Maybe it’s because it falls on a Sunday night, traditionally the time when we’re watching football. Or perhaps it’s because this season of “Game of Thrones” is nothing but battles to set up more battles. Or maybe it’s just because we use sports analogies for almost everything these days (just look at how we speak about politics). But sports-talk has dominated what’s been written and said about “Game of Thrones” […]
Wonder Woman herself is about to bless my unborn child. "Can I?" she asks, before spreading her long fingers around my pregnant belly. Her hands feel warm and maternal. She holds my gaze, unwavering. "Girl or boy?" she asks. "Girl," I tell her. Her smile widens. "Being a woman is a strength," she says. "In so many ways." Oddly, this is not a dream; it's a lunch at the Chateau […]
In another ice-javelin throw to the heart, "Song of Ice and Fire" readers won't be getting another Westeros fix for a while. That's because author George R.R. Martin's Sunday nights are dedicated to watching "Game of Thrones" -- just like the rest of us. Though the author admits he's a bit behind on the show's current season. "During his trip abroad he didn't watch any television — so he's behind on 'Thrones'' current seventh […]
Next week is the final episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones, which means there’s just one more season of Westerosian intrigue remaining before television’s most Zeitgeist-defining show makes way for the next wave of hugely ambitious, hugely expensive epics that will (try to) follow in its footsteps. It also means that, for the first time since 2011, the show’s large ensemble cast — many of whom entered GOT as relative […]
Arya and Sansa’s relationship has entered a dark and dangerous territory. Their reunion warm fuzzies were entirely dispensed in Sunday night’s “Beyond the Wall” as that years-old letter planted by Littlefinger inflamed Arya’s distrust of her older sister, and threatened Sansa’s rule at Winterfell. The maneuver plays into Littlefinger’s long-term plan to nudge Sansa into seizing more power to protect herself and potentially even eliminate the threat of Arya (who’s […]
Here's how the battle between the living and the dead played out in the penultimate episode of season seven. [Warning: this story contains spoilers for the sixth episode of Game of Thrones' seventh season, "Beyond the Wall."] The dragon has three heads — and now, one of those heads is dead. In "Beyond the Wall," the riveting penultimate installment of Game of Thrones season seven, we lost one of the longest-running characters in the […]
In case you were worried we were doomed to several more months of “Is Ben Affleck Still Playing Batman?,” don’t be. A representative insists the Justice League star will “continue to be Batman as long as the studio will have him.” The clarification comes after Casey Affleck renewed doubt about his older brother’s future in the DC Extended Universe while promoting his supernatural drama A Ghost Story. Asked about […]
There are no standard “ratings” for Netflix. But “Marvel’s The Defenders,” the streamer’s newest original series in the street-hero franchise, could be one of its biggest hits ever, independent research indicates. The four preceding Marvel series leading up to “Defenders” — “Daredevil” season 2, “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage” and “Iron Fist” — were among the top five most-viewed recently released Netflix originals in the first 30 days after their premieres, according […]
After stumbling out of “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” an insanely violent live-action cartoon starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds, I found myself asking the kind of question the critic is occasionally forced to ponder after too many years steeped in Hollywood movies. No, not, “Why didn’t I take off the month of August?”or “Why don’t fights like that ever break out at my local hardware store?” A question of a more technical nature: Is it […]
