Game of Thrones Trailer Recap For Real This Time

Okay!  So this is an actual for real no screwing around trailer this time.  The other little things that came out, the thing where the feather froze and then the thing where Arya looked up at the dragon, those were just teasers but this one here is a proper trailer and I will now endeavor to recap the shit out of it.  For reasons that continue to elude me, I am recapping Game of Thrones teasers, trailers and ultimately every episode of the final season.  It’s been a wild ride so far!  To recap my recaps, let me fill you in on my two very bold and correct predictions about the final season of Game of Thrones:

1. I predicted that all of humanity will be wiped out within the first five minutes of the first episode of the season and the rest of the show will follow the white walkers as they build a civilization on whatever planet this show takes place on (Earth?).

2.  I predicted that Arya is going to kill a dragon and then become a dragon. 

I’m happy to say that nothing I have seen in this new trailer challenged those predictions in any meaningful way.  Yes, this trailer features plenty of alive people doing things but all these  scenes can easily happen in the first five minutes of the first episode.  I concede that that will be a very frantic and haphazard five minutes of television, but all in all, I still think I’m right because nothing beats that zombie dragon. Period.  That zombie dragon is just going to kill everyone very very quickly.  And okay, maybe it’s more like ten minutes.  Are we really going to argue over five minutes?  It’s beneath both of us. 

That concludes the recap of my recaps.  Now onto… the recap! 

First off, this trailer is most notable for what it DOESN’T tell us about the new season, namely the year in which these new episodes will air.  So far, every teaser and trailer has simply said that the new season premieres April 14.  Many fans have speculated, probably correctly, that this is April 14, 2019 or, in other words, six weeks from now.  That is still the best guess but it’s very interesting that even in this longer look at the new season the year isn’t specified.  What exactly are they up to?  Seems like weird marketing to keep us guessing on the year.  But anyway…

The trailer opens with a young person running fearfully through a castle.  There’s a cutaway to an old dude walking in a graveyard-looking place and then another cutaway to that guy Varis looking bored at a meeting.  Meanwhile Arya is speaking poetically about death and then holds something up.  We can’t tell what it is but it’s probably a pinecone tied to a stick.  Scratch that, it’s definitely a pinecone tied to a stick.  Weirdly, she says that she looks forward to seeing the pinecone WHILE literally looking at the pinecone.  Is she losing her mind?  Or just so distracted by her desire to kill and become a dragon that she can’t think straight?  There’s no time to think too much about that question because now it’s time to look at ships! 

We cut to the deck of a ship where there’s a whole bunch of soldiers standing there ready to do something.  I have zero naval experience so take me with a grain of salt but in my opinion, there are too many soldiers on that boat.  It looks uncomfortable.  But again, no time to dwell on it.  This trailer moves fast!

We cut to a dungeony type place where three bearded guys are walking with a flaming sword.  I vaguely remember a flaming sword from last season.  What was the deal with that?  And who are these guys?  I don’t remember.  Weren’t they there when the dragon got shot down?  Is one of them the guy who’s been brought back to life multiple times?  Is it okay that I’m going to be recapping the new season of Game of Thrones and I can’t remember this kind of thing?  

Yeah, it’s probably fine.  I’ll bet when these dudes pop back up for the first time, there’ll be some context clues to help me out, right?  Plus my wife read the books and watched the first couple of seasons (which I didn’t) so she usually has a better idea of what’s going on.  I’ll ask her.  It’ll be fine.  You’re in good hands!

Then we see the handicapped boy, I want to say Bram?  He’s there with Samwell Tarly (I know that guy’s name.  See?  Good hands).  I’ll be honest, I kind of lost the thread on Bram a while ago.  I am unclear on his superpowers or how they’re going to help anyone.  He can see through a crow’s eyes?  Don’t get me wrong, I can’t do that and I would be psyched if I could, but mostly that whole guy just kind of confuses me and I’m a little worried that Samwell is wasting his time hanging out with him.  But I’m not about to tell Samwell Tarly what to do because that guy doesn’t care what anybody thinks about anything.  He does whatever.  The fuck.  He wants.  Every time.  Check the record.  Total rebel.

Next up, Cersei is standing next to an old guy.  She seems happy and good for her.  That poor lady has been through a lot.  

Then it’s Winterfell, spears, dragons and more dragons.  If your big hope going into this season was ‘more dragons!’, Game of Thrones has heard you!  If you would have preferred fewer dragons or you felt the amount of dragon content in previous seasons was just right, Game of Thrones has not heard you.  You were too quiet.  This looks like a very very dragony TV show.  

We see some getting ready for battle, some fighting, some kissing.  Meanwhile John Stark says some pretty obvious things about zombies.  Oh do they not tire?  Yeah I kind of guessed that when I noticed that they were DEAD ALREADY.  C’mon John!

Then it’s a bunch more dragon stuff and a whole lot of shots of people reacting to things we’re not seeing, which is hopefully just a trailer thing and not how it’s going to go in the actual show. I’ll be pissed if the actual show does what this trailer does and just cuts between people being upset about stuff and they never show you why.  I’m sure it won’t be like that.  Probably just a trailer thing, right?

We finally get a glimpse of Tyrion, who still has that big scar on his face.  If I were Peter Dinklage, I would have sidled up to the producers at lunch one day and said “hey guys, since there’s all kinds of magic and stuff in this world, maybe some warlock or whatever could heal the scar on Tyrion’s face and good ol’ Pete Dinklage could spend 45 minutes less in the make-up chair every morning.  Whaddaya say?”  And then if the producers said no, I’d play it off like a joke and spend the next few days making clear how lucky I felt to have the job.  That’s what I would do, but maybe Dinklage didn’t think of it because that scar is definitely still there.

The trailer ends with a bunch of badasses ready to throw down and then a, looks like a horse? steps into the frame.  I guess that’s the horse the main white walker guy rides.  Right?  Doesn’t he ride like a dead skeleton horse?  That’s probably what that was.  I’m pretty sure what happens is that main white walker guy rides up on his dead horse for the big battle at Winterfell and there’s a moment when it looks like there is about to be an epic sword battle and then he just points up in the sky and the zombie dragon swoops down and everyone dies.  I’m glad they didn’t show all that in the trailer but also they didn’t have to because I can see it very very clearly, like Bram seeing through the eyes of a crow.

If HBO releases more trailers. check back here to find out what you saw.  Otherwise I will see you either six weeks from now or else a year and six weeks from now or two years and six weeks or whenever they cough up this new season.  Okay bye!   

Here it is:

https://ew.com/tv/2019/03/06/george-rr-martin-game-of-thrones-season-8-interview/

Game of Thrones Teaser Recap #2 Holy Shit

Oh hi.  I have been inundated with requests* for a recap of the most recent Game of Thrones teaser.  Regular readers of my Tumblr output will know that I have decided to recap the final season of Game of Thrones and I started with the teaser trailer that was released back in January.  A few days ago, HBO released a new trailer, which featured footage from a whole bunch of TV shows which I guess are all probably on HBO though I have not been able to confirm this.  Game of Thrones was one of the shows featured and even though there are only a few seconds of new Thrones content to be seen in the trailer, I have chosen to bow to public pressure and offer a recap of that footage.  To be clear, this is not a recap of the whole trailer and all the many TV shows that appear in it.  I wouldn’t have time to do that.  I mean, I would but well, I mean, I’m just not going to do that, okay?  

Anyway, in the new Game of Thrones footage, we see a lot of Game of Thrones-looking soldiers marching through a Game of Thrones-style overcast weather pattern holding very Game of Thrones-y weapons and then a dragon flies over their heads.  Then we cut to Arya Stark who appears to be looking at that dragon and she breaks out in a big smile.  That’s it.  That’s all we get and we’re left to try and figure out what it all means.  Well, what kind of a Game of Thrones teaser trailer recapper would I be if I hadn’t done that for you?  Yep, I figured out what’s going on in that moment and, as I always do when I make a prediction about Game of Thrones, I must precede it with the words SPOILER ALERT because of how right I know I am.  Here goes...  

You know how Arya Stark is somehow capable of becoming everyone she kills?  Like, she kills a person and then we see that person again and that person kills someone and then they rip off their face and it’s Arya Stark under there and you’re like ‘wait, was that a Mission Impossible-style mask or is it full-on magic?  Is that covered in the books, because I don’t have time to read the books.  I mean, I do but well, I mean, I’m just not going to do that, okay?’  You know how that happens and you’re like that?  Well folks, it’s pretty obvious that when Arya Stark looks up at that dragon, she is thinking to herself ‘oh shit, I am about to kill me a goddamn dragon and then BECOME a dragon and reign fire and destruction upon all my enemies and then just fly around for fun for as long as I want’.  Go ahead and watch that footage and tell me you don’t see all of that in that smile.  Or just trust me.  It’s in there.  

So yep, this little teaser tells us a prett-y big thing that happens in the final season of Game of Thrones.  Arya Stark becomes a dragon.  And also Merrill Streep wants to know what happened that night and Ballers is back.  Oh and Veep looks really good this season.

Okay, that’s all for now.  Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April 14 (still waiting for confirmation that that’s 2019 but my best guess is that it is).  I’ll be recapping for serious then.   So long!

* literally not one person asked me to do this. 

https://www.thisisinsider.com/game-of-thrones-arya-drogon-teaser-hbo-video-2019-2

GAME OF THRONES SEASON 8 TEASER TRAILER RECAP YEAH!

Hello, reader.

I have decided that this year I am going to write recaps of every episode of the final season of Game Of Thrones.  Why should I do this?  I don’t know.  And honestly, maybe I won’t.  But I INTEND to!

And if I am going to be recapping Game of Thrones, I suppose I might as well start with the teaser that was released this week.  Here we go!

Let me start by going on record with my official prediction for the final season of Game Of Thrones.  I’m gonna go ahead and precede this prediction with the words SPOILER ALERT because that’s how sure I am that I am right. 

The way I see it, that zombie ice dragon from the end of last season didn’t come to Westeros to fuck around.  He or she (do we know?) made very short work of the famous wall if you’ll remember.  So my prediction is that humanity will be completely wiped out in the first five minutes of the first episode of the season and then the rest of the series will follow the white walkers as they work together to build a society. There will be some real obstacles too because 99.9% of the population of their new world has zero intellectual capacity. They’re dead.  They were perfectly fine soldiers, sure, but who’s going to maintain the roadways, collect taxes, weigh livers at the Citadel?  There’s serious work to be done in any civilization and I don’t see these zombies being able to get much of it done, no offense. 

So if I’m right about where this season is headed, that means the action of this teaser takes place in the first five minutes of season 8, because there are living humans in it.  It’s John SnowStark, and Sansa and Arya all meeting up in the basement of Winterfell where the very creepy statues of their dead relatives are talking to them but they only kind of hear it.  

Here, by the way, I have a rare opportunity to say something nice about Ramsay Bolton (RIP). He may have been the very personification of cartoonishly psychopathic evil, but he obviously respected those statues under Winterfell.  He could have smashed them to bits just for goofs or as a fun new way to humiliate his wife.  But he didn’t.  Perhaps he appreciated disturbing sculptures.  That was cool of Ramsay and when bad guys do good things, we should call it out in my opinion.

So anyway, there’s a very prominent feather in this teaser.  I think it probably symbolizes things that are fucked because first it falls down and then it gets totally frozen to death, like every living person on this show is about to be approximately three and half minutes after the events of this teaser.  Some scary fog rolls in. John and Arya draw their swords and Sansa stands there either thinking “Maybe I should have learned how to use a sword at some point” or else maybe she’s thinking “I don’t know what these idiots think they’re gonna do to that fog with their swords”.  I don’t know.  And that is the great mystery of this teaser!

So okay, there you go.  I recapped the shit out of that!  

The final season of Game of Thrones premieres April 14th (presumably 2019) so check back here at some point after that for a recap of the season premiere if I really do it.  And to be clear, no one is offering to pay me to do this so I mean, I just don’t know.  But anyway, okay.  See you then!

https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/season-8-returning-2019

Season Two of The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project Premiered Today

Hello!  Thank you for journeying into this remote and wholly unnecessary corner of the internet, which itself is not necessary.  I know.  I was alive before there was an internet and things were just fine.  They really were.  But it is here and we are here and I am apparently putting some words in this space and I don’t know what’s up with you that you’re reading them but I hope everything’s okay.  

Sirs and madams, has it really been four years since The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project has politely requested some of your earspace?  The calendar tells me that that is so but I have a hard time believing it.  Why would it ever take so long to make another eight episodes of a podcast?  That doesn’t seem rational.  And yet, and yet.  

When I look back on these past four years, I can tell you that my Comedy Central series Review is the main thing that claimed my time and I dare say I’m glad it did.  From the summer of 2014 until the late fall of 2016, I was in a constant state of either pre-producing, writing, shooting, editing or promoting Review or else waiting to get started doing all those things any minute now.  Then I started out 2017 with a list of projects I wanted to tackle and the podcast was on there, but not at the top.  I’ll be able to tell you about some of the other entries on that list soon, by the way.  But it was October of 2017 before I turned my attention back to the podcasting game and when I did, I naturally started with an email to the indispensable and unnaturally talented and hilarious Matt Gourley.  He and I sat down at LA’s legendary Tam O’Shanter bar and restaurant just as we did back on that fateful day when we met to discuss the first season.  Over three plates of prime rib each (a dare and a terrible idea), we made up a plan that called for a rather leisurely schedule to get all this recorded.  And now, a mere five months later, here it comes by gum!

I do hope that all the fans of the first season will find these new installments and welcome them into their comedy hearts.  And new fans are, I suppose, also welcome.  Yes, yes okay, new fans are fine.  So spread the word.  

If there’s a reason for this here blog post to exist it’s to show you this link…

https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=53616156&autoplay=1

…to where you can hear the first episode of The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project Season 2, which happens to be titled Bonanas For Bonanza with Dalton Wilcox.  Join the Poet Laureate of The West and his friends (and one enemy) as they revisit the television classic Bonanza.  We feel this podcast episode is as full a comedy meal as you’re likely to find anywhere in the world.  Lots of stuff going on here.  

While Stitcher Premium is a damn fine value at $4.99 a month, I’d never try to talk you out of getting one of those months for $0, which is even less.  Matter of fact, I’d like to talk you into it.  Use the promo code ANDY and luxuriate in 30 days of free podcastery.  Do it now!

We should also know that the first season of The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project is being re-released on Earwolf starting today with that season’s teaser episode, which you can listen to here…

http://bit.ly/2G3vj7H  

If there’s a second reason for this post to exist, it’s to thank all the incredible people who have answered the call to be a part of these screw-arounds.  Just look at the hilarious people involved in this first episode and marvel at how fortunate we all are that so many comedy Gods are so generous with their time and talents.  Thank you thank you, friends!  And I promise you later episodes will feature more murderer’s rows of comedy all-star comedians (and murderers), friends old and new and all of them funny as the fiery lava pits of hell.

If there’s a third reason for this post to exist, it’s to thank ADPPP fans for your patience.  Four years is a long time to wait to hear depraved lunatics host their own shows and even though I suspect some of you have done other things besides wait for these podcasts over the past four years, I thank you anyway and I hope you feel it’s been worth the wait.

If there’s a fourth reason for this post to exist, I just don’t know what it is.  So this seems like a good place to sign off.

Till next time,

I remain,

humbly and loyally,

yours in long and flowery sign-offs,

Andy Daly

Oh yeah!  I forgot I had a website, tumblr thing.  I’m gonna post something here soon.  Something FULL OF TYPOS!

A Lot of Words About Season 2 of Review

Well, that’s it.  All of season 2 of Review has aired.  It’s all yours now, to watch, rewatch, binge-watch, wrist watch etc.  It’s great to know that all 19 of the episodes we’ve made so far will always be available - on iTunes, the Comedy Central app or whatever the huvuflixflexbox of the future may be.  I look forward to hearing from the late discoverers of tomorrow but I am especially thankful to all you magnificent people out there who have not yet figured out how to cancel your cable and who used it to watch Review these past 10 weeks.  It has been a great pleasure to experience the season with you.

But that is barely the beginning of the thanks that I intend to offer here.  I’m full of gratitude tonight and, with your indulgence, would like to shed some light on people who's contributions to the show have, I feel,  gone under appreciated.  As the face of the show, I get most of the attention and too much of the credit.  That ends now god dammit!

First let me say that this is an amazing time to be working at Comedy Central.  Jeff Blitz and I (more about him soon) know well how lucky we are to work with network folks who trust us to deliver something great and give us helpful notes and understand that we can’t always see our way to implementing them. Their faith is us makes us do the best work we know how to do.  So thanks Comedy Central and Kent Alterman in particular.  Screen Rant recently published a list of the 10 funniest shows on TV and 5 of them were developed under Kent Alterman at Comedy Central.  That’s no coincidence.  Kent loves comedy, appreciates talent and knows when to jump in and when to let people run free.  He’s stuck his neck out for me and this show, so thanks Kent!

The name Jeff Blitz is conspicuously absent from most of what's been written about Review. It was true in season 1 and it's true in season 2. It ain't right. Jeff runs the writing room with me and is responsible for so much of what you like about Review, so many of its greatest moments. And as the director of every episode, he created the look and feel of the show and fosters an atmosphere that allows everyone in the cast and crew to do their best work. Give the man his due!

And Andy Blitz too!  He was our other Executive Producer this season, always providing wise council, hilarious jokes and a sensibility all his own. He gave life - and death - to Clovers among many many other wonderful contributions.

The rest of our writers - Leo Allen, Jessie Cantrell, Kevin Dorff, Gavin Steckler and Rich Talarico all made huge and hilarious contributions to every episode.  A murderers row of comedy geniuses expertly and collaboratively bringing a sense of “yes and” to our room discussions that allowed this season to reach it’s crazy heights.  Thanks, you guys!

Nate Young produced the fuck out of this show! It doesn’t really make any sense what we were able to accomplish this season given our budget.  We destroyed multiple houses, lost a man at sea, had a full scale battle scene, transformed me into an orange Hulk, and so on and so on.  I kept waiting to be told “you can’t do any of this” but Nate made it happen and somehow always kept his cool.  Thanks Nate!

I also can't say enough great things about our amazing editors, Yana Gorskaya and Dane MacMaster. If you think of editing as a technical exercise, you need to see some great editors at work. They're every bit the storytellers that our writers and actors are. So many of our best moments were created by Dane and Yana and many of my favorite pieces of Forrest narration were inspired or suggested by them. PLUS they know how to use computers and stuff. I am in awe of them.

I don't need to tell you how great our supporting cast and guest actors were. You saw that for yourself. But it's worth mentioning here that every single person we brought into our little world to play with us was a total joy to spend time with.  And that goes for the crew too.  DP Ben Kasulke is an unfailingly positive and happy spirit and so is our other cameraman Marc Carter.  Our sound departments, hair, makeup wardrobe, all total sweethearts who did fantastic work.

There are many more people who worked on this show who deserve a special shout out here, people like our very talented writers’ assistant Joe Dolce who transcribed hours and hours of deeply boring conversations about who Forrest is and what he would and would not do and kept a steady stream of iced coffee flowing through my adrenal system.  Thank you Joe!  And what about Casey Stewart?  And Jason Williams? And Vladimir, the man who falls down stairs so I don’t have to and taught me how to punch Rich Talarico at that ATM?  So so many great people helping to make this show that I am so very proud of.  Thank you thank you thank you.

And how about a shout out to my incredible wife Carri Levinson who was not only great as Beth in this season’s second episode - in a scene that will one day cause our children to run away from home - but also kept me together during the crazy year it took to make this season and is the wisest and funnest person to talk to about Review (and everything else). Thanks Carri!

And the last thing I’ll say is that if this is a golden age of television, it’s also a golden age of writing about television.  I can’t believe the thoughtful and incredibly well-written articles that people have published about our show this year.  I’ll close with a bunch of links to some of the articles we at Review have loved the most.  And yes, this will serve as a kind of a victory lap because we got some amazing review this season and I would kind of like for you to read ‘em.  

Well no, the LAST thing I’ll say is that we don’t know yet whether we will or won’t get to make any more episodes of Review.  I’ve heard from a bunch of people who would love to see another season and we would love to make one and I will keep you posted.  Okay thanks again for watching.  It’s been fun ride (for me, not Forrest).

Emily Stephens reviewed every episode of Review season 2 for The AV Club.  This is a link to her review for the season premiere.  All of these are great and though I was afraid to at first, I read a lot of the comments too and man, I enjoyed them.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/review-brawl-blackmail-gloryhole-223083

Emily Nussbaum, writing for The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/rate-culture

Here’s the piece Emily Nussbaum cites, Sean T. Collins’ interview with James Urbaniak for The Observer: http://observer.com/2015/08/the-walter-white-of-comedy-james-urbaniak-on-review-and-rise-of-funny-antiheroes/

Neil Genzlinger in the New York Times. The New York Times!! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/arts/television/comedy-centrals-review-and-its-hapless-critic-return.html?_r=0

And then, of course, there’s this important food for thought by Jenny Jaffe and Gabriel Laks, writing for Vulture: http://www.vulture.com/2015/09/review-takes-place-in-purgatory.html

I'm on CONAN tonight! Let's celebrate with this classic clip from the vault.  1998.  Written by Brian Stack and Tommy Blacha.  I believe they got some letters about this one.

I talk about me and my show!  You read it?

Entertainment-seekers, I give you the trailer for season 2 of Review. This time, everything’s gonna go just fine!  That’s a promise.

The Return of Forrest MacNeil

If you’re quite finished talking about Donald Trump, let’s take a moment to remember the really big news story of this past week.  Forrest MacNeil has been found and held a press conference to share some very big news about season 2 of Review. Check it out here please!

http://www.avclub.com/article/exclusive-video-reviews-forrest-macneil-has-been-f-221637

#tbt the time I was on Letterman, 1998.  It's weird to watch this now because of what a little boy I was, but I'm proud to say that the line "all my friends have it" is one I came up with between rehearsal and taping.  Dave is hearing it for the first time here.  That was a ballsy thing for a little boy to do in a scene with his HERO! #thanksdave

H.G. Wells & L. Ron Hubbard Are Dead

Check out the latest episode of the wonderful Dead Authors podcast featuring Paul F. Tompkins as H.G. Wells in conversation with the extremely prolific author and self-proclaimed everything, L. Ron Hubbard. 

http://thedeadauthorspodcast.libsyn.com/chapter-45-part-1-l-ron-hubbard-featuring-andrew-daly  

I'm on Never Not Funny Today!

On today's episode of Never Not Funny, we tackle all those questions you have about the sign in front of that one 7-11.

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/andy-daly/

Review season 2 is coming. Store up nuts in your cheeks.

Esteemed television critic Alan Sepinwall put Review on his imaginary Emmy ballot. I'm preparing my imaginary acceptance speech.