In the intense closing moments of Game of Thrones‘ second season, we learned a new phrase. “Valar Morghulis,” or “all men must die.” A traditional expression in High Valyrian spoken by Jaqen H’ghar to Arya Stark right before he turns into a completely different person. That was quite a way to finish that particular storyline in season two. And given the amount of death that was wrought on Westeros in the final two episodes of the last season, Valar Morghulis pretty much sums it up. Don’t act like you weren’t impressed. It’s also fitting that season three opens with “Valar Dohaeris,” which translates to “all men must serve,” as the opening frame of the highly anticipated third season spends a great deal of time viewing the aftermath of Blackwater, Qarth and the war in the North through the experiences of those who serve the (still) many kings who challenge for the Iron Throne. It’s with those experiences that we pick up our Blog of Thrones, an ongoing exploration of one of television’s most compelling adventures.

While Justified never ceased being one of the best shows on television, it entered into a third season slump. After a near-perfect second season, featuring one of the greatest TV villains, Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale), it couldn’t help but underwhelm in its junior year, replacing her with a slew of uninteresting baddies. Season four, however, is proof positive that a show can redeem itself. It has remained Harlan-centric villain-wise, with the exception of Mike O’Malley’s Detroit mobster Nicky Augustine, who is a vast improvement over who he replaced, Adam Arkin. No offense, Arkin… but O’Malley is killing it. Villains aside, the reasons why Justified continues to triumph this season is because of the consistently amazing writing and direction. The dialogue is nearly poetry, with Boyd turning phrases that sound as if they come out of Shakespeare’s notebook – Nicky even tells him this week, “I’m going to need Google Translate on my phone if I’m going to keep talking to you.” This week’s episode, “Peace of Mind,” co-written by Taylor Elmore and Leonard Chang and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton, is no exception. While perhaps less action-packed than last week, it features snappy dialogue, macho encounters, and a fluidity in the transport of people and places as the law and the criminals both chase after Ellen May (an excellent Abby Miller) who is also on the move – from Noble’s Holler, to her former pimp’s house, to the church, to Lexington.

Um… where to start? We got a double-crossing, a marriage proposal, a death of a main character and his subsequent zombification. A lot of stuff happened this week. But did any of it need to happen? Was there enough payoff?

With Justified winding down to its season finale in two weeks, it hasn’t lost the high-octane momentum of last week’s amazing episode with “Decoy“ continuing to plow along full steam ahead – an apt metaphor, given that Rachel and Shelby/Drew got the hell out of Harlan on the coal train by the episode’s end. Again, this episode upholds Justified’s high standard for the most clever, well-written dialogue on television (this episode was written by showrunner Graham Yost and Chris Provenzano) and at the helm of director Michael Watkins, had a consistently swift and exciting pace, cutting between various high-tension locations and groups of characters. Each character also got their moment in the spotlight – Raylan and Boyd being clever and badass! Tim’s sardonic wit! Colton’s tortured-ness! Art being Art! Johnny’s bleeding heart! Ava being one tough cookie! – which is a difficult feat to accomplish, given this week’s large ensemble-like nature. So many good things again this week, it’s almost difficult to simmer down and make this sound coherent.

Following the format of weeks past, this week’s episode of The Walking Dead, “Prey,” was somewhat of a departure/day trip episode, involving Andrea fleeing Woodbury with The Governor chasing after her and subsequently holding her prisoner. However, it was a far less successful episode than the other ones, in that (a) Andrea is not quite interesting or sympathetic enough to focus on, (b) Woodbury seems ridiculously close to the prison again, and (c) promising characters like Tyreese and Milton are poorly used. That being said, yes, nothing really happened. The only character from the prison, Rick, barely had any screen time and Andrea remains in deep shit with The Governor. Tyreese remained The Governor’s patsy. The Governor remained pretty crazy. Nothing progressed, which, quite frankly, it should have since there is a huge war looming between crazy dictators Rick and The Governor. We open with a flashback of Andrea and Michonne during their relatively idyllic time as a wandering, zombie fighting duo. Not to harp, but the woods seemed a lot bigger then, didn’t they? Those ladies were wandering around for episodes on end and they shockingly never ran into either the giant prison or the giant Woodbury, which are both apparently right next door to one another. Some brief backstory is revealed on the part of Michonne when Andrea asks if Michonne knew her zombie pets – apparently she did, and they weren’t all that nice in life. Girl bonding!

The second season of Lena Dunham‘s Girls wrapped up with a humdinger of an episode, tantalizingly titled “Together.” Let’s just say that things ended on a far different note than they did last time around. When we open, Hannah is still struggling with her OCD, Adam is still struggling with his new girlfriend, Marnie is trying to get Charlie back (still?), and Shoshanna is trying to get rid of Ray (maybe). Oh, how things can change in just a matter of months. After the break, Rob Hunter and I continue to bemoan Adam’s happiness level, plot Marnie and Charlie’s yuppie future, and wonder just who thought a conventional rom-com ending was what anyone wanted (or deserved) for the season finale.

Editor’s note: Apologies on this late post of our most beloved Girls column, as editors Kate Erbland and Rob Hunter have been tied up with equally important endeavors – Kate moved cross country and Rob is eating veggie breakfast tacos at SXSW. It will never happen again. Onward with the embarrassment and sadness! Discomfort and embarrassment were the order of the day in the latest episode of Lena Dunham‘s Girls, the appropriately-titled “On All Fours,” as Hannah continued to spiral downward into her newly-revealed OCD, Marnie shamed every white girl who thought she could sing Kanye West in the middle of a crowded tech party, Shoshanna almost revealed her biggest mistake to Ray, and Adam attempted to live a happy life (emphasis on the “attempted to”). Were you sad last week? Yeah, meet this episode and recalibrate your depression appropriately. After the break, Hunter and I explore Adam’s inability to be happy, Dunham’s major acting step-up, and the worst party in the history of parties.

I love Justified. I love Justified so hard. Yes, there is the odd placeholder episode. Yes, there are smatterings of cheesy “reveals.” But when you get down to it, there is nary another show on television that is consistently exciting to watch, or that strikes the perfect, watchable balance between action and character development. That actually gets the plot moving week by week. That rewards fans of the show with little nuggets from seasons past, making the Harlan County crime universe a fully realized place where characters aren’t simply written off but are always lurking somewhere, acting behind the scenes. Oh yeah, and it has probably the most cleverly written dialogue on television, too.

Who in their right mind would want to see a prequel to Psycho? Sequels and remakes have been attempted, but have failed miserably recapturing the original’s magic. If Gus Van Sant can’t come out looking good when playing Alfred Hitchcock, then why even bother? A producer and writer from the show, Lost honcho Carlton Cuse, attended this year’s Southwest by Southwest to both tell us and show us why, premiering the show’s pilot to a few hundred people. It’s fair to say he answered the question of “who cares?” swiftly, mainly because of the prowess of Vera Farmiga, helping to bring real drama to the show’s key relationship. The pilot has a good deal of set up, but it still allows for smaller, more nuanced moments to tells us everything we need to know about Norman (Freddie Highmore) and his mother’s dynamic.

After last week’s road trip back to his hometown and the apparent close distance of everything in The Walking Dead’s universe, Rick piles Hershel and Daryl into the car… and takes another one! Well, this time it’s to Woodbury to talk to The Governor. But a change of scenery seems to be welcome these days, doesn’t it? Much like last week’s episode, this week’s, “Arrow on the Doorpost,” plays with format and is indeed a welcome change from the show’s usual one location per episode mentality. It also puts Rick directly against The Governor at long last as the two (kinda) attempt to make a deal, while Daryl and Hershel provide cover. This episode does have its drawbacks, but what it does best is pair opposing sides – Hershel with Milton and Daryl with Martinez – in a humanitarian approach, showing that despite allegiance to either Rick or The Governor. People are just people! Glenn and Maggie seem to prove this also, though via a somewhat unsanitary act of lovemaking outside the prison.

So on the latest Justified, “The Hatchet Tour,” we finally discovered the true identity of the infamous fugitive Drew Thompson. Did we really care who Drew Thompson really was? Not really. Though, my goodness, his true identity truly was a surprise. And the episode as a whole – written by Taylor Elmore and Leonard Chang, and directed by TV great Leslie Linka Glatter) – really, really delivered. It was well-paced, packed with important happenings, snappy dialogue… and was Justified doin’ Justified right.

Time to throw all our other superlatives out the window – turns out, the most memorable episode of Girls‘ second season won’t be that Patrick Wilson one or the one where Jessa leaves or even the one where Adam and Ray go on a terrible adventure together – it’s the one in which we learn that Hannah (Lena Dunham) has OCD. And, moreover, that’s she had it the entire time we’ve “known” her and she’s just been hiding it from everyone (not just her friends and admirers, but Dunham’s own audience). What? Exactly. Elsewhere, Adam (Adam Driver) goes on a great new date (with Shiri Appleby), Marnie (Allison Williams) learns about Charlie’s (Christopher Abbott) new life, and Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) starts sowing some wild oats while Ray (Alex Karpovsky) waits patiently at home. Were you looking for something to shake up the Girls world? Boom, here it is. After the break, Rob Hunter and I continue the Adam Driver lovefest, argue about the implications of Hannah’s newly-revealed OCD, and don’t really miss Jessa at all.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Steven Spielberg will be picking up where Stanley Kubrick left off. Following 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick set out on a compulsive researching mission to make a movie about Napoleon Bonaparte happen. After years of preparing, the filmmaker was turned away from every studio because it would have been a historical epic at a blockbuster price. Turns out that historical fiction wasn’t good business at the time. That the man who just made a hit from Lincoln is picking up Kubrick’s unfinished film and turning it into a television miniseries is a testament to how things can change. The two collaborated once before, with Kubrick creating the concept for Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Sadly, the iconic director didn’t live to see that film completed either. The world lost him in 1999. It’s a shame that Kubrick never got to make his epic, but there are few names better to take up the torch, craft something astounding and deliver it with fanfare to the biggest crowd possible. At any rate, Spielberg’s working with a script from Kubrick. It doesn’t get much more film geeky than that, even if it’ll never see theaters.

This week’s installment of The Walking Dead, “Clear,” is such a departure episode that I thought, for the bulk of it, that all of the happenings occurred in Rick’s head. They’re back in Rick’s hometown where he was Sheriff, which, spatially  is hard to believe, and there is a rather existential reunion between Rick and Morgan (Lennie James), who saved Rick in the first episode. “Clear” was also written by Scott Gimple, who is taking over for Glen Mazzara as the showrunner next season, so this episode is likely a harbinger of things to come in The Walking Dead’s universe. It was a relief that the show didn’t stoop to the low of having an entire episode exist in Rick’s head and while this episode did show a lot of promise, Morgan’s grim fate was a huge downer, to say the least. We open with Rick, Michonne and Carl driving on own a desolate road – they have gone off to collect ammo from Rick’s hometown in order to fight off The Governor for control of the prison. Way to go, Rick, for actually taking Cowboy Carl with you this time! Making strides in parenting!

Tonight came with a huge shock. Before the opening credits. I haven’t fully come to grips with it yet, and I’m not sure if I can say whether or not it was handled correctly. Nevertheless, shocking it certainly was – and it created a huge void in the show.

So, it would seem the prison is really close to Woodbury, right? If traveling to and from Woodbury is less than a day trip for Andrea? And given the high gates around each community and their respective surveillance abilities, why didn’t they notice each other way earlier? The logic behind The Walking Dead can be questioned for days on end, but at least this week’s episode, “I Ain’t A Judas,” had a theme – loyalty – and concluded with a Tom Waits song, which is always a major plus. Andrea questions her loyalty for The Governor versus Rick, and Daryl’s loyalty is questioned for his brother versus Rick. Rick also snapped out of the crazy, Daryl and Hershel rose up as leaders, and Milton was also featured, so, on the whole? With a few exceptions, namely involving Tyreese and his crew, this week was just fine.

There have already been a number of major changes in the lives of our Girls in the HBO series’ second season – Hannah has an e-book deal, Marnie is finally struggling with career and romance issues in a believable way, and Shoshanna is in the first adult relationship of her life – but nothing has been as markedly relatable as a giant life change than Jessa’s (impending? already done? totally just laying in wait until it can pop up at a more inoppurtune time?) divorce from idiot Thomas John. While we’ve seen a bit of the fallout from their final bust-up (in previous episodes, it’s clear that Jessa might not even be showering as of now), the newest Girls episode, “Video Games,” provided us with the seemingly novel opportunity to really get inside Jessa’s head – by visiting her family. Jessa and Hannah head upstate to visit Jessa’s dad, his latest girlfriend, a pack of ill-fated rabbits, and one of Hannah’s most inappropriate paramours yet (hint: not a rabbit), and the result is a glimpse inside Jessa’s childhood, some serious regression, and a surprise ending that leaves a lot to wonder about. After the break, Rob Hunter and I just flat out disagree on a lot of things about “Video Games.” We both, however, agree that Hannah’s got some great one-liners this time around.

On the latest Justified, we learned that real men can enjoy an ice cream cone while they drive (Raylan)… but not drink red margaritas (Boyd). This piece of information is, of course, contingent on Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder being “real men,” which, please, of course they are. They can work in a mine, have daddy issues, and shoot a firearm like the best of ‘em. While entertaining (including these ice cream and margarita moments) and filled with many bright spots, this episode, “Money Trap,” proved to not be as clever as its title. It featured a who’s who in primetime drama elite as its guest stars, and some fun action sequences, how Boyd and Ava fare in high society, but perhaps stressed minor plot points more so than important ones (these were squeezed at the very end of the episode). The pacing, therefore, was a bit off, and the structure was perhaps a bit ill-conceived. This episode also paired Raylan with yet another vapid, potentially shifty, woman named Jackie Nevada (Shelley Hennig, an actress with somewhat limited acting range).

Things are getting tough in Girlstown. A week after Lena Dunham‘s series had its most controversial/wonderful episode yet, we get plunged back into the darkest depths of life in the big city with “Boys.” Well, as dark as they can get. While Hannah (Dunham) gets an e-book deal (which is a thing now?), seemingly setting the stage for a happy episode, she vomits into the bushes immediately after getting the biggest career boost of her life. How fitting, because it’s all downhill from there, as Marnie (Allison Williams) is forced to confront the real nature of her relationship with the unbelievably-still-around Booth Jonathan (Jorma Taccone), Jessa (Jemima Kirke) apparently abandons bathing, and Ray (Alex Karpovsky) and Adam (Adam Driver) (yes, you read that pairing right) go on an adventure to Staten Island. You won’t believe how many people cry by this episode’s end – and maybe you will, too. After the break, Rob Hunter and I discuss the most depressing episode of Girls yet, wonder just what the hell an “e-book” is, and envision our own Adam and Ray variety hour.

Admittedly, the prospect of a TV show following Hannibal Lecter is a bit cringeworthy. It reeks of the kind of corporate thinking that co-opted Sherlock Holmes for television after a successful movie franchise (and another successful television program) proved that the character had some life in him with modern audiences. It also, of course, taps into the same ease of movie remakes and has the same kind of name-recognition packaging that proves short cuts are always easier to take but don’t always bring you to where you want to go. Then again, hiring the man who cried blood in Casino Royale and owned every minute of Valhalla Rising to play one of the most famous fictional serial killers of all time is a hell of a good start. We’ll get to see how it fares in April when Hannibal comes to NBC, but the first teaser trailer for the show is enticingly dark and promises frantic performances from Hugh Dancy as Special Agent Will Graham and Mads Mikkelsen as the greatest foe fava beans have ever known. Check it out for yourself: