HBO

An unexpectedly great performance anchors a just-in-time return to form.

The Leftovers, Season 2, Episode 8: “International Assassin” Written by Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse Directed by Craig Zobel Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO After some considerable wrestling on the issue afforded to me by a night’s sleep, the shortest version I can come up with is this: “International Assassin” is a very …

The final episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones series seems to fully put a cap on this story, and it isn’t hard to see why. After a very mixed bag of ups and downs, the story of House Forrester will probably be remembered with feelings of vague positivity but not much else.

For possibly the first time in The Leftovers’ run, “A Most Powerful Adversary” does something you’d think it would do a whole lot more often: it conjures up the spirit of Lost; it’s almost as though we’re getting a glimpse of what a more conventionally “entertaining” version of The Leftovers might look like.

A stellar episode sics two of the series’ best actors on compelling, harsh material.

A stellar second season finally stumbles a bit by trying too hard to emulate a first-season highlight.

The Leftovers has single-handedly revived the tradition of dramas that don’t care about fan service.

With Kevin, Nora, and Jill restarting their lives in Miracle, it seemed that the series had moved away from the Guilty Remnant, while leaving behind only memories of the twisted events that unfolded in the Tri-State area.

The episode we were expecting arrives a week behind schedule, and the resulting unease has a purpose.

Three years after a global event in which 140 million people (2% of the world’s population) inexplicably disappeared, those left behind are still trying to push the catastrophic event out of sight and mind. And it seems no matter how hard they try, the ‘Sudden Departure’, is something they just can’t escape.

Wait, wasn’t he “retired?” It seems like that wasn’t true as director Steven Soderbergh gears up for a new project. Entertainment Weekly reports the director of Traffic and Magic Mike is set to make a “choose-your-own-adventure” movie at HBO with Sharon Stone and Garrett Hedlund set to star. According to the report, Soderbergh is designing …

While the premise may sound like the show would focus on the mystery behind the Departure, The Leftovers is much more of a character-driven drama, using the Departure as a gateway to explore a series of perspectives on how people deal with grief and loss.

A number of prominent directors have, in the past few television seasons, made the jump from the big screen to the small screen, with varying degrees of involvement. Among the bigger names to make the transition has been David Fincher, whose involvement in the Netflix series House of Cards has been limited to directing two …

7 Days in Hell is an HBO TV mockumentary about the greatest game of tennis ever played, a seven day affair between American Aaron Williams (Andy Samberg) and Englishman Charles Poole (Kit Harrington). The movie was released on July 11th, coinciding with Wimbledon 2015. Somewhat in the spirit of wild sports movies like Adam Sandler’s Happy …

After a couple of somewhat lackadaisical episodes, filled with table-setting, stage-dressing and a series of questionably relevant choices, Telltale’s Game of Thrones is finally pulling the curtain back with episode 5, which is certainly the finest to date.

The search for Caspere’s murderer leads the trio into a major shootout that claims several lives, while Frank’s downward descent continues in an excellent episode that further fleshes out the third member of the investigating team.

By far the worst thing about this week’s third episode of True Detective’s second season is that it feels mostly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

The election that has been looming all season finally arrives, leading to a strong season finale that goes in an unexpected direction and opens up a lot of possibilities for next season.

An especially brutal final chapter exposes the season’s (and the series’) greatest virtues and flaws.

As the team faces a congressional hearing and a deposition, the show presents the administration’s workings from the perspective of outsiders, in a strong episode that sees the team lose another member.

After last week’s brutal and hard-hitting climax at the wildling fort of Hardhome, a jaw-dropping scene that has literally been built upon and foreshadowed since the opening moments of the first episode, fans could be forgiven for expecting this week to pale in comparison. Luckily “The Dance of Dragons” only amped things up further in preparation for the finale, building an hour that encapsulates what may be the most horrifyingly emotional moment in the shows history and then matches it with a scene of triumph so glorious that the audience is shaken to the core.

As the administration makes an unorthodox move for the Families First bill, Meyer falls ill, and the resulting actions spell another scandal in another strong episode.

“The Gift,” spent plenty of time setting up several major storylines; Cersei was imprisoned for her sins against the church, Stannis was gearing up for battle, Samwell Tarly had to deal with the death of Maester Aemon, Jorah helped Tyrion finally meet Daenerys face-to-face, Sansa tried to escape Ramsay’s grasp and Jon Snow and Tormund headed north. Last week on our Game of Thrones podcast, I discussed why I enjoyed “The Gift” so much, and it all came down to balance. The best episodes of Game of Thrones give viewers a bit of everything they’ve come to love about the show: betrayal, family values, justice, judgement, principles, politics, love, death and a some well choreographed fight scenes. This week we get all that, and then some.