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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 5 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7, Episode 6: "Beyond the Wall" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 6: “Beyond the Wall” Reaction

Despite all its charm, grandeur, glut of legitimately great filmmaking and stirring moments, “Beyond the Wall” remains for me one of, if not the most frustrating episode of Game of Thrones to this point due to its relative abundance of logic holes and writing shortcuts. To be clear, I don’t think the flaws I’ll discuss below are enough to completely sink the episode, even in the the aggregate.…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 5 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7, Episode 5: "Eastwatch" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 5: “Eastwatch” Reaction

An area of particular interest to me when it comes to contemplating and debating A Song of Ice and Fire from a political perspective is the idea of legitimacy, specifically in terms of from where and whom legitimacy is conferred onto leaders/rulers given that democracy isn’t exactly a realistic prospect in this narrative universe. As the field of contenders for control of Westeros has shortened…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 5 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7, Episode 4: "The Spoils of War" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 4: “The Spoils of War” Reaction

As short as seven episodes may be for a season of American television, an episode this eventful and consequential arriving at the relative midpoint of a season is reminiscent of the great primetime soap operas of network television pulling out all the stops for sweeps and ending on a massive cliffhanger before a hiatus. However unlikely it is they would kill off such a crucial character as Jaime…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 7 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7, Episode 3: "The Queen's Justice" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 3: “The Queen’s Justice” Reaction

Of the myriad ruminating and analytical exercises I enjoy while engaging with Game of Thrones, one of my favorites is to consider the events of the series through the lens of modern political theory and dynamics, especially when it comes to the legitimacy of the leaders, a subject I’ve mentioned more than a few times in this space. I find the concept of legitimacy especially interesting where it…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 7 years

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'Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 2: "Stormborn" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones Season 7, Episode 2: “Stormborn” Reaction

Now, we’re cooking with gas. Or dragon fire. Or wildfire. Take your pick. Game of Thrones has long established a tendency to feature robust, standout episodes for the second slot of the season, and “Stormborn” continues that trend. This episode had no major flaws and just about every beat moved the narrative forward, in some cases monumentally so. The momentum, rhythm, and pace of the episode…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 7 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 7, Episode 1: "Dragonstone" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, Episode 1: “Dragonstone” Reaction

As far as table-setting season premieres go, Game of Thrones season 7 lead off installment is pretty much as good as they come. Although I wouldn’t put “Dragonstone” in the pantheon of individual episodes, it did set up the board for the ensuing season, as Game of Thrones season premieres always have. It wasn’t the most riveting or challenging episode they’ve ever done, it certainly had its…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 10: "The Winds of Winter" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 10: “The Winds of Winter” Reaction

Going into the season 6 finale, I assumed that any episode following the exhilaration and brilliance of “Battle of the Bastards” would suffer from at least some measure of anticlimax, regardless of the quality of the episode itself. I am happy to report that I was sorely mistaken in my assumption. I was mistaken to the extent that I must concede that while “The Winds of Winter” was as dissimilar…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 9: "Battle of the Bastards" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 9: “Battle of the Bastards” Reaction

The quality of Game of Thrones in terms of narrative and production value has been so consistently high from the very beginnings of the series that it becomes easy to lose perspective on just how much the show has grown and continually raises the bar for the key elements of the show. The scale of Game of Thrones production is enormous and unprecedented, with a considerable amount of resources at…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 8: "No One" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 8: “No One” Reaction

When Cersei answers Lancel’s threat of “order your man (the Mountain) to step aside or there will be violence” with “I choose violence,” she’s not merely delivering a steely retort to her cousin’s attempt at intimidation through the force of the the Faith Militant, she’s essentially delivering the thesis statement of the episode. In “No One,” Cersei and Arya both “choose violence” in the face of…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 7: "The Broken Man" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 7: “The Broken Man” Reaction

Game of Thrones is so stylistically and structurally consistent that every time they do something completely normal for a television show to do, like cutting away from Stannis’ decapitation last season or starting an episode with a cold open as they did in “The Broken Man,” I jump out of my seat with a combination of shock and outrage, thinking that my cable is malfunctioning or that HBO screwed…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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'Game of Thrones' Season 6, Episode 6: "Blood of My Blood" Reaction

‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6, Episode 6: “Blood of My Blood” Reaction

‘Blood of My Blood’ is one of the most cogent illustrations of the intersectionality of the vital subjects and themes that makes Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire the masterworks that they are, across both their respective media. That this episode was simultaneously magisterial and grounded makes it a classic in my estimation, because these are two of the traits the series revels in that…

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mixedamericanfilmbuff · 8 years

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