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Game of Thrones – Review: I Now Pronounce You Drunk and Sansa via Rickey.org Review of Game of Thrones – Season 3 Episode 8 – Second Sons: Game of Thrones is picking up the pace by adopting a more fleet approach to its storylines. In past weeks, we’ve gotten single check-ins with various storylines across Westeros, Beyond the Wall, and Across the Narrow Sea. Yet “Second Sons” gets a bit more in-depth, as we stop in for multiple scenes with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), Sansa (Sophie Turner), Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), and even Melisandre (Carice Van Houten). Meanwhile, a significant chunk of this season’s narrative sits this one out (No Jon, Robb, Jaime, Brienne, Littlefinger, Varys, Theon or Bran this week). However, the narrative is improved by the omission, simply by virtue of the fact that the stories in question are allowed room to breathe. For instance, we really haven’t gotten much from Stannis (Stephen Dillane) this season, outside of a brief handful of scenes here and there in which we see how desperately he clings to Melisandre, despite the presence of a wife (Selyse) and daughter (Shireen) who carry a healthy respect and admiration for him (Selyse more than Shireen, it would seem). Here, we get to see the toll his defeat last season has taken, as he embraces Melisandre’s Lord of Light more fervently, resorting to magic to turn the tide of the war, even if the price of that magic is the blood of his own innocent kin. It’s powerful stuff, and is merely one facet of a larger narrative about the cost of power in war. By any measure, “Second Sons” is well-paced television that takes a broad story and boils it down to compelling specifics. Credit: HBO The North: After having been captured last week by The Hound (Rory McCann) while fleeing from the Brotherhood Without Banners, Arya (Maisie Williams) has naturally assumed that he’s taking her back to King’s Landing. To avoid this fate, she attempts to murder The Hound in his sleep with a rock the size of her own head. However, he awakes just before the potentially fatal blow. He invites her to take her best shot, but warns her that she’d better succeed in killing him, or he’ll cut off both her hands the moment he’s recovered. Arya opts not to take the risk, a choice that proves to be wise on her part, in the sense that The Hound actually wants to take her where she wants to go. He reveals to Arya that they’re headed for The Twins, stronghold of House Frey, where Robb (Richard Madden) and the rest of her family are gathered for the wedding of her uncle Edmure (Tobias Menzies) to one of the Frey girls. The Hound rationalizes that the Starks will pay a veritable king’s ransom for Arya, which is worth far more to him than the indignity of attempting to win back his old position under King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson). Arya is ambivalent about The Hound, recognizing that he’s a means to an end, but hating him nonetheless (though The Hound recalls having rescues Sansa from rape in King’s Landing last season, as a means of explaining that there are people far worse than himself in this world. Yet Arya remains disbelieving). And so the Travelogue of Thrones continues. Credit: HBO Meanwhile, Melisandre has brought Gendry (Joe Dempsie) back to Dragonstone to sacrifice him to the Lord of Light, so that Stannis might finally be rid of the usurpers to his rightful place on the throne. To this end, Melisandre decides to wine and dine Gendry, to let him get a taste of the kingly life. Her rationale is that fear “poisons the meat,” so to speak, and so she wants Gendry to feel comfortable, so that he doesn’t “see the knife coming.” Of course, Melisandre takes it a step further by actually seducing the guy, giving him a little thrill before tying him to the bedpost and subjecting him to leeches. The entire scene is among the best of the episode, for

I’m sorry, Ted, but every time we get a car, this place turns into a whorehouse. Before we leap into a discussion of What It All Means, let’s pause to marvel at the weird. Mad Men Episode 6.08 was some seriously weird shit. We’ve heard Matt Weiner say that Mad Men doesn’t have a genre, [...]

“We do not choose our destiny, but we must do our duty, no? Great or small, we must do our duty,” says Stannis and indeed everyone has a lot of unpleasant duties to uphold on this week’s episode of Game of Thrones titled, “Second Sons.” Some reluctantly carry through their duties and some just abdicate. [...]Game of Thrones 3.08 "Second Sons" Review: Duty Bound

Roger is plagued by a recurring dream and Joan goes to the beach in Mad Men season 6 episode 9 “The Better Half” airing next week on AMC.

Saturday, May 18, 2013 ratings -- New episodes: 48 Hours, 20/20, and Bet on Your Baby. Episode reruns: Cops, Elementary, Criminal Minds, Grimm, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Saturday...

The Billboard Music Awards were a thing of beauty this evening. We had Nicki Minaj lap dances, Prince and Miguel going absolutely ape sh*t during his performance. The “Adorn” singer came out to the stage like a ball of fire and was obviously “turnt up” as the kids say. But adrenaline is a tricky temptress as it made Miguel so hype that he jumped across the stage but not nearly enough to clear the landing without smashing these poor fans’ heads. We haven’t been able to confirm whether or not Miguel’s going to start singing “I Am A Real American” at his shows from now on. But he should. But here’s what you want to see. In Vine form. And in GIF form. But have no fear, the young lady is okay. …Or maybe not. Maybe her name is actually “Katie” but concussions are a beast. The post Watch Miguel Channel Hulk Hogan And Leg Drop Two Unsuspecting Fans At The Billboard Awards appeared first on UPROXX.

VIRGINIA MAYOAS SEEN IN:'Remington Steele'"Cast In Steele"SYNOPSIS:The Remington Steele Agency was hired by three celebrities from Hollywood's Golden Age to find out who was sending them threatening letters. Virginia Mayo was one of the clients while the other two were Lloyd Nolan and Dorothy Lamour.From Wikipedia:Virginia Mayo (November 30, 1920 – January 17, 2005) was an American film actress.Born Virginia Clara Jones, she began her career in vaudeville. She progressed to films and during the 1940s established herself as a supporting player in such films as "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946) and "White Heat" (1949).BCnU!

Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio are nearing the close of their deals to judge on Fox's "The X Factor," an individual with knowledge of the negotiations told TheWrap. The official announcement is expected on Monday. Fox declined to comment. The Destiny's Child member and Mexican actress and singer would replace Britney Spears and L.A. Reid on the judging panel. Related Articles: 'X Factor' Brings Back Host Mario Lopez, Dropping Khloe Kardashian 'American Idol' Creator Simon Fuller Settles Lawsuit With Fox Over 'X Factor' Britney Spears Joins CAA Amid 'X Factor' Exit Reports Image Caption: Getty Images read more

“Second Sons” May 19th, 2013 “I always have a choice.” “Second Sons” opens with a choice. Arya wakes up to discover that her captor has fallen asleep, and picks up a rock with which she intends to kill Sandor Clegane, a man she believes to be taking her back to King’s Landing. However, as she grows closer, it turns out the Hound isn’t sleeping at all, and he gives her a choice: she can put the rock down, or she can take one shot at killing him with it. The catch is that, should she choose the second option and the Hound remains alive, he’ll break both of her hands. It’s not really a choice when you think about it, as Arya’s trust in her own strength isn’t quite enough to make her hands worth the risk. It’s also not much of a choice given that she’s his captive, even if he intends to take her to Robb and Catelyn on the Twins as opposed to taking her to King’s Landing and the Lannisters. As much as Arya struggles against the place in life that was determined for her, and as much as she tried last week to go back to the independence she craves, she still finds herself in a position where choices are not available to her. It’s far from a complicated theme, but what I like about “Second Sons” is the resignation of it all. Arya sitting on the Hound’s lap as he rides toward the Twins is an evocative image, both because of the beautiful countryside mirroring Arya’s hope at seeing her family and because she’s not bound or tortured or anything of the kind. Rather, she’s accepted her fate as the fate put before her, and will comply if only because it’s the most effective way to survive until the day where you have choices you did not have before. It’s a position that comes to bear on many episodes as the season goes on, as characters struggle with the lack of agency that comes naturally with being born—or being treated—as a second son. There’s not a whole lot of similarities between Samwell Tarly and Tyrion Lannister, but “Second Sons” focuses on the most prominent one: both are second sons, albeit not in the same way. Sam was technically his father’s eldest child, but his perpetual disappointment meant that once his father had another heir Sam was expendable, sent to the Night’s Watch because that was at least a place where Randall Tarly could say his son was serving the realm. Tyrion, meanwhile, is technically his father’s heir by right due to Jaime’s declaration to the Kingsguard, but he will always be the second son who killed his mother and defames the family name to Tywin Lannister, which is why he has no choice but to marry Sansa Stark at his father’s behest. This does something to a person. It’s the reason why Tyrion spends his wedding getting progressively drunker, and it’s the reason why Sam has always struggled with his sense of self-worth. Sam ends the episode the hero, his dragonglass blade saving Gilly and her son from a White Walker, but in his mind he’ll always be the coward, the “second son.” And while Tyrion is more confident in his position and has come to relish his reputation in certain ways, there is still pain within him, pain that drives every decision he makes. That he does not consummate his marriage to Sansa is not just a sign of Tyrion’s decency—although that’s part of it—but rather also a symbol of what he has suffered from being stripped of his agency and how he realizes how much worse this is for Sansa as a veritable prisoner in King’s Landing: the only person with less agency than a second son is a first daughter (as Cersei is finding out as well). What works about this connection is that the episode never goes so far as to make their respective pains explicit. It’s not as though Tyrion lashes out at his father and refuses to marry Sansa, or that Sam tearfully complains about having ever been sent to the Wall. Rather, it’s something they can’t help but wear on their sleeves, a part of them in a way that defines their actions and gives their lives meaning. They are scars, scars of being branded either at