The Lancasters always pay their debts. In blood. Photo: TED-Ed
You know nothin’, Jon Snow. Especially how much more full of shifting alliances and intrigue The Wars of the Roses was than your epic television series is able to show. Game of Thrones superfans may already know that 15th-century England inspired much of the structure of George R. R. Martin’s overarching book series, but having it all laid out — lovely animations and visuals to support the historical information — is our first exposure to that fact.
The short animated video, written by Alex Gendler and animated by Brett Underhill, even illustrates how Game of Thrones matches directly to historical facts with some fun Pop-Up Video-style flourishes. You’ll love it.
Would you want to work for this group of high-acheivers? Photo: HBO
As I was scrolling down the page over on Facebook, reading the latest posts from friends and family, i noticed a new ad to the right: Pied Piper, the fictional company from HBO’s hit show, Silicon Valley, is hiring!
The ad is pretty convincing; here’s hoping no one actually clicked through hoping for a tech job.
For nerds of all stripe, this Sunday night will be an imploding black hole of greatness, with the Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones, and, right after that, the Season 2 debut of our favorite tech-themed dramedy, Silicon Valley.
In the delightfully awkward trailer, you’ll see the boys rounding up their VC resources to compete with Google stand-in Hooli, who’s hot on the Pied Piper trail to get their algorithms for data compression to market first.
Jimmy Iovine played a key role bring HBO Now to Apple. Photo: HBO
HBO finally unleashed its Netflix-killer today with the HBO Now app for iOS and Apple TV. The company is already having a hard time keeping up with demand on the streaming service, but according to a profile on HBO CEO Richard Plepler CEO, the original plan was to launch it at the end of 2016.
Today’s launch may not have happened it if weren’t for Apple executive Jimmy Iovine, who sparked the connection between HBO and Apple. After Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch made a hostile bid to takeover of Time Warner last year, Plepler says he knew he need to pivot the company. So he called up his old buddy Jimmy and asked if Apple would be interested in an HBO Now deal.
Get ready for Game of Chairs. Photo: Sesame Street
We can’t wait for Game of Thrones to make its fifth season debut next Sunday filled with all the mystery, violence and betrayal that have cemented the fantasy epic as one of TV’s best shows.
We don’t recommend letting your kids tune into the newest episodes, but Sesame Street gives kids the next best option with a funny parody of the hit HBO show that pits Joffrey, Daenerys, Tyrion and Cersei in a serious Game of Chairs contest. Ned Stark does the officiating without managing to lose his head, and Grover makes a surprise power play at the end that could forever change Westeros.
Sling's television interface. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Dish has reached a new agreement with Turner Broadcasting to keep TBS, TNT, and CNN on its Sling TV service. That’s great news for cord-cutters, but what’s even better is that HBO is coming aboard too — and in time for the new season of Game of Thrones!
“I believe men of talent have a part to play in the war to come,” says spymaster Varys to Tyrion, the Lannister least likely to beat anyone in a duel.
That’s the takeaway line from one of a pair of new clips out today from HBO’s hotly anticipated Game of Thrones Season 5 premiere, which is slated to air April 12.
Isn’t that (and the newly announced cable-free HBO Now) why you all got a new Apple TV? I know I did.
Silicon Valley, HBO’s half-hour comedy series about a bunch of nerds trying to change the world with code, is headed back to your television screen in April. HBO posted a trailer for the hotly anticipated Season 2 premiere on its Facebook page Friday to let everyone know.
Check it out below for a ton of slow-motion shots of all your favorite characters with the whole geeky gang back for another run.
The death of cable TV bundling is nearly upon us, as signaled by HBO’s announcement today that it will offer an internet-based streaming subscription in 2015.
“That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped,” said HBO CEO and chairman Richard Plepler. “It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO.”
That’s big news in an industry that has been incredibly resistant to disruptors like Apple. And the Apple TV specifically stands to gain immensely from this shift towards Hollywood finally selling premium content unbundled.
It’s time, Tru Believers, to watch the very last episode of HBO’s vampire romantic drama, True Blood.
Overall, this final episode is slow and sweetly-paced, funneling down from the crazy, too-many-characters and plot lines of the past several seasons to a gentle, musing (and ultimately narratively safe) tale of people trying to find themselves and growing up in the process.
Luckily, since this is TV, they all eventually do. Hoyt and Jessica, Jason and Bridgette, and — of course — Bill and Sookie all find their own version of a happy ending, with very few surprises along the way; it’s a very safe finish to seven seasons of fangbangery.
As always, spoilers ahead. So keep reading at your own peril.
Violet is regal in her pretty new torturer's dress. Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO
As the eighth of the planned ten episodes in this final season of HBO vamp-drama, True Blood, “Almost Home” brings more storylines to a close, weaning us off the Bon Temps drama gently, with a few fun explodey bits along the way.
Eric and Pam get the lowdown on Mr. Gus’ final solution to the Nu Blood plan to total market domination, while Hoyt, Jason and Jessica start to clean up their complications. The missing kids and jealous vampire story comes to an abrupt yet satisfying end, and Sookie does all she can to help find a cure for her true love, Vampire Bill.
Be warned! Spoilers abound below, but as this is another talky episode, for the most part, we’re going to keep it short and to the point.
In some ways, this pick has already been made for us. As the previous page demonstrated, for a show that’s apparently about nothing, people sure do want to see Seinfeld make an appearance on Netflix. Although it did dip in quality after co-creator Larry David left, at its apex no other comedy can come close to matching the triumph of Seinfeld. Hopefully Jerry is right, and this will find its way to Netflix ASAP. With classic moments in virtually every episode, this show is the stuff binge-watching was invented for.
Violet is angry, like usual. Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO
It’s time for the various residents of Bon Temps to face the music. Karma’s a bitch, and in the latest episode of the final season of this hit vampire romance TV show from HBO, we’re gonna watch most of the main characters deal with the consequences of their past behavior and poor choices. Andy, Holly, Bill, Sam, Sookie: Each of these True Blood staples have to stand up and own their life choices.
This is a pretty expository episode, so we spend a lot of time watching characters explain their situations in sometimes excruciating detail. Let’s hope that our karma for watching the show will be some more action-packed and hilarious scenes in the upcoming shows left in the season, rather than a payback for following the show for so long. We still have faith, though.
Spoilers abound below, so be warned. Find out what happened on last night’s episode after the jump.
Bill promises his bride that he'll survive the war. Photo: John P. Johnson/ HBO
This week, the residents of Bon Temps confront their grief head on. Sookie mourns Alcide, Lettie Mae mourns Tara, and Arlene mourns Terry. Andy makes the biggest decision of his life, while Eric and Pam continue their quest to find — and kill — Sarah Newland, the crazy Christian we all love to hate.
This fifth episode of the final season of HBO’s True Blood series focuses on love and loss, while we all start to come to terms with the death of some of our favorite characters as well as the end of the long-running television show. It’s a more restrained — and less hilarious — episode than last week, but we can only hope that we’re being set up for more over the top fun in the weeks ahead.
The residents of Bon Temps are reeling from the latest deaths in the town, Sookie is mourning Alcide but keeping a stiff upper lip, and Arlene is finally chosen to be vampire food in “Death Is Not the End,” the fourth episode in this final season of HBO’s long-running vampire romance drama based on the Charlaine Harris novels. The episode is full of callbacks to the first season, as the last few shows have been. The True Blood team really wants to bring everything full circle, and this week they’ve succeeded more than expected.
While death may not be the end for vampires, it’s certainly the end for a host of folks in this forsaken little southern town. The shockers continue this week, not the least of which is Eric Northman with ’90s hair, some fantastic Pam lines, and a funny little scene as Sam and Jason go to inform Deputy Mayberry’s next of kin that he’s dead. “Kevin was a good man,” says Jason. Pause. “With a funny voice.”
Sookie is the bait in this trap. Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO
True Blood’s seventh and final season continues tonight with the third episode of the season: “Fire In The Hole.”
Death comes to us all, and that’s no empty promise with this series. Reverend Daniels calls it out: “Death is a dark and blinded motherf-cker, whether you see it coming or you don’t,” he tells Sam Merlotte.
This week’s episode is all about love. Sookie’s unequal love for Alcide, Pam’s love for Eric, Sam’s love for his lost fiancee and unborn child, Reverend Daniel’s love for Lettie May, and Andy’s love for his daughter Adilyn. All the characters act out of love and sometimes lust, but even the good guys are going to need more than blind faith in each other to survive.
The zombie-vamps are coming. Photo: Tony Rivetti/HBO
Lots going on in this week’s episode of HBO’s vampire-romance television show, including answers on Eric’s whereabouts, more info on the infected, zombie-like Hep-V vampires, and a whole bunch of callbacks to the first season of the show.
If you missed last week’s recap, head on over and read up on the first episode of the seventh and final season of this HBO cult-hit, or read our massive recap of the first six seasons to catch up on the whole story, loosely based on Charlaine Harris’ bestselling novels, so far.
Be warned – there be spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want to know what’s going on in the world of Sookie Stackhouse, keep moving, folks.
Sookie, Bill, Jason, LaFayette, Sam, and Jessica are back in the final season of True Blood, HBO’s killer vampire drama that’s in its seventh and final season.
We’re here to watch the writers and actors raise the stakes for the residents of Bon Temps as they try to make sense of a world terrorized by infected Hepatitis V vampires and the human bigotry of the small southern town in the series inspired by Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries novels.
If you missed the first six seasons, be warned: there’s a ton of spoilers here. If you want to catch up on the basics, though, head over to our monstrous six-season recap and then come on back, y’all, hear?
Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress and telepath who can read your every thought. This hasn’t made her feel welcome in the tiny Southern town full of bigots and racists where she lives. Worse yet, she’s fallen for a vampire, Bill Compton, who’s a champion for other vamps to “come out of the coffin” and live peacefully alongside humans. Oh, and werewolves, shape-shifters, witches and fairies are real, too.
HBO’s True Blood is a fun, sexy romp through an engaging universe of characters and supernatural goings on. Based on the best-selling novels of Charlaine Harris, True Blood heads into its seventh and final season tonight, and we don’t want to miss a minute.
Thomas Middleditch as Richard Hendriks in HBO's Silicon Valley.
There’s an ongoing question in hit comedy show Silicon Valley: do you have to be a jerk to succeed? For the entire first season of Mike Judge’s HBO comedy about the new economy gold rush, it’s been Steve vs. Steve 2.0.
Part of what makes the show a resounding success – it’s already confirmed for season two – is how realistic it is. The startup lads at Pied Piper have been under the gun preparing for a big demo: they have a spot at the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield. Yeah, that’s an actual thing. The show is set where TCD takes place, in the barn-like San Francisco Design Center Concourse, and some 400 companies have duked it out in demos that raised over $2.4 billion in funding.
Other than its top notch TV series, HBO also has some great documentaries. Even though Katrina hit nearly a decade-ago, Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke is one of HBO's best, showcasing how New Orleans residents' lives were completely upended by the death, disease and devastation that followed the storm's wake.
It’s time to cancel your cable subscription. The best TV shows, movies, and documentaries have landed on Amazon Prime thanks to a deal with HBO that unleashes the networks’ exceptional collection of content to the Internet for the first time ever.
Starting today Amazon Prime users can catch up on entire seasons of HBO’s top shows by streaming them to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad at absolutely no extra cost. It’s an unprecedented treasure trove of greatness that required an HBO GO subscription to access until today when it was finally set free for the first time ever.
HBO has been reluctant to embrace a paid-streaming model that would cut its ties to lucrative cable subscriptions, but the move is a sign that a top-down approach could be on the way as HBO adds its GO app to Amazon Fire TV and other services.
The entire HBO lineup isn’t available quite yet, but the company says shows like Veep and The Newsroom will be added once they pass their third seasons, making them available for the low-cost of a $79 annual Amazon Prime subscription.
Here are five shows you should start binging on today.
Jared and the rest of the Silicon Valley guys face a new challenge at TechCrunch Disrupt. Photos courtesy HBO
Silicon Valley, much like the place it depicts, is one big sausage fest. An “inclusive” tech conference is one where there is almost a line for the women’s bathroom and flirting involves some guy trying to exchange PGP keys with you.
So it makes sense that the show’s only main female character — Monica, the right hand of billionaire VC Peter Gregory — feels obliged to tell the crew of Pied Piper before they head to the battle at TechCrunch Disrupt that the place is a “vortex of distraction.” But it’s not the gizmos or other gimmicks, it’s the women.
“Normally, the tech world is 2 percent women, the next three days it’s 15 percent,” she warns gravely.
“It’s a goddamn meat market,” Gilfoyle deadpans.
The episode is all about how sparks fly when sex meets the single startup guy.
HBO’s new comedy Silicon Valley has been the toast of TV the past two weeks with its irreverent satirization of life inside the exorbitant tech startup scene.
Not everyone in the valley is a fan of the show with its Square-toting strippers, amped-up nerd stereotypes and creepy angel investors, but we’ve been mesmerized each week with the main title sequence, which showcases the rise and fall of some Silicon Valley’s most heralded companies.
Apple’s headquarters actually pops up twice — but don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
Watch the full sequence below and see if you can spot it:
This image showing aspiring Silicon Valley legends sure looks… familiar.
Don’t worry, though: this isn’t the cover of a strikingly original new Samsung biography, but rather a teaser poster for Mike Judge’s upcoming HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley.
Borrowing its iconic pose from the 2006 Albert Watson portrait of Steve Jobs commissioned by Fortune magazine and used for the cover of Walter Isaacson’s 2011 biography, the poster references Jobs as the ultimate example of the startup-founder-made-good.
Apple is reportedly looking to skirt the cable companies and strike up deals with HBO, ESPN, Disney, and Viacom to offer their content on a new pay TV service. Rather than distributing content in channels, Apple’s strategy would emphasize apps over cable TV according to a report from QZ.
