+1 for Penelope (Jack) Rockatansky's nomination of Christopher Reeve, but not because I thought he made them two separate characters; rather, because I thought he integrated them.

http://www.hasbro.com/en-us…

Yes, odd - this isn't remotely new, I played this version of the game a few years ago now and, oh yes, does it suck. Monopoly as it is isn't the most fun game in the world, but not knowing how much money you've got and having to grapple with the stupid ATM every turn? Priceless.

They're on that great honor board: Actors Who Know Why The Audience Are There (When The Filmmakers Have Forgotten).
Look, there they are, under "Blessed Pantomime Relief 1991" with Alan Rickman.

Yeah, I share your skepticism here, but the chorus is really a rip and it's the main hook of the song, so I guess that's the argument. The chords may be VI-IV-I, but the melody is still "3-5- *6* - *5* - *3*, 1-2- *3* - *2* - *1*, faster-paced-third-line, back-to- *3* - *2* - *1*", which is *exactly* the Petty form,…

Yes, "columnated" even :) don't know where my brain went there. But I didn't say I found *nothing* interesting in the songs, just that it's ridiculously inconsistent and fragmented. "Heroes And Villains" is a great track, but it can't help but feel like a second attempt at the "Vibrations" template that has cracked…

I honestly can't understand how Pet Sounds can be #2 on the Essentials list to The Smile Sessions - the former is one of pop's universally acknowledged masterpieces, the latter is a bunch of fragments shored against the ruins of Brian Wilson's mind. Interesting - in a ghoulish way - it may be, but more essential than…

I had to sit through this awful bloody movie as an adult. Please don't diss Alan Rickman. He was the only person who knew what kind of film it should have been.

The AV Club

Too true, Mark. Too true. In that first season - particularly with a couple of the Dinklage monologues - I was thinking that, given the cast, it could be a worthy successor to the great HBO series of the past - yer Sopranos, yer Deadwoods and the like. And then I'd watch it and, increasingly, it's just tits-and-swords…

Surprised many others haven't noticed at all.

I think you're kinda missing my point. I'm not saying that good people don't suffer on this show, or that bad people don't win. I'm saying that, when it happens - particularly in the way those confrontations are staged - it happens without any doubt as to who is the opponent you're *supposed* to barrack for. It's an…

Yes, that's one reading of the scene. And in a truly ambiguous (and much more interesting) show, that reading would have held as much weight as the Noble Brienne approach - but due to decisions of scripting, scoring, editing etc, it clearly doesn't. Vale, Hound. The deck was stacked against you.

Yes, I've heard the showrunners are following along with Martin pretty well. I've also heard the same readers say the books are becoming incredibly unfocussed themselves.

Thank goodness Robb and Jon didn't end up suffering for betraying their solid Stark values. That would surely be a sign of relentless two-dimensional morality.

I think the Hound's somewhat tainted record comes a long, slow second to Brienne's shining virtue. People liked him, sure. He had some good lines, got to show a little humanity here and there. Conveniently, of course, we didn't actually *see* him die…

But in that setup - where Jon Snow has ridden out to kill him, to save the Watch - he IS the villain of the piece.

I don't think the show has much of a long-term gameplan with respect to its plot and politics; I think fuzziness has stood in for ambiguity for some time now.

I think perhaps you're right - it's just that in the first series it wasn't immediately clear on which side each character belonged, so it seemed more ambiguous. I'm not sure "Stark" has ever moved out of being a synonym for "hero" for the show - even in this episode, Jon Snow's proclamation and Stannis' recognition…

I am perhaps unduly harsh when it comes to that strand of the story. I confess I don't think much of Emilia Clarke as an actress; her version of "steely strength" strikes me as an absurd, camp facsimile compared to a few of the other actresses on the show.