thread that seems to have been forgotten if not.
Starks Run Deep
Also, I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but Jon and Arya have literally become the same person. It’s like that Progressive Insurance commercial about becoming your parents. The long hair with the top knot, the long leather outfit; they’ve all become Ned Stark.
Cersei and Jaime
I’ve seen a lot of hate on Twitter about the way they handled Cersei’s death, but it did a pretty good job of humanizing one of the most evil characters in the show in just a couple of scenes. Again, pacing of the character arc was poor, but what did people want? For Cersei to stand on the roof and give one last defiant speech before getting lit up by Drogon?
At the end, Cersei sounded a lot like Janos Slynt at the Battle of Castle Black. Someone who is in way over their head and trying to convince themselves that the inevitable is not actually coming as they mindlessly babble in the face of certain death
Another pacing issues though is how they handled Jaime’s last two episodes and his ultimate death. I think we all knew Jaime would either die trying to save Cersei or trying to stop her, but to introduce the entire Brienne love storyline, the immediate reversal, his capture and release by Tyrion, followed by his frantic effort to get to Cersei was the definition of rushed.
How does the King in the North handle Khaleesi now? Cersei blew up the sept and killed a couple hundred people and we were all shocked; Khaleesi just burned down the entire god damn city. He can’t openly challenge her because of the aforementioned dragon, the Unsullied and the Dothraki, who seem pretty jazzed up about destroying said city. It seems like marriage is probably off the table as well. So its going to take quite the coup to unseat Dany from the Iron Throne at this point. Even if Arya or someone is able to kill the Dragon Queen, this could devolve into a bloody and meaningless civil war real quick.
Bran
We are now down 80 minutes away from Bran becoming the No. 1 in Red’s Power Rankings of Most Useless Characters of All Time. He has said that he’s not really Bran anymore and that he doesn’t want anymore, but did we really build this guy up for 7 seasons just to have him be the know it all grandpa in the corner?
I can’t believe we are now just 6 days away from the last episode in Game of Thrones history. I am shook. I will be an emotional wreck next weekend so don’t take it personally when I ghost any and all forms of communication. How does this all end? Will Khaleesi rule unopposed with fire and blood? Will the North finally overthrow the rulers in Kings Landing? Could Jon Snow aka Aegon Targaryen possibly take Drogon for himself? Will Jon finally change the narrative about Stark men in the capital? So many questions so little time.
As we all know though, when you play the Game of Thrones, you either win or you die.
Obvious Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t caught up on Season 8 of Thrones yet come back later.
“The Last of the Starks” was an A+ episode for Game of Thrones as the show got back to doing what it does best. Despite the less than glowing reviews of Episode 3 (second lowest rated GOT ep on Rotten Tomatoes), I rewatched it yesterday and actually enjoyed it more the second time. Once you get over the fact that its dark and chaotic and not as many central characters die as expected its actually a pretty good episode. However it has become clear that Thrones (at least the TV show) never intended to have the battle with the White Walkers as the end all be all. In fact in the Ep 3 Inside the Episode, showrunner David Benioff actually describes the dead as “one of the main storylines” of Thrones. The key word there is “one.”
Is that reason enough for Thrones fans to be upset? Sure. Especially because if the White Walkers were never going to be the central storyline of the entire show (its literally the focus of the first scene of the first episode of the first season), then the showrunners were at best creating the longest slow play of all time with the Night King arc or at worst intentionally misleading viewers until they could quickly finish that story in order to move onto the last geopolitical conflict; the final game of thrones. Maybe I’m too big of a Thrones fan to be properly pissed off about that entire scenario, but I have repeatedly said I am going to wait until the season is finished so I can see the whole picture before deciding one way or the other. Thrones is getting alarmingly close to LOST territory though with a whole lot of questions that could remain completely unanswered. We’ll see.
So now that they’ve defeated the White Walkers, Thrones was able to turn its attention back to its biggest strength; the actual game of thrones. The character dialogues, the plotting, the lying, the simmering tensions. This was the best episode we’ve seen all season.
Lets talk about that emotional opening as the survivors mourn the dead from the Battle of Winterfell. It was always going to be a tearjerker when Dany said goodbye to Jorah and we see the dead bodies of characters like Lyanna Mormont, Lord Commander Edd, Theon and the rest, but when the camera pulls back and we see just how many pyres there are being lit, we get a much better understanding of just how many lives were lost. I think its one of the best shots in the show’s history because it conveys so much without a single word.
I thought this was an excellent episode, but I’ve tried to be fair in my assessment each week and this season has been bordering on a Wrap It Up Box situation. After years of slow playing situations and storylines we are now moving at a lightspeed pace, which has me questioning the decision to only shoot 6 episodes for the final season. Granted the showrunners were undoubtedly waiting for George RR Martin to finish the books (which led to extended stays for Dany in Essos and Bran on his way to the Three Eyed Raven) before ultimately deciding to push past the books and finish the show with just some guiding points from Martin.
But this season has been pegging characters into some roles quicker than I would think is realistic. I’m not one of these assholes that is stomping their feet because Dany can get to Kings Landing in a ship in 5 minutes. I’ve played video games since I was a kid; fast travel and respawn points are a good thing guys. However, Dany is turned from savior to nearly becoming the Mad Queen in a span of 4 episodes. Now don’t get me wrong, she has all the character development points necessary to get there with her army being decimated fighting the dead, her role as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne being questioned, and now her best friend Missandei being unnecessarily murdered BUT it all just seems a little quick for a show that has been thoughtful and methodical with its pacing for years.
Remind me not to tell Sansa a secret any time soon because she blew up Jon’s spot about his true lineage in a matter or minutes. For some reason Sansa just does not trust Khaleesi and maybe she sees something that everyone else is blind to because they either love Khaleesi, they admire her, or they fear her. Sansa has none of those emotions towards the Dragon Queen so maybe its more than just being spiteful; maybe she really doesn’t believe she’ll be a good ruler. We’ve all come to agree that Sansa has become one of the best political minds in GOT having been trained by one of the best in Littlefinger, living a hellish life with the likes of Joffrey and Ramsay, and yet has come out on the other side as one of the power players in Westeros. So maybe we need to start treating her disdain for Khaleesi as more than just unnecessary drama. Either way, she confides in her former husband Tyrion saying “What if there were someone better?” and officially rings the bell that cannot be unrung. What if Jon isn’t only the *rightful* heir to the Throne, but what if he’s the best one too? He probably would make a better ruler being a lot more measured, unemotional, and of course loved by the people of the North at least.
However Khaleesi put her ass on the line and decimated her army and her dragons to save the North and probably Westeros as a whole, so you can’t discount that just because she’s come off as increasingly bitter in each episode. Shit, I’d be bitter too. A classic Thrones power struggle continues to grow, made only more interesting with the fact that Jon wants no part of it. As the great Tywinn Lannister once said “Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.” Maybe we’re seeing shades of that coming into play as Khaleesi tells anyone and everyone that she is their queen, whereas Jon never wanted to be King in the North, yet his role as king literally saved the realm.
Khaleesi actually begs Jon to bury that secret, which is something we’ve never seen her do. She’s been enslaved, beaten, nearly assassinated, raped and endured all kinds of terrible times, but she’s never begged anyone for anything. Is she unraveling or this just her political hail mary because she knows if Jon tells Sansa the truth she’ll never have an iron clad claim to the Iron Throne.
Also, Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, the Three Eyed Raven, and last true born son of Eddard Stark has approximately 160 minutes left to not become the most useless character of all time. Up until now his most important contributions to the show include
Getting the Three Eyed Raven Killed
Getting Hodor, Jojen, and his direwolf Summer killed
Leading the Night King straight to Winterfell
Giving Arya the dagger that she needed to kill the Night King
Telling everyone about Jon’s true parents
Thats about it for the freshly minted Three Eyed Raven. I never really loved Bran’s storyline, but I figured the writers were building up to something bigger. Well that was a pretty big “nope” after the Battle of Winterfell. Sure I’ll give him partial credit for giving Arya the dagger, but thats considering I’m going out of my way to acknowledge that a dragon glass dagger probably wouldn’t have had the same affect. So here we are Bran. You have two episodes and 160 minutes to prove the dozens of hours devoted to watching you get dragged through the woods was worth it. Prove me wrong.
Bronn of the Blackwater is back! He basically makes a deal with the Lannister brothers that they need to pay the debts they so famously always pay or they’re both dead. It wasn’t exactly the bro reunion many had expected, but somewhere inside that cutthroat there is a heart of gold. It would have been shocking and unfitting for Bronn to just coldly murder his two best friends. Whether they have the pull to guarantee High Garden to Bronn as sufficient payment remains to be seem, but something tells me not all of these characters will be around to see that the debt has been paid.
Jon’s goodbye (or lack thereof) to Ghost was one of the sadder scenes of all time. This dog lost a goddamn ear fighting your war, Jon. Ghost was actually the first POP action figure I ever bought years ago so needless to say I feel like our canine friend deserved better. Now I fully admit I am one of those crazy dog dads, but come on Jon you’re not even going to give him a scratch behind his ear? That direwolf went beyond the wall with you and saved your ass on more than one occasion. Well, the internet was fully behind me and some are even completely off #TeamJon for the Iron Throne because of it.
GHOST LOST HALF AN EAR AND LOOKS ABSOLUTELY WRECKED AF AFTER FIGHTING JON’S STUPID WAR AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT JON COULDNT EVEN SAY GOODBYE TO THE GOODEST BOY IN ALL OF WESTEROS???????? #GamefThrones#ghost#GOTpic.twitter.com/nMSQR1aCSI
At least he’ll be safe and in his element in the icy north, but boy was that sad. I guess if I’m going to wrap my own brain into a pretzel it was the right decision because we’ve seen how irresponsible Khaleesi is with her own animals.
Speaking of…holy hell we lost another dragon and I cannot emotionally handle it. Just one week after thinking another of Khaleesi’s dragons bit the big one because of her careless landing spot in a war zone, we were blindly led to its slaughter yet again. And I fucking called it. Probably because I am a Thrones psycho, but after seeing the dragon struggling to fly earlier in the ep and then seeing him back to full strength I knew something was off. Thrones never shows you something by mistake (except for that Starbucks cup). I literally said out loud “oh look the dragon is all better again” IMMEDIATELY followed by “oh no now he’s going to die–ARROW.” Euron Greyjoy ambushed Khaleesi and her fleet and gave us yet another heart wrenching dragon death. Jesus christ Khaleesi can you please keep these dragons a safe distance away from all possible dangers? Especially if the only thing that can kill them apparently are arrows and ice javelins, which have a pretty precise range of fire, and especially if you’re just cruising past the place you intend to destroy. Maybe be on the lookout for danger? Worst dragon owner of all time. She will probably get her last child killed next week too and I want no part of watching that.
I won’t spend too much time on the love circles, but Jaime gets with Brienne, which breaks Tormund’s heart in yet another scene stealing moment, but then Jaime leaves in the middle of the night to return to (kill?) Cersei. I don’t know if Jaime just can’t kick that toxic relationship or if he just feels responsible for her and thinks he needs to kill her himself. Either way I think Jaime will play a prominent role in the death of Cersei. Maybe he dies at the hand of Arya and has his face used to sneak up on Cersei or perhaps he is able to get past the Mountain (who nearly executed him last time he was in Kings Landing) and Euron (who thinks Cersei is carrying his child) to get to Cersei?
Now that the news of Jon’s lineage is spreading, people like Sansa and Tyrion and Varys are starting to wonder who might be the rightful (read: better) ruler of Westeros. Varys seems pretty keen on the idea of switching sides, openly discussing what Tyrion describes as treason. They raise a legitimate question about Khaleesi’s state of mind. She seems to be slipping further into mad king territory and is ready to destroy the very city she seeks to liberate. Is Varys ready to jump sides in the best interest of the realm or was he merely testing Tyrion’s resolve? I don’t know but I do know that Thrones is at its best when characters like Littlefinger (RIP), Tyrion, and Varys are plotting and scheming.
In another shocker, Missandei gets executed in one of the most unnecessary, ruthless and cold blooded moves in Thrones history. Cersei executed someone for the sole purpose of inciting Khaleesi’s fury. Its a move that Tywinn would have been proud of as we all know that emotional decisions are often the worst decisions. Khaleesi looks like she is about to do something reckless to avenge her beloved friend.
We do see that Jon and his army arrive for the next episode, but my god I did not realize just how undermanned the Unsullied army has become. While the show makes it a point to say Cersei and Khaleesi’s armies are now unsettlingly “even” in size it sure doesn’t look that way. Not to mention we have the whole Golden Company army waiting in the wings despite zero character development. I honestly don’t know how she’s going to take the city as her dragons have proven highly susceptible to the scorpion arrows, but Khaleesi is about to burn that bitch to the ground.
We’ve heard time and time again that the citizens of Kings Landing hate Cersei, that the common people don’t care which “high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace,” so its possible that if someone can take out Cersei the rest will welcome Khaleesi with open arms. Probably not if she starts raining fire on the city though.
The 300s 