Tag Archives: tv recaps

Jill Duggar Responds to Backlash Over Kinky Sex Life With Biblical Word Salad

Last week marked 5 years since Jill Duggar married Derick Dillard in front a few thousand of her family’s closest friends (and a couple million TV viewers.) For the most part, Jill and Derick have done exactly what’s expected of them. They started cranking out kids almost immediately and boasted of their religious devotion at every opportunity – which are pretty much the two most important things any Duggar couple can do. But in many ways, Jill and Derick have defied tradition and blazed their own trail. For example, remember when Derick was fired from Counting On for hurling bigoted, transphobic statements on social media? Appalling stuff – but for many of the family’s evangelical fans, it pales in comparison to the revelation that Jill and Derick enjoy sex. Yes, the Dillards celebrated their fifth anniversary last week, and the way they chose to celebrate this raised more than a few eyebrows. They marked the occasion by combining Duggar-like wholesomeness with the kind of sexual deviancy one might expect from those sinful Kardashians. Jill and Derick went to a theme park and caught Toy Story 4 in theaters – but they also posted a photo that showed a copy of the Kama Sutra and a sex game for couples. Seriously. That was a thing that happened. And as OK! magazine points out, many of Jill’s followers were not happy about that unsolicited glimpse into her sex life. “No offense to y’all but I don’t want to know what goes on in between the sheets! Please keep it PG remember you were raised a Christian,” one person wrote . “Bible open in the background, Kama Sutra and massage oil in the foreground … just weird,” commented another “fan.” Interjected another: “Why oh why do you feel the need to post this? You wear modest clothing to keep your body covered, yet you share intimate details about your sex life with the world?” “This is very odd to me.” Some fans took issue not with the sexual nature of the post, but with the fact that Jill and Derick are endorsing a book that’s not Jesus-approved. “Am surprised you would read the Kama Sutra, it is Hindu,” one follower commented. “You are inviting Satan into your marriage.” Amazingly, Jill took the time to dignify this idiocy by responding to it. Even more amazing is the fact that she didn’t simply tell these people to take inspiration from some of the more ambitious diagrams in the Kama Sutra and go eff themselves: “We are not recommending the Kama Sutra,” Jill wrote in an edited caption for the post. “We believe marriage is ordained by God and husbands and wives should filter everything they read and hear together through the lense of the Bible and not practice anything unbiblical.” She added: “The little book pictured is a modern, smaller, cleaner, edited version that doesn’t focus on spiritual aspects, homosexual, or other extramarital relationships, and again, we don’t take everything in there either as the truth. “It is always good to be aware and careful of what we allow into our minds, hearts and marriages.” Good to know, Jill! View Slideshow: Jill Duggar Encourages U.S. Wives to Rail Their Husbands Many, Many Times Per Week Jill concluded: “We’ve not read the actual Kama Sutra and only promote biblical marriage (i.e. between a man and woman who are married).” “We just wanted to clarify since there has been a lot of discussion after this post,” she added. That’s a whole lot of words to justify having a little sexy-time fun with your husband. View Slideshow: Duggar Daughters’ Raciest Outfits Revealed: What Dress Code?! [Updated] Can someone who knows the Bible better than we do dig up some quote about the importance of minding one’s own business? If it’s not in there, just make something up. Most of these judgemental asshats have never actually read the thing anyway.

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Jill Duggar Responds to Backlash Over Kinky Sex Life With Biblical Word Salad

90 Day Fiance Happily Ever After Recap: Ashley Calls Police on Jay!!

90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? continued on Sunday night. After discovering and even confirming the extent to which Jay cheated, Ashley packed his things. When he had the nerve to show up in her home, things went from bad to worse. Larissa had her hearing, but felt so betrayed and hurt by her husband that she didn't even tell him how things went. Chantel had to face the ugly truth after Pedro's sister showed her footage that confirmed her worst fears. Russ fends off Juan for the billionth time while Paola begins to spiral because of her postpartum issues. And Nicole has the most heartbreaking conversation with Azan. Does he even love her? 1. Ashley. Has. Had. Enough. 2. As you may recall … Ashley went to ask Jay’s friends at the barbershop if maybe he had cheated. She was suspicious. She gets told about how he banged some girl in the bathroom and she even sees a video of him getting roughed up by the owner for disrespecting his establishment. Ashley even got confirmation from the girl herself, who shot down Jay’s claims that it was only a blowjob. 3. Ashley is cutting him out of her life She packs up his things with her friend there to help her. After the call from Jay’s side piece and the details she got from her, Ashley isn’t really treating this as a delicate matter. 4. She doesn’t even want to see him Ashley asks Jay to just pick up his things, which she has packed for him and placed on the porch, and go. Unfortunately, Jay doesn’t listen. 5. He uses his key and barges into the house Jay tries to talk with Ashley about this. Maybe if he’d groveled or stuck to apologizing, it would have worked … but probably not. He didn’t actually admit to boning this girl (real talk: would it being “just” a blowjob have made a difference? It’s still sex and it’s still cheating). 6. Ashley didn’t take it well Furious, she drove Jay out of her house. While he should not have reentered without her permission in the first place, she definitely went overboard with this. View Slideshow

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90 Day Fiance Happily Ever After Recap: Ashley Calls Police on Jay!!

Keeping Up with the Kardashians Rekap: The Klaws Kome Out!

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is getting pretty desperate for storylines in Season 16. It’s nothing to be ashamed over. It’s something that happens to all long-running television shows. On Sunday night, however, the reality star really scraped the bottom of the writing barrel, pretending that feuds existed between multiple family members who always get along. FIRST and FOREMOST, Kendall Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian continued to have beef… for really the dumbest of reasons. “Kourtney and I have been getting a bit closer over the past couple years and I love that she hangs out with me and my friends,” Kendall explained in a confessional. “But, to be honest, I felt like there were just some moments where she was a bit rude and it really started to get to me at a certain point.” She was referring here to Kourtney coming on a ski vacation with Kendall and allegedly “trying to be cool” by insulting her half-sister all over the place. For example, the oldest Kardashian put her “muddy” shoes all over Kendall’s car, Jenner told Khloe and also told her to “chill the f-ck out” when she was stressed about losing keys while skiing. Did Kourtney agree with this analysis?  Of course not. She also confided in Khloe and said the thought Kendall was being “so f-cking annoying,” supposedly throwing a fit over adding potatoes to a grocery list and then getting mad when Kourtney said she would cover the cost. Yes, these were truly, reportedly topics of debate between the loved ones. “I definitely think it was unfair for Kendall to say I was bullying her,” Kourtney told Khloe in the car, adding: “We were just having a good time. She’s just way more uptight than I thought, because I wasn’t trying to make fun of her at all.” Kendall Jenner vs. Kourtney Kardashian: What’s Their Beef?!? The argument over the potato actually continued between Kendall and Kourtney later on because the former took major exception to how the latter was making her look. “Shut the f-ck up she said that,” Kendall snapped. “I did not say one thing about steering off of a f-cking list. This is gonna make me mad, right now. I hate that she’s like trying to make herself look better to make me look f-cking crazy. According to Kendall, she just wanted to avoid “wasting food.” Following her chat with Khloe, a peeved Kendall called up Kourtney to hash things out; that was NOT the end result, however. “Listen, I don’t have time to talk with a lunatic. We can talk when you’re ready to talk like an adult,” Kourtney told her. After Khloe tried to make peace, and got blamed herself for spreading so much gossip, this happened: Kendall Jenner Physically FIGHTS Kourtney Kardashian in New Promo! YIKES, right? Naturally, it was revealed that the two sisters were play fighting in order to punish Khloe. “We came to the conclusion that Khloe made this a little bit worse than it needed to be,” Kendall confessed later on. “So, we decided to stage a little fight to annoy Khloe and freak her out a bit for getting into our business.” This had to be the first time the stars admitted a storyline was fake, right? Progress! Elsewhere on the episode, Kris got into it with Kylie over… a parking spot? Over Kylie being a successful businesswoman? It was hard to really tell because this was also so stupid. “In front of everybody at the office she’s like, ‘Don’t ever park in my parking space again. It’s the one thing that means something to me. I’ve worked so hard,’” Kris told Kourtney over the phone at one point, stunned that Kylie talked down to her. And also seemingly stunned that Kylie does work, despite Kris often defending her in the past over this exact issue. “I’m important,” Kris added. “I’ve helped build this business with Kylie and I’m older. I’m the mom. I deserve a little bit of respect.” How did Kylie feel about her mom challenging her at work? We’ve also got a clip of this ridiculous exchange and debate below: Kourtney Kardashian to Kylie Jenner: You’re Such an Entitled Billionaire! What did you think of Keeping Up with the Kardashians this week? Engrossing and suspenseful and intense and emotional? Or is Blac Chyna right for once and this show has gotten very contrived and lame ?

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Keeping Up with the Kardashians Rekap: The Klaws Kome Out!

The Real Housewives of New York Recap: Bethenny Frankel Unloads on Luann de Lesseps

Wednesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of New York finally showed us that blowout fight from the midseason trailer, and it did not disappoint.  If you watch The Real Housewives of New York online of late, you know that Luann has bordered on insufferable.  Every single time any of the ladies have tried to help her, she’s complained that she’s too busy to give a you-know-what because she’s a cabaret girl.  When the explosive episode kicked off Bethenny and Ramona were trying to get through to Ramona that her drinking is a cause for concern.  This conversation occured shortly after Sonja threatened to knock Bethenny out before smacking her head off a table. It was pretty wild.  Sonja, however, welcomed the feedback from the ladies, and ultimately decided to take Luann up on the offer to attend an AA meeting with her.  Before we got to the AA meeting, new addition to the cast, Barbara Kavovit admitted that she felt left out.  Bethenny wanted to find out why  Barbara felt that way, so she pulled her aside. “If you guys would rather me go home, I’ll go home,” Barbara said while simultaneously fighting back the tears.  Bethenny told her that she felt she was too up Lu’s ass to forge friendships with the other ladies.  Well, she didn’t quite say it that  way, but you get the gist. Ultimately, Barbara agreed that she could be a better friend away from Luann and that was that.  Sonja struggled at the AA meeting, but she put on a brave face. It all came to the forefront when Sonja broke down at the beach when she met up with the ladies.  Sonja later admitted that it was too much for her to take on board, and the ladies tried to help her.  Everyone except Luann, that is. Luann said that she was staying at the beach, leaving the other ladies to help Sonja.  “Anybody want to go for a swim on the beach?” she said while Sonja bawled her eyes. “I’m gonna go for a swim. I’ll see you back at the house.” Bethenny was shook, and not in a good way. It was like she was ready to unleash holy hell on the countess, but she bit her tongue.  At the house, Sonja admitted that Luann essentially abandoned her, despite being the one to bring her to the AA meeting.  While this was going down, Luann posed for photos, one of them was at a poster promoting her cabaret show.  Did this prove how self-absorbed Luann was at this moment in time? Probably, but we need to remember here that Luann has her own $hit going on.  The next night is when the good stuff happened. Barbara told Luann during dinner that she felt like she had been iced out for no reason, and she was not going to stand for it.  Luann gave her a hug, but Bethenny saw this as Lu’s way of brushing this under the rug.  “I felt so protective of you, Lu, because I’m protective of the people that I love,” Barbara said of the situation, prompting Luann to say it was “not my fault.” “It kind of is, though,” Tinsley said even though nobody asked her remind them she was still on the show. “Because you let Barbara do that for you, have the shield, protect you in that way — and you never [stick up] for her.” “I never what?” Luann asked before making fun of Tinsley Tinsley for slurring the words “stick up.” Queen Bethenny had heard enough. She flipped the eff out.  “You’re insufferable! You’re insufferable!” she scremed as she slammed her hands on the table. “Oh, wow. What a day this has been,” Lu fired back. “This is it! Are you gonna sing it? Sing it!” Bethenny hurled. . “Jesus, I go for a swim, and this is what happens? Gotta be careful when you leave the room in this group, huh?” Lu said, trying to keep her composure.  “When’s the last time you asked me how I am about Dennis?” Bethenny asked. “When’s the last time?” “When’s the last time you asked me how I am?” Luann said in response.  “All the time!” Bethenny screamed. “You are intolerable. You never change. ‘Cause you never change ’cause you dined out on your sobriety.” “You’re dining out on it. Yes, you are. Dining out. Yes, you are.” Luann then said she was annoyed that Bethenny would say she’s using her sobriety as a crutch.  “B Strong? You should be so proud of yourself. You’re bully strong,” she said. “Let me explain something to you clearly,” Bethenny yelled, slamming her hands on the table one more time.  “Dennis helped you with your case 100 percent. When’s the last time you asked me how I feel about it? You actually are [the only one who hasn’t checked in on me]. Unnerving. It’s unnerving!” Luann claimed the evening was “not enjoyable,” as Bethenny shot back that “the truth hurts.” “I’m so mad!” Bethenny said as she looked like she was going to flip the table. “I did your intervention, and my f–king boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, ex-fiancé died of an overdose, and you haven’t checked in on me!” “Do you understand?! I did your intervention while my guy died of a drug overdose. And you haven’t asked how I am! He died! He’s in the ground!” Bethenny was up at Lu’s face, saying that her friend  never checked in on her.  “No, you haven’t! No, you haven’t! Not one time!” Bethenny shouted before mimicking her new nemesis. “‘I’m going through a lot. Come to my thing.’ Cabaret! F–king Cuban cabaret upstate. And cabaret, cabaret, cabaret all day. LIFE IS NOT A CABARET. It is actually not a cabaret!” “Wow, look at you,” Luann managed to say. “Look in the f–king mirror! Look at me?!” Bethenny screamed across the table. “You never checked in on Dennis. Not once! You’ve never asked about Dennis. You never asked. YOU NEVER ASKED!” she continued.  “No, you don’t. No, you don’t! Every day it’s about you. Every f–king day it’s about you. Every f–king second it’s about you. ‘Ohhh, because I didn’t get a massage.’ BECAUSE YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE THAT DIDN’T EVEN HAVE LUNCH WITH US TODAY, BUT YOU GO TO LOOK AT YOUR OWN POSTER!” “I went for a swim at the beach, for God’s sake,” Luann replied, implying everything with her was all good.  “Do you understand it was a whole weekend?!” Bethenny continued in her tirade. “I took weeks of my life for you! … I had lawyers come to your house on a Sunday. I spoke to your kids. I sat outside on your driveway to make sure that you didn’t drive your car!” “You almost crashed the (inaudible) and killed your friends! You were running in a field in negligee and had to be taken in cop cars, and I made sure that they didn’t record it so you ultimately didn’t get arrested!” “You left the f–king rehab that I got you for free two weeks early FOR CABARET! YOU’RE A SICKO. FOR CABARET? YOU LEFT REHAB? I got it for free! You’re sick!!!” Oh yes, this drama will continue next week.  View Slideshow: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Official Season 9 Portraits!

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The Real Housewives of New York Recap: Bethenny Frankel Unloads on Luann de Lesseps

Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Meredith, Alex, and Richard Get FIRED

Thursday’s season finale of Grey’s Anatomy was a wild episode that picked up in the immediate aftermath of DeLuca taking the fall for Meredith’s insurance fraud.  If you watch Grey’s Anatomy online , you know that Meredith and Alex were inside a chamber with very little oxygen to save their patient.  For that reason, Mer could not run after the cops to tell them it was her who made the dumb decision to doctor the insurance documents. Meredith didn’t get much time to speak about her issues because Alex wanted to know the truth about Jo.  Surely Meredith would allow Jo to tell him in her own time, right? Wrong.  Meredith filled in all the blanks, and Alex got progressively madder with every beat of the story.  But Meredith told Alex that neither of them could give Jo the support she needs, and that’s why she agreed to get some help.  Meredith rushed to the conference room with Bailey and Catherine, telling them that she was the one who should be arrested.  Alex and Richard appeared to say that they were all part of the con and that’s when things got gnarly.  “What can I do? You’re fired,” Bailey said. “All three of you. You’re fired.” Meredith rushed home and told her kids that she had to go do something, but she would be back soon. Was this her saying goodbye to them? It certainly seemed that way.  Mer found herself visiting DeLuca in jail, telling him that she needed to clean up the stuff she caused.  “As much as this terrifies me, I love you too,” Meredith said as she walked away, presumably to tell the cops the truth.  Meanwhile, the fog was causing chaos for the staff and patients on their way to the hospital.  Owen was stuck in a traffic jam with the blood donor, and only Levi could calm her down.  An ambulance crew stepped in to save the day, and all of them made it to the hospital to save the patients’ life.  Then there was Jackson and Maggie. The pair were on their camping trip, but realized they needed to get to safety.  Jackson ultimately told Maggie he would be back in ten minutes, but he never returned, prompting Maggie to go after him.  What the heck happened? Teddy started the hour off in labor, and ended it with a child and back in a relationship with Owen. Poor Tom was at home building all the baby furniture.  Yeah, he’s going to find himself without a girlfriend in the fall.  Yikes, right?! Love was also in the air. Amelia confirmed to Link that she was not getting straight into a relationship after ditching Owen.  The reason? She wanted to find out who she was out of a relationship.  It’s a fair reason, and Link was happy because Amelia said she was not ruling anything out.  The other relationship that flourished involved Levi and Nico.  Nico realized he was acting like an ass, and set out to get his man back. It was easy, and Levi closed the hour coming out to his mom.  What did YOU think of the season finale? Did it hit you right in the feels? Hit the comments below.  View Slideshow: Grey’s Anatomy Spoilers: It’s About to Go DOWN in Season 15

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Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Meredith, Alex, and Richard Get FIRED

Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 Review: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Many years ago on The Office, a question was posed to Michael Scott: Would you rather be loved or feared? “Easy. Both,” he replied. “I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.” On  Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 , however, it was finally made frustratingly and painfully clear: Daenerys Targaryen is no Michael Scott. In the most telling scene of the penultimate installment, Dany is pissed that Jon Snow spilled his all his heritage tea to his siblings, telling her nephew and lover after burning Varys alive for his betrayal: “This is a victory for [Sansa]. Now she knows what happens when people hear the truth about you. Far more people in Westeros love you than love me. I don’t have love here. I only have fear.” Jon says he loves her. He assures Dany that she is, and always will be, his Queen. “Is that all I am to you? Your queen?” Dany responds, leaning in for an incestuous makeout session that gets rebuffed. “Alright then,” she says. “Let it be fear.” This is when it’s made clear just what will happen to King’s Landing … and also where Game of Thrones decides to destroy Dany’s character once and for all. First of Her Name? The Unburnt? Queen of Meereen? Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men? Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea? Breaker of Chains? Mother of Dragons? Dany can now add Stereotypical and Sexist Portrayer of What the Writers Apparently Think Happens When a Woman Isn’t Love by a Man Exactly How She Wants To Be. Is that all she is to Jon? His Queen? That’s all Dany has wanted to be to anyone since Season 1. The Dany that has been presented to viewers for seven-plus seasons was never about love. She was never driven by this concept or emotion. She was ruthless, she was calculating and she was focused on her self-proclaimed destiny of sitting on the Iron Throne — but she was also about fighting for the innocent. What happened to the woman who freed slaves? Who talked about breaking the wheel? She was replaced on this final season by someone who claimed to Sansa weeks ago that she only chose to fight the White Walkers because she was just so smitten with Jon Snow — and who chose to go completely, totally and utterly off the rails on this episode because she was just so unloved. The abrupt character change has been more brutal to watch than any beheading. As you must know by now if you’re reading this, Team Winterfell successfully defeated the Golden Army and Cersei’s soldiers, largely thanks to Dany finally remembering that her dragon can shoot fire at enemies. The other side had given up. The bell signaling as much had been rung. But Dany needed to make her future peons fear her. She needed to kill thousands of innocents now so that thousands more could grow up without a tyrants rule down the line, according to her own warped logic from earlier in the episode. So The Mad Queen finally embraced this nickname and went all Dracarys on the men, women and children of King’s Landing. It made no sense. It turned an admirably strong and powerful woman into someone so scorned by her boyfriend that she decided to go crazy. Viewers can argue all they want about whether this has been teased since the beginning; since all that talk about Dany’s father, “The Mad King,” and how Targaryen blood is basically tainted with violence and instability. But Dany knew this about her family, vowed to remain above it all and continually followed through, staying rational and in control while doing what she felt necessary to achieve her dream. Then George R.R. Martin failed to finish his last book, the creators were forced to come up with their own ending and have dropped the ball here with not just Daenerys, but with Jamie as well. Talk about an even more abrupt and ridiculous character change! We spent season upon season watching Jamie Lannister evolve. One of the show’s most impressive accomplishments was turning Jamie from a renowned King Slayer and Attempted Child Killer into someone who knighted Brienne, realized the many errors of his evil sister-banging ways and was not dedicated to fighting for what is good and right. Until, that is, Sansa stated the obvious last week about how Cersei would be killed and then Jamie simply chose to be “hateful” again, breaking the heart of Brienne (another character ruined this season) and returning home to try and save Cersi. The siblings ended up dying together when the Red Keep crashed down upon them toward the end of Dany’s attack — but our hope for Jamie’s previously-well-earned redemption died long before that. What a mess. Did Martin explain his planned ending to producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and they were forced to reverse-engineer their own finale as a result? It seems very possible. There’s no way these two writers thought they’d have to come up with their own ending when they started working on the project. We can therefore understand the corner the show was perhaps backed into, but that doesn’t make the actul viewing of an episode such as this any more entertaining or any less frustrating. Dany has been a compassionate and harsh aspiring ruler; those two adjectives do not need to be in conflict with each other. Jamie has been a flawed, but developing and remorseful soldier; he had come the farthest of anyone on the show. And then, over the course of 80 minutes, the writers set fire to all that had been accomplished between these two fan favorites, setting up a finale that feels predictable ( Jon is clearly going to kill Dany , right?), anticlimactic and, worst, of all, unearned. Check out the official trailer here: Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 6 Preview: How Will It End?

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Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 Review: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 Review: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Many years ago on The Office, a question was posed to Michael Scott: Would you rather be loved or feared? “Easy. Both,” he replied. “I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.” On  Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 , however, it was finally made frustratingly and painfully clear: Daenerys Targaryen is no Michael Scott. In the most telling scene of the penultimate installment, Dany is pissed that Jon Snow spilled his all his heritage tea to his siblings, telling her nephew and lover after burning Varys alive for his betrayal: “This is a victory for [Sansa]. Now she knows what happens when people hear the truth about you. Far more people in Westeros love you than love me. I don’t have love here. I only have fear.” Jon says he loves her. He assures Dany that she is, and always will be, his Queen. “Is that all I am to you? Your queen?” Dany responds, leaning in for an incestuous makeout session that gets rebuffed. “Alright then,” she says. “Let it be fear.” This is when it’s made clear just what will happen to King’s Landing … and also where Game of Thrones decides to destroy Dany’s character once and for all. First of Her Name? The Unburnt? Queen of Meereen? Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men? Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea? Breaker of Chains? Mother of Dragons? Dany can now add Stereotypical and Sexist Portrayer of What the Writers Apparently Think Happens When a Woman Isn’t Love by a Man Exactly How She Wants To Be. Is that all she is to Jon? His Queen? That’s all Dany has wanted to be to anyone since Season 1. The Dany that has been presented to viewers for seven-plus seasons was never about love. She was never driven by this concept or emotion. She was ruthless, she was calculating and she was focused on her self-proclaimed destiny of sitting on the Iron Throne — but she was also about fighting for the innocent. What happened to the woman who freed slaves? Who talked about breaking the wheel? She was replaced on this final season by someone who claimed to Sansa weeks ago that she only chose to fight the White Walkers because she was just so smitten with Jon Snow — and who chose to go completely, totally and utterly off the rails on this episode because she was just so unloved. The abrupt character change has been more brutal to watch than any beheading. As you must know by now if you’re reading this, Team Winterfell successfully defeated the Golden Army and Cersei’s soldiers, largely thanks to Dany finally remembering that her dragon can shoot fire at enemies. The other side had given up. The bell signaling as much had been rung. But Dany needed to make her future peons fear her. She needed to kill thousands of innocents now so that thousands more could grow up without a tyrants rule down the line, according to her own warped logic from earlier in the episode. So The Mad Queen finally embraced this nickname and went all Dracarys on the men, women and children of King’s Landing. It made no sense. It turned an admirably strong and powerful woman into someone so scorned by her boyfriend that she decided to go crazy. Viewers can argue all they want about whether this has been teased since the beginning; since all that talk about Dany’s father, “The Mad King,” and how Targaryen blood is basically tainted with violence and instability. But Dany knew this about her family, vowed to remain above it all and continually followed through, staying rational and in control while doing what she felt necessary to achieve her dream. Then George R.R. Martin failed to finish his last book, the creators were forced to come up with their own ending and have dropped the ball here with not just Daenerys, but with Jamie as well. Talk about an even more abrupt and ridiculous character change! We spent season upon season watching Jamie Lannister evolve. One of the show’s most impressive accomplishments was turning Jamie from a renowned King Slayer and Attempted Child Killer into someone who knighted Brienne, realized the many errors of his evil sister-banging ways and was not dedicated to fighting for what is good and right. Until, that is, Sansa stated the obvious last week about how Cersei would be killed and then Jamie simply chose to be “hateful” again, breaking the heart of Brienne (another character ruined this season) and returning home to try and save Cersi. The siblings ended up dying together when the Red Keep crashed down upon them toward the end of Dany’s attack — but our hope for Jamie’s previously-well-earned redemption died long before that. What a mess. Did Martin explain his planned ending to producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and they were forced to reverse-engineer their own finale as a result? It seems very possible. There’s no way these two writers thought they’d have to come up with their own ending when they started working on the project. We can therefore understand the corner the show was perhaps backed into, but that doesn’t make the actul viewing of an episode such as this any more entertaining or any less frustrating. Dany has been a compassionate and harsh aspiring ruler; those two adjectives do not need to be in conflict with each other. Jamie has been a flawed, but developing and remorseful soldier; he had come the farthest of anyone on the show. And then, over the course of 80 minutes, the writers set fire to all that had been accomplished between these two fan favorites, setting up a finale that feels predictable ( Jon is clearly going to kill Dany , right?), anticlimactic and, worst, of all, unearned. Check out the official trailer here: Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 6 Preview: How Will It End?

Continue reading here:
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 Review: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 Review: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Slays

They say that love is a battlefield. On Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 , however, the concept of love appeared to trump anything that happened on the battlefield… … and it was exceptionally weird. Following a succesful battle against the Night King, nearly everyone in Winterfell was in a celebratory mood on Sunday night. That’s fine and great and understandable and all. We’d down a few pints of ale after defeating the army of the undead as well. But focus was shifted so strongly away from what Dany described as the “last war” still to come against Cersei that many of our heroes and heroines cared more about plotting their romantic gestures than plotting their next attack. This was no big deal when it involved poor Gendry (just made Lord of Storm’s End) proposing to Arya and the young Night Kingslayer responded by saying she’ll never be a Lady. However, it was a far bigger deal when it centered on Jaime and Brienne shedding both their armor and their clothing. These two have been through a lot together. There’s a very clear and strong bond there. But the show somehow couldn’t leave it alone, couldn’t just allow them to be respectful friends and battle partners. It had to give us a storyline in which Jaime got jealous of Tormund hitting on Brienne and therefore got drunk and followed her into her bedroom and the two had sex and then acted like a pair of totally smitten teenagers. Heck, totally middle middle schoolers, really. Because they were just so in love, Jaime and Brienne chose to stay behind in Winterfell, even after a plan was devised for two groups (one by boat and one by land) to storm King’s Landing and overthrow Cersei. Yes, Brienne (a proud knight who may be the best fighter in all of Westeros) and Jaime (who should want nothing more than to murder his sister and who isn’t a shabby fighter himself) stayed behind to hang out in bed all day. This changed, of course, after Sansa made a remark about Cersei eventually getting hanged and then Jaime broke Brienne’s heart by choosing to rush back and seemingly save his sister because he, too, is “hateful.” This reduced mighty Brienne of Tarth into a blubbering, crying mess and, just… WTF, Game of Thrones?!? But it got far worse and less sensical on two other fronts. First, Jon Snow proved that he was far better off when he knew nothing because he insisted on spilling the secret of his true identity to Sansa and Arya. He did this after Dany begged him not to because she wanted to be Queen and he didn’t — and it didn’t take a Tyrion-like mind to realize that Sansa would not just sit quietly on this information. Dany basically threatened her lover to take this secret to his grave or else they’d never live peacefully as a couple and she’d never reign peacefully as a monarch. Jon ignored her, however, and told Sansa and Arya everything. At least we assumed he did so — somehow, despite Jon’s heritage being THE main plot point right now, the series chose to cut away and not give us Arya and Sansa’s reaction to this bombshell. Dany did prove to be prophetic, though, when Sansa barely lasted one scene before telling Tyrion everything. This at least led to maybe our favorite scene of the episode, as Tyrion and Varys debated what the heck to do about it. Jon is the true heir to the Iron Throne. He is reasonable and popular and, as Varys astutely pointed out, perhaps the ideal ruler is someone who actually does not want to rule at all. But Tyrion remained steadfast in his opinion that Dany would make a great leader, despite her penchant for killing and her frightening talk earlier that it was her “destiny” to rid the world of tyrants. She seemed totally fine doing this by burning King’s Landing to the group and killing thousands of innocents in the process simply to dethrone Cersei. Thankfully, Tyrion convinced his Queen to at least try and strike a bargain; to offer to spare Cersei’s life in exchange for a quick surrender. Cut to the final, most confounding and both suspenseful and irritating scene of the episode. Cersei and her crew stood outside of the capitol’s gates and Tyrion delivered their terms. However, he did so while Cersei and her entourage held Missandei hostage. She was handcuffed and standing up high alongside Cersei and Euron (who has been told the child in Cersei’s belly belongs to him) and The Mountain. This development raised several questions, chief among them: How did the Golden Army capture Missandei, who Grey Worm had told to get on a skiff as soon as things turned violent when the Unsullied approached King’s Landing? How did the Golden Army even know who Missandei is? Was this scene really necessary? Let’s put aside the beef that many critics have, which is that a show lacking in diversity took a former slave and put her back in chains and then (SPOILER ALERT WE GUESS!) chopped her head off. Let’s just hone in on why this was even included in the episode … outside of the broader political/societal points one could make about Game of Thrones. Did we need yet another reminder that Cersei is a monster? Tyrion pleaded with his sister to surrender at one point because he claimed she was decided NOT this type of non-human being. But she has proven at every turn that she’s as monstrous as they come! She blew up the Sept of Baelor and killed like hundreds of people at once just a short while ago! The audience didn’t need to be told yet again that Cersei is the absolute worst. And Team Take This Bitch Down Forever shouldn’t have ever thought differently, either. It all felt unnecessary, akin to torture porn and a forced twist, orchestrated by the writers for full effect — when the past seven-plus seasons have already been more than enough to prepare us for Dany taking on Cersei and pursuing what she believes is rightfully hers. Whether Dany truly goes mad and goes all dracarys on King’s Landing is an intriguing cliffhanger. The closing shot of the Mother of Dragons in full-on motherf-cker mode was awesome. But the time spent on supposed romances this week – concluding with the pain of Grey Worm watching his girlfriend get executed – felt out of place, not wholly earned and often extraneous. Do you agree? What did you think overall?? Check out scenes below from Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5, which will allegedly be THE BEST THING EVER : Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 5 Preview: It Is ON!

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Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 4 Review: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Slays

The Real Housewives of New York Recap: SO. MANY. TEARS.

Wednesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of New York City was a tear-filled affair as two of the cast members broke down on camera.  Tinsley Mortimer’s breakup with Scott Kluth recently played out on camera, but that didn’t mean she got to spend some time in hiding as she got over the split.  Instead, she pressed on with her hosting duties at the Big Apple Circus. Mortimer got a little drunk during the event, an found herself embroiled in a war of words with her mother Dale by the time the show was over.  Yikes, right? Tinsley felt like she was always looking for her mother’s approval, but her mother tried to reiterate to her daughter that she already had it.  “I realized I couldn’t be more depressed. I couldn’t be sadder,” Tinsley revealed in a confessional. Dale told her daughter that she’s feeling a flurry of emotions because of her breakup.  “It’s not about me, Tinsley, it’s about your boyfriend, so stop it,” her mom complained. I’m doing these things I feel like I would be really happy about and I’m not happy,” Tinsley confirmed. “I’m miserable. I’m literally f–king miserable. I’m miserable.” Dale worried that Tins was wallowing too much in the past and said that she should be looking to the future.  “I think you should be finished with the whole Scott thing,” Dale pleaded, “You need to move on.” “I worked hard to be in a place where I feel like I just wanted somebody to share it with me,” Tinsley said, not taking her mother’s advice. “And I’m sharing with you and I love you but I don’t want to just share it with you.” Tinsley said she wanted to tell Scott about the event and have him there, “but he couldn’t do it.”  If you watch The Real Housewives of New York City online , you know that Tinsley recently revealed she was unhappy in the relationship.  Elsewhere, Bethenny Frankel was also struggling with her emotions as her custody battle with ex-husband Jason Hoppy continued.  Hoppy allegedly used Dennis Shields’ drug overdose in the case, and tried to haul Bethenny to court to complete a drugs test. “Sadly, I’m used to going to court and I really deal with this alone,” she told the cameras. “It’s bad, it’s really bad.” Frankel was concerned that this battle could cost her jobs.  “There’s a clause that says I get fired if I violate anything,” she explained. “If I do anything inappropriate, if I abuse alcohol or drugs.” The good news is that Hoppy’s request was denied, and he was ordered to hoppy  the eff out of New York. (We wish!) Frankel confirmed in the aftermath that she definitely “needs a break.” “It’s too much, all of it’s been too much,” she complained, “I need to let some air out of the tires, we need to do this. It’s too much.” Frankel went on to say that everything is just starting to catch up with her. She’s been doing too much,  “All of the seeds I planted years ago didn’t factor in for divorce and custody battle, a relief effort that I took on, a death,” she said in a confessional. “I’ve been approached by several people who are interested in buying the Skinny Girl brand. I’m not looking to exit, I’m looking for ways to take the pressure off.” What did you think of the episode? Hit the comments.  RHONY continues Wednesdays on Bravo.  View Slideshow: Bethenny Frankel: Quitting The Real Housewives of New York City Over Dennis Shields’ Death?

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The Real Housewives of New York Recap: SO. MANY. TEARS.

The Real Housewives of New York Recap: SO. MANY. TEARS.

Wednesday’s episode of The Real Housewives of New York City was a tear-filled affair as two of the cast members broke down on camera.  Tinsley Mortimer’s breakup with Scott Kluth recently played out on camera, but that didn’t mean she got to spend some time in hiding as she got over the split.  Instead, she pressed on with her hosting duties at the Big Apple Circus. Mortimer got a little drunk during the event, an found herself embroiled in a war of words with her mother Dale by the time the show was over.  Yikes, right? Tinsley felt like she was always looking for her mother’s approval, but her mother tried to reiterate to her daughter that she already had it.  “I realized I couldn’t be more depressed. I couldn’t be sadder,” Tinsley revealed in a confessional. Dale told her daughter that she’s feeling a flurry of emotions because of her breakup.  “It’s not about me, Tinsley, it’s about your boyfriend, so stop it,” her mom complained. I’m doing these things I feel like I would be really happy about and I’m not happy,” Tinsley confirmed. “I’m miserable. I’m literally f–king miserable. I’m miserable.” Dale worried that Tins was wallowing too much in the past and said that she should be looking to the future.  “I think you should be finished with the whole Scott thing,” Dale pleaded, “You need to move on.” “I worked hard to be in a place where I feel like I just wanted somebody to share it with me,” Tinsley said, not taking her mother’s advice. “And I’m sharing with you and I love you but I don’t want to just share it with you.” Tinsley said she wanted to tell Scott about the event and have him there, “but he couldn’t do it.”  If you watch The Real Housewives of New York City online , you know that Tinsley recently revealed she was unhappy in the relationship.  Elsewhere, Bethenny Frankel was also struggling with her emotions as her custody battle with ex-husband Jason Hoppy continued.  Hoppy allegedly used Dennis Shields’ drug overdose in the case, and tried to haul Bethenny to court to complete a drugs test. “Sadly, I’m used to going to court and I really deal with this alone,” she told the cameras. “It’s bad, it’s really bad.” Frankel was concerned that this battle could cost her jobs.  “There’s a clause that says I get fired if I violate anything,” she explained. “If I do anything inappropriate, if I abuse alcohol or drugs.” The good news is that Hoppy’s request was denied, and he was ordered to hoppy  the eff out of New York. (We wish!) Frankel confirmed in the aftermath that she definitely “needs a break.” “It’s too much, all of it’s been too much,” she complained, “I need to let some air out of the tires, we need to do this. It’s too much.” Frankel went on to say that everything is just starting to catch up with her. She’s been doing too much,  “All of the seeds I planted years ago didn’t factor in for divorce and custody battle, a relief effort that I took on, a death,” she said in a confessional. “I’ve been approached by several people who are interested in buying the Skinny Girl brand. I’m not looking to exit, I’m looking for ways to take the pressure off.” What did you think of the episode? Hit the comments.  RHONY continues Wednesdays on Bravo.  View Slideshow: Bethenny Frankel: Quitting The Real Housewives of New York City Over Dennis Shields’ Death?

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The Real Housewives of New York Recap: SO. MANY. TEARS.