Hello, comrades! It’s time once again to descend into the man-made hell of Chernobyl, now with 100% more puppy-murder! The deep irony of the episode’s title, “The Happiness of All Mankind”, underscores the misery of the people who were forced to evacuate, the soul and body destroying heroism of the soldiers and engineers doing the work that…
We come here to say goodbye to Game of Thrones. While we’re still going to get to play around in this universe courtesy HBO’s numerous prequels, sequels, and spin-offs planned, and of course George’s assurances that he’s still writing, we’re not going to get any more of this particular take on the story. How do we feel about this? Does The Last Watch documentary change those feelings? We discuss these and more before getting the final words from feedback. We’ll see you all for “Fire & Blood” and the prequels!
In our penultimate podcast for HBO’s Game of Thrones, we invite Gods of Thrones co-author Anthony Le Donne back to the studio to discuss how the book might resolve in ways that are consistent, but perhaps more satisfying, than some found the show’s resolution. Then we’re off to feedback, where we talk about Martin’s progress on Winds, our thoughts on Bran the Broken, where things line up with Dany’s prophecies in the final analysis, and much more on “The Iron Throne”. See you next week as we sign off and transform the podcast into a Thrones prequels feed!
Jim and I have seen episode three of HBO’s Chernobyl series, “Open Wide, O Earth”, and are shaken by the graphic depiction of the Chernobyl first responders’ last days. We get to see the horror from multiple perspectives, the victims themselves, the and the friends and family who struggle to cope with this strange manner of death and the danger it poses to them. Meanwhile as the Soviets manage to contain and stop the fire, we gear up for the long war ahead; to fully contain the death and destruction of Chernobyl it will require 750k lives and three years of sacrifice. Will they be up for the challenge? And will they solve the mystery of the reactor’s destruction, so that it might never happen again? All this plus some light discussion on the relative merits of free market capitalism vs centrally planned economies in feedback. You know, kids stuff.
Winter came and went, an evil queen was overthrown, and it was so nice we had to do it twice. “The Iron Throne” is Game of Thrones attempt to hurry up and tie up all those loose ends. Was it satisfying? That depends on how you’ve felt about the show for the past two seasons. Ultimately, this show’s final moments and it’s place in the pantheon of television will be a matter of hot debate for years to come, to say nothing of the novels and prequels and sequels we’ll be getting, and how that may change and influence how we feel. Here, we’re content to just talk about our personal thoughts on the only definitive finale of The Song and Ice and Fire. We’ll be back Friday for more SpoiLore talk, and next week we’ll have a look back at the season, and series, as a whole as we wrap things up for now.
Premium
The Instant Talk podcast is our aftershow, with our own quick thoughts about the episode followed by an interactive chat discussion with our fans, live on YouTube. The first half is released as the Instant Take podcast. The audio from the interactive section is released as a premium podcast just for our club members.
Jim, A.Ron and Cecily discuss their thoughts on the latest offerings from the gods of television.
Jim and I try to sort through everyone’s reactions and feelings about “The Bells”, as well as people’s reactions to our reactions! In a wide ranging podcast, we discuss what we’re still hoping to see in next week’s finale episode, what Dany’s descent to madness means in the context of portrayals of heroic women, thoughts on capital punishment and vengeance, and defenses and deconstructions of Arya and Jaime’s arcs. All this plus a ton of great feedback from you, the listener. Just one more episode left, we’ll see you Sunday night to discuss!
Jim and I strap on our lead shielding and check our dosimeters before doing a deep dive into the second installment of Chernobyl, the HBO miniseries about the doomed nuclear facility. In “Please Remain Calm”, the stakes increase as the lives of over 60 million Europeans are threatened by the crisis, and decisions are made that will lead to the deaths of individuals to potentially save millions.
It’s time to have a family discussion about Game of Thrones episode 805, “The Bells”. Because we’re all up in arms about it and we can’t agree if it’s the best, most satisfying episode or the worst ever. It’s notoriously hard to be objective about a subjective opinion, but we try our level best. Our considered thoughts…