The Screaming Viking

Finally caught episode 5 of thrones last night.  It was probably the best episode so far.  It had some good drama, character development, sex and action.  Again though, one of the scenes I looked forward to from the book was a bit short changed.

I like how they have built up the Ned Stark character.  I think you really get a feel for his uncompromising sense of morality.  He’ll kill, go to war but he has a sense of his own morals behind why he does it and there are certain lines he won’t cross.  He calls the king on his B.S. to a point, and in essance gives him the finger when he doesn’t agree with him.  No one wanted to tell Robert he couldn’t joust, but Ned marched in there hell bent on keeping him out of the competition….even telling him he was too fat for his armor.

The mountain killing his horse was cool, but the editing was kinda poor.  It did a good job of showing him hacking off the head of the horse, but when it cut back to the horse falling and all that it didn’t look like it was cut at all.  Obviously this is a very challenging scene to pull off, but I didn’t think they did it that well.  Did the hound kneel knowing he wouldn’t be hit by the mountain’s swing? or was he showing obedience to the crown?  You know that they are brothers, but there is no way the hound could know the mountain would stop.  Either way, that was a pretty cool scene.  I think they did a good job showing how massive this guy is, and the kind of street brawler/thug he is.  The character is what I expected.  What about the hound?  There are glimpses of humanity in him that I didn’t get a sense of until later in the series.  I’m sure that’s necessary for the abbreviated time they have for character development.

Speaking of characters…I think HBO has done a really good job of casting the characters.  While I feel they have glossed over some points and rushed things along…the characters themselves “feel” about like I would expect them too, with the exception of Drogo.  I don’t think they made him out to be the savage as much as I had pictured in my head.  While HBO has done a decent job of developing the characters…Martian did so much better in print.   I don’t think I’ve read another fantasy writer do as much character development that I didn’t find excruciatingly boring.  Martian has done it in such a way that it’s very interesting and makes it difficult to put the book (my phone) down for the evening.

Lysa’s keep (I can’t remember the name of the place) was a scene I was really looking forward to…and it didn’t pay off.  The only thing said in the show about it was that it is “impregnable” (and a nice bit of dialogue followed, “gimme 10 men and climbing spikes…I’ll impregnate the bitch”).  The book goes in to great detail about the massive undertaking it is to make it up to the castle.  It’s a days travel just to get from the bottom of the mountain up in to the thing.  I have no idea if, in later books, the impenetrability of this place will be key or not…but it did help to put an exclamation point on how far off the deep end Lysa has gone.  ”I want to see him fly!”  Really meant something…like they were above the clouds in this place.  I was also disappointed that there was no delving into the relationship between the dwarf and the sell sword.  It will be worked on a bit at the castle…it has to be, but it started on the road to the castle.

The boy sucking on his mother’s breast was kind of disturbing to me.  I knew it was there…and that it was coming but that was one aspect of the book that I glossed over in print, but on the screen it made much more of an impact.  I didn’t like it.  I joked to a buddy that it was “kiddie pr0n”.  I really have no idea what the laws are governing that sort of thing.

The end scene with Ned and Jamie was pulled off -really- well IMO.  Jamie stabbing that dude through the eye was gruesome and cool all at the same time…then his dance with Ned was orchestrated nicely.  The range of feelings the viewer could got (or at least I did) while they were going back and forth really surprised me.  When it starts there is almost a panic in Ned’s eyes and a cold calm in Jamie’s…as it progresses you see that switch, it’s as if Ned finally believes he can take him and Jamie gets worried…then of course…Ned is stuck in the leg.  I would have liked to see Jamie decapitate the guard instead of just hitting him.  I don’t remember how that played out in print.  I know the fight scene was quite a bit different, but stuff like that has to change a little bit to even be shown on T.V.  You can’t really show off fighting on horse back too much.

I’m pretty stoked up for next week.  ”A golden crown” seems to indicate the playing out of a scene that I’ve been anticipating.  I’m very curious to see how they pull it off…I’ve got an image in my head of how it went down…and I’m hoping the on screen version doesn’t disappoint.

From what I’ve read online, the viewer numbers for Thrones have been going up episode to episode.  I like hearing that.  While it’s not necessarily what I had hoped for compared to the text, it is an entertaining series.  I’m hoping the numbers are strong enough to give it a five year’ish run.  It would be nice if it could run out to the end of the text series…but we don’t want to see Martian put in a position where he is rushing to push out a book to keep ahead of the show.  I don’t want to see any of that amazing writing rushed.  Maybe they have a plan and if the series is renewed for a 3rd season and beyond (HBO already picked up a 2nd) things wouldn’t be rushed.  Book #5 is slated for a July 12 2k11 release and there are 2 more planned after that.  I’m hoping he ends the series, I don’t like open ended stories…when I read through a book or even a series of books I like there to be some sort of conclusion or wrap up to everything.

This past Sunday HBO finally showed it’s much anticipated “original series” Game of thrones, which is based on the first book of the same name in the “Song of fire and ice” series by George R.R. Martin.  If you are a fan of the fantasy genre at all this book is a must read.  I have to admit that I had not read it until the beginning of this year.  I’d been putting it off, but when this series had an official start date I wanted to tear through the book before the series started.  It is a very well written book, probably the best fantasy book I’ve read to date.  It is very detailed without seeming like it drags on.  Night after night reading it I had a hard time putting it down.  The only part of the book I disliked was the ending, I won’t spoil it but I thought something different could have been done.  It was pretty light on fantasy to that point and I was pretty happy with that aspect of it.  After getting through the book, I was very excited to see the words come alive on the small screen.

After watching the first episode, there is good and bad IMO…and I will start with the good…

It’s an HBO series…those few words should set up your expectations for production quality, acting quality…etc.  From beginning to end this show had the high quality “everything” that you have come to expect from this network.  There were no corners cut, there was no cheesy special effects to suffer through.  It looked like it was shot in the time period intended.  Time and again HBO has done a fantastic job of putting out high quality series and this is no exception.  I can’t really say much more about it tbh…the quality of these shows is so expected at this point that as viewers we might not fully appreciate the effort and money that HBO puts forth.  If you want to see how much of a difference HBO makes in the quality of time pieces, watch an episode of Camelot.  I’ve seen one, and while it wasn’t horrible it was not HBO quality.  These shows are so good they are not even downloadable.  As a person that has dabbled in the dark arts /cough…I have come to the conclusion that HBO is well worth the subscription cost so they have my few bucks a month to help create these shows.  They do an amazing job…/end slirp

Now that what I didn’t like about this show…

Before I begin my rant, I want to say that I understand how these original series try to attract viewers.  Blood and Sex…It is a proven formula that has succeeded time and again.  In fact after the show was over, a buddy messaged me and made a comment about one of the sex scenes.  He was now interested in the series and it was due in no small part to that unexpected shock and awe factor.  Had that scene not been in the first episode, it might have no retained as many viewers as it should…but it’s what was missing that would have made that scene (and a couple others) so much more powerful.  If you haven’t read the book, or seen the show you probably don’t want to read below until you do…I’m not going to go much further in the story than the first episode did, but there is some spoiler info.

*********SPOILERS FOLLOW*************

The thing that made this book so fascinating to me was the depth of character development chapter after chapter.  It’s been my experience that a fantasy novel that touches 1k pages has pretty significant chunks that are just filler.  How many pages do you need to fill up with the characters eating, how much detail do I need about what their food looks like (yeah, I’m looking at you Jordan).  Game of thrones was so rich with character development that I didn’t scan through any pages..in fact I went back at times to re-read something to make sure I absorbed it all.  Martin chose to put detail in the correct spots (character) and leave other less important areas to the readers imagination (what their food tasted like…what their walk through the desert was like…).  Maybe that didn’t work for every reader, but it really drew me in to what he was trying to do with the book.  It’s very much a character driven story, it’s not people you know something about that are going through epic events.  It’s a story about who these people are and why they make the choices they make…it’s about how their core values and essence lead them down a specific path.

I don’t think it would have been possible in a season, much less an opening show, to get to that level of detail with the characters.  I understand why the show ended where it did and why it pushed so hard to get to the incest scene.  It’s those types of scenes that are going to keep viewers coming back.  It’s so important for HBO to grab a viewer with that scene, then go back and develop the characters after they have got the viewers attention.  It’s just out of order from what the book did.  The problem with doing that though is that it is so key to why these people are doing what they do.  There were 2 key areas where this background character information was missing and it really hurt the over all product…

The first spot I thought it was missing was across the sea with Viserys and Daenerys.  The way Viserys treated his sister was huge in understanding what kind of person he is.  The way she was treated also ultimately shaped the way she acted and how she comes to understand what kind of power she has, given her marriage.  The only inclination you got that viserys might have some sort of physical control over her was when he said, “you don’t want to wake the dragon”.  In the books he would smack her around quite a bit.  It wasn’t so much a “beating” per se, but I felt like it was a backhand any time he felt it necessary.  It seems to me I also remember a point where he went completely ape shit on her (I believe it was after the wedding).  There has been no build up to that.  You haven’t gotten the feel for his character like you should at this point.  You also don’t get the feel for how much he thinks he should be on the throne.  At one point when she said, “i don’t want to marry…” he whispered that he would give her to all 40k men and their horses if necessary…but without the buildup of his character, him smacking her around and understanding his desire to win his crown back…they are just the words of an guy that feels entitled to something he’s never really had.

On Daenery’s side, you understand that she doesn’t want to marry drogo but what we don’t see is how her opinion started to turn at the wedding.  We saw him give her the horse, but we didn’t see the elation she felt once she road it a little bit.  Speaking of gifts, there was a distinct lack of explanation for the gifts or what they mean.  In the book she had a “guide” so to speak…no maybe translator is a better classification for him.  She had a guy telling her about the ways of the Dothraki, what the gifts meant…that with a couple of them it was expected that she gifts the gift to her husband (weapons).  There was also some explanation about the horse, how it was the 2nd best in the herd (the best was drogo’s).  What she felt when she got on that horse and road a little was a huge key to her beginning to accept that she was now part of the tribe.  It didn’t come all at once, but that cracked the egg..and we didn’t see that.  Another huge part of the wedding story was the “no no no” scene.  When they are going to consummate their marriage, it was a much more sensual scene than what the show depicted.  she was obviously nervous, and really didn’t want to…but there was a point where drogo “won her over” so to speak.  He kept saying no as they were undressing, and she turned the no to a yes.  In the book, it wasn’t so much that she wanted to have sex with him, it was more that he was gentle with her…it showed that maybe he understood she wasn’t totally in to this.  In the show it really looked more forceable and IMO lost some of the connection that they made that evening.  Down the line in the story there is a point where they revisit sex between these two.  I hope HBO doesn’t shy away from that because it is so key in how their relationship goes after the marriage and how she finally becomes one of the tribe.  It’s through sex that she becomes empowered and shows that she has given herself over to this life and embraces it.  Beyond that, I think it’s entertaining from an adult perspective.

The wedding scene was also a bit of a disappointment.  It’s during that scene that it gets explained to the reader how these people breed.  If memory serves, all their breeding is done via 1/2 rape 1/2 bloody fighting for the right to breed with specific females.  While reading, I imagined the wedding as much more of a blood bath orgy type situation.  The book used an intermediary to explain the culture of these nomads to the “civilized” people, I really don’t know why the show decided not to take that route.  Later on as the tribe slaughters people, the idea of rape again becomes a key point in Daenery’s reach for power.

Another key area I didn’t think was explored well was Kat’s attachment to her family and her strength of character.  In the book she was much more tore up and argumentative about Eddard taking the position of king’s hand.  She didn’t like the idea of him going so far south, but more than that she hated the idea of him taking many of the children with him.  She understood the gravity of them being gone at that time and the fact that it would be -years- till she would see them again.  In the show, you get the impression that she doesn’t want Eddard to go…but there is nothing about the children really.  I might be way off on this, maybe she didn’t react like that until after the kid fell/was pushed, but I thought it was a theme all along.  Her strength of character and dedication is very critical to the over all story.  I really hope they are able to convey those feelings and emotions during the show.

As an interpretation of the book, I was disappointed in the show.  I’m not able to evaluate it as a stand alone entity as I will always compare it to the book.

I’ve had my tivo for just over a month now.  I think that’s enough time to give it a proper shake down and for me to pin point a lot of the quirks and bugs (with the assistance of the wife and kid of course).  Over all it works pretty good.  I upgraded the hd and there have been no problems.  I picked up a drive that some sites said was a little louder than another option…but I don’t even hear the thing spin.  If you have the t.v. on, I’m not sure how you would.  Maybe if someone was sleeping with their ear on top of the tivo they would notice it?  dunno…but there do not seem to be any problems.  I haven’t checked to see how much heat it generates but it’s in an open and well vented area…I don’t expect that to be a problem.  We’re recording everything we can in HD and I haven’t seen double digits in space used.  There isn’t the mass amount of crap on there that the old one had…yet, but I’m sure soon their will be.  There was one functional problem with it that was beginning to get pretty huge though…

The HD tivo has a new interface.  When you hit the tivo button it brings up the main menu and puts what you were watching into a small square in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  You still see what is going on…this is semi handy.  It also puts “advertisements” for lack of a better word, across the top of the screen.  It’s advertisements for t.v. shows and movies though.  It amounts to a bunch of “movie posters” across the top 1/8 of the screen.  Each of the shows you have recorded are listed by show name and episode name.  When you select one of these shows it brings you to another screen that has the promotional picture associated with the show as well as your options for the episode.  I’m not sure if the movie/show ads across the top change at this point…I expect they might.  From here you do what you want with the show.

HD Menu

At first glance this doesn’t seem like a problem and sounds pretty cool.  The problem is all this information requires bandwidth…from what I’ve been able to gather…it requires quite a bit.  There were a couple of times where the network has dropped at the house, and the tivo will flash the “device has lost connection…” notification across the top of the screen.  For the most part this could be ignored until it’s time to address it…but moving from show to show or even playing one becomes an agonizingly slow process at this point…we’re talking minutes not seconds to move around.

This seemed kinda strange to me, but I never really had time to think about it until last night.  As I’m sitting there screwing around I saw -something- change…I don’t remember right now what it was.  It dawned on me that the device must be pulling this information via internet connection.  For whatever reason I assumed the ads across the top were randomly shown and updated at off times, and the extra information that showed up with the T.V. show was somehow tagged in the file when it was saved.  Clearly this thing is pulling down quite a bit of information as you move around.  I was looking around to try and find a setting to turn off this information.  I found an option under settings to go from classic tivo to hd tivo menus.  I switched it back to classic and she’s snappy as ever.

Classic Menu

Granted now I don’t get all the eye candy that I got with the HD version…but in a month of using the thing I wasn’t interested in any of the ads anyhow..they just got in the way when I pushed a button too many times on the remote.  The shows are still recorded in HD and look quite good.  The interface looks like it is an SD feed blown up to 42″ to accommodate my T.V.  It’s still really easy to read so there aren’t any concerns there.  I’m assuming there is some logic built in to the device somewhere that targets these ads according to what show you are watching or searching for.  Since no ads show up now there is lots of horse power for the device to act like a regular tivo now instead of some kind of ad box.

I wouldn’t’ mind the ads really if it wasn’t part of the reason the tivo was sluggish.  They might be helpful in finding new shows I hadn’t thought of before.  As long as they aren’t pimpin’ tide or something across there I don’t care.  I know the issue is somewhat related to bandwidth because at the time I noticed it I was choking my down stream, but it also takes some equipment horse power to push all this stuff through.  This also has the added benefit of making the “stop” button work more like the wife likes.  Before it would take you back to the main tivo menu instead of the “show’s” menu where you could delete the episode or whatever.  It caused a bit more button pushing and was a bit inconvenient.  It looks like this should now be resolved.

The last thing I have to do with my HD setup is find a suitable HD replacement for my xbox.  I’m trying to get something on the cheap, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out.  There are some Acer Revo small form factor desktops that make really sweet XBMC machines.  Acer stopped pushing out the low end ones and is only making the 300+ models.  The enthusiast market caught on to the low end ones and now on ebay they are going for more than they sold for new.