General Drama

[MrsGryn]

Episode 2 was good. The rest has been utter bullshit. Were we supposed to feel sorry for Cersei and Jaime getting crushed by the Red Keep? That swelling violin music said I should feel bad. Instead it made me angry. 

Your pun game is excellent as usual. SLuG for the Iron Throne!

[ShyLurkerGuy]

GoT SPOILERS:

I think the series finale was better and actually more satisfying than I expected, though it DID NOT AT ALL EXCUSE any narrative sins of the past “two” seasons.

As much as I really hated episode 5, I actually don’t object to Dany’s turn. Rather, that it wasn’t earned over the past 2 seasons. Foreshadowing and “hitting” plot points on an outline are not the same as writing actually convincing character development. GRRM had suggested 4 full seasons post-season-6/A Dance with Dragons, but instead we watched an extended single season with a really long hiatus in the middle. I’ll guess that Dany’s turn happens in the forthcoming books, but with a much more believable descent. Ditto with the whole Night King threat thread. And given GRRM’s reputation, he may very well go beyond the outline he gave the show runners (I refuse to refer to them with the same abbreviation as a venerable tabletop RPG) for the characters we saw on-screen. Time to see if any of my friends have the audio books I can borrow.

As far as what happened on-screen that I haven’t seen expressed elsewhere yet:

Seems to me that the Iron Throne itself lost the Game of Thrones to a wheelchair.

One take I have seen, tho not as wide as others: for all practical purposes, Tyrion ultimately “won” the Game as Hand of the King to voluntary figurehead Bran the Broken Plot Thread.

[AVorlon]

I was curious about one thing, and maybe someone can clue me in.  Was the ending on the TV show based on the last George R.R. Martin book that was published, or did they just make up their own ending? There is no final book yet.

Edited May 22, 2019 by AVorlon

[Jade]

From what I've heard Bran as the king has been GRR Martin's intent for quite some time. And, I've heard many say that the raven sitting on the arm of the iron throne next to Sean Bean in one of the early GoT posters supposedly proves this point. Who knows, though? (The next book isn't finished. The screenwriters were working off GRR Martin's notes. Given the reaction of the audience, he may opt for an alternate book ending. And, he's recently said that he has 3,000 words to do what they did in six hours.)

Jon Snow saves the remaining kingdoms from Daenerys' abrupt mad queen spiral ... and he gets exiled to Castle Black for the rest of his life while Sansa is Queen of the North and Bran is king of all the remaining kingdoms? How is that fair in any way?

Tyrion holding the real power is the only thing that makes this ending bearable in any way.

[MrsGryn]

I think that's 3,000 pages, not words. Hell, most of my Survivor recaps are 3,000 words. Get me GRRM's paycheck, please! 

 

 

[Jade]

Yes, he said 3,000 pages over two books. Actually, he said the last two books will be 3,000 pages or more (as needed). He's still working on The Winds of Winter. Then, the last book will be A Dream of Spring.

I don't think any of his books have been 1,500 pages. I'm pretty sure the longest is just over a thousand. So, it really sounds like 2 books and something else... a novella or reference book?

[copssister]

Binged an excellent limited series this weekend - "Unbelievable" on Netflix.  Not just a true crime drama, but focused on how the victims of the crime are treated very differently across varying law enforcement agencies.  Excellent acting and compelling/captivating writing.  This 8-episode series will definitely leave a mark during the 2020 Emmy Awards.  

[AVorlon]

Thanks, copssister. I just noticed that  the final season of "Game of Thrones" won it this year   "Fleabag" was the winner for best comedy, and I'd never heard of it before. I added it to my Netflix queue, but it's not available just yet on DVD.  

Edited September 23, 2019 by AVorlon

[AVorlon]

Just saw the pilot episode of Star Trek: Picard.  There will be a new one every Thursday, and I was impressed with the quality of the first one. I used to watch "The Next Generation" in a hotel room every week in Indiana, where I was working at the time.  It's nice to see the production quality with modern CGI, and its always interesting to see "Data" again, not to mention an older version of "Seven of Nine".  I'm still hoping  for Marina Sirtis to show up. Counselor Troi was one of my favorites. 

[ShyLurkerGuy]

I’m glad the first episode of Picard was as good as it was. The pre-broadcast social media trolling (especially by Discovery haters) was rough. But what encouraged me was Sir Patrick saying he only got involved once he was convinced that it wasn’t just a retread of the TNG era which he’s moved on from (and The Orville has covered quite well), and he seems genuinely excited that fans will finally get to watch it.

The Magicians continues to impress me despite the obvious budget constraints. I suspected the twist on last night’s episode (S5,E3), but it’s a credit to the writers that I was hoping my suspicions weren’t true. I loved Elliot’s emotional arc calling back his timeline with Quentin, and relieved that Alice wasn’t her usual level of her cloying self when he revealed it to her. The way they organically work in crass interjections and in-universe cross-media cross-genre meta commentary (deliciously delivered by Elliot and Margo, with honourable mentions to Josh and Fen) is still so well baked into the world-building and characters that I actually enjoy it.

The Crisis crossover on the Arrowverse was entertaining. I spent so much allowance money on the original comic series as a teen, but tempered my fan-boy expectations due to the obvious restraints of tv financial budgets (which makes the comparisons to Endgame unfair) so I wasn’t overly underwhelmed. I was completely caught off guard by EM’s cameo onscreen with GG (which was apparently filmed mid-December the same week that the first 3 parts aired, produced at the apparent request of Warner Bros execs). TBH, between the MCU and Arrowverse bringing major narratives to a close, I— as a longtime superhero comic book fan— don’t mind taking a break from most of the genre on film/TV for a while.

I’m watching the final season of Supernatural just to get the narrative closed off in my head. I’ve only read the Wikipedia episode synopses of the last 3 seasons, and not in any hurry to watch the backlog.

[AVorlon]

I'm glad you liked Star Trak: Picard.  I looked up Marina Sirtis and was glad to see that she'll be on episode 7 this season. As for Internet trolls not liking it, I really pay no attention to them at all.  I think it's a wonderful continuation of things.

I really don't understand people who claim to be science fiction fans and then don't like any of it.  

[MrsGryn]

We made our way through "Discovery." It was...eh. I mean, we did watch both seasons and liked some things, but mostly there was a lot of "Yeah, not Trek." Steven Erickson (of the Malazan books, thank you very much uaintjak) wrote a really good essay on what is wrong with Discovery: Chaos in the Writing Room Definitely worth reading.

Picard - first two episodes have been watched and it is already ten times better than Discovery, even without the weirdass plastick-y looking Klingons. My biggest complaint so far is a Romulan with an Irish accent. It has a sense of urgency, a mission, and a respect for the history of the universe. So far, so good.

[ShyLurkerGuy]

The trolling ones cluelessly obtusely opine “I prefer my Trek narratives without social commentary” that unfortunately show up on my YouTube timeline because I’ve liked Trek-related videos.

As a fan of the Scott Pilgrim movie, I keep wanting Alison Pill’s character to break out in head-banging drum solo.

I also really like the sharp-tongued Irish(?) Romulan who’s adept at both English swear words and technobabble. Still weird hearing four-letter words spoken around Jean-Luc Picard much more frequently than ever before.

I will say, though, the narrative layered onion of intrigue needs to start picking up the pace getting peeled.

[MrsGryn]

Pretty sure the two Romulans living with Picard are former Tal Shiar.

[uaintjak]

So is it like a Three's Company situation where Picard has to pretend to be Romulan or Mr. Roper will throw him out?