What if the characters on Game of Thrones had to endure our political process?

Mother Jones magazine created three attack ads based on the HBO hit (below). I’m sure Robb and Dany would rather pay the iron price than put up with this: READ FULL STORY »

HBO’s Game of Thrones reached a new all-time high in the ratings Sunday night.

The second season finale was seen by 4.2 million viewers — the first time the show has cracked four million viewers for a first-run airing — and delivered 5.1 million for the night including repeats. The news is particularly welcome after the previous week’s penultimate “Battle of the Blackwater” episode actually dipped in the overnight Nielsens. These finale numbers confirm our assumption the Blackwater decline was merely due to the Memorial Day weekend holiday.

Thrones was remarkably stable this season, hovering around 3.7 million viewers for premiere episodes and averaging more than 10.4 million viewers across all repeats and viewing platforms. The fantasy epic is renewed for a third season, and EW.com reported last night that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have signed on for two more seasons.

Related:
– ‘Game of Thrones’ finale recap: The Walking Dead
– ‘Game of Thrones’ surprise: [Spoiler] appears in finale cameo — EXCLUSIVE

HBO has released five great photos from Sunday’s second-season finale. Going to be pretty tough to top last week’s “Blackwater,” but there are plenty of burning questions going into this weekend. Here are your pics. Love the Theon rage pic and the Prince of Darkness Joffrey. READ FULL STORY »

Ratings for HBO’s Game of Thrones spectacular battle episode went … down?

Yes, the show dipped to 3.4 million viewers for the show’s premiere airing Sunday night (recap here), down 13 percent from last week. Thing is, the decline isn’t entirely surprising due to the Memorial Day weekend, which often sees about a 20 percent reduction in overall TV viewership (and, just saying, last year the show’s seventh episode aired the same holiday weekend, delivering only 2.4 million viewers). Fan and critic reaction to the hour was extremely positive, with many claiming on comment boards they’ve watched the episode multiple times since its debut. READ FULL STORY »

Tonight, HBO airs the long-awaited “Blackwater” episode of Game of Thrones. Below is last week’s exclusive interview with Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The writer-producers reveal the behind-the-scenes battle to mount one of the most ambitious hours of TV ever made.o

Also, check out EW.com’s live recapping of the episode here.

The first part of this interview was conducted in HBO’s Los Angeles offices several months ago. The producers had just finished shooting season two. There’s very minor logistical spoilers in terms of the raw battle components, but nothing that isn’t shown in HBO’s previews.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how was shooting the Battle of the Blackwater?
D.B. WEISS: The Blackwater stuff was so much fun. I mean, it was miserable. Forty-two degrees and raining and mud up to your ankles.

DAVID BENIOFF: This whole story of Blackwater goes back to the first season because we were supposed to have that battle with Tyrion and we ended up not able to shoot it. And so we had him go down to friendly fire early. We always promised ourselves, we’re gonna have our major battle.

Weiss: We always wanted to do it and we didn’t know if we’d be able to pull it off. I mean, it’s a massive battle and it’s a naval battle and involves so much visual effects. And at the last minute due to a personal emergency the director had to drop out. So we were left without a director and about a week before.

Benioff: We were scrambling. We were like going over the list of who is available. And most of it was really terrifying. And then on that list Neil Marshall’s name pops out. He did Centurion and Dog Soldiers, movies where the guy’s doing an incredible amount of really intensive, impressive action on a thin budget. He had never seen [Thrones] before. We had to give him a crash course. But he’s such a fast learner and so enthusiastic and just fell in love with it and ended up being a great choice. READ FULL STORY »

Game of Thrones penultimate Battle of the Blackwater episode is only a little over a week away and HBO has just released the first image from the fight. Here’s Bronn (Jerome Flynn) taking aim on a cliff, with — I believe — part of Blackwater Bay and King’s Landing behind him. (And, yes, book readers, Blackwater will take place at night. As executive producer David Benioff told us: “Flaming arrows at night look gorgeous.”) READ FULL STORY »