The Screaming Viking

This is a good series, but I’ve got to say I have no idea what the story is about.  That sounds like a weird thing to say…but as you read through the books (i just finished book 3) you start to see that it isn’t a story about specific characters…it’s a story about the power struggle in this realm.  That is quite a change from other fantasy books I’ve read recently.  Most spend pages, chapters, books even sucking you in to the main characters…you know that somehow in the end these main characters will be involved and must likely prevail.  In this series you start off thinking that way…then a main character is killed off.  That seems to build the story for other main characters, then they die…then others die…in the end you have to understand that so far it’s been a story of the evolution of power in the realm.

This style has been hard to adapt to.  I found myself at one point losing interest in the story because a character was killed out of the blue.  I expected a few characters to befall something bad, but I didn’t expect them to be written out if the story.  It took another chapter to get back in to it.  The story is evolving so that no one is truly good and few are pure evil…but that makes it really hard to root for anyone.  There is one guy that I think is pretty close to being a good guy…but who knows.  From what I’ve read online his back story is suppose to develop more in feast for crows.

Something else I’m digging on is the light fantasy aspect.  There seems to be “magic”of a sort, but it is introduced gradually and doesn’t overwhelm the story.  It doesn’t feel like the mortals are essentially powerless against the “magic”.

Overall this guy tells a really good story.  So many scifi/fantasy writers get caught up in the craptastic details that it leaves no room for you to set the scene in your head.  Martain described things in detail but there is still plenty for the reader to visualize for themselves.

In episode 9 we came to a point that most who’ve read the book were anticipating…the decapitation of Eddard.  Reading through the book the first time, I was a bit surprised they actually killed the character…but that’s what has made this series so gripping for me.  TBH I was a little concerned about the direction HBO has been going with the T.V. series.  There hasn’t been as much character development as was possible in the text, so I though the killing of Eddard would really hurt the series.  He has been in the dungeon now for two episodes and they have taken that time to flesh out some of the characters that will be important going forward.

This episode also is attacking the death of drogo and the screwy events that surround that.  When I read how that whole thing went down…well, it was just really weird.  Even for a fantasy series it struck me as weird.  (there is something in book 2 that hits an equal level of strange as well)  The events that transpire are important though to the development of Dany.  I’m curious how they will play out the last scene in episode 10…I’m really hoping the CGI doesn’t suck too bad.

Touching back on eddard’s death, this series has built to that point very well.  If you go back and watch the episodes you see how the character seems to linger just a little bit longer than you would expect in some places, most notably the kiss between him and the wife when she leaves King’s Landing and when his daughter is “learning to dance”.  It’s those scenes that T.V. is able to capture a little better than text.  Also, when he was being wheeled out, him seeing his daughter clinging to the statue was key..then him looking for her a bit frantically before he is chopped.  Again, that is something that translates a bit better on T.V. than in text.

Overall I think HBO has handled this series much better than I expected after watching the first couple of episodes.  I still think they are severely missing out on the connection between the Starks and the dire wolves.  As I’m reading through the series it’s clear how important and beneficial that connection is.  So far there is no sense of how attached these kids are to the wolves, later when they (I assume) will try to establish some of the weird stuff that goes on between the wolves and kids…how are we going to know that there is a deep connection there?  At this point in the book you got the sense that the wolves were intense protectors for the children, watching the series we don’t get that feeling at all.  Maybe it’s a bit to hard to work with the animals, but I think it’s probably just something they chose to sacrifice for budget (time) reasons.

One last thing that I was really disappointed with and I hope it’s not a reoccurring theme is the lack of fight scenes.  I get that it would be very expensive to stage the fights on the massive scale that they are in the book, but we need some kind of action.  The imp getting knocked out before the first skirmish with “rob’s troops” was a nice way to get around filming it.  It did miss a couple of things that helped the development of the imp character, but over all in the grand scheme of the story the actual fighting was kinda unimportant.  Still, it would have been nice to see some blood and guts.

There is one episode left, and I think they are in a good position to wrap things up for this season.  I wonder if they will change the name of the show for next year to match the book title.  I’m not sure if Martain projected an end to this series.  Currently the wiki has 7 books listed in the series.  I do hope he “ends” the story somewhere.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get in to a series and the author keeps on going and going.  I like some sort of finality to a story.  It needs that closure for me to feel like reading it was worth my time.

I found a site that gives the average number of viewers for thrones, which appears to include hbo on demand, dvr and live views.

link

Season to date, GOT has an average gross audience (linear plays, DVR and HBO On Demand) of 8.3 million viewers.

Not bad at all

I got busy last week with basketball camp so I wasn’t able to post my thoughts on Thrones ep 7, this week will combine both episodes.

I’m starting to appreciate what HBO is doing for the story verses what the book has done.  HBO moves really quick and some spots seem choppy to me, but from what I can see in various social networking areas they are holding on to fans.  On twitter I follow some people that you would not expect would be in to this kind of show and they are carving out that time slot on their Sunday to watch…my house must be the only place in the free world that uses tivo for everything.  When the new season for shows I follow is in full swing I don’t even bring up the guide…I very seldom will watch live T.V.  It’s like “power watching t.v.” I guess.  Anyway…

Episodes 7 & 8 can be summed up in pretty much the same post as they both serve the same purpose…they build up a little more story for the excitement that is going to be 9 and 10.  Both shows setup that which is yet to come.  I liked the scene in 7 with Baelish and the whores where he tells the story of him and kat.  That scene added so much to the end when he put the dagger to eddard’s throat…you get a feeling for why he’s doing what he’s doing.  You understand that in the end he has his own interests at heart.  It brings in to question all of the old advise that he gave ned along the way.  A person almost should go back and watch the season again with the “new” information to understand all the nuances about how these people move around on this chess board.

About 1/2 way through episode 8 you have to start feeling sorry for ned.  It’s almost pathetic how “stupid” he is about what’s going on around him.  He seems to operate under the assumption that everyone is interested in ‘doing the right thing’ like he is.  All the people around him are playing this long drawn out chess match to best position themselves to reach their own goals…and this poor guy comes barreling in under the banner of “good” only to get slaughtered by the vipers.  It doesn’t occur to him that someone is giving him less than the truth or that their “word” won’t mean anything when steels starts flying.  You hope that the Starks can catch up to the southerners and their games.

I wasn’t impressed with the rape and pillage scene in ep 8.  It was far more graphic in my mind than what they were able to show on even HBO.  I think that’s my whole problem with the dothraki…I picture their culture so violent and brutal that it just can’t be shown to my satisfaction on HBO.  It’s good to see the Kaleeshi step in to her role. Her failure to embrace the brutality of their culture, I think, will ultimately cost her.  Does anyone else question the motives of the witch doctor treating drogo?  In the book I didn’t give it much thought…but watching it on the screen it seemed like a really stupid thing to allow her to treat Drogo’s wound.  Not sure why that didn’t stand out more to me in print.

Another thing I’m not happy with in the show compared to the book is how old the boys look.  Rob is suppose to be about 15ish, on screen he looks more like mid 20′s.  The other lords treat him like he is a boy, but he doesn’t look the part.  I would have liked to see a much younger actor in that role.  Jon, I think, looks about right, Joffery looks about right…which should be the same age as Rob I think?  Why was Rob chosen to be played by such an old looking actor?

I don’t remember arya killing someone during her escape…but it’s possible I overlooked it.  Come to think of it, there have been several things I don’t remember in the book that is showing up on screen.  Some of it helps build the background, but some of it doesn’t seem necessary.  Trust in HBO though, they are selling this show.  The ratings seem to be right around the 2.5 million per episode mark.  They go a little over 3 million for Sunday once you figure in the repeats.

I read someone in a review posted a quick note about how they think T.V. shows like this are eclipsing movies.  I can see that as far as character development is concerned.  It seems rather obvious.  With new ways to deliver this content (box sets, paid downloads…etc) people like HBO that are willing to put in time and money are able to reap some reward for their effort.  I got all the movie channels for free for 3 months with my direct tv subscription.  I’m going to be holding on to HBO, but the rest of them can be cancelled.  No other network is coming close to holding my attention with their original series like HBO and in the end, that’s what it takes to get my dollar.