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This week I gush over 'Lemonade,' Game of Thrones' and 'Silicon Valley.'

Every week I'll be here to reveal some of my favorite moments from the Internet. Whether it be bingeing television shows, streaming sports, or simply getting lost in a YouTube rabbit hole, I'm here to give you my top picks every FridayThis week, I'm still enjoying all of the drama and the Lemonade HBO gave away free last Sunday.

 

Beyoncé


Recommended Pairing:
 Toss some premium vodka and a can of frozen lemonade concentrate into a blender. Grab a straw and a seat.

Last weekend the good folks at HBO gave us a free preview through their cable and dish affiliates as well as their new streaming service, HBO NOW. This freebie coincided with the launch of their most popular show's new seasons, most likely with the thinking that it would help curb piracy. (Though most people still stole that shit anyway.)

It was a fantastic Sunday of television, but I'll talk about the season premieres later in the column because despite the revelation of a certain sagging red woman, the lady that got the most buzz last Sunday was Beyoncé. Queen Bey absolutely killed it, or to use her words...

"Goddamn, she murdered everybody and I was her witness."

George R. R. Martin would be proud.

Her film, Lemonade, had pretty much everything I could possibly want out of a one hour video album... thingy.

 

She smashed cars and windows:

There were explosions and monster trucks; ballads and bangers and great choreography to match the cinematography.  Above all, she sang her balls off... And she looked dope doing it. Nobody makes scaring white people look better than Beyoncé.

I grew up on MTV and genuinely miss the days when your favorite songs on the radio were paired with visually striking short films, or at worst shots of the band pretending to play their instruments in exotic locations. 

As popular artists become further and further removed from playing instruments and/or writing their own songs, I respect the extra grind involved to use all available mediums to create a work of art. This isn't going to end up being one of my favorite albums of 2016, but I'm happy that so many people sat and watched an hour long concept album.

I'm one of the last handful of people that still prefers listening to albums in a single sitting as opposed to shuffling through a playlist of "bangers." So, if creating these epic short film companion pieces is a way to bring back the era of artists creating albums and people listening through them, then I'm all in. Thanks Beyoncé.

 

Game of Thrones


Recommended Pairing:
 An ice cold room and a few ice cold beers... And an amulet to keep your tits looking great.

I'm willing to bet that in hindsight, once it's over and done with we'll all agree that this show hit it's peak at the infamous "Red Wedding." That was the ninth episode of the third season. Since then there have been plenty of great episodes including my favorite, "Hardhome," from last season that really got even the casual fans screaming at their television sets. However, with all of these amazing episodes, scenes, and characters have finally come some duds.

I'm not the first person to complain about Dorne or the Sand Snakes. I certainly won't be the last. It just seems like that was the first glimpse of the show buckling underneath the weight of it's popularity and it's hype. The only show I can remember holding up to the pressure of becoming a pop culture sensation was Breaking Bad, and that show didn't have to pay tribute to a subsect of fans who were invested heavily in the material before it was a show. Game of Thrones has delivered so much incredible television that a very good episode, like the premiere on Sunday, feels a bit like a dud when it fails to blow our minds right out of our fucking skulls.

Game of Thrones has a tendency to start off a bit slow at the start of the season before hitting the gas and just hauling ass through to the finale. I hope that's what we're seeing here. Just to be safe, I've forced myself to temper my expectations and just try to enjoy an incredibly entertaining show and not nitpick every perceived plot hole or oversight. Besides, I think we're done with Dorne for a while. So that's nice. 

Also, Where the fuck is Bran? Hodor?

 

Silicon Valley


Recommended Pairing:
 Whatever Erlich Bachman has laying around in one of his myriad of bongs.

Silicon Valley is the best comedy on television right now. It's tightly crafted, the jokes almost always land, the characters have depth and the situations they're put in are the exact level of cringeworthy needed to push a show about total nerds forward. TJ Miller is perfectly cast as a pretentious wanna-be tech guru and Thomas Middleditch absolutely crushes his role as a socially inept, yet resilient underdog tech genius. The cast is rounded out by fantastic performances by the familiar faces of Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr and Zach Woods. 

If TJ Miller and Thomas Middleditch had a show where all they did was just sit and trade insults with guests for half an hour I'd watch it. In fact, I demand that becomes a show during the off season for Silicon Valley.  

HBO absolutely owns Sunday night. I'm looking forward to some sweet second episodes this weekend.

 

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