Max is a freelance writer, musician, and world-renowned curmudgeon. He writes on all things culture for a variety of fine North American publications. His highly anticipated debut novel will write itself one of these days, he assumes.
“After the emotional revelation of the origin of Hodor’s name, HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ has been in a bit of an awkward place.”
“One can only hope that Game of Thrones has exhausted its season quotient of character reappearances ostensibly designed to catch us some degree of off-guard, but perhaps future cold opens are coming.”
“After the twin climaxes of last week’s Hodor reveal and Daenerys’ enflamed emergence in the preceding episode, it was only natural for HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ to need a bit of a breather.”
“Jon Snow may be the one who comes back to life, but it’s the women of Westeros who are increasingly shaping the direction of Season Six.”
“And just like that, things are looking up for Season Six.”
“Will the execution weigh on Jon as he experiences life beyond the Night’s Watch?”
“As good as Game of Thrones can be at revealing shades of grey in ostensibly irredeemable characters, the show is equally adept (if not more so) at making its villains as detestable as can be.”
“There’s a lot of expository detail, and little development in the singular arcs beyond the exposition.”
“It’s hard to tell from the show what exactly Alexander and Karaszewski believe about Simpson’s guilt, but that doesn’t keep them from being any less interested in him as a human being.”
“However much we’ve laughed at the characters in the preceding episodes, ‘Manna from Heaven’ focuses on understanding why they act as they do.”
