Why can't it be both? I loved this episode (most mature direction in the series so far, and wall-to-wall suspense), but I generally prefer the King's Landing characters and plot. And the juxtaposition is productive: all this petty political squabbling while an army of giants and mammoths (and zombies) are heading…

Stannis did read, and ignore, the pleas from Maester Aemon sent by raven. Those weren't in reference to this particular battle, but he knows shit is going down up there, and has chosen not to care.

I won't pretend I didn't look up the actor's name (Mark Stanley) the first episode he appeared, because even before he grew that (very flattering) beard he was the best-looking man in Westeros (says I).

So how many things can you change from the original Fargo and still end up with a television show you can call Fargo? Nice bit of self-descriptive critique there.

It’s the ballad du jour for subsequent generations. It will never go away.

Seems a bit harsh, but that's what it says on this cue card.

I'm agnostic on that count: it's less about the need to see penises on television (if that's all I want, the internet has more, and better) than about finding a coherent and compelling reason for the show's choices about nudity.

Agreed - I didn't mean the ratio itself, just the narrative justification for what the episode showed and didn't show.

it's been talked to fucking death here at this point

I wasn't criticizing your admiration: I was criticizing the double-standard that allows you to admire, but to complain that other people have exhausted a topic you think is insignificant anyway.

Best moment in an episode packed with great moments. Maybe of the season. I started clapping.

I'm just gonna be totally honest here: your complaint would ring less hollow if you weren't slobbering over Missandei's nudity a few comment threads above. No wonder you're 'fucking sick' of a conversation over a show that's giving you what you want.

She's unambiguously my favorite character, and my favorite duo on the show is Cersei and her big goblet of wine. She does more with a smirk than some characters do with a monologue.

Made it halfway through that Sesame Street clip and I'm bawling like a baby. Damn.

I don't think that's a historically consistent trend at all. Most of our genres of comedy - from Aristophanes through Arrested Development - are built on deflating the egos of unlikable people. And it's only recently that our television dramas have been so antihero obsessed: for most of the history of dramatic TV, I…

Well, all of Parks and Recreation would be a counterexample, but I don't know if that axiom applies to comedy as well. Still, one of the reason I love the show so much is that everyone on it is fundamentally decent, and doing what they think is best for the community.

All the focus is on the façade shoot-out (with good reason), but my favorite bit of visual candy was actually in the cramped office in Reno. There's a fantastic shot at an unusual angle to the corners of the room, with Malvo in the background and his feet in the foreground, the other character in profile silhouette…

Hoorah! I thought he deserved it for his last movie, so I won't complain.

Heh, don't sweat it. I just thought it was funny.

I waited until this thread was dead to respond, but…