Now that you’ve re-watched season 7 of Game of Thrones for the third time all the way through, you’re probably sitting there staring blankly at your TV screen, scrolling through trying to find something interest. Below we have 10 recommendations of both newer and older shows that will help you pass the time.

10 Shows You Can Binge Watch While Waiting for Game of Thrones to Return

1) Vikings

If you’re into the violent, medieval times aspects of Thrones, Vikings will be a great show for you to start on. It has four seasons so far with a fifth currently being produced. While it has less of a fantasy focus, expect to be comfortable with the style in which it’s filmed. It’s available on Hulu.

2) Orphan Black

While I haven’t seen this show yet and can’t speak to the way it is filmed, almost everyone I rightfully complained to about having to wait for Thrones to return mentioned this show. From the reviews, it looks like it’s gotten better as it’s run through the first five seasons which means there’s likely great writing supporting that.

3) Westworld

Westworld was considered to have been snubbed at the Emmy’s last week and with good reason. It’s a captivating, well written show with an amazing cast. When you step back from the show and realize the improvements in AI technology, it’s feasible to think that a fictional setting like Westworld could come to fruition decades down the road. A word of advice: don’t read spoilers for this show. Just trust me and know that the twist and turns are worth watching through unknowingly.

4) Black Mirror

This is a show you’ve likely heard of before as well. Admittedly, this show is not for everyone as it can be very dark and unnerving. The premise of the series is to show how current and future technology could potentially impact our lives in ways we might not consider. The best part about Black Mirror is that each episode is standalone. You can watch any of the episodes in any order as they are all completely separate story lines. I’d recommend starting with “San Junipero” as it is the least dark of all of the episodes, is critically acclaimed, and will give you the best idea of what the show is about. Also, don’t start with season one, episode one as that is one of the most unnerving to watch. Fair warning.

5) Band of Brothers

While BoB is a fairly old series, it is an absolute classic. Following up on Saving Private Ryan‘s success, Band of Brothers has some of the best acting performances ever in an HBO series. While it’s set during WW2, the series is less about the war itself and more about the men that fought in the war. It’s also based on a true story and does a great job of tying that into the show.

6) The OA

The OA is only one season long and is easily watchable in a weekend if you have the free time and are feeling overly motivated to sit on your couch/in bed for 7-8 hours. When I first watched it, I initially expected it to be something completely different from what it ended up being. It’s tough to describe the show without giving too much away about how the plot progresses but know that it’s worth sitting through the first few episodes even if it feels slow as the final payoff is quite the tear-jerker.

7) The Sopranos

The Sopranos is arguably the series that put HBO on the map from a television show perspective. Please keep in mind, however, that not everyone from New York and New Jersey are like this, as much as people would like to think so.

8) Stranger Things

While Stranger Things and Westworld recently got snubbed at the Emmy’s, it was nominated and expected to win for many reasons. This is a show that I’d venture that most people have seen already, but if not, spend some time with it. But watch during the day and definitely not right before you go to sleep.

9) The Wire

“except maybe the wire” is a great description. The Wire is a criminally underrated show and one that was speculated to never get nominated for more awards because of a mostly African-America cast and an inner-city setting. This is a must-see show that takes some time to get through, but it absolutely worth the time.

10) Friends/The Office/How I Met Your Mother/It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia/Arrested Development

Because let’s be honest, this is what you’ll probably end up watching for the 27th time anyway.

 

Zombie. Ice. Dragon.

Will it breathe fire and melt the wall? Or be way more bad-ass and breathe ice. I mean, winter is coming, right?

Let’s first recap the predictions from last week and see how we did:

North of the Wall

Capture a wight? Yes. Anyone die? Yes, but Thoros and not Jorah which is way too predictable which I had hoped the episode wouldn’t be. But of course the dragons got there exactly when needed and saved the day. Did Uncle Benjen show up? Yep! Nailed it. 

Winterfell

Did Arya and Sansa go at it? Yep. Did Bran step in? No, because what are you doing Bran? You know more than everyone and you’re just sitting back and chilling? You better redeem yourself in a big way. Just do something, anything. 

King’s Landing + Euron + Sam & Gilly

No movement here so I technically wasn’t wrong about anything…

Dany

Yep, she took the dragons North and saved all of them…but lost Viserion. At least that solved the problem of not knowing who the third dragon rider would be.

Predictions for the Finale

From the “On the Season Finale of Game of Thrones” I really only see three environments or locations (with one taking the majority of the screen time) so those are the three I’ll cover below.

Winterfell

There are a few different ways to look at Sansa and Arya’s interaction from episode six. At face value and up until the very end of the final scene between the two, it seemed as though Arya was threatening Sansa and essentially saying she has all of the skills needed to take Sansa’s position from her and essentially be her by way of her Faceless Man skills. However, she hands the dagger to Sansa which to me is her saying “This is up to you…prove to me that you’re a loyal Stark”. She’s asking Sansa to kill Littlefinger with the same blade that was once used during Bran’s assassination attempt, which Littlefinger most likely helped orchestrate. (Side note: I heard Home Depot is starting to sell Chaos ladders…apparently they’re the most effective way of getting anywhere). Arya is also telling Sansa that she can be Littlefinger, when Sansa needs her to be. This would help Sansa immensely. Together, they could assassinate Littlefinger and then stage a wedding between Sansa and Arya in Littlefinger’s face. Sansa would then be the Lady of Winterfell as well as have some power over The Vale. By the end of the season, expect a dead Littlefinger and the Stark sisters making moves.

Dragonstone

This is only one shot of the quick teaser for the finale and it just looks like Theon walking out to the water. However, he’s shown about ten seconds earlier on a boat approaching King’s Landing with Tyrion and Varys, so I’m thinking not much will happen at Dragonstone in this episode other than the gang leaving to head to the capital. Theon – please redeem yourself just once for us. Prediction – Theon will be irrelevant.

King’s Landing

This is the big one. This will likely be 80% of the episode and with good reason. It’s the first time Jon Snow, Cersei, and Dany will all be on the same screen together. Cersei finds herself in a tough situation as King’s Landing will be mostly surrounded with the exception of the sea which Euron will control. But with two dragons overhead, how much damage could that fleet really do before they’re wiped out. She’ll be forced to negotiate but here’s the thing: Cersei is a psychopath. She’ll negotiate and play the game for as long as she must until she does something very messed up. Dany will try to strut her power and Jon will try to keep her in check, be the voice of reason, and undoubtedly do or say some dumb hero stuff. I don’t think there has been enough hinted at in previous episodes that Cersei would have anything major up her sleeves. Even if the Golden Company managed to circle around behind Dany’s troops, I still don’t think they would have enough men to take on both the Dothraki and the Unsullied in an open field. The scorpion weapons are effective, but I don’t think she would so blatantly use them and take out a dragon because we still need to see Jon and Dany riding them together.

I don’t think Jon will find out that he’s Dany’s newphew quite yet. Sam and Gilly are somewhere but I don’t think they would have left the Citadel to go to King’s Landing and the only other person who knows is Bran. Again, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRAN?!?

So we’re left with a discussion on how who will fight the Knight King and how they’ll do it. I could absolutely see Cersei saying that she’ll agree to fight with Dany and Jon, given that they turn over Tyrion to her so she can enact her revenge. Dany, who has been wavering as of late on Tyrion’s allegiance, will seriously consider it but ultimately decide against it. This will leave Cersei to say that if they aren’t willing to sacrifice one of their men to the cause, why should see risk any of hers? Which leads to a “let’s fight for it” scenario which means CLEGANEBOWL. The Hound will win and Cersei will submit all the while planning her next crazy move which we’ll see next season.

Odds and Ends

One of the main complaints about last episode was about how fast things happened. Gendry got to The Wall in no time, a raven flew faster than possible, and the dragons could beat an F-1 fighter jet in a race. But let’s take a step back. We don’t know how long Jon & the crew were trapped on that island. It looked to me while watching that the army of the dead wasn’t waiting for the ice to freeze; they were waiting for the guys trapped on the island to freeze. Once the rock was thrown by The Hound (what an idiot! Just chill guy!), it was obvious that they were mostly waiting for the ice to freeze. But still, what was their rush? They had them outnumbered and surrounded. There’s also the potential theory that the Night King has greensight given his interactions with Bran and knew it would draw a dragon to him that he could snipe and use. So I think it’s fair to assume that those guys weren’t sitting there overnight, but were there for a few days. That’s why The Hound lost his patience. He wouldn’t have done that after a few hours, but after a few days of being surrounded, that’s when he would get frustrated. Additionally, no one complained with how fast Dany used to get around Essos and if you look at the official maps, it is much, much larger. At the end of the day, it’s a fantasy show first. Just because they didn’t film in that way initially, doesn’t mean that’s what it wasn’t all along.

The final shot of the season will be the Night King on undead Viserion flying over the wall and his army breaking through it. For sure. Count it.