The Battle of Castle Black on GOT, Food Network Star amuses their judges and discovering why Orange is the New Black

This next to last episode of this season's Game of Thrones was certainly action packed as the Wildling army advanced to the Wall and laid siege to Castle Black. A number of good guys and bad ones met their maker, including Jon Snow's former love Ygritte.

 It was sad to see her go but at least Jon was with her(despite his "knowing nothing" of course) and she did die in battle, something that her people would consider an honor. The whole battle was well done but there did seem to be something missing(which on pain of spoiler peril I can't discuss) but perhaps that particular element will be addressed during the finale.

I know some people felt that this episode had an open ending but I think it was meant to be in a way. This is a continuing story, after all and this battle wasn't a total loss, as the approach of the Free Folk forces were pretty impressive:

I do expect a strong number of reaction videos by next week for this particular finale because quite a lot is going to happen and by that I do mean Tyrion's fate but not him alone.

From the trailer, it does appear that Bran's story line will hit a major arch along with one other Stark that I am most keenly invested in,Arya. Her mocking laugh of despair as she and the Hound reached the Eyrie at long last only to discover that Lyssa was dead(not to mention unknowingly getting this close to an encounter with one of her family members) the week before last was a indicator of how fast she's grown up since Season One.

 Her time with The Hound is coming to a close, I feel it's safe to say and for those of you who are wondering why Braavos has been showing up on the map in the opening credits quite regularly these last few episodes, you will get an answer for that very soon indeed, no more will I say about this!:

For the second round of Food Network Star, the culinary contenders had to display some on-camera skills as instructors.

Each of them were given a brief amount of time to film a cooking demo yet were unaware that watching along with the mentor panel was Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, who was following their instructions in real time.

Most of them did well here, with Lenny being a breakout star for his charming cowboy ways. Kenny was lucky, however, that Luca's inability to make eye contact on screen was far worse that his rude attempts to justify his mistakes and failure to finish cooking. Confidence is fine, dude but not arrogance,just saying!:

Summer is a great time to catch up on things and one small screen phenomenon that I intend to finally see is the first season of Orange is the New Black. While I do have a Netflix subscription, it is DVD rental only( due to budget limits) and I have not even read the book upon which this women's prison drama is based.

I have heard enough good things about it to peak my interest and happy to have this opportunity to sit back and see it OITNB is worth all of the hype. No doubt that it is but I don't want to over or under estimate the value of this ground breaking show. My thoughts on Season One will pop up from time to time during my regular TV Thursday posts, so if you're all too familiar with this show already, please be patient with my newbie impressions:

RANDOM NOTES:

THE FLASH: I'm still catching up on the first season of Arrow but this upcoming spin-off/reboot that features the fleet footed Barry Allen looks like a first across the finish line winner: