“Mother’s Mercy” Well, so much for that quiet and reflective season finale thing. I don’t think there’s any question this has been the most controversial season of Game of Thrones, both for book readers and new viewers (though mostly for different reasons).  And I hardly think a season finale like […] Read more

“The Dance of Dragons” Before I wade in here, let me just state because I think it’s important: what happened in Stannis’ camp was not a TV invention.  It’s going to happen in the books – we know this because David Benioff talked this week about the way he and […] Read more

“Hardhome” In a sense, I think it took an episode like this one to remind us just how far off its game Game of Thrones has been the last few weeks, even setting aside the rather disheartening direction it’s taken with Sansa’s storyline.  The best word for those eps, I […] Read more

“The Gift” This was the week where we started to see some just desserts being served, a rare enough thing in Game of Thrones – though I suspect they aren’t the ones the audience was hoping to dine on after last week. After the tectonic upheaval of Sansa’s rape, it […] Read more

“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” There’s a larger problem with Benioff & Weiss’ take on Game of Thrones, one that goes beyond critiquing an episode like this one in its own right.  I can honestly say that I found it engrossing for the most part, and that it seemed to fly by […] Read more

“Kill the Boy” It was interesting to see new viewers trying to make sense of the title of this episode, with all kinds of wild speculation ensuing.  But in fact, Game of Thrones (and this is becoming increasingly rare) followed A Song of Ice and Fire exactly here in how […] Read more

“Sons of the Harpy” Welp – definitely gonna need to break out the spoiler tags this week. I’m running behind this week, for reasons you know, so this piece is going to be a short one.  But a couple of major points I want to make: first, this was my […] Read more