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Category: The Slog

What I’m Reading in 2019

  View this post on Instagram   New book day! A post shared by Sam Flynn (@samflynn1992) on Nov 16, 2018 at 1:42pm PST List-making is a blessing and a curse. It’s satisfying to make them, at least for me, to organize my thoughts or arrange my tasks. Of course,…

Where I’ve Been and Where I’m Going

I’m 11. I’m in detention, tracing Middle-earth over and over again. Printed off maps of Tolkien’s created world sit beneath the paper, giving me the lines to trace over and over again. Every day, I think of books, stories, ideas. Escapes, over and over again. I’m in detention and I…

‘Game of Thrones’: ‘Beyond the Wall’ is Beyond the Pale (Review)

Tormund is absolutely right: smart people would be nowhere near the events of “Beyond the Wall” the penultimate episode in Game of Thrones‘ abbreviated seventh season. It’s probably why George R.R. Martin won’t do such a thing, with the Wight Hunt beyond teh Wall is an invention of the TV…

‘Game of Thrones’: ‘Eastwatch’ Does The Work Of Three Episodes (Review)

“Eastwatch” felt like the second season premiere of this all-too-short penultimate season of Game of Thrones. There were so many moving pieces and ground covered to set up the final two episodes that the whiplash left me hazy on the details. “Wait, so after Dany’s big victory, they want to…

‘Game of Thrones’: A Feast for Fans in Season 7 Midpoint Episode ‘The Spoils of War’ (Review)

“The Spoils of War” refers to the ongoing conflict in Westeros but also to what fans got in the shortest episode Game of Thrones has yet aired. But runtimes are deceptive and the episode feels plenty full, with two heavy-hitting sequences anchoring it: the Stark family reunion at Winterfell as…

‘Game of Thrones’: Speeding Through The Good Stuff In ‘The Queen’s Justice’ (Review)

In an earlier season, the build-up to the meeting of “ice and fire” as the red priestess Melisandre describes the meeting of Daenerys Targaryen, exiled Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and Jon Snow, the bastard King in the North. But I wonder if, in the eagerness to unspool the endgame,…

‘Game of Thrones’: Narrative Branches Are Chopped Off In ‘Stormborn’ (Review)

There were several more war councils and strategy meetings in”Stormborn,” the second episode of Game of Thrones‘ abbreviated and penultimate seventh season. But unlike the premiere, which acted as an extended prologue, there was a significant amount of forward momentum to the plotting and a big action scene to signal…

The Board Is Set and the Pieces Are Moving In ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 Premiere ‘Dragonstone’ (Review)

Box office is down at theaters this summer amidst tired franchise offerings. But on Sundays, at the same 9 p.m. hour, TV is proving how it has caught up to cinema. On one hand, there’s Twin Peaks, an auteur’s acid trip courtesy of David Lynch, and at 10 episodes into his…

‘The Fate of the Furious’ Review: An Aging But Efficient Machine

The Fast and Furious films are much like the cars they’re about. The series is a machine that’s had parts interchanged and souped up over the years. The Fate of the Furious, the eighth installment in the most improbable saga in blockbuster cinema, shows the first signs of wear and tear.…

‘Kong: Skull Island’ Review: Glorious Monster Movie Fan Fiction

Kong: Skull Island is a movie for the child and inner geek inside us all. Rife with giant monster fights and classic movie references, this King Kong-by-way-of-Apocalypse-Now reboot has more on its mind than just spectacle but not quite the bandwidth to handle it. Though it’s hampered by its own preoccupations…