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Now that the mystery of Game of Thrones Season 6 has come to an end, the final seasons remained an open question for HBO, between reports of truncated episode orders and delayed production. Now, we finally know that Season 7 will get underway this summer, aiming for a Summer 2017 premiere with seven episodes.

Game of Thrones’ recent finale didn’t quite leave us with the kind of mystery that drove anticipation for Season 6, though at least one major paternal twist seems to have spurred fan investigation anew. So much so, in fact, that even Siri appears to have been sworn to secrecy by HBO.

HBO’s drama problem seems only to increase as 2016 rolls on, a slump that last year dragged True Detective from top-tier to bottom-shelf to cold storage. Matthew McConaughey might just be up for a cold one, however, claiming to have talked with creator Nic Pizzolatto about returning Rustin Cohle for True Detective Season 3.

Secrecy has proven something of a sore subject for Game of Thrones Season 6, with HBO attempting to limit the availability of spoilers (even from the press), and oftentimes failing miserably. To wit, the network even amusingly offered its final two Season 6 episode releases without any description whatsoever, but Emmy ballots for “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter” tell a different story.

Mere days ago, Curb Your Enthusiasm star J.B. Smoove stirred the ever-swirling pot of Season 9 rumors with reports that creator Larry David was thinking about coming back, but few knew how seriously to take them. Well, prettay, pretty, prettay great news for all, as HBO officially confirms Curb Your Enthusiasm returning for Season 9!

Game of Thrones Season 6 comes to an end in June (so soon!), but luckily HBO NOW has plenty of viewing options to help keep you occupied during your annual mourning period. Next month brings the premiere of HBO’s new weekly series Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons, hosted by the renowned sports analyst, author and ESPN vet. Cinephiles, meanwhile, will be thrilled to see the addition of Ridley Scott’s The Martian and (maybe) David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars. But more importantly, the epic Problem Child trilogy is coming to HBO NOW in June, giving you a chance to engage in a fierce familial debate over the finer points of Junior’s schemes — surely a more contentious topic than the resurrection of Jon Snow.

Ian McShane intended to denigrate Game of Thrones in dismissing it as “tits and dragons,” but he’s not wrong when it comes to viewers zeroing in on the nudity above all. We’ve seen numerous “controversies” of actors male and female showing (or not showing), but as far as last night’s spectacular Daenerys fire-walk, Emilia Clarke herself wants you to know that no CGI was required of her latest nude scene.

Lord knows we’ve missed the genius of Jon Stewart’s late-night voice in these troubled times, and it’s been some time since HBO signed the former Daily Show host to a four-year development deal. We wouldn’t expect Stewart to suit up again behind a desk just yet, but HBO now believes the late-night veteran will return to active TV duty just in time for the 2016 election.

Unless you’ve been living on Mars for the last week, in a cave, with your eyes shut and your fingers in your ears, you may have heard something of Beyoncé’s visual album event, Lemonade. It’s … gotten a bit of coverage, here and there. Now, it may even get an Emmy, as HBO will submit the hour-long special for Emmy consideration, bringing Beyoncé one step closer to that EGOT.

Well, if its position as the most pirated series four years running hadn’t clued you in, Game of Thrones is a fairly popular television series. So much so, in fact, unbelievable anticipation for the Season 6 premiere shockingly brought its highest ratings yet (with a caveat or two), while HBO’s preview weekend may actually have curbed piracy.

Game of Thrones fans have known for some time that Season 6 would return to a few abandoned subplots and locales from earlier in the series, particularly with regard to the Riverlands, and now another notable Season 3 face could kick off a story fans have waited for. Does the Brotherhood Without Banners have a stony new leader?

It’s kind of incredible that Danny McBride is capable of essentially playing variations on the same obnoxious, narcissistic and myopic character without audiences ever growing tired of his schtick. Unlike similarly repetitive character actors, McBride continues to both amaze and amuse with his crassly inappropriate and delightfully dumb humor, and Vice Principals is no exception. HBO’s latest miniseries is a more than worthy successor to Eastbound and Down, reuniting McBride with directors Jody Hill and David Gordon Green for another devious comedy — this time set in the world of high school administration.