TV Review: Girls, Episodes 2-5 Round-Up

I’ve finally gotten around to catching up on the rest of ‘Girls’– a show that’s honestly just as much for men as it is for women– and I really dig it. Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, 2.5 & 2.6: The Ghost of Harrenhal/The Old Gods and the New

Doubling up again on the show’s second season installments, this week I ponder and analyze the events of the fifth and sixth episodes of S2– including the shocking reduction in overall nakedness, the repercussions of poorly-employed authority, and the inexperience of youth. Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, 2.3 & 2.4: What Is Dead May Never Die/Garden of Bones

How about that time when I wrote about how sex in Game of Thrones has consequences? If I didn’t convince you with my argument the first time around, no doubt the final scene in Garden of Bones did, though both the fourth and third episodes of the season both do nothing to undermine that running theme. Is that slowly … Continue reading »

TV Review: Veep, 1.1: Fundraiser

By now it’s indisputable that Armando Iannucci has the market cornered on fly-on-the-wall, documentary-style political satire. The man behind not only 2009′s outstanding In the Loop as well as 2005′s BBC Four program The Thick of It, Iannucci has essentially built a career on both the style and content that characterize the vast majority of his output– … Continue reading »

TV Review: Girls, 1.1: Pilot

If the pilot episode of HBO’s Girls tells us anything, it’s that the show– sprung from the mind of Lena Dunham– has a lot of potential. That’s a fairly inarticulate expression of my opinion of the show, inasmuch as it’s an incredibly broad conclusion, but that’s actually a fairly loaded statement. What kind of potential … Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, 2.2: The Night Lands

Remember last week when I theorized that each episode of Game of Thrones‘ second season, following the pilot, would probably place more focus on a smaller number of characters? Seems like time’s proving me right. Maybe that’s not a boast exactly, since it’s just plain old logical, but expect this to be the routine with each … Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, 2.1: The North Remembers

(Note: I feel like tagging this with spoiler warnings is unnecessary, but just in case, this is going to be very spoiler heavy. If you haven’t finished S1, stay away.) Ready for more political maneuvering, martial strategy, medieval barbarism, societal division, and steadily burgeoning elements of high fantasy? What may be somewhat startling about the … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead Season 2 Wrap-Up

Well, it was only a matter of time before we got here, wasn’t it? Strange enough, the end of season 2 of The Walking Dead feels like it came upon us faster than the finale of the first season; in part, I attribute this to the fact that watching the second half of S2 wasn’t half … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.10 & 2.11: 18 Miles Out/Judge, Jury, Executioner

I’m not sure what’s going on with the writing staff of The Walking Dead in the second half of season 2, but I’m not going to complain. After a stiff, uneven, and progression-free first half, the series has really taken off with four high quality episodes– probably none better than 18 Miles Out, though none … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.8 & 2.9: Nebraska/Triggerfinger

  Two weeks ago, AMC’s The Walking Dead made its mid-season return to the air after a brief hiatus. I’m not at all worried about spoilers at this point– if you like the show, you saw what happened in the cliffhanger ending of 2.7, and if you haven’t watched the show then you shouldn’t be … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.7: Pretty Much Dead Already

And so the first half of The Walking Dead‘s second season ends with a bang, and not some pathetic whimper. (Note: If you haven’t seen this episode, don’t bother reading past this point; the episode’s climax is central to this article.) If the writing staff puts their heads together and does nothing but produce episodes … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.6: Secrets

If Sunday’s installment of The Walking Dead says anything, it’s that even Lori deserves some sympathy and maybe even redemption. Lori, for a boatload of reasons, has been saddled with the honor of being the show’s most well-despised character through and through; she’s duplicitous, she’s “bitchy”, and she’s just plain old hard to like. I … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.4 & 2.5: Cherokee Rose/Chupacabra

Full disclosure: I took a break from writing about The Walking Dead last week entirely due to Cherokee Rose being so utterly boring. When TV critics raise eyebrows at the progression of the series, it’s precisely due to the sloppy writing and pacing running rampant through 2.4; very literally, nothing happens throughout the entire forty minute block that … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.3: Save the Last One

Save the Last One suffers from one major problem: telegraphing. I rather liked the episode overall, and feel that it keeps up the narrative push and character development which made Bloodletting so good, but 2.3 gives away a pretty shattering end-of-episode reveal in its opening scrawl. I don’t know that that particular misstep ruins the episode, but Phil Abraham’s … Continue reading »

TV Review: The Walking Dead, 2.1 & 2.2: What Lies Ahead/Bloodletting

Last year, AMC’s runaway success story The Walking Dead hit the ground running with a promising first half that petered out and turned into something muddled and disappointing yet still brimming with potential. I admit that for a show like this, I’m an easy sell; I’m a zombie connoisseur, an aficionado of all things shambling, groaning, … Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, episodes 9 & 10

Well, I’ll say this for the marketing team behind Game of Thrones– they can’t be accused of false advertising. Baelor and Fire and Blood wrap up the first season of the series, and what a pair of episodes they are. I don’t think I need to warn anyone reading this of imminent spoilers, so with … Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, episodes 6-8

In this exciting installment, we discuss A Golden Crown, You Win or You Die, and The Pointy End. With episodes six, seven, and eight of Game of Thrones, Benioff and Weiss have brought out the proverbial fan, ostensibly so that the shit introduced in the above trifecta of episodes has something to hit. And hit … Continue reading »

TV Review: Game of Thrones, Episodes 4-5

(In which I talk of Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things and The Wolf and the Lion.) Well, things are picking up quite nicely in the enthralling political and social dramas unfolding in Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea, aren’t they? As I said in the last installment, Game of Thrones‘ first few episodes … Continue reading »