‘Westworld’ 1.10 Recap: “Everything Is Under Control”
The season finale of ‘Westworld’ isn’t just a case of one plot twist too many. It has so many twists and turns and violent contortions that I no longer have any idea what the story is at all. I’ll give...
View Article‘Big Little Lies’ Pilot Recap: “What’d We Say About Shooting Mom Before Noon?”
HBO’s new drama series ‘Big Little Lies’ is a prestige production stacked with multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy winners and nominees both in front of and behind the camera. Ultimately, that seems...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.01 Recap: “Yesterday’s Wars Don’t Matter Anymore”
Even though this isn’t yet the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ (eight are planned in all), almost all of HBO’s marketing for the series has shifted to emphasize that the end is near and we’re in the...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.02 Recap: “Give Your Uncle a Kiss”
All credit to the ‘Game of Thrones’ writers. Even seven seasons in, the show still has the ability to drop a bombshell that disrupts the entire narrative. At least, I assume that this week’s big plot...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.03 Recap: “There Are Always Lessons in Failure”
The storytelling notably picks up quite a bit of speed this week on ‘Game of Thrones’. Last week’s big plot twist is followed by more machinations and major changes of fortune, including the end of one...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.04 Recap: “Enough with the Clever Plans”
Running shy of 55 minutes, ‘Game of Thrones’ clocks in with a surprisingly short episode this week. It nevertheless turns out to be a momentous one that won’t soon be forgotten. King’s Landing The...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.05 Recap: “Sometimes Strength Is Terrible”
Sorry, fans, this week’s episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ doesn’t feature any epic, game-changing battle scenes. What it offers instead is a lot of interesting scheming and plotting, and one important...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.06 Recap: “Heroes Do Stupid Things and They Die”
The opening credits quickly pointed to this week being a momentous episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ with the return of former series director Alan Taylor, who’d graduated TV work after this show’s second...
View Article‘Game of Thrones’ 7.07 Recap: “Lies Won’t Help Us in This Fight”
This too-short season of ‘Game of Thrones’ comes to a close not with another epic battle set-piece (although, it kind of does that too), but with an 80-minute episode packed with uneasy alliances and...
View Article‘The Deuce’ Pilot Recap: “Not Everybody Gets to Be Successful”
With their new HBO drama ‘The Deuce’, creators David Simon and George Pelecanos apply the same meticulous attention to detail and local atmosphere to the 1970s porn industry that they brought to ‘The...
View Article‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ 9.01 Recap: “Type + Distance = No Door Hold”
Six years since the last episode aired, one might be tempted to call the new season of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ a revival. But no, that’s just the way this show works. A new season happens when Larry...
View Article‘Here and Now’ Pilot Recap: “Please Don’t Say Anything Depressing”
After the long-running successes of ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘True Blood’, producer Alan Ball was likely granted carte blanche to do whatever he wanted at HBO. With the premiere of his new series ‘Here and...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.01 Recap: “Have You Ever Questioned the Nature of Your Reality?”
HBO’s ambitious sci-fi Western ‘Westworld’ returns for a second season to both dazzle and confound viewers. Now that we know some of the show’s secrets from last year, will the story be easier to...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.02 Recap: “Have You Ever Seen Anything So Full of Splendor?”
In its bid to expand the scope of the story this season, ‘Westworld’ finally takes us outside the park this week. In doing so, the show also gets tricky with jumping around the timeline some more. The...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.03 Recap: “A New Twist in the Narrative”
‘Westworld’ continues to broaden its horizons this season. We caught a glimpse of the real world outside the park last week. Now we actually get to pay a visit to a second Delos theme park. This week’s...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.04 Recap: “If You Aim to Cheat the Devil, You Owe Him an Offering”
When I noticed that my recording of ‘Westworld’ ran for over 75 minutes this week, I knew it would be a big episode. Sure enough, it’s jam-packed with enough incident and revelations to fill three or...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.05 Recap: “You Know the Old Saying About Knives and Gunfights”
The ads for this week’s episode of ‘Westworld’ looked epic and the network marketing promoted it as a mind-blower. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a pretty big disappointment. We last saw Maeve and...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.06 Recap: “We’re Not at Full Apocalypse Yet”
Barring an unexpected payoff later in the season, last week’s diversion into Shogun World seems more and more to have been a fruitless waste of time. ‘Westworld’ (mostly) extracts us from that...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.07 Recap: “You’re Free to Choose Your Own Path”
‘Westworld’ delivers another big, very busy episode this week. It has so much going on that I could barely keep up taking notes. It also has one really terrible scene that shouldn’t have gotten past...
View Article‘Westworld’ 2.08 Recap: “This Is the Wrong World”
‘Westworld’ take another extended detour into unfamiliar territory this week. Fortunately, the results this time are a lot more interesting than the samurai episode. Episode ‘Kiksuya’ opens with the...
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