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Pop culture dispatches from the Great Lakes

Game of Thrones

Alex & Becky Talk About the 2015 Emmy Nominations

July 17, 2015 by Alex Bean Leave a Comment

Alex and Becky watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. But that means that they sort of know what they’re talking about when the annual Emmy nominations come out. For reference’s sake, Becky has seen most of the programs we talk about here. Alex has seen some of them. He may be talking out of his ass a lot more.

Comedy Series

Will Win: Right off the top, it’s worth noting that this might be the strongest set of nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series in Emmy history. The voters done good! They can follow up on that by giving this award to anything not named Modern Family. ABC’s mainstay has won this award every year since it debuted, which would make it six if it triumphs again. There’s a chance that it happens, since it’s the only series in this lineup that we would call “traditional.” But five seems like (more than) enough and its relative lack of other nominations points to the voters agreeing. We think Amazon’s freshman dramedy Transparent is in the best shape to finally take the crown.

Should win: Speaking of Transparent, it’s a really great show! Problem is, it’s not very funny. It’s essentially a half-hour drama that is handled with a light touch, which is enough to be called a comedy. Still feels weird to us, but we won’t yell if it wins. Our personal pick is another new show: Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. We love its screwball energy and the wonderfully committed performances from its regular cast. Worth giving a shout-out to Parks and Recreation, which got its second Series nod for its outstanding final season. It’d be great to see Pawnee get some long overdue recognition.

WTF?: Modern Family needs to be stricken from the ballots. It stopped being even passably entertaining in its third season and its Emmy success has gotten more grating every year since then. Another win would be deadening. [Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Emmy Awards, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Television Tagged: Amy Schumer, Downton Abbey, Drunk History, Emmy Awards, Game of Thrones, John Oliver, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, Transparent, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Cheating on Game of Thrones (with Game of Thrones)

April 12, 2015 by Jason Fabeck Leave a Comment

game-of-thrones-logo

SPOILERS ABOUND!

The new season of Game of Thrones begins tonight but that doesn’t mean people haven’t watched nearly half the season already. The leak is an interesting happenstance for this show, specifically. Rife with spoiler-heavy plot lines, and with dozens of character’s lives on the line each week, it’s usually in the best interest of fans everywhere to keep most talk of past episodes to a lull around those who haven’t caught up yet. In this case, the onus is on the casual torrent seeker in possession of these new episodes to keep their traps shut for the next month or so. Reviewers aside, most people would not have had the chance to see a television episode prior to air until now. Call it the new age of technology or possibly just an intern from the show that had nothing to lose, but instant gratification without commercials on multiple platforms is no longer good enough for the internet republic. We must now see things before anyone else is supposed to and then complain about it when we can’t. The spoilers will now require pre-spoiler clarifications to see how far ahead we cheated in order to know what the hell we can even discuss. [Read more…]

Posted in: Drama, Game of Thrones, Television, the Internet Tagged: Game of Thrones

A Prairie Home Perfection: The Miraculous Qualities of FX’s Fargo

June 17, 2014 by Alex Bean Leave a Comment

This should not have worked. FX’s Fargo — a limited-run series “original adaptation” of the Coen Brothers’ seminal 1996 film, which had its season finale last night — should not have been good. Carrying over many character types, plot tropes, and thematic ideas from the movie, it should have been a lazy cash-in or a failed experiment, ala the TV adaptations of Crash and Traffic after their Oscar-winning successes. But that was not the case. Just the opposite. In stunning fashion, Fargo was one of the best things I’ve seen on TV this year.
[Read more…]

Posted in: Television Tagged: Allison Tolman, Breaking Bad, Coen Brothers, Fargo, FX, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Martin Freeman, True Detective

My Three Queens: The Ambitious Women of Game of Thrones

June 13, 2014 by Nicole Keating Leave a Comment

Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I’ll sleep more easily by night.
– Jaime Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Every Sunday night, we gather round the television.  Animated discussion cuts to tense whispers as the fizzle of HBO’s signature static fades to black. The theme bursts to life! DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun… The audience sings along, made-up lyrics and all, trying to stave off the inevitable horrors and wonders that await us on the other side of the credits.

So begins my weekly Game of Thrones viewing, a ritual that I am not alone in keeping. The world loves the marriage of high fantasy and premium cable!  Whether people are coming back for the delightfully gory violence, the gorgeous design, impeccable dialogue, superb acting, or, hey, even the boobs, viewership continues to grow. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — as George R.R. Martin did with the books before them — lure us all with promises of dragons and heroes, aging kings and cruel queens, new threats and ancient evils. All the makings of D&D campaign! But Thrones transcends those cliches. We don’t watch because we want to see pretty dresses. We watch to see familiar struggles.

Who has not done something stupid in the name of love, like a certain blonde swordsman-you-love-to-hate? Who has not manipulated tiny events in their favor, like Littlefinger or Varys or now even mini-Baelish Sansa?

_got___s4_new_costumes_petyr_sansa__by_wavesheep-d76e52s

[Note: Google “Sansa and Littlefinger fan art” at your own risk.] (Image via)

Who has not had — ahem — ill-advised romantic entanglements, a la Dany and her newfound dalliance? Fortunately for us, most of our personal dramas play out on a very small scale. In Martin’s world, though, “you win or you die” on an epic scale. Your triumphs and failures are on parade for all the world to see.

[Read more…]

Posted in: Television Tagged: Game of Thrones

Best TV of 2011-12: 80% of the Top Ten

July 10, 2012 by Alex Bean 2 Comments

Picking up where we left off last week, I am continuing my run through the best that TV had to offer this past year. This week I am listing off spots ten through three from my top ten list. I tried to write out what made each of these shows special and worthwhile, though none of them got the space for consideration and praise that they truly deserve. That being said, I realized before I even wrote this that the two shows that top my list will need a ton of space just to get all my thoughts about them into coherent order. So they will get their own posts in a few days. Until then, enjoy this section and take a guess as to what my top two are.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet, check out my Honorable Mentions and Individual Citations list first. Enjoy!

[Read more…]

Posted in: Lists, Television Tagged: Adam Reed, Amber Nash, Amy Poehler, Archer, Benedict Cumberbatch, Community, David Milch, Dustin Hoffman, Eliza Coupe, Game of Thrones, Happy Endings, Jack Gleeson, Joel McHale, Justified, Lena Headey, Luck, Margo Martindale, Martin Freeman, Michael Mann, Neal McDonough, Parks & Recreation, Peter Dinklage, Sherlock, Steven Moffat, Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins

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