Recap

Game of Thrones Season Premiere Video Recap Roundup

Posted on by Bex

Hello and welcome to the first round of recap/review videos for the premiere of season 5! General consensus is that it was a decent start to one of the best shows on television, although all of our commentators have a unique take.

Over at HappyCool, Sandrine and Kenny support the bottom in their newest video review:

Next up is Ozzy Man with his run-through of the events of 5.01:

Cenk the Merciful, Sexy Glasses Man & co. provide their thoughts on What the Flick?!:

Jonathan of Gay of Thrones is serving a mean center-part and a Bronn-worthy video title:

And a few more recommended video reviews of “The Wars to Come:”

Red Team Review – A spoiler-free  video review.

Sawyer7mage – Solo review of the season premiere.

Schmoesknow – A review by Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis, “two regular schmoes.”

ThinkHero – Smart discussion from the guys at ThinkHero.

PostShowRecaps – Josh Wigler joined this week by Antonio Mazzaro talks up the premiere.

Thank you for reading! Any of the reviews spot on? Anyone get it completely wrong? New suggestions for videos always welcome!

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Bex

54 Comments

  1. My favourite youtube reviewer (Comicbookgirl19) is no longer doing GoT reviews *cries*

    PS: Gay of Thrones though… that title 😀

  2. Sadly, neither are Dino and Byron because they just don’t have the time due to real-life commitments.

  4. I liked AA Podcast/History of Westeros’ videos. They have a spoiler-free video and book reader video. The book reader one had a guest from Radio Westeros, too.

  5. Balerion The Cat,

    Yeah…I just read CBG19’s “rationale” for not doing GoT reviews anymore. What a letdown. Imho, she gave up too easily. She had a good combo of book/show commentary. Oh well, there are plenty of others to fill her gap.

    Yeah, Ozzy!

  7. pntrlqst,

    Shmoes Know and (most of) ThinkHero are Unsullied. Sawyer7Mage and Red Team Review are sullied. HappyCool – one is Unsullied, the other (Axechucker) is not. Don’t know about the rest.

  9. I checked with Bex- she agreed that Schmoesknow and some guys on WhattheFlick are Unsullied and that’s about it.

    I’m always interested in hearing about more videos and podcasts so if there are more Unsullied video reviewers out there, let us know.

    We haven’t done a podcast feature in a while (besides our own Game of Owns posts), so we’ll probably do that soon.

  11. Dorian,

    No, actually, Dino & Byron may be really busy but we’re not getting review videos because Byron has an issue with his employer, he’s not allowed to put his face out there or something. That’s why all their old videos are no longer available.

  12. “Gay of Thrones” recaps are Unsullied, and they’re funny as hell. The nicknames for the characters alone are worth the visit. His recap starts out with “Tegan and Sara taking a little stroll through the woods to find Fortune-Teller Amy Winehouse.” He goes on to discuss “Evil Stevie Nicks,” “Christina Aguilera” and “Dr. Evil.” Only Jon Snow gets to keep his real name because, hey, Jon Snow.

    Can’t wait for next week, when we get to hear about “Baby Kristen Stewart”!

  13. Hmmm maybe the problem is Unsullied reviewers aren’t actually confirmed as Unsullied even if they are so people are guessing sometimes. We should send around a poll or something. “Book wanker y/n?”

  14. Axey, if you read this, are you gonna do your own sullied reviews on top of the ones with Sandrine, like last year?

  15. Ozzy man is quickly becoming my favorite. “Tyrion does a mint Powah Yak on the Cahpeht!”
    I getting my reviews from him. 🙂

    The North Remembers.

  19. Yesssssss! I <3 HappyCool reviews. Those two are so adorable!!! xoxoxo! Also I miss Dino and Byron, but mostly I miss when Byron's compassionate heart would soften Dino's.

  20. NYI:
    Axey, if you read this,are you gonna do your own sullied reviews on top of the ones with Sandrine, like last year?

    Sadly, no, AxeyFabulous was not recouping the number of views that would make production/cost viable for us to continue. (Basically I cost more than I’m actually worth.) (My wife tells me this all the time, you’d think I’d listen!) This isn’t to say it might not return someday in some form, but for now it’s shelved. I’ll continue to occasionally pop up with Sandrine. First four episodes, at least, guaranteed!

  26. Balerion The Cat: CBG19

    I got bored with her GoT coverage. It tended towards “This is different than the books … the book version was better” when it came to addressing plots, characters, etc. Even her website cited the divergences as being one reason she will no longer make the recap videos. I’m not really interested in purism/fidelity studies, so I never caught the last few season 4 videos she made.

    Love What the Flick! though they definitely need to rewatch older episodes to refresh their memories.

  27. My fav YouTube reviewer is Charlie/Emergency Awesome. He’s got a ton of videos for GoT/asoiaf. 🙂

  28. There is a leaked pic online of Bronn with Lollys, I won’t link it so as to avoid trouble, therefore you have to find it for yourselves.

  30. Felt Pelt:
    I always like Dave Chen and Joanna Robinson’s Cast of Kings:
    http://www.slashfilm.com/a-cast-of-kings-s5e01-the-wars-to-come/

    Over the years Dave has come around to the show, I think, so he has less ridiculous objections that make no sense, sadly. Still unsullied though.

    I like a podcast where they actually speak their opinions instead of just blindly praising everything. And while many podcasts claim to have unsullied, Chen is unsullied for real unlike GOO for example where the unsullied have read several of the books as part of the podcast. And as a book reader its always fun to hear from the unsullied perspective. Also, I disagree that his objections didnt make any sense. His dislike of Jon and Danys plots in S2 makes a lot of sense.

  32. Oh, yes, sometimes he has good points. Jon and Dany in Season 2 got problems out the wazoo. (I also agree with the Dave and Jo on the show’s sexual/racial politics.)

    But some of his arguments and how he propounds them are really weak. IIRC a lot of it had to do with rules for the magic, and thinking the magic was too powerful. Game of Thrones is a good example of fantasy having rules and consequences to its supernatural occurrences, but he was blind to that for a long time. He would also miss plots/details the show had set up and then claim it had not, and ignore Joanna’s corrections. Very entertaining podcast.

  33. Felt Pelt,

    My only complaint about that podcast is how often he call his partner by her full name : ‘Joanna Robinson this’ ‘Joanna Robinson that’. It gets irritating after the 50th time, but it would make hell of a drinking game.

  35. What the Flick is fantastic. After finding them at the end of last season I’m going through their back catalogue now.

  37. Hodor’s Bastard,

    Thanks, i gained a whole lot of respect for her after reading that.

    It’s refreshing to find someone who considers youtube an outlet for there art and talents rather than easy money.
    Between all the youtubers jumped the GoT bandwagon for the clicks (*cough* Emergency Awesome *cough*) and the trolls who infest this fandom, it wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.

  38. KrakenDaughter,

    EA made a Game of Thrones video with egregious errors and never addressed them so I unfollowed him a while back. And I wish I could say that was the only time.

  41. By the way, does anybody know ir Zap2it is doing the Game of Thrones Google Hangouts anymore? I enjoyed them a lot during season 4.

    I also like Emergency Awsome and from time to time watch the Aftebuzz review

  42. Turncloak,

    I hate the way he makes “preview” videos and acts like he has insider information from the show.
    but hes alright…

    love afterbuzztv

  44. I like the boars gore and swords podcast. It’s run by two San Fransisco comedians and is very funny and also quiet interesting because their opinions are often very different from the general fandom.

    I also enjoy Cast of Kings which has been mentioned and the spoiler cast Storm of Spoilers which Joanna runs with some other guys whose names I forgot. I don’t think one should take all of Dave’s criticism that seriously. It seems from other podcast reviews that he enjoys knitpicking. And he does reevaluate his criticism at times.

  48. Red team review is always talking about jerking off or dildos ” that dude is a straight up tool box who sounds like a boy that just discovered his penis for the first time

  49. Sawyer that dudes looks and sounds like he does crystal meth before his reviews . Emergency awesomes videos are usually non spoilery, he gives away prizes every week and I thought his videos on blood raven and blackfire rebellion
    We’re great and very informative . Red team review is the worst every time my girl listens to him she gets offended in some kind of way – I think that kids gay

  50. Think hero pro knows less than anybody , I think they watched each episode like once
    , something that’s very clear to
    Me they’ll think is something that clearly
    Can’t be but they don’t follow the story close enough . I’m really sad to see that know one supports emergency awesome. The weirdest but there sort of informative is atkon tomko and exhcnatment of eternity – but they r brothers ( I thought they sound
    Like same dudes ) they just did a couple discussions and I felt like they do there podcast from a Mormon camp sleepover party. Tony Teflon has good ones but he has an intro that sounds like a hook for a silk the shocker track . Hahahaha some
    Of the youtubers who do the videos are the biggest charectors . Red team review would be good if he didn’t talk about dicks , jerkin off or dildos in every video I didn’t listen to this untill
    I came in the room
    He says fan boy dildos withing 2 minutes of his review . He has a good voice ok opionons but I can tell without you tube , he’d have no one to talk to .

  52. Ozzys videos are the best , informative and very funny , seems like somebody I’d like to party with, never says anything that crosses the line , but always says something that’s witty . Ozzy is my favorite cause he’s clearly not a you tube nerd and he follows the cardinal rule be yourself and you’ll be alright , I give an honorable mention to emergency awesome and Tony Teflon , Teflon this isn’t an audition for free studio time ——— why no preston Jacobs shout outs ???? His videos deserve some recognition as well . He puts more thought into his videos than anybody on here any maybe more thought for his video than some of you guys do on your posts. Also what video did emergency awesome mess up on ? I’ve always thought Charlie was true to himself and all the fans , he’s a lovable nerd . And he gives out more a week than this website gives out . Wotw offers t shirts – I make tees for a living they cost about 3-4 to
    Make . Emergency awesome gives out seasons on Blu ray hbo go services and signed copies of feast and dance .

  53. KrakenDaughter,

    He gives away something for every video , he had George autograph a bunch of copies at com icon – he takes care of his watchers which no one else does . I started watching his videos before I came in here or read the books and he really embraces his fans sometimes he’ll pick a night and stream an episode and all his subscribers will watch it and comment on it together . He’s deffinatly into it . This week he’s giving away signed hardbacks for feast and dance . He gives back to his channel watchers that’s admirable

  54. Game of king chairs:
    I like the boars gore and swords podcast. It’s run by two San Fransisco comedians and is very funny and also quiet interesting because their opinions are often very different from the general fandom.

    I just discovered that podcast a few days ago! I thought it was fantastic. They were discussed every storyline in detail and they had a great rapport with both one another and with their guest, Lydia (I hope she’s a frequent contributor). The flow was excellent. Being comedians, their discussion a bit more irreverent and littered with jokes that may not be to everyone’s taste, but I thought it was funny as hell. I’ll definitely be listening to it again.

    I listen to most of these recaps listed here, and I really enjoy them. What the Flick is probably my favorite of the bunch, but there are a lot of good ones. In the short and sweet category, it’s hard to top HappyCool and OzzyMan for enthusiasm and humor. On the other side of the spectrum, Post Show Recaps do an excellent job of covering every storyline in depth (as they should, since their videos are 90 minutes long). I’m thrilled that Andy Greenwald is now doing a second Thrones podcast. And salute to the sadly departed Dino and Byron, whose thoughts and perspective I will greatly miss.

    In my opinion, the five main qualities that make for a good video review or podcast are:

    1) Genuine enthusiasm for the show
    2) Smart, in-depth analysis
    3) Comprehensiveness, with often correlates with length (though not always).
    4) Good chemistry between the hosts. I tend to favor recaps that feature at least two people having a conversation about the episode rather than one person delivering a monologue to the camera. There are some good reviews in the vein of the latter, but listening to one person talk can get old after a while.
    5) Production values. I don’t need fancy visuals – just general technical competence.

    What do I NOT look for? That’s simple – extensive comparisons to the novels. A reviewer who has read A Song of Ice and Fire acknowledging that a certain storyline or character is “a bit different in the books”? That’s fine. But if the reviewer in question starts actively comparing the show to the books – especially in an angry or dismissive manner – or goes off on a long tangent about something that was in the novels that wasn’t in the show (or vice versa)? That’s when my eyes start to glaze over.

    That’s not to say that there aren’t great book-centric reviews of the show – there are (Post Show Recaps does a Book Club that’s quite good). But in general, I would prefer to listen to people talk about the show as the show rather than run through a laundry list of changes. I’ve read the books. I know what’s different and I can pretty much always rationalize why those changes were made. Furthermore, except in very rare instances, I don’t really care when the show diverges from the novels. This is why I never enjoyed ComicBookGirl19’s reviews, and dropped them several years ago (as well as others who shall remain nameless). It’s also why I tend to prefer Unsullied reviews on the whole.

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