As both a genealogy and ASOIF nerd, this just tickles me. For instance, I didn't know that Jorah Mormont and Mace Tyrell had been brothers-in-law, so Jorah is sort-of uncle to the queen. And Samwell is (near as I can tell) second cousin once removed of Stannis' wife Selyse. Fun stuff!

Except Rhaegar. It's a sly joke on GRRM's part that the best successor to Aerys was probably the one Robert killed on the Trident. Well, the jokes are that ruling through heredity is a total crapshoot, and those who can win the throne aren't usually the best to sit on it (though Robert gets a bum rap).

Not just a figurative brother-in-arms, a literal great-great-etc-nephew-in-arms as well. Kin slaying is serious business.

I've seen that version of Nightwatch and was similarly impressed with the use of subtitles. I guess since most movies aren't designed to be seen with subtitles, not many directors incorporate them that way.

The flaming sword is impressive at first, but not much good in battle. Really just a waste of an otherwise good sword.

The slightly-too-long hug seemed to be with Jenny, not Abbie…

Crane not eating the birthday cupcake in the opening scene tipped me off they were in Purgatory. It's hard to see, but it looks like the candle on the cupcake is re-lit later in the scene after the big gust of wind. There are a bunch of not-right things going on throughout until the reveal.

Spot on, @flagonthemoon:disqus. That steady drumbeat of awfulness has had me drifting away for a few years. This past week, punctuated (for me, a dwindling Vikings fan) by a huge spike of terribleness has me done, I think.

I think I'd have to recuse myself from that debate…

Youch, Casey Kasem reduced to "that dude from the original TV show."

I hadn't realized how much I'd lost interest in the rest of the cast until this past Frye/Adriana-less episode. Her frustrated doggedness bashing against his gone-to-seed alcoholic are just compelling to me in a way the rest of it isn't. That mesmerizing/annoying mugging quality has a bitterness that really works for…

Some of the advertising prior to the first season kinda put me off because it over-emphasized the religious stuff, made it look like a very different kind of show. Instead, Daniel is just open to any and all ideas that might quiet his mind and make his life better. There's as much Buddhism as Christianity there.

I agree… Six was a touch short last season, I think eight episodes might be this show's sweet spot.

Lev Grossman's The Magician series is getting a pilot.

There's a 2002 version, too, starring Lucas Haas, James Caan and Lisa Bonet. The PBS version is generally considered superior, though I don't think either one is terribly successful.

Most let you choose which country to appear to be located in, for accessing location-locked content. So Netflix and Hulu will not work (or work differently) if you have a non-US IP. During the Olympics you could set your VPN to somewhere in the UK and stream the BBC's coverage, that sort of thing.

I wonder if they took VPNs into account. A significant percentage of those seeders tallied were not actually in the states their IP addresses would indicate.

Yep, my Internet is both faster and cheaper in the middle of WA than it was in Seattle.

CBS has a Roku channel that's actually pretty nice. I watch Craig Ferguson there, no commercials or anything. They only make the last 5 or 10 episodes available, though.

The David Tate storyline comes directly from the Danish/Swedish original (which plays completely differently, so don't dismiss it!).