Fabulous film, and he really was great in it. So many autobiographical shades to his performance in that movie—unsurprisingly so, since it was practically a LARP planned with its actors in mind. Still, I came away from it really feeling a lot of affection and respect for him as an actor.

A lot of Brits Who Can't Do American Accents do that. They're aiming for the rhotic aspect of American English ("rhotic" = we pronounce our 'r's, unlike the non-rhotic Brits and Aussies and a few American outiers like people from Boston), but they hit it way too hard and also don't understand the linguistic rules…

I also find Laurie's House accent excellent, perhaps because I am from the part of the country he is imitating. He's sporting a Western New England dialect, as spoken in Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, and parts of New York State, and it rings true to my ear. He sounds just exactly like nearly everyone did in the…

I guess that *would* fit in with the whole "trapped in the '80s" approach to Feldmanology, wouldn't it.

Thank you for this link.

Good to know, thanks! Perhaps I'll give it another shot some day, if only to understand what all those people complaining about the show are always complaining about.

That's one of my favorite things about that season, actually. The fact that it is Namond, of all people, to be the one kid who gets to buck fate really somehow drove home for me what a total crap-shoot that always is. True believers in Bootstraps-On-Yer-Bike-ism never like to hear people talk about this, but so often…

Yeah, I get that. The relevant part wasn't the TARGS AREN'T IMMUNE TO FIRE bit (nice yelling there, George!), but the "Could she do it again?" "Probably not." exchange. If she probably couldn't withstand fire again, then presumably she wasn't meant to be all that asbestos-like in the books, preference for hot baths…

Not according to the author. Not in the books, anyway. It could be the case in the show, but it is not in the books.

Wow. Yeah, I just read it, and that really wasn't a terribly coherent article, was it.

How should I know why he does anything? He doesn't answer to me, nor I to him. All I know is that the only people I've ever seen arguing that all fictive evil-doers must be punished, or that fiction requires "fairy tale karma perfect endings" are the imaginary fantasy debate opponents of people on the internet.

I got the impression that the entire season got contorted out of shape around the Red Wedding, which they wanted to see fall in Episode 9. So Arya's plotline had to tread water, because she couldn't be taken to the Twins by the Hound until Episode 9. The identity of Theon's torturer had to be made into some weird…

I think there may have been a single review somewhere around third season that grudgingly spoke well of it, but otherwise yes: the NYT always pans the show, even to the point of sometimes appearing hilariously contrarian about it.

Yeah, I was really cranky last night as well. I'm not normally that aggressive either, even here (where I do think I tend to be less careful than in many other online places, I'm not sure exactly why). Pax!

What are the real chances of a man surviving having his dick chopped off without any apparent medical attention?

They even adopt abandoned babies!

The Night's Watch is the only democracy on the entire show!

Yeah, some people must just have an eye for that sort of thing, I guess, because I never would have been able to tell either.

Yeah, that's what pissed me off the most about Aliser fucking Thorne last night actually. Using the kid like that was gross. It's not as if they absolutely needed him to be the one to lure Jon outside: anyone could have done that with the Benjen story. I understand that they probably thought it best to include him in…

There is one storyline that hasn't even really been touched on by the show yet, and which they may be covering next year. Or, they may simply have excised it altogether. Or, they may include a completely altered version of it. Casting rumors suggest that parts of it, at least, are going to be included, but it could be…