Game of Thoughts: Back Wednesday!

Hello and welcome back to Game of Thoughts, our sweaty, breathless recaps and discussion of everyone’s favorite fantasy TV Show, Game of Thrones! 

Alas, I am too emotionally compromised between Game of Thrones and Endgame to be of any use to you today.

Please check back Wednesday for a recap of The Battle of Winterfell. 

In the meantime, I just need some time to … to just…

…WELL, I NEED A MINUTE.

Game of Thoughts: S8.E2 – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Hello and welcome back to Game of Thoughts, our sweaty, breathless recaps and discussion of everyone’s favorite fantasy TV Show, Game of Thrones! Now we’re down in it, the end is in sight, so grab your House Banner and hold you smallfolk tight, it’s gonna be a long night!  As always, spoilers will appear behind the cut, because I WILL NOT be that person. 

Are you sitting comfortably? Are your neighborhood dogs barking because of all the yelling coming from your house like mine are? Then let’s begin.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a character and story-driven episode with no action to speak of, and yet it was one of the strongest episodes because of all the fantastic performances. Functioning as a ‘calm before the storm’ installment, it gave several characters time to bond, to smooth over rough history, and to have poignant and important meetings. There were also several salient book references: Jenny of Oldstones is sung, and Brienne of Tarth’s lineage is reference right there in the title.

There were a few small surprises but mostly a lot of big, emotional payoffs that have been years in the making.

Interestingly, all the action centered in Winterfell and we saw no other locations. Fitting, and reminiscent of Season 4’s “The Watchers On the Wall,” which was also centered completely at Castle Black.

Now, let’s dive in!  Spoilers below the cut!

Continue reading “Game of Thoughts: S8.E2 – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”

Game of Thoughts – Winterfell (S8E1)

Hello and welcome back to Game of Thoughts, our sweaty, breathless recaps and discussion of everyone’s favorite fantasy TV Show, Game of Thrones! Whew, it’s been a rough 18 months but finally we’re getting some answers after the ending of season 7.  As always, spoilers are below the cut because I can’t do that to people, I just can’t. Most of these recaps are just excited gabbling, so for real critical discourse, please find some adults. 

Folks.

FOLKS.

FOOOOOOLKS, 

Do I have your attention? And also the attention of my poor neighbor who is probably wondering why his single female neighbor sounds like an entire sportsball bar on Super-sportsball Sunday?

Then let’s begin!

Continue reading “Game of Thoughts – Winterfell (S8E1)”

People Eating Together: AMC’s The Terror (Season 1)

the_terror_titlecard
Great Caesar’s Ghost! 

People Eating Together entries discuss that age-old tradition of people coming together to tear each other apart — Cannibalism! So settle in, maybe grab some coffee or a snack(!), and let’s explore this last social taboo together – because you can’t practice cannibalism alone. 

Sometime in about the year 2007, while bored at my job at a children’s textbook publisher, I fell down a Wikihole about cannibalism.  In between reading about Sawney Beane and Jeffrey Dahmer, I ran across the Franklin Expedition, which is to Canadian history what the Donner Party is to American. The article was fascinating enough, so imagine my excitement bordering on hysteria when I reread the article in 2017 to find that AMC was making a TV show about it. I loved the show, and immediately listened to the novel on which it’s based. There are significant differences which I’ll go into in the spoilers section of the review, but for now let’s focus on reviewing the show.

the_terror_Goodsir
“Say ‘cheese’ everyone! Ha Ha, just kidding, we haven’t eaten cheese since 1846 and have forgotten what it tastes like.”

(Note: The Terror is planned as a historical horror anthology. Season 1 deals with the lost Franklin expedition (with supernatural elements) and is based on Dan Simmons book of the same name, but season 2 will be about life in a Japanese interment camp in the US during the Korean war, and stars George Takei at the head of a predominantly Japanese-American cast. After the high bar set with season 1, I’m eagerly looking forward to season 2.)

Continue reading “People Eating Together: AMC’s The Terror (Season 1)”

The awkward beauty of an animated heist: Ruben Brandt, Collector

Last Thanksgiving, I saw an avant garde video installation at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof. It was installed in the large, dark, open space behind the reception desk where the trains used to pull up to the platforms. The space has been a museum for a while now, housing carefully and sparsely displayed modern art (think, a can of Pepsi sitting on a white plinth) — but in this case less is just right, it really takes a lot of brain power to pour some of that stuff into my head.

Continue reading “The awkward beauty of an animated heist: Ruben Brandt, Collector”