Below, you will find the third trailer for House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel! I’m not really sure if I’m ready to take on yet another show that will inevitably have a complicated mythology to try to keep straight but, on the other hand, I do like dragons.
HBOMax’s House of the Dragon is scheduled to premiere on August 21st. I’ll be curious to see what kind of reception is given to this Game of Thrones prequel. The finale of GoT left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans and it’s still one of those topics that you don’t dare mention on twitter unless you want to risk finding yourself in the middle of a very passionate debate. Nearly everyone seems to agree that, after all the build-up, ending with Bram the Broken ruling the kingdom was a bit of a letdown. I’ll be curious to see if those disappointed by how GoT wrapped up will still be willing to give House of the Dragon a chance. Or have we all moved on?
Personally, I think the trailer looks intriguing. And speaking of trailers, here it is:
HBOMax has a Game of Thrones prequel coming out. If you weren’t aware of that or had forgotten about it, don’t feel bad. So did I and I’m actually supposed to keep up with this stuff!
It’s definitely a sign of how let down everyone was by the final season of GoT that the production of House of the Dragon has gotten almost not attention. Personally, I’m kind of intrigued by the show but, at the same time, it’s hard to deny that there’s been a huge backlash against Game of Thrones. Ever since the final season, it’s become increasingly difficult to find anyone who is willing to admit that they enjoyed the show.
And yet, I know for a fact that people did enjoy the show. Game of Thrones wouldn’t have gone for as long as it did if not for its very passionate fan base. There’s a lot of revisionist history going when it comes to Game of Thrones. Quite frankly, the anger that the finale generated could only have been generated by people who, after devoting several years of their lives to a program, felt that their loyalty and love had been betrayed.
(Of course, that “Who has a better story than Bram the Broken?” line didn’t help.)
So, will House of the Dragon be another success or will it be something like one of the The Walking Dead prequel series, forever destined to live in the shadow of the show that spawned it? We’ll find out next year! For now, here’s the official trailer for House of the Dragon:
I was happy to see Chernobyl win. Otherwise, the Emmys never interest me as much as the Oscars.
Here’s a list of tonight’s winners:
Best Supporting Actor (Comedy) — Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Best Supporting Actress (Comedy) — Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Best Writing (Comedy Series) — Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
Best Directing (Comedy Series) — Harry Bradbeer, Fleabag
Best Actor (Comedy) — Bill Hader, Barry
Best Actress (Comedy) — Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag (Should have been Julia Louis-Dreyfus for Veep)
Outstanding Reality Competition Program — RuPaul’s Drag Race
Best Supporting Actress (Movie or Limited Series) — Patricia Arquette, The Act
Best Director (Movie or Limited Series) — Johan Renck, Chernobyl
Best Supporting Actor (Movie or Limited Series) — Ben Whishaw, A Very English Scandal
Writing for a Limited Series or Movie — Craig Mazin, Chernobyl
Best Actor (Movie or Limited Series) — Jharrel Jerome, When They See Us
Best Movie — Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Best Actress (Movie or Miniseries) — Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon
Best Limited Series — Chernobyl
Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series — Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (really?)
Outstanding Variety Sketch Series: Saturday Night Live (should have been Documentary Now)
Outstanding Variety Talk Series: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (at least it wasn’t Samantha Bee)
Best Supporting Actor (Drama) — Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)
Best Writing (Drama) — Jesse Armstrong, Succession
Best Supporting Actress (Drama) — Julia Garner, Ozark
Best Actor (Drama) — Billy Rose, Pose
Best Directing (Drama) — Jason Bateman, Ozark
Best Actress (Drama) — Jodie Comer, Killing Eve
Best Comedy Series — Fleabag (should have been Veep or Barry)
Best Drama Series — Game of Thrones
In a few hours, the 2019 Emmy nominations will be announced!
Since I love awards and I love making lists, it’s an annual tradition that I list who and what would be nominated if I had all the power. Keep in mind that what you’re seeing below are not necessarily my predictions of what or who will actually be nominated. Many of the shows listed below will probably be ignored tomorrow morning. Instead, this is a list of the nominees and winners if I was the one who was solely responsible for picking them.
Because I got off to a late start this year, I’m only listing the major categories below. I may go back and do a full, 100-category list sometime tomorrow. Who knows? I do love making lists.
Anyway, here’s what would be nominated and what would win if I had all the power! (Winners are listed in bold.)
(Want to see who and what was nominated for Emmy consideration this year? Click here!)
(Want to see my picks for last year? Click here!)
(Want to see my picks for 2012? I know, that’s kinda random. Anyway, click here!)
Programming
Outstanding Comedy Series
Barry
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
GLOW
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
One Day At A Time
Veep
Vida
Outstanding Drama Series
Better Call Saul
Dynasty
Flack
Game of Thrones
The Magicians
My Brilliant Friend
Ozark
You
Outstanding Limited Series
Chernobyl
Fosse/Verdon
The Haunting of Hill House
I Am The Night
Maniac
Sharp Objects
True Detective
A Very English Scandal
Outstanding Television Movie
The Bad Seed
Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)
Brexit
Deadwood
King Lear
Native Son
No One Would Tell
O.G.
Performer
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Iain Armitage in Young Sheldon
Ted Danson in The Good Place
Bill Hader in Barry
Pete Holmes in Crashing
Glenn Howerton in A.P. Bio
Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine Nine
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Penn Badgley in You
Jason Bateman in Ozark
James Franco in The Deuce
John Krasinski in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul
Dominic West in The Affair
Outstanding Lead Actor In a Limited Series
Hugh Grant in A Very English Scandal
Jared Harris in Chernobyl
Jonah Hill in Maniac
Chris Pine in I Am The Night
Sam Rockwell in Fosse/Verdon
Henry Thomas in The Haunting of Hill House
Outstanding Lead Actor In An Original Movie
Benedict Cumberbatch in Brexit
Anthony Hopkins in King Lear
Rob Lowe in The Bad Seed
Ian McShane in Deadwood
Timothy Olyphant in Deadwood
Jeffrey Wright in O.G.
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
Melissa Barrera in Vida
Kristen Bell in The Good Place
Alison Brie in GLOW
Rachel Brosnahan in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep
Zoe Perry in Young Sheldon
Outstanding Lead Actress in A Drama Series
Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones
Gaia Girace in My Brilliant Friend
Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Deuce
Laura Linney in Ozark
Margherita Mazzucco in My Brilliant Friend
Anna Paquin in Flack
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series
Amy Adams in Sharp Objects
India Eisley in I Am The Night
Carla Gugino in The Haunting of Hill House
Charlotte Hope in The Spanish Princess
Emma Stone in Maniac
Michelle Williams in Fosse/Verdon
Outstanding Lead Actress in an Original Movie
Shannen Doherty in No One Would Tell
Chelsea Frei in Victoria Gotti: My Father’s Daughter
McKenna Grace in The Bad Seed
Paula Malcolmson in Deadwood
Molly Parker in Deadwood
Christina Ricci in Escaping The Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Fred Armisen in Documentary Now!
Andre Braugher in Brooklyn Nine Nine
Anthony Carrigan in Barry
Tony Hale in Veep
Sam Richardson in Veep
Stephen Root in Barry
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
Jonathan Banks in Better Call Saul
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Game of Thrones
Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones
Giancarlo Esposito in Better Call Saul
Peter Mullan in Ozark
Luca Padovan in You
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Series
Stephen Dorff in True Detective
Timothy Hutton in The Haunting of Hill House
Chris Messina in Sharp Objects
Stellan Skarsgard in Chernobyl
Justin Thereoux in Maniac
Ben Whishaw in A Very English Scandal
Outstanding Supporting Actor In An Original Movie
Jim Broadbent in King Lear
Bill Camp in Native Son
Theothus Carter in O.G.
Rory Kinnear in Brexit
Gerald McRaney in Deadwood
Will Poulter in Bandersnatch (Black Mirror)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Comedy Series
Caroline Aaron in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Alex Borstein in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Anna Chlumsky in Veep
Sarah Goldberg in Barry
Rita Moreno in One Day At A Time
Sarah Sutherland in Veep
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Summer Bishil in The Magicians
Elisa Del Genio in My Brilliant Friend
Julia Garner in Ozark
Lena Headey in Game of Thrones
Elizabeth Lail in You
Shay Mitchell in You
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Series
Jessie Buckley in Chernobyl
Patricia Clarkson in Sharp Objects
Sally Field in Maniac
Patricia Hodge in A Very English Scandal
Connie Nielsen in I Am The Night
Emily Watson in Chernobyl
Outstanding Supporting Actress In An Original Movie
Kim Dickens in Deadwood
Florence Pugh in King Lear
Margaret Qualley in Favorite Son
Emma Thompson in King Lear
Emily Watson in King Lear
Robin Weigert in Deadwood
Well, we are now at the home stretch of what has been 9 or so years following the events of a little place called the Seven Kingdoms. It’s been a very long wait since the Season 7 ended in the summer of 2017.
When it was announced that there would be over a year of waiting before the final season of Game of Thrones would air, there was a lot of grumbling and bemoaning the fact that such a wait was just too long. Especially since the ending of Season 7 saw the final pieces on the chessboard finally begin to move towards a final showdown between all the different factions.
On one side we have the consummation of the Alliance of House Targaryen and House Stark. On another side we have Queen Cersei in King’s Landing still scheming to try and get the upper hand on all comers. Yet, all must contend with the threat that has just passed through a broken Wall and heading south as the Night King finally invades the Seven Kingdoms.
The series began in 2010 with the tag line, ‘Winter Is Coming,” and Season 7’s finale made a great show of it as winter has even come as far south as King’s Landing. It looks like Season 8 will show everyone that Winter has arrived and fans cannot wait to get on that ride come hell or high water.
Season 8 of Game of Thrones arrives worldwide on April 14, 2019.
So, I’m sitting here like I do every year and I’m trying to pick my favorite Super Bowl ads. (After all, the commercials are the only reason that I ever watch the Super Bowl.) And I have to say that I’m having some difficulty doing it this year because, for the most part, all of the commercials were hella forgettable. There were a few good ones and a few bad ones but the majority of them were just kind of there.
The bad ones, of course, were easy to spot. There was that creepy Robochild who I guess is supposed to convince you to get your taxes done or something. The first Google ad — the one about people using Google translate to discover how to say “I love you” — was a bit too desperate to convince us that Google is a force of good as opposed to evil. (As long as I can always use it to check the weather, I really don’t care what Google does in its spare time.) I might have liked the Steve Carell Pepsi ads if they had been for Coke instead. You have to understand that, down south where I live, we kind of find Pepsi to be offensive.
To be honest, the best ads were the movie trailers but I just spent about 5 hours posting all 16 of those to the site. Here are 6 other commercials that, regardless of whether I liked them or even found them to be effective, I won’t forget.
1. Every Super Bowl, I look forward to the new M&M’s commercial. This year’s was as cute as always and Christina Applegate did a good job selling the frustration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CCRNmmnG3c
2. I didn’t necessarily like this Audi commercial but it did spark an interesting theological debate between me and my sister about whether or not anyone would really need a car in Heaven. Eventually, we concluded that the guy was actually in Purgatory, or at least he was until his life was saved. It bothers me that, at the end of the commercial, that guy has a half-digested cashew somewhere on his desk.
3. I preferred the robots from this Michelob commercials to the Robo Child.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNfv9wsttKE
4. I’m not really sure what’s supposed to be going on in these commercials for Turkish Airlines. I’m assuming that this is meant to be appeal to international assassins.
5. I did like this Olay commercial, mostly because of the horror angle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KuQ4i_VSso
6. And finally, there’s this commercial, which starts out as a Bud Light commercial but then quickly becomes something else. I know I already shared this earlier tonight but seriously, this was so obviously the winner of the Super Bowl commercial sweepstakes that I simply have to show it again!
Okay, I nearly missed this commercial because I don’t like beer. In fact, if Leonard hadn’t said something on twitter, I totally would have missed it. That would have been a shame because this might be the best commercial of this year’s Super Bowl.
Basically, it starts out like a Bud Light commercial. But then suddenly …. well, just watch it:
Game of Thrones will be returning to HBO soon. The Bud Knight, meanwhile, appears to be gone forever….
Tonight, before the premier of the 3rd season of True Detective, HBO aired the teaser for eighth and final season of Game of Thrones.
Now, I’m not even going to try to pretend like I have some sort of special insight into what this teaser means. To be honest, I always struggle a bit when it comes to keeping up with who is plotting against who on Game of Thrones. Whenever I try to speculate about what’s happening on the show, I’m always proven wrong. Back during the first season, I even used to get Robb Stark confused with Jon Snow. Just try living that down….
Here’s what I will say. The trailer has a lot of atmosphere and it’s all appropriately ominous. If anyone’s still alive by the end of the show, I’ll be surprised. And, really, that’s the way it should be. The teaser takes place in a crypt and features a lot of death statues so even the teaser seems to be warning us that nobody’s going to get out of this season untouched.
Here’s the teaser:
In the past, HBO show have occasionally struggled during their final seasons. I’m never going to get over what happened to True Blood during its final season. Hopefully, Game of Thrones will be the exception to that rule.
As always, we’ll see what happens!
To be honest, I didn’t actually watch the Emmys this year. For one thing, I was upset that Twin Peaks was not nominated for Best Limited Series and I was even more upset that Kyle MacLachlan was totally overlooked. It’s hard for me to take seriously an awards show that snubs Twin Peaks but honors Alec Baldwin’s uninspired Donald Trump impersonation.
However, I did kind of follow the ceremony on twitter. I was happy, for instance, to learn that Bill Hader and Henry Winkler won for Barry and that Thandie Newton won for Westworld. The Emmy that should have gone to Twin Peaks went to The Assassination of Gianni Verscace, which was good but uneven. (The first five episodes were brilliant. The final three felt somewhat superfluous.) Ryan Murphy beat David Lynch for Best Director. I mean, what the Hell?
Anyway, here’s the winners!
Best Comedy: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon)
Best Drama:“Game of Thrones” (HBO)
Best Limited Series: “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (FX)
Best Actress, Comedy: Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Best Actor, Comedy: Bill Hader, “Barry”
Best Actress, Drama: Claire Foy, “The Crown”
Best Actor, Drama: Matthew Rhys, “The Americans”
Supporting Actress, Drama: Thandie Newton, “Westworld”
Supporting Actor, Drama: Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
Supporting Actress, Comedy: Alex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Supporting Actor, Comedy: Henry Winkler, “Barry”
Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie: Regina King, “Seven Seconds”
Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Darren Criss, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”
Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a Movie: Merritt Wever, “Godless”
Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie: Jeff Daniels, “Godless”
*Television Movie: “Black Mirror: USS Callister” (Netflix)
Variety Sketch Series: “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
Variety Talk Series: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”(HBO)
Reality Competition Program: “RuPaul’s Drag Race” (VH1)
*Reality Host: RuPaul, “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
*Structured Reality Program: “Queer Eye” (Netflix)
*Unstructured Reality Program: “United Shades Of America With W. Kamau Bell” (CNN)
*Guest Actress, Drama: Samira Wiley, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
*Guest Actor, Drama: Ron Cephas Jones, “This Is Us”
*Guest Actress, Comedy: Tiffany Haddish, “Saturday Night Live”
*Guest Actor, Comedy: Katt Williams, “Atlanta”
*Documentary or Nonfiction Series: “Wild Wild Country” (Netflix)
*Animated Program: “Rick And Morty” (Adult Swim)
Writing for a Comedy Series: Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Pilot)
Writing for a Drama Series: Joel Fields & Joe Weisberg, “The Americans” (“Start”)
Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama: William Bridges & Charlie Brooker, “Black Mirror: USS Callister”
Directing for a Comedy Series: Amy Sherman-Palladino, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Pilot)
Directing for a Drama Series: Stephen Daldry, “The Crown” (“Paterfamilias”)
Directing for a Limited Series: Ryan Murphy, “The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” (“The Man Who Would Be Vogue”)
*Directing for a Variety Series: Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live” (Host: Donald Glover)
Writing for a Variety Special: John Mulaney, “John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous At Radio City”
Directing for a Variety Special: Glenn Weiss, “The Oscars”
*Awards presented during the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony on Sept. 8-9.
Through the Shattered Lens 