Game of Thrones Recap - Season 5, Episode 5 - Sons Of The Harpy

The blood was flowing on Thrones tonight and I was into it. So good to see Sir Barristan kick ass right! All in all a major step up from last week.

Margaery Mayhem - 5 points. While she was in two scenes this episode she did get to storm into a room like a boss and really emasculate her husband. She's becoming Cersei and she doesn't even know it.

Direwolf Badassery - 0 points. Sometimes I wonder if the direwolves are still on this show?

1. The first we see of the legendary Ser Jorah is him setting off via boat on a journey to the promised land. His new journey begins! As one of my favorite characters - I hope he is welcomed back by Daenerys - that is if she still alive when he gets there.

2. The Harpies are not to be messed with and I was shocked how quickly they dispatched so many Un-Sullied. Maybe if the Un-Sullied weren't getting lullabies on the regular they'd be able to step up and fight when needed. Daenerys is in way over her head though and now needs her dragons more than ever - they've always bailed her out in the past so maybe this time it will be the same?

3. Jaime Lannister is turning into a real softie huh? He's all emotional about why is he going on his mission. For love of Cersei? For love of his daughter? He better abandon all that real quick because his fighting skills aren't what they used to be and from the looks of those sand-snake warriors - he is going to need them.

4. Mace Tyrell has got to be the biggest bumbling idiot in the whole capital. The guy is just so goofy I wonder if he even knows that Ser Janos is probably going to kill him? Gotta get Grandma Tyrell up in here - she'd never let things get this crazy.

5. Stannis's wife may suck terribly but whoah is Stannis the father of the year after tonight. What I love about Stannis is he displays his loyalty as a parent and as a friend with epic tales of how hard he works. His explanation to Shireen about how hard he worked to save her was beautiful. I'm #teamStannis now than ever before.

6. I hope that Sansa has absorbed everything she can from Littlefinger because with her gone, she's going to need a whole bunch of political tricks. The Boltons are evil people and she may be out of her league. Nice to see those Winterfell crypts again though.

7. How about those sparrows just raising hell in the capital huh? Something tells me that while they may act in the name of the Light of the Seven they are just as power hungry as the Lannisters. I do not trust their intentions one bit.

8. Bronn is such a great character - his explanation of wanting a boring death was a simple way that tells so much about the character. By the way, can you imagine the thrill of blowing up all those ships at Blackwater!

9. Anyone else miss Hodor?

10.Jon Snow refuses Melisandre was a total power move and I love it even though her parting line of "you know nothing Jon Snow" was a total gut punch. Let's hope he can keep it together because the White Walkers (remember them) are coming. They're still coming right?

Game Of Thrones Recap - Season 5, Episode 3 - High Sparrow

For the first time ever I thought tonight's Throne's episode was a little bit boring. The first part of any season has always been set-up but with so many characters you can really feel the plot gears turning.

Direwolf Badassery -None and I'm sad about it

Margaery Mayhem - 150 Points. Between deflowering virgins, getting married, epic brunches, manipulating your husband to get rid of his Mom, and finally confronting your in-laws tonight was Margaery's finest hour. 

1. Sir Jaqen is the true rock star of this show. Not only does he live in a house full of sweet bonfires, but he can shape shift, has fantastic hair, and constantly drops truth left and right. He's like the cooler version of Littlefinger.

2. Tommen is happiest person in the history of this show. He gets to lose his virginity to Margaery, have pomegranate juice brought to him at any time, and sleep on sheets that seriously comfortable. #thedream.

3. Cersei's maester is doing some "work" and it involves someone underneath a sheet moaning and making sudden movements. In case you haven't connected the dots - I think that person has to be the mountain who we last saw in the Maester's chambers. If the mountain rides again I wouldn't rule the Lannisters out completely.  

4. I find the Bolton's to be extremely un-interesting characters and I wish someone would just kill all of them already.

5. Pod and Lady Brienne are the new Arya & The Hound. They could easily have a buddy cop franchise.

6. The scene where Arya cast aside her old life (except Needle) was one of the most beautifully shot scenes in the history of the show. I'm sure the Croatian landscape helps but give up to to director Mark Mylod for such a gorgeous scene.

7. Ned Stark once told Jon Snow that "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword," and it's good to see Jon following his father's advice in matters of the Night's Watch. I do think that part of that was a show-off to Stannis. I've always liked how kind-hearted Jon is so I hope he doesn't become totally ruthless.

8. Little Finger was dropping some epic quotations tonight including "There is no justice in the world. Not unless we make it."

9. There seemed to be an excessive amount of CG this episode. Every shot was a landscape, a new city, or some long and winding street. I've never found this distracting in the past but tonight it was.

10. Finally we got to see more about "The Sparrows" and if they've cast an actor as serious as Jonathan Pryce in the role you know it's going to be juicy. My sense is that if has followers busting into public places - he is not as meager and pious as he looks. Kind of reminds me of the warlocks in Qarth and we know what happened to them!

Game Of Thrones Recap - Season 5, Episode 2 - The House of Black & White

That was a really solid episode that just rocketed the plot forward. I mean where do you ever begin? How about at the end with that hardcore "this show is all about fantasy" visual of Drogon flying toward the river that leads to the Disney castle?

Direwolf Badassery - None whatsoever. Kind of disappointing actually.

Margaery Mayhem - Cersei called her a whore which I think counts for .5 points. Right?

1. "Announcing our arrival," says the Captain of the ship that takes Arya towards The House of Black & White. That's right, brace yourself for Arya ninja training with Sir Jaqen! So glad he actually showed up.

2. Sansa's dressing down of Lady Brienne was classic Sansa - just being a stupid teenage bratty girl. She's always like that and while it's good for her as a character - it's going to lead to a bad place for her soon.

3. Of all the plot lines I'm most intrigued by Bronn & Jamie going to Dorne. They're like the Crockett & Tubbs of Westeros - going to be hell to pay over there. Or maybe?

4. Let's talk about Dorne! Besides being shot in gorgeous looking Spain - there is a lot of action going on here in the one scene we saw. Oberyn's girlfriend is wicked upset but his brother Doran proves to be much less showy than everyone's favorite overly showy spear combat expert, or should I say former overly showy spear combat expert. I'm intrigued to see how he handles this situation.

5. Give it up for Jon Snow - pumped to see what he does as Lord Commander. Also how cool is it that every potential Lord Commander has a hype man!

6. All the Daenery's stuff just isn't connecting with me. More internal trouble, more squabbles, more slave/master drama. Just get a move on and roll on the throne already! No one is even talking about it anymore - when she was with the Dothraki that's all they talked about!

7. Cersei is not getting away with the stunts that she used to get away with. Back in the day she'd dominate that council meeting - now she's got people walking out. Not a good sign.

8. Gotta say Daario Naharis stabbing that guy through the wall was VERY IMPRESSIVE. I hope he gets more to do this season than stab people through walls, make witty one-liners, and execute people off screen.

9. Really love the imagery of The House Of Black & White - especially as a metaphor for the darkness in Arya's soul. She really wants to kill A LOT of people and seems to turn to violence at every opportunity.

10. By far the best part of this episode was the thrilling horse back chase in the woods. And it got finished off with some nice hyper violent swordplay. I always like that!

Game of Thrones Recap - Season 5, Episode 1 - The Wars To Come

Welcome back to TPG's Game Time where I drop the 10 most important takeways from the latest Game of Thrones Episode. And man what an opening episode was this - tons of set-up and the death of one of my favorite characters. But first let's get to the classic check ins.

Direwolf Badassery - 1 Point. I caught Ghost chewing on some meat (probably a dead Wildling) at one point but it was quick.

Margaery Mayhem - 5 Points! This is a new category for whenever Margaery does some scheming shit. Today not only did she dress down her brother's latest lover but she also dropped some serious dangle fingers on Tommen - young man is all types of confused right now!

1. How about that flashback sequence to a young Cersei to set the tone for the whole season? A lot of talk about Father's in that opening, really harping on a key theme of the whole show but also establishing that we're gonna be getting a lot of Cersei politics this season.

2. As soon as I saw that Unsullied warrior bro start getting sung to I knew he was done for. Bodes poorly for their army and Daenerys if her warriors are getting their lullaby on.

3. So Jon Snow is training with Olly - who killed his lady love. I think he's moved on but maybe he also sees a bit of himself in the young kid. Here's hoping Olly becomes a resident warrior. 

4. Once again Lady Brienne just misses Sansa Stark. This is turning into a comedy of sorts.

5. So now there are cult-like monks in King's Landing who call themselves the sparrows - including Lancel Lannister who is arguably a pretty important character that I seem to have forgotten about. But I think with him bringing up Cersei's backstory and "The Light Of The Seven" we'll be hearing from him again soon.

6. Daenery's for the first time opens the season in a city where it looks she's staying put. That doesn't mean she won't have any drama. She's got masked assassins killing her men, civilians who want to bring back gladiator fighting, and bedroom decoration to worry about. Just kidding she needs to worry about her dragons, which she clearly has no control over. 

7. Gotta say love that scene with Mance and Jon. This line in particular - "The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted" really jumped out at me. Mance - wish you were around longer!

8. I was weirdly fascinated by that elevator ride Jon shared with Melisandre, not just because she was grilling him for clearly nefarious reasons but also because the view it provided of just how big the wall really is.

9. No sign of Arya this episode but I think we'll be seeing her soon, hopefully she'll already have gone full Ninja.

10. So in the end Jon Snow mercy-kills Mance and the way it goes down is visually framed the exact same way that Olly killed Ygritte. This is the show-runners visually representing that Jon clearly is still caught between the Wildlings and The Nights Watch.

Pumped for next week!

How American Sniper Lets Veterans Down

I enjoyed "American Sniper" way more than I expected to. Going in I was expecting something along the lines of the hero worship of "Lone Survivor" but what I got was a very well acted character piece with some phenomenal action set-pieces. Yet, for all of its strong performances and epic battle scenes, the film completely misses its chance to be something extraordinary by failing to support the very veterans it seems to praise.

While there's some murkiness around the true "legend" status of Chris Kyle, there is no doubt that he was a fearless warrior when his country needed him the most. In the film, I was put-off by his relentless labeling of the enemy as "savages," but was extremely impressed with how director Clint Eastwood portrayed Kyle's relentless sense of duty to country and support of his brothers in arms. I was also moved by the scenes of Kyle interacting with physically wounded veterans at home, something I admire Kyle for more than his record of confirmed kills. Even now after his death Kyle's foundation lives on in helping veteran's get adjusted to life after deployment. It's tragic then that for someone like Kyle who dedicated his life to others that the people who told his story on film don't seem to share his values when it comes to veterans.

It ultimately comes down to the end of the film. Chris, seemingly adjusted back to life stateside, says goodbye to his family and gets in his truck with Eddie Ray Routh (you never learn his name in the movie), a former marine suffering from PTSD. The way Eastwood shoots this scene makes Routh appear like some kind of psycho villain, not someone suffering. Kyle's wife Taya (Sienna Miller) watches hesitantly as Kyle interacts with Routh, who is portrayed as hyper skinny, dark eyed, and intensely brooding - it's an image that carries so much judgement and no balance - something the rest of the film does so well.  By portraying him as some kind of zombie who viewers know is going to kill the hero - Eastwood seemingly is lumping veteran's into two buckets - the tough heroes who can deal with PTSD like Kyle and the dangerous psychos who can't. 

With over 1,000 PTSD cases being diagnosed a week and too many tragic instances of violent acts committed by veterans, the filmmaker's failing at addressing this issue is a disservice to the brave veterans who are struggling with mental health each day. Not every veteran's story ends up on the silver screen, but every veteran's struggles both stateside and in combat deserve more attention. "American Sniper" had that opportunity to ignite the conversation, and failed, and that is a great disservice to veterans everywhere.