We’re back! Apologies for the lack of podcast two weeks ago—audio issues meant we weren’t able to bring you our Tony Awards episode Luckily we’ve captured the spirit in this Tony Awards Chat. On to this week’s topics! With Game of Thrones and Veep both ending their seasons, we thought it was a great time to talk about these HBO shows.

We start with the show that everybody is watching, Game of Thrones. Spoilers here include everything the show has aired so far, including the finale of Season 6. Proceed with caution! We have thoughts about the current season, and how it restored faith in the stories the show was telling in last year’s nihilistic, cruel season. We discuss the show’s female characters, and praise how many types of (white) women are represented in the stories.
We also make some predictions about the upcoming season(s) and the remaining 15 episodes that were just announced, and Jeff has a sophisticated theory about where things might be heading. My contribution here is a little less….sophisticated. The name I didn’t know was Tormund Giantsbane, and the thing I was doing was shipping either #Briemund or #Torienne, depending on who you ask. The actor who plays Tormund, Kristofer Hivju, calls them “Briemund the Tarth Bane”. Mutton stew is wagered, and the idea of “winning a bet” is given new dimension.
In our second half, we’re talking about HBO’s other successful show, the half-hour comedy Veep which satirizes the ludicrousness of American presidential politics. Veep comes to us via British show creator Armando Ianunnci, and we talk about what his outsider perspective brings to the stories. We also talk about the show’s liberal use of “dude humor,” and the value of rewatching this particular kind of comedy.
We also praise the comedic chops of the star of the show, Julia Louis Dreyfus, who also produces it. Veep lives or dies by her performance, and she is the reason for its success. Here’s the article I mentioned about how The New Adventures of Old Christine, a show that gets overlooked (even by me), sits as a midway point between Elaine Benes and Selina Meyer. 

Favourite episodes and characters are discussed, and I found this GIF that combines the greatness that is Sue Wilson-Levinson with Game of Thrones, so I’m sharing it here.