Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

No Justins, No Peace

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The revolution will be supervised.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let there be snark.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / Game of Thrones Open Thread

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  2. 2.

    KG

    I’m looking forward to this season… But I’m really looking forward to the Winds of a Winter. Probably too much so, because I’ve ever been reading the sample chapters too

  5. 5.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I’m spending the evening getting my fantasy baseball league set up. It’s a sim league and I’m the guy responsible for adding everyone’s roster and manager profile. Hopefully they’ll all get theirs in soon so we can start.

    And I launched the Kickstarter.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    I missed the boat on Game of Thrones when it first started—hectic time in my life, and after I fell six or eight episodes behind I didn’t want to start in the middle. But recently I noticed that, at least on my cable system, all of the HBO series are available for on-demand streaming in their entirety. Job One is going through The Wire, but I have been thinking about catching up on Game of Thrones. I guess I should just watch a few episodes and see how it goes.

    I wish Breaking Bad was available. Is it on Netflix?

  9. 9.

    Heliopause

    Anybody see the interview a few days ago on Jon Stewart’s show with the guy from GoT? He was hammered. Stewart practically had to reach over and manipulate the guy’s lips with his hands to get workable interview out of him. I kind of admire that, almost makes me want to watch the show.

  10. 10.

    Keith G

    @Steeplejack: I started GoT last May from zero. I thought I was going to go slow, but didn’t. I bought the season 4 when it was released on blu-ray in Feb. A few weeks ago, I got HBO at no additional cost for a few months as a promo. Now I am caught up.

    BTW watching it on blu-ray is really cool.

  11. 11.

    Mike in NC

    @Steeplejack: Yes, Breaking Bad is streaming on Netflix. So much good stuff on TV tonight: Bloodline, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Silicon Valley, Wolf Hall, Secrets and Lies, etc.

  12. 12.

    gogol's wife

    Wolf Hall is delicious, but I’m wiped out after Barbara Stanwyck/George Brent in My Reputation and then the last 20 minutes of Selfridge. I’ll catch the rest of Wolf Hall when they repeat it here Thurs night.

  13. 13.

    Paul W.

    Surprised how few comments there were, that episode was awesome. Other than the fact that Daenerys is such a putz for… forever right now.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    @gogol’s wife: You can also watch Wolf Hall online tomorrow. I’m so drained from watching Call the Midwife and Mr . Selfridge, that I am streaming an episode of Rectify.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    Missed “Silicon Valley” last year and caught the first two episodes On Demand but then they went away. The new season just started so I recorded all of last year’s episodes that they re-ran and hope to get caught up. I found the first two episodes really funny, but it might be because I sort of worked in that environment for awhile.

  19. 19.

    dmbeaster

    Saw episodes 2 to 4 last night. Someone got them from the HBO server and spread them on the web. My tech savvy son got them and we had a three hour pizza, wine and GoT marathon. I promise not to reveal the goods, but it was a good watch

  20. 20.

    max

    @Paul W.: Surprised how few comments there were, that episode was awesome.

    And now we know why Jaime is going to Dorne. I had to turn around and watch Wolf Hall, so it was a medieval one-two.

    Other than the fact that Daenerys is such a putz for… forever right now.

    She did what she had to do. She’s going to need Tyrion to give advice. At least Drogon is back.

    And Brienne is chasing Sansa around. That’s interesting.

    max
    [‘I’m sad Stoneheart is getting cut out.’]

  21. 21.

    Tenar Darell

    I’m avoiding all your spoilers, for now. Wolf Hall was great, as usual. I saw Rylance in the all male Twelfth Night in NYC last year, I’m not surprised at this performance.

  23. 23.

    samiam

    Guess Cole hasn’t heard that all 4 episodes were leaked online.

    Kinda sucks actually. Now gotta wait 4 more weeks before a new one.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    GoT is coming along fine, although they are concentrating the later novels to such a degree that I almost fear that they are going to run out of material. I am wondering if the Sand Snakes, the Dornish women warriors, will really be able to shake things up.

    I am also trying to catch up on Wolf Hall. Some terrific acting. Between this and Thrones, there is an abundance of history, fantasy and revisionist.

    I just can’t get into Selfridge. If it pops up later on Amazon prime, I might give it another try.

  28. 28.

    PurpleGirl

    Anybody following Outlander? I think they are doing a good job with adapting the novels.

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    @PurpleGirl: We actually never heard of all these novels until the TV show came out. We like the show but there is a serious love/hate thing going on over at IMDB.

    Been to Scotland a couple of times and it certainly picks up on the beauty of the countryside.

  31. 31.

    Mayur

    @Kristine: My only thought when watching tonight was “oh sweet jesus they ARE heading north. My bet is that they’re going to straight up go with Sansa instead of Arya – fake Arya – Jeyne. One would think that viewers would have a hard time dealing with Sansa, even the steep-learning-curve Sansa of this season, going through what she will getting married to the worst character in the entire GoT universe.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @PurpleGirl:

    Is the premise “advanced alien dude dropped into Viking milieu,” like that Jim Caviezel movie on Syfy a few years back?

  35. 35.

    Geoduck

    @Brachiator:

    GoT is coming along fine, although they are concentrating the later novels to such a degree that I almost fear that they are going to run out of material.

    It’s my understanding they’ve long known that they’re going to pass the point where the books have reached, and will have to make their own ending, though Martin has told the producers how he plans to end his version.

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack (tablet): I tell the truth as I see it.

    ETA: And since i don’t have the premium channels, I only see this stuff when I visit my parents. My dad saves up stuff he thinks I might like for my visits. It is apparently a way we bond.

  38. 38.

    KG

    @Mayur: I think it’s still going to be Harry the Heir, or Harry the Heir ajace. Having Sansa marry Ramsey makes no sense from Littlefinger’s POV, it would only serve to strengthen the Lannisters

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Morzer: It doesn’t have man on dog, but it does have Hound kills men.

    ETA: Not really the same thing at all, but I am sure Santorum would not approve either way.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    @Geoduck: The producers are also writing their own middle section. They are already throwing out some characters and in this episode significantly deviating from the books. I heard about them knowing how the series ends, but I am getting the sense that the producers have decided to get to that ending by a different path than Martin. It’s going to make for a very interesting ride, on the back of dragons.

  44. 44.

    Morzer

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The more I see of the Puppies, the more I am reminded of that equally slimy twat-waffle Newt Gingrich. Their only talent seems to be for adolescent vandalism.

  46. 46.

    MeDrewNotYou

    @Mayur: Have to disagree re: worst character. To me it was definitely Joffrey. In all honesty, I’ve never hated a fictional character the way I hated him; it was visceral, as if he was a real person. Ramsey, on the other hand, comes across as over the top evil. He’s bad enough that it ends up being kinda funny to me*. For example, look at the scene where’s he’s eating a sausage after cutting Theon’s dick off. The way he looks at Theon and back at the sausage and the way he says, ‘No,’ cracks me up every time. The ridiculousness is amusing and the way he’s portrayed feels like you shouldn’t take him too seriously. Joffrey, though, never comes across that way. His petty dickishness has nothing fun about it; you can never laugh along with him. Although Ramsey’s acts are definitely horrible (and if this were real, I’d despise him like Joffrey), you can kinda sorta laugh along with him. As long as the acts are fantasy I can still laugh a little bit. Kind of like gallows humor.

    This doesn’t make me sound like a psycho torture fan, right? Right?!

    *- At least on the show. I understand he’s worse in the books.

  47. 47.

    PurpleGirl

    Sorry people, I nodded off for a nap. Outlander is a science fiction/romance. Core premise: A WWII era woman (a nurse) is transported back to Culloden-era Scotland. It becomes a sweeping examination of medieval Scottish Highland culture and history.

    ETA: Now I’m going to try to go to sleep for real.

  48. 48.

    Bart

    @dmbeaster:

    Someone got them from the HBO server

    No, someone got hold of one of the DVDs they sent out to reviewers before the broadcast started, ripped them and uploaded them (with the watermark blurred) to a private torrent tracker. From there they got posted all over the Internet in mere hours, of course.

  49. 49.

    Bart

    @PurpleGirl: Barely made it through the pilot. Like one reviewer said: it’s basically “Dr Quinn Medicine Woman” with a lot more nudity. I found it ridiculous and predictable, and it’s almost impossible to believe the same guy who gave us the BSG remake is behind this craptastic show. Then again, BSG stopped being good around the end of the second season and really hit rock bottom in season four.

  51. 51.

    gogol's wife

    @Steeplejack (tablet):

    When we decided we were too tired to watch Wolf Hall, I switched back to TCM, and there was Barbara with her platinum whipped-cream hair seducing another male, and my husband yelled, “No-o-o-o-!” because he knew I wasn’t going to be able to resist watching it for the 1000th time. But I was good and turned it off.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @gogol’s wife:

    Well, it will come up again, for sure. I recorded it this time because I haven’t watched it in a while and I am stress-testing the “new” DVR (replaced the dead external drive with a new one) by piling a lot of stuff on it.

  53. 53.

    kindness

    The spoiler alert doesn’t matter if you have DISH. I get the east coast feeds so I saw it when easterners saw it. Better show than last week’s which was really just a information dump for the story. Still was more data dump but some story too.

    I can’t believe I get worked up over this when I only get 10 episodes a year and 2 of them are less plot, more data.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    @Bart: What a sweet person you are! Come in extolling GoT crap & then go on to suggest BSG sucked after it’s second season. You are a wonder. I’m curious though….why would you come on a thread specific to this show to spout shit? Bless your heart.

  55. 55.

    Shawn

    @MeDrewNotYou – the blame for Joffrey can to a great extent be laid at Cersei’s feet, she killed him by being a terrible mother. I hated that little brat too but she has always been my least favorite character despite the show starting to try to build some favor or sympathy for her (I think, we’ll see) – Ramsay is my second least fav now that Joffrey is dead.

    I am super tired of the Daenerys Targaryen plot line. That has been dragged out to where at first she was the hero of the show to me, to now where it’s like “Oh, her, ok get on with it.” Was I the only one who thought (hoped) the black dragon was going to fire her right at the end of the episode? That he didn’t tells me we are in it for the long haul with her.

    I have high hopes for the younger Bran and Arya (who is easily my fav character). Kind of let down we haven’t seen Bran yet.

  56. 56.

    MeDrewNotYou

    @Shawn: I’ve never liked Cersei either but I think Joffrey was a special kind of evil beyond her parenting.

    While I’m interested in Arya’s story, I don’t like her much anymore. Not mercy-killing The Hound was awful. It doesn’t cost her anything and if she really wanted to make a point she could’ve robbed him first or even spit on him before finishing him off. Just leaving him there like that was an evil move. (On the bright side, I have a hunch that the guy is still alive. Those Cleganes are tough, his wounds didn’t look too fatal, and we didn’t actually see him die.) As a disclaimer, as bad as he could be, I found the Hound a very sympathetic character.

    Dany needs someone to slap her. Having the guy executed was moronic; just toss him in prison for life or exile him. I’m not a genius in governing but even I could see that the freedmen wouldn’t be a bit upset at the decision. Tyrion can’t get there fast enough. Also, am I the only one that picked up strong Reconstruction vibes from that whole bit? I kept nodding along thinking ‘Neo-Confederates are just like that’ when they went on about how the masters would act.

  57. 57.

    Shawn

    @MeDrewNotYou: “his wounds didn’t look too fatal” lol love it – and maybe, I was liking him by the end too….

    pretty excited to see what kind of Frankenstein his brother is going to re-emerge as…

  58. 58.

    SixStringFanatic

    @Shawn: I don’t like to be the bearer of bad, spoilery news but I’d hate to see you get more disappointed as the season plays out. Every GoT season preview that I read said that Bran would not be appearing at all this season. They’ll be getting back to him some time next season.

  59. 59.

    MeDrewNotYou

    @SixStringFanatic: I’ve heard that as well. It’s kind of annoying that the most important* storyline is just abandoned for a year.

    *- I’m not a huge Bran fan but he’s the only one concerned about White Walkers at this point. Whatever happens down south won’t really matter once winter comes.

  60. 60.

    Shawn

    @MeDrewNotYou: and six string – well i guess thats that for now then – its not spoilery too much, kind of a backwards one but as its not revealing a plot point, just a plot pause, no worries

  61. 61.

    SixStringFanatic

    @Shawn: That’s how I felt as well, which is the only reason I felt comfortable saying anything about it.

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