Amarsir

I think they've raised the bar for guests. The fact that both Inashe and Chris Hardwick playing singing games is very impressive. They're clearly being used as more than just audience volunteers and that means a lot more variety of games.

Matt Donnelly, Penn's friend and Alyson's writer for Fool Us, has a podcast with behind-the-scenes info about the show. Normally you have to be a Patreon supporter but they made the first one for this season free to everyone. Regarding Copperfield

Season 6 Premiere! Magicians were Jan Reinder, Ondrej Psenicka and Giancarlo Bernini, with David Copperfield helping them out on their own trick. Reinder's rat traps weren't that amazing, but big stage magic is hard to do so I don't expect to be fooled on top of it. Alyson's reactions really helped sell it. Psenicka certainly fooled me, unless he got lucky and Alyson randomly selected an Ace. (Which does happen but not usually on television.) The trick had a little too much filler time though which IMHO distracted rather than improving. Bernini fooled me although Penn's clues cleared it up. I liked the trick a lot. I'm sort of with Copperfield on the last trick, where I know most of the trick and am suspicious about the last bit but don't quite know it. It was a little awkward having that much back and forth but it does sell the idea that Copperfield wasn't there to be a patsy. Also he looks really good for 62.

Persona has some terrible password security. No properly secured system should be able to look up someone's password. Glad I don't use it. I'll echo the praise for Andrew Scott. At first I was worried I'd spend the whole episode looking at Moriarty but that character was soon forgotten. All 3 mains delivered well.

Miley Cyrus was great casting. No surprise she pulled off the singing and acting well, but having a former child star just adds a whole extra layer. They maybe went a little more comedic than was necessary but on the whole it was a good watch. I noticed that IMDB ratings so far put it as the weakest of the 3 but I don't agree.

Game programmers are often overworked already. Wait until they find out every game needs to be a sex simulator as well! To be honest, I needed more. The premise is fine, taking the "Is cybersex cheating?" question that's been around for decades now and ramping it up with tech we don't have yet. And issues of gender or sexual preference were touched on just a little. But it didn't go anywhere and certainly didn't raise any only-in-Black-Mirror questions of morality or psychology. Also it was really slow. 18 minutes until he even activated the VR and 40 more not raising any concerns that weren't immediately obvious. It's a good thing Anthony Mackie is naturally charismatic because that's really all that kept it from being boring. As some of you have mentioned, why not try some of the many other characters and see how that feels? Karl said he tried it with AI and it was just like a rubber doll. (*) (Exposition via tell, not show.) But what about other people? What about inviting their wives to play with them? I think we're left with only questions because the episode didn't go anywhere to begin exploring them. A fine premise but not a complete episode. (*) Thinking about that raises much deeper questions than anything the episode actually showed. Karl had sex with the AI. In a fighting game. How did it know not to punch him? Did he have to beat the opponent in a fight before they were able to have sex? How creepy is that?

Indeed, seeing the start of the pitch I would have been surprised if the guy hadn't been in NJ when he got the idea. Although apparently he was at TCNJ who I don't think has an equivalent of the grease trucks. (Perhaps that's why he saw a market opening, copying from what Rutgers friends introduced him to.)

Which would be a justification for attacking the Red Keep itself. But she clearly went after a city that was no threat to her and only got around to the castle on a later pass. Daenerys had the high ground. It all makes sense now! That also explains why the scorpions were suddenly aimed by stormtroopers.

Doesn't that indicate Tyrion thought she wouldn't burn them all if he could successfully arrange the bell being run? The fact that she did it anyway may indeed have had seeds since the beginning, but the show didn't build it to a climactic turn. In that moment there was no reason to expect that kind of rampage.

Dany read the patch notes. "Scorpion accuracy decreased 95%."

"Because the plot says so" has been the major justification for most things on this show though. Lucky scorpion shots, teleporting fleets, everything Petyr Baelish did in seasons 4-7... Dany being dumb bothers me no more than Ramsay being impossibly smart and dismantling an army with 20 people.

Yeah I can't understand why that went on so long. I like the idea of her realizing she has something to live for, and I can overlook the fact that she got there really late despite leaving first. (This of course being cleverly set up in seasons 3 & 4: Arya travels much slower when with The Hound.) But everything with her would have been established in 1 of the 5 scenes.

She's never been especially clever. Most of her arc has been "It's nice to have dragons". And she was overwhelmingly rewarded as a result. I think the destructiveness came out of nowhere and her "turn to the dark side" (so to speak) should have been set up better last episode. But I'm not bothered if she isn't the ultimate hero. On the contrary, seeing her waltz into a happy ending would have been boring.

I liked Stingray and his ability to inject comedy in otherwise serious scenes. But they have to be careful because a little goes a long way. On the other hand I’m disappointed that Hawk is still playing out so 2 dimensional. The actor killed both the shy and bully roles in the first season. Now he seems to have pursued aggression beyond his friends, girlfriend, or sensei and it doesn’t really make sense.

I’m happy that Arya was the hero. I’m not happy that after clearly foreshadowing it they then had her come out of nowhere so it would be “a surprise“. The suspense should have been whether she pulls it off not how long they wait before she shows up. I also wanted a plot-changing death and none of the ones we saw are.