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Entries in TV (908)

Friday
May242019

Fleabag: Season 2 

By Spencer Coile

Rather than beat around the bush, let me just come right out and say: Fleabag is a miraculous piece of television. Its first season, an adaptation of the stage production by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, debuted on Amazon Prime back in 2016. It followed the titular Fleabag (played by Waller-Bridge), a foul-mouthed, lying, sexually insatiable cafe owner in London coming to terms with her best friend’s death. With few friends, she’s prone to stealing, sleeping with assorted men, and antagonizing her family, including her godmother-turned-stepmother (Olivia Colman) - all the while breaking the fourth wall and speaking to us, her audience. It was an uncomfortable yet poignant six episode run, but Fleabag’s story wasn’t quite over.

Waller-Bridge, notable for her recent involvement with Killing Eve, is back for one final season with her plucky anti-hero. And rather than just be a continuation of the first season, Fleabag returns to Prime with a second season so stunning and so deeply personal, you may have no choice but to see it to believe it. So, rather than a review, let’s consider this a celebration of Fleabag...

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Wednesday
May222019

Yes No Maybe So: "Downton Abbey"

Welcome to Downton Abbey

The new trailer for Downton Abbey has arrived. Or two new trailers. Or perhaps one of them is older... well, we lose track these days as films have so many promos and so many versions of each trailer. At any rate it's officially time to get excited about the big screen union of everyone's favourite early 20th century posh costume drama. Let's do the Yes No Maybe So thing after the jump...

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Tuesday
May212019

Game of Thrones "The Iron Throne" (S08E06)

For this final season of Game of Thrones, Team Experience members Ben Miller and Eric Blume have been alternating on coverage. Now they're joined up for the final wrap. - Editor

BEN MILLER: Alrighty Eric.  We are at the end of the line.  Before we get to the final episode, are you happy with the final season leading up to the finale has gone?

Personally, I feel it's been pretty fulfilling.  The problems everyone seems to be having are more related to the spectacle and anticipation as a whole.  This might be the last piece of monoculture we have for a while, so everyone has strong opinions about what it should and should not be.  I also believe our culture does not lend itself to objective criticism.  Instead of watching an episode and forming your own opinion, you watch the episode while the rest of the world is simultaneously tweeting about it.  After the episode, you watch the immediate reaction videos and fiery blog posts.  The next day, you laugh or scoff at the thousands of produced memes, read seven reaction articles and reviews, take in another dozen YouTube videos, then you suddenly have an opinion.  I started my personal media blackout until my opinion was formed after episode 2 of this season.

ERIC BLUME: While I agree with your assessment of how movies and TV are now consumed, I think there's a more disturbing trend at hand with this season:  armchair criticism.  Obviously it's cool to be disappointed with this final season in whatever way you're disappointed.  But the ugly dismissal of Benioff and Weiss by viewers is deeply gross to me...

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Tuesday
May142019

Game of Thrones "The Bells" (S08E05)

previously on Game of Thrones

by Ben Miller

Boy howdy, that was an episode.  Regardless of your thoughts on the final season, we can probably all agree that the penultimate episode, “The Bells,” was the MOST episode Game of Thrones has had in a long while, if not ever.  Before we get to the big developments in the back half, let's focus on some of the other quieter scenes that really popped...

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Thursday
May092019

Game of Thrones "The Last of the Starks" (S08E04)

by Eric Blume

In this season’s best episode yet, Game of Thrones head creatives David Benioff and D.B. Weiss display their astounding aesthetic taste and uncanny ability to know exactly what viewers want to see.  This episode featured one powerhouse match-up after the next, giving us duet after duet of characters we want to see together, talking about what we want them to talk about, in exactly the way we want them talking about it.  The episode also features particularly fine writing, an element of Game of Thrones that often goes unsung despite being one of the show’s strongest features.

The show opened with a funeral segment and an extended banquet scene that paid tribute to last week’s monumental battle...

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