Entertainment News - TV

THIS ISSUE: Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan, Roadies, BET Awards TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT Winter Is Here HBO BECAUSE: Winter has come to Westeros -- Ned always promised, didn't he? -- and nothing will ever be the same again. So many changes are afoot as of Sunday's season 6 finale of Game of Thrones, but let's start with a huge development: Bran finally circled back to that mysterious Tower of Joy flashback he was working on with the Three-Eyed Raven. It confirmed the theory of longtime fans that Jon Snow is not Ned Stark's bastard, but the son of his sister Lyanna Stark and presumably Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, and that Ned was charged by his sister to protect Jon as she died from childbirth. All together now: "R + L = J."

Game of Thrones HBO WHAT HAPPENED: Have you heard? There's a party in Westeros and everybody's invited. In Sunday's finale, Arya showed up in Riverrun wearing the face of a servant girl to serve Walder Frey a slice of Frey pie (heavy on the thumbs of his sons) and a quick slit to the throat in the name of her family. Meanwhile, Benjen Coldhands dropped Bran off at the Wall to finally deliver him back to the North. But the youngest living Stark kids will find Winterfell a little different than last they left it. Cersei unleashed wildfire in King's Landing,trapping the High Sparrow and his followers -- including Margaery and Loras Tyrell -- in the Sept of Baelor and blowing it up from below. Of course, she quarantined Tommen far away from the blast. As he watched his home and his wife burn from afar, the young king was inclined to jump out of his own window and far away from his mother, who sat on the Iron Throne and declared herself Protector of the Seven Kingdoms. But she's going to have a little competition from Jon Snow in the North. Thanks to some help from Lady Lyanna Mormont, the houses of the North are rallying behind him as "Jon Snow, King In the North." Then there's Daenerys. With new allies and the official appointment of Tyrion as the Hand of the Queen, she is finally sailing to Westeros with her ships, dragons, and armies. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Clocking in at 69 minutes, Sunday's Game of Thrones finale covered a lot of ground and turned out quite a few deaths, with most of them caused by Cersei. Excuse us, Queen Cersei. Of her new, self-appointed position, actor Lena Headey told EW, "I was grinning [reading the script]. Everyone is going to be aghast and thrilled and annoyed they're on Cersei's side for a minute." Indeed, it was quite satisfying to see the High Sparrow go down in that green blast; less so, of course, that it also took Margaery and her plotting with it. But Headey also said that while she loved Cersei's shocking turn, she knows hold the Iron Throne doesn't come with a lot of job security: "I'm left to wonder who's going to take her down. She may only be there for a second. You do think, 'What the f--- comes next?'" Lena, you took the words right out of our mouths.

Ray Donovan Showtime WHAT HAPPENED: Ray Donovan is back for a fourth season, and Sunday's premiere opened with Ray left tending to his physical and emotional wounds. In a big departure for the character, we see him sharing in an abuse support group about his childhood sexual assault by a priest. And he's offered help in his recovery by a wealthy man named Hector, who seems to want to save Ray simply out of the goodness of his heart. But he ends up needing a little help from Los Angeles' most notorious fixer. Hector coming to Ray's aid is told in flashbacks, but in the present, Hector has gotten himself into a bit of a situation that involves falling off the wagon and kidnapping a cop. No problem -- Ray frames the officer for a DUI and offers a bribe to keep him quiet. He almost makes it back home in time for yet another missed Donovan family dinner. But now, Abby has "stage zero" breast cancer). And speaking of Donovans, we should probably mention that Mickey is in Vegas, predictably running a scam, and predictably getting caught by Detective Muncie. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: Ray might be seeking some help in season 4, but that doesn't exactly mean that his life is on the up and up. With the reveal of Hector's complicated relationship with his sister, played by Lisa Bonet in what YahooTV calls "a terrifically hard-bitten performance," it's easy to wonder if Hector came into Ray's life to help him out of the goodness of his rich heart, or because he already knew he'd need some Ray-style help in the future. Of the series' season 4 premiere, YahooTV says, "In the grim world of Ray Donovan, no good deed goes unpunished, at least five or six times. And sometimes no good deed is done, just to teach Ray a cosmic lesson." That's a consistency you can count on, but with the departure of creator Ann Biderman and new showrunner David Hollander stepping in, there are sure to be a few changes in the sordid world of Ray Donovan.

Roadies Showtime WHAT HAPPENED: Straying slightly from the structure of recent shows that are all about the glory of rock and roll -- think Vinyl and Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll-- Showtime's new series follows the other side of the music: the roadies making it happen behind the scenes. Starring Luke Wilson as tour manager Bill Hanson and Carla Gugino as production manager Shelli Anderson, Roadiesspends its premiere following a wily group of rock tour professionals as they get ready for a show from Staton-House Band, a group they all love or at least used to love. Imogen Poots is a tour-weary lighting engineer who can't quite leave the show, and Rafe Spall is the bloke from "management" who comes in to hand out a few pink slips to the roadies in the name of saving money, but let's be clear: there is only one scene that people will be talking about from this premiere. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: The band's flower-child "stalker" breaks into the dressing room of lead singer Tom Staton and fellates a microphone given to him by Bruce Springsteen. Shelli looks on, mildly horrified, but also admits, "I gotta say -- I'm impressed." But in their review, the A.V. Club points out that "'impressed' and 'amused' are separate emotional states, and as audacious asRoadies can be, it fails to calibrate the space between the two." Actual roadies, for the record, at least appreciated some of the realism, with one telling The Guardian that the show "isn't as bad as I expected. I felt like being a nurse and watching an hour of ER."

One More Thing...

Beyoncé Stuns at BET Awards BET PANDA PANDA PANDA: Whether for a powerful speech about race from Humanitarian Award winner Jesse Williams, a moving tribute to Muhammad Ali from his daughter Laila, a surprise performance from Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, or a meme-inspiring set from Desiigner, the 2016 BET Awards were the place to be on Sunday night.