Game of Thrones "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" (S08E02)

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by Eric Blume

The Game of Thrones creative team are taking a very strategic approach into this final season.  While last week’s premiere episode laid the groundwork to reorient the viewer and feature satisfying reunions for characters parted for years, they’ve used Episode Two to provide an emotional tapestry between the characters, with a meditation on mortality, before they go into the big battle episodes ahead.  For loyal viewers, this episode served as a reminder of our attachment to these characters beyond the narrative, as well as a laser focus on the show’s main theme of honor.

We started with a killer scene where Jaime stands trial against the two families he has slain and wronged over the years, followed immediately by a tender exchange between him and his brother Tyrion (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage are always magical together)...

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Game of Thrones "Winterfell" (S08E01)

Eric & Ben will be covering the television event of the summer for us, the finale of Game of Thrones - Editor

BEN: Alright Eric, first thing's first: who do you watch with? I'm watching with my two brothers. One understands everything, but doesn't watch it religiously, while the other has never seen a minute. I'll also say that we watched while slightly impaired.  

ERIC: I'll watch the whole season with my husband, who is a complete sci-fi/fantasy nerd (he even liked Krull)...and quite frankly, without him, I don't know what I'd do.  I'm always saying "who's that again?" when one of the minor characters comes on.  The premiere seems like it's just an establishing episode?  Not tons of actual drama, but they have a lot of stories to unify, and I think they met that very challenging task smartly, did you...?

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Howard Keel Centennial: "Day of the Triffids"

We conclude (probably) our Howard Keel Centennial celebration with one of the actors last pictures before retirement (though he returned in the 1980s via "Dallas" stardom). Here's Deborah Lipp...

When Nathaniel announced a celebration of Howard Keel’s centennial, I had my pick of Keel movies. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I lept at the chance to write about my beloved The Day of the Triffids (1963). Once committed, I had a moment of fear. Here is a movie I have loved almost my entire life; a movie played over and over on local television in the pre-cable days of my youth. I have probably not seen Triffids since graduating from high school—what if it doesn’t hold up?

I need not have worried but if you want to argue that Triffids is a terrible movie, there is plenty of evidence...

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"The Rise of Skywalker" Teases

The first teaser for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is upon us. Though it promises the "end" of a saga, we already know that the Star Wars universe is ever-expanding with prequel and sidebar movies, and soon streaming scripted series. Nevertheless JJ Abrams second Star Wars film (after The Force Awakens) does intend to be, at least for now, the conclusion of the main Star Wars storyline, the one involving clone wars, Jedi massacres, various Skywalkers and Solos, the Rebel Alliance and Death Stars, the threats of Darths (multiple) and the evil genius of Emperor Palpatine (UH-OH but he died in Return of the Jedi... Why is Ian McDiarmid doing that unforgettable cackling of his at the end of this teaser?!?)

We'll save a proper Yes No Maybe So for a full trailer but does this teaser whet your appetite for more or are you all franchised out and feeling nothing anymore?

Game of Thrones. The Final Season Approaches

Though The Film Experience has not covered Game of Thrones in the past beyond the occasional mention, a couple of our contributors are big fans and since the final season is the television event of the year, we're opting to break tradition and cover each episode. Here are Eric Blume and Ben Miller, who will be writing up the final episodes, to grill each other on their experience of the series to date if you'd like to join them in this refresher. - Editor.

ERIC:  Ben, I’m excited about working on this project with you. Let's start at the beinning: Have you been a fan of the show since the first episode, or did you join somewhere in progress?  What made you fall in love with it?

BEN: I got into it on the ground floor.  I was never much of a fantasy book reader (no Harry Potter, no Lord of the Rings), but this seemed like one of the first shows where people were genuinely excited for the potential of what it could be.  I knew a few people who had read the books, but I went in fairly cold and with an open mind.  You also have to keep in mind of what HBO was doing at the time...

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