Here’s What Made Dany’s Assault on King’s Landing so Viscerally Terrifying
Director Miguel Sapochnik and cinematographer Fabian Wagner have worked together on four of Game of Thrones most ambitious episodes. The two teamed up for season 5’s skirmish with the Night King, “Hardhome,” season 6’s muddy epic “Battle of the Bastards,” this season’s Battle of Winterfell in “The Long Night,” and finally, last night’s shockingly horrific “The Bells.” While everyone had understandably assumed that the battle with the Night King would be the marquee war episode,...
Game of Thrones Finale Trailer Teases the Aftermath of Dany’s Decision
In Game of Thrones penultimate episode, “Two Bells,” Daenerys Targaryen reduced King’s Landing to smoking rubble. It was a decision that marked her arrival—or better yet, descent—as the Mad Queen. The long arc of her character from captive to savior had finally come to rest at despot. She didn’t have to torch King’s Landing and murder innocents. She won the Last War was. The Iron Throne was her. Yet she did it anyway, for reasons that remain unclear (no matter how much the show has hinted at this break,...
Game of Thrones Recap: “The Bells” is Shockingly Brutal
The threat that Game of Thrones‘ writers, specifically co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, had been hinting at all season was finally paid off. Daenerys Targaryen revealed that she is not fit to rule the Seven Kingdoms. (Or, to look at it another way, she proved she is absolutely fit to rule the Seven Kingdoms, as despotically and ruthlessly as so many previous inhabitants of that uncomfortable looking chair have.) Despite a character arc that has seen her go from slave to savior,...
Get to Know Game of Thrones Lethal Mercenary Harry Strickland
It would be funny—not ha ha funny, but bitterly funny—if it turned out the biggest threat to the seven kingdoms ends up being humans after all. For eight seasons Game of Thrones has been saying that all the palace intrigue and bloody chess playing for the Iron Throne was a joke compared to the existence of the Night King. This former man-turned-super weapon was the existential threat that made all that noxious human behavior look as petty and absurd as it really was...
New Game of Thrones Photos Tease Harry Strickland & the Golden Company
There are but two (two!) episodes of Game of Thrones remaining. The Great War has come and gone, and now only the Last War (unlikely) remains. Dany has but a single dragon left. Her relationship with Jon is frayed. Tyrion hasn’t made a good decision since spring (you know how long winters last in Westeros). The survivors of the war with the Night King are exhausted. Everything in the Seven Kingdoms is, as always,...
The First Teaser for HBO’s Watchmen is Extremely Satisfying
“We are no one. We are everyone. And we are invisible.”
So begins the absolutely ripping teaser for HBO’s upcoming Watchmen, created by The Leftovers‘ Damon Lindelof and based on one of the most iconic graphic novels of all time. Lovers of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ game-changing comic (of which I am one) might find themselves cautiously enthused about this project. When word spread that Lindelof wasn’t adapting the graphic novel per se,...
The Bespoke Technology That Made Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Possible
Sugar puffs or frosties? Yell at dad or pour tea all over a keyboard? By now, the audience choices and subsequent on-screen fallout possibilities in Netflix’s first interactive film for adults, Bandersnatch, have been well documented across the web. Home-made flow charts painstakingly illustrate the complexity of 19-year-old video game creator Stefan’s journey as he tries to develop an interactive computer game in 1984, navigating relationships with his irritating father, new boss, and brilliant but off-the-wall colleague,...
Can Dany’s Last Dragon Survive Game of Thrones Episode 5?
And then there was one. We’ve watched Dany’s dragons grow from wee babies to apex predators capable of torching an entire “Loot Train” and every Lannister soldier who protected it. They’ve inspired fear and awe, a trio of mystical, mayhem-creating monsters that are the only children Dany has ever known or loved. Yet looking back, they’ve never been even close to invincible. They were, of course, vulnerable as babies, but they even proved susceptible to harm by human hands as adults...
Watch Adam Sandler’s Touching Tribute Song to Chris Farley on SNL
If you weren’t in front of your TV on Saturday night and missed Adam Sandler’s return to Saturday Night Live, we’ve got you covered. This was—shockingly—Sandler’s first time back to SNL since he left the show—or, in his words, was “fired”— back in 1995. The show utilized Sandler’s musical chops on several occasions, but none were as profound and touching as his tribute to fellow SNL alum, the dearly missed Chris Farley...
“The Last of the Starks”: Game of Thrones Episode 4 Review
For a minute there, the fourth episode in Game of Thrones 8th and final season was reminiscent of a college kegger. There were drinking games, hookups, unexpected and faux-profound statements and the very real possibility of vomiting. There was Tormund, and his drinking horn, and his lack of any discernible tact. There was a lot of bro behavior in general (Tormund singing Jon Snow’s praises while ignoring the fact that Dany also fought atop a dragon and nearly died was peak bro)...
The Moment That Hinted at Arya’s Epic Future
You’ve likely heard about these folks online questioning Arya Stark‘s ability to do what she did in “The Long Night.” (If you haven’t seen the last episode of Game of Thrones, head to the Godswood and stop reading.) You’ve probably come across the smear that Arya is a “Mary Sue,” an antiquated, misogynistic, lazy catch-all for women who men feel couldn’t possibly do the thing they just saw them do...
New Game of Thrones Images Tease Drogon & the Dearly Departed
While we had already made a pretty solid determination on the results of the dragon dogfight in “The Long Night,” it’s still good to see Drogon in a new image. Dany’s alpha dragon was nearly killed not during the aerial battle with Viserion, but by a deluge of wights. Although we saw Drogon shake off the zombies, and then once more in the episode, when he came to comfort Dany as she wept over Jorah’s body,...
Craig Mazin on Getting the Details Right for the Shocking Chernobyl
In April 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded, sending radiation into the atmosphere and ultimately causing many radiation-related deaths. While the disastrous accident, attributed to faulty reactor design and insufficiently trained operators, is widely known, the details of its aftermath are less so. Screenwriter Craig Mazin looks to change this and up the knowledge base with Chernobyl, a five-part miniseries starting May 6 on HBO that is directed by Johan Renck and stars Jared Harris,...
Welcome to a Terrifying Alternate America in Watchmen
For those of you already in mourning over the rapidly approaching end of Game of Thrones, there are a lot of intriguing projects debuting on HBO. One of the series we’re most excited about is The Leftovers co-creator Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Watchmen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic graphic novel is incredibly fertile ground on which to launch a new show. Zack Snyder took a crack at a film adaptation in 2009,...
The Results of the Dragon Dogfight in Game of Thrones are in
Ever since the Night King felled Viserion with an expertly thrown spear in “Beyond the Wall,” a dragon dogfight was all but assured. Well, first the Night King had to command his wights to drag the dead dragon from the icy depths of a lake. Then he reanimated Viserion into the blue-eyed, undead beast. Then the dragon dogfight was all but assured. And finally, in “The Long Night,” we got the dueling dragons we’ve been waiting for...
Game of Thrones Episode 4 Trailer Teases Coming Clash With Cersei
How do you follow one of the most ambitious episodes in television history? That’s the question we’re pondering after Game of Thrones delivered the long-awaited Battle of Winterfell, in which the living, thanks to Ayra Stark (!!), managed to survive the Night King’s assault. While a surprising number of our main characters survived (R.I.P. Jorah and Beric), a huge number of folks died during the battle. This includes nearly every single Dothraki. How in the world are Jon and Dany now going to fight Cersei Lannister and her fresh troops,...
“The Long Night”: Game of Thrones Episode 3 Shocks & Satisfies
If ever there was a weekend to make you believe in the power of popular culture, surely this was it. On the big screen, Avengers: Endgame made history at the box office, shattering records and capturing the imagination of a global audience. The mega-movie was the culmination of an 11-year, 22-film build-up. Somehow Endgame lived up to all that hype. On the small screen, Game of Thrones delivered the Battle of Winterfell...
Game of Thrones Director Calls Battle of Winterfell “Survival Horror”
Once the White Walkers got within spitting distance of Winterfell in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” all thoughts turned to death. We know that some of our favorite characters are going to die in the coming battle. We’ve speculated on who that might be, and why. The internet, as always, is a verdant digital field of Game of Thrones theories. Many of them sound awfully plausible. Yet hearing from the director of episode three himself,...
Watching The Orville’s Composer Conduct a Live Orchestra to Scenes From the Show
They look laid back in their shorts, tee shirts, and running shoes, but the Los Angeles musicians gathered in the cavernous Newman Scoring Stage on the Fox Lot snap to attention with astonishing precision once snowy-haired composer John Debney arrives. Debney’s on hand to conduct his music for Seth MacFarlane‘s sci-fi series The Orville. The Fox show, which concludes its second season today, Thursday, April 25, draws inspiration from vintage space dramas like Star Trek Voyager and counts on Debney to enhance the old-school vibe with his brawny brass and string music cues...
Game of Thrones Episode 3 Images Hint at Horror to Come
As we wrote yesterday, the time for talk is over.
Game of Thrones has entered the final phase in its titular lethal contest over who rules, who serves, and who dies. The premiere and the second episode gave us time to breathe. Danerys Targaryen and her vast southern army have been reluctantly absorbed into the north, by a people who don’t really trust them. Jon Snow has finally learned of his true parentage...
