Agree about the Portrait of Dorian Gray. I barely remember it as it was described in the novel, which I haven't revisited for years. But that wasn't anywhere near the debauchery I remember being described. I'm one of those people who somehow have consistently (until the last couple of years - there's something about…

You won't be alone, but I keep confusing this one with Whispering Pines, which my son-in-law has to keep reminding me is actually Wayward Pines. Thank goodness there's more and better TV in the immediate future - I think I'm not so much hate-watching as desperation-watching.

I agree with the review except for this: "highlights everything horrible thing about the hippie movement (particularly the misogyny" I'm 72 years old and was quite alive and well in the sixties. I wasn't on the west coast - I was a wannabe hippie, first in the civil rights movement in Chicago and then…

First thought - who ever thought that a child would relate to an invisible friend named for a power tool? And on that attention to details thing - Claire, a trained agent who knows how to handle a gun, apparently thinks nothing of quietly tiptoeing into an apartment before letting the door slam shut loudly behind her.

Until I noticed that we were only on episode 6, I expected we were being set up for the season finale at the ball - with Vanessa bringing her new dancing partner, John Clare, and the werewolf breaking loose and crashing the party. Then I thought no, that's too soon for a finale, maybe a mid-season major kerfuffle.…

I promise, this is NOT a book spoiler, because even having read all of the books I know as much as you do about this. But I want Davos to kill Stannis. I know Brienne wants to, but she'll have to make do with Roose and/or Ramsay. Also not a spoiler, because I haven't read that one yet either.

Little and less to say that hasn't or won't be said about Stannis/Shereen and Daenerys/Drogon. Couldn't help thinking, however, when I saw the burning of the Stannis' camp, about a similar incident during the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, when Queen Isabella's battle tent, among other, was set ablaze. I know…

I think forgiveness is too strong a word here. There can be no forgiveness for Theon. But will she work with him to escape - and does she now have new hope that some of her family remains? I would, wouldn't you?

Also possible. And dragon fire will likely be a weapon against them before the end.

Thoughts on the show: Yeah, Ollie's gonna do something bad because he thinks it's right. I think it might turn out that Valyrian steel is forged with dragon glass. And I'm left wondering how the giant is gonna get on the boat.

I'm thinking that maybe that's because dragon glass is used in the forging of Valyrian steel?

Juliette Lewis was still in the credits. Was that just so we could see her (unidentifiable) dead body cut down by Ethan?

He did have a very short piece on Dig (yeah, I watched it, because archaeology) in which he got killed off without really doing much - he was Jack Gruber in Gotham and The Swede in Hell on Wheels. Thor Heyerdahl of Kon Tiki fame was his father's cousin, according to the Wiki.

I love how so many people, when discussing television shows, treat the characters as volitional, not as actors reading lines of a script. On the one hand, it proves the success of the storytelling when so many people become so involved that they forget it is a play. On the other, they don't seem to appreciate the role…

Yes, but I see Sam in Oldtown discovering something crucial that helps save the day - and then maybe the series ends with him happily taking up his maester studies. He can't end happily ever after with Gilly - he's taken his vows, after all, and there's this unfortunate desertion clause to deal with - but I'm just a…

I don't think (could be wrong) that there were boutiques selling ready-to-wear at this time. Clothing for well-to-do women would have been made for them - other people would make their own or wear cast-offs.

I agree with Sexy Duck Cop, and don't necessarily see a place for him/her in the MRG. I do agree that rape is emblematic of the patriarchy as a whole, in the sense that rape can be a metaphor for the violence done over the course of human history. In that sense, the rape of women in GoT is equivalent to the violence…

"b) just how unpleasant is this week gonna be?" - Pretty much the way I felt about each succeeding chapter in AFFC and ADWD. In my own great reread, Asha Greyjoy has just been conked on the head during the flight from Deepwood Motte.

Varys?

Favorite Facebook meme this week: Game of Thrones! For those who can't deal with the sunny optimism of The Walking Dead.