The second episode of the Clash of Kings season of Game of Thrones, entitled “The Night Lands,” is extremely well developed, but it’s also the most gratuitously smutty of the four episodes of season two that Dork Shelf has seen. We get lots of Tyrion, we get some fun original scenes, we’re introduced to a colorful pirate in Salladhor Saan and we finally get to glimpse of Pyke and the Iron Islands. With season two, the showrunners continue to demonstrate impressive juggling ability. Continue reading
HBO’s Game of Thrones is back, and it’s at its sprawling, brutal best in the premiere episode of the second season. In “The North Remembers,” the narrative jumps regularly across continents to re-introduce the audience to the characters, and the rapidly changing world they inhabit. That the episode reconciles all this, and accomplishes these tasks in a satisfying dramatic package is a pretty remarkable feat of storytelling. Continue reading
The much anticipated second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones debuts this weekend on HBO Canada. We’ve seen the first four episodes of the upcoming season, and there’s a lot that fans of the novels and the series will be happy about for this second go around. Continue reading
Game of Thrones: The Exhibition opened yesterday in Toronto, and runs for he next eight days at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Dork Shelf was lucky enough to get a guided tour on Thursday, and we were pretty impressed by all of the costumes, props, and weaponry from HBO’s fantasy series that were on display. Continue reading
We recently had the chance to interview Steve Van Zandt, who’s most famous for being the lead guitar of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, as well as his role as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos. He’s got a new series called Lilyhammer, it’s the first original programming on Netflix and he was in Toronto to promote the series. We discussed the series, what it’s like working with a mostly Norwegian cast and crew, and the show’s memorable title sequence. Continue reading
This week’s instalment of Boardwalk Empire brought us a heaping portion of the old ultra-violence that we so cherish. It’s Veteran’s Day in Atlantic City, a city “built to help people forget” says Nucky in his speech to the throngs gathered to commemorate the occassion, “but today is for remembering.” Is it ever. Nothing in this episode seems to be forgotten or forgiven – every past slight is remembered and every debt paid for. Continue reading
What a crazy episode. The tide has clearly turned in Nucky’s favour in Atlantic City: his lawyer has an ingenious plan, Owen Slater is good at blowing things up, Chalky is out of jail, and the conspirators are vulnerable as a result of the ███████████████████. By the episode’s completion, Nucky has exacted some costly vengeance against Jimmy, while Gillian violently slaps around a ████████… Continue reading
With the exception of Nucky’s confrontation with the Commodore and Jimmy in the restaurant, the third episode of Boardwalk Empire‘s second season is the least eventful of the episodes we’ve been treated to so far. Titled “The Dangerous Maid” for Katie, Margaret’s maid, who at this point “knows too much,” the episode is preoccupied with Nelson’s functional imprisonment of Lucy and fully fleshes out her resultant desolation, but otherwise, it’s a table-setting episode. Continue reading
The fourteenth episode of Boardwalk Empire is a busy one, centered around the growing conspiracy against Nucky and his imminent rally; a rally that is sure to be buttressed by his live-in girlfriend Margaret Schroeder. Mistaken identity abounds as Nucky is released from jail, Jimmy heads to New York to “lay some ground work” for the planned takeover in Atlantic City bootlegging, and Chalky find himself in a revealing bottle episode. Continue reading
Boardwalk Empire – the star-studded prohibition era drama from HBO – returned to our television screens with a bang this past weekend. The show seems to have found its footing right out of the gate, and is at its well-acted, violent, multi-faceted best in this season’s opening episode – titled “21” for the year portrayed (1921). Continue reading
Actor Michael K Williams was in Toronto this week – and we were lucky enough to sit down with him to talk about Boardwalk Empire, his upcoming role on NBC’s Community, and his love for Game of Thrones. Continue reading
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