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Ok so I never read the Martin Books, but still anticipated this show. The premier tonight was meh..... Perhaps they need to build up, but for someone that was not "in the know" from the book, I dont know why this would keep my interest.
Afterwards my son (a big fan of the book) explained some of what was going on.
Maul, the Bashing Shamie
"If you want to change the world, be that change."
--Gandhi
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It has a lot to setup and really shoulda been a 2 hour long premier to not have to jam it in, but the general consensus is that it takes time to get going.. not worried, the wire was the best tv show ever made and the first two episodes are fairly meh too, gotta set somethings up in drama.
Although I wouldn't go in expecting high fantasy, the first bit was about the extent of the supernatural your gonna get in this first season.
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Yea everything I heard was the book / show isnt about magic and dragons but ruling party's games and politics.
I will continue watching, but if the average HBO subscriber that never read the book watched the premier, then HBO may have just lost them.
For instance, I didnt get that the queen was fucking her brother. Thats pretty big. Perhaps it was clear and I missed it. A lot of little things, that didnt explain what was going on.
Maul, the Bashing Shamie
"If you want to change the world, be that change."
--Gandhi
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Well you weren't supposed to know till the end of that episode, or are you saying you didn't get that Jaime was her brother in the first place?
Its been fairly well reviewed and all the people say it picks up more as the series goes on as its not trying to cram all the intros in..
Wire got poor ratings from the smelly plebs but stayed on for 5 seasons, I just hope they follow that path instead of the Carnivale/Deadwood route.
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Well, i'm a HUGE fan, read the series twice, and I loved what HBO did. But I can see how it would be muddy for anyone who hasn't read the series. There's so much backstory, hopefully they will make things clearer as the series goes on. There were so many great moments for me, thinking to myself "is that Theon Greyjoy?" when he was going to kill the direwolf pups. The Wall, the fucking massive wall. Arya was awesome, Sansa was just as naive as i'd hoped. Joffrey looked like a prick, as he should. And I thought they nailed Jaime, one of my favorite characters with his so many shades of grey in his character. I still say he got a bad rap on the Kingslayer thing, but banging your twin sis is some low shit, not to mention pushing Brand out the window.
Good stuff, i'll be sad to see all my favorite characters die in some horribly betrayed way.
Skelas
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Thank god HBO picked it up, I have a feeling NBC might be hesitant to show somebody nailing their menstruating sister on a church alter...
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FOX wanted to pick it up and cast Summer Glau and then cancel it.
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I thought it was pretty damn good, and yes I agree there will be a few episodes to really understand what is going on...but aren't all great series like that? I'm hearing the ratings weren't that good. Hopefully they will stick with it. Yes they let the Wire go on even with bad ratings, but Im guessing it was half the cost of this one.
By biggest hangups are the casting really. Catelyn is not supposed to look like an old lady, she's still supposed to be youngish/attractive, probably around 35ish (Robb is 17...she would have been married around 16-17...) but they cast a 50 year old woman. How if at all will they play the Littlefinger angle with her? Even the star power of Leana Headley...she is 37 and Cersei is supposed to be what...25 maybe? Maybe I'm being sexist or something...but it's supposed to be medieval and all and these women would have been married off at like 16.
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Skelas that guy was Theon...HBO set up a nice family tree thing:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/#!/guide/houses/stark/brandon-stark/">http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-th ... don-stark/</a><!-- m -->
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Breand Wrote:I thought it was pretty damn good, and yes I agree there will be a few episodes to really understand what is going on...but aren't all great series like that? I'm hearing the ratings weren't that good. Hopefully they will stick with it. Yes they let the Wire go on even with bad ratings, but Im guessing it was half the cost of this one.
It did pretty well on Sky over here in the UK as well and they have stated their new strategy is capturing more europe markets so hopefully that helps.
We should get at least 2 seasons for it, Carnivale had bad ratings and was really expensive and it got 2.. Rome was really expensive and got 2.. So hopefully that'll give it time to pick up, but the first two booksa re the best so if it gets cancelled early at least we'll get the best parts.
Quote:By biggest hangups are the casting really. Catelyn is not supposed to look like an old lady, she's still supposed to be youngish/attractive, probably around 35ish (Robb is 17...she would have been married around 16-17...) but they cast a 50 year old woman. How if at all will they play the Littlefinger angle with her? Even the star power of Leana Headley...she is 37 and Cersei is supposed to be what...25 maybe? Maybe I'm being sexist or something...but it's supposed to be medieval and all and these women would have been married off at like 16.
Yeah I understand why they aged up the children for legal reasons, but the mains shoulda been younger.. Then again back then you probably looked about 35 at the age of 18 anyway...
Catelyns personality was different too, in the book she wasn't whining about him going until after bran got hurt, she was actually the one telling him hes got to do it.
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Good news, HBO reupped for a second season. Maybe that fat fuck will eventually finish now there's a huge payoff for him. a book a year, that means he'd have to finish the last one in SIX (edited for the anal retentive prick) more years.
Get writing you dick.
Skelas
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Book 5 is about to be published.. The last book will be book 7.
Book 1 is this season... in 3 years we will be on which book Skelas?
Math is hard!
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I've never seen any number that there were to be 7 books, so fuck off.
book one 2011.
Book two 2012.
Book three 2013.
book four 2014.
book five 2015.
I assumed book 6 would be it. So I was off, the book should most likely be out for a year before they make a miniseries out of it, so fucking sue me you fascist kraut.
Skelas
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<3
He has said in interviews the series is going 7 and the book names are released for that.. Originally he said there would be 5, then he split a book, then he said 7 is it and thats for sure.
But he also said book 5 was almost ready 3 years ago so who knows.
Incidentally, I downloaded a couple of his short stories on Kindle and they were actually pretty good as well.
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Were the short stories based around a character who started an epic book series but decided half way through the series that he would rather just watch football instead and blog about it rather than write a damn thing?
At least he didn't decided to start writing Conan books and then die. Oh wait he is just going to write about football and then die. That will make it so much better.
In other news Steven Erikson released the LAST BOOK of his 10 BOOK series "The Malazan Book of the Fallen". Each was around 750-900+ pages and all of them were fucking epic. He released a book about every 1 year +/- 1-2 months. In his spare time he released novellas set in the same world about two horribly evil yet awesome wizards.
A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
HE'S QUICK, HE'S STRONG, HE'S ACTIVE!
You can take Alabama Man to the bowling alley, where he drinks heavily and chews tobacco!
HE CAN BOWL, HE CAN DRINK, HE CAN DRINK SOME MORE, ALA-BA-MA-MAN!
When wife asks him where he's been, just use the action button and Alabama Man busts her lip open!
"Shut up, Bitch!"
"Wow!"
BEATS HIS WIFE AND SLEEPS IT OFF, A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
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Zouji Wrote:Conan books and then die...
lol no shit.
Maul, the Bashing Shamie
"If you want to change the world, be that change."
--Gandhi
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Well, unlike 99.8% of other fantasy writers he can actually write fairly well so I give him more of a pass.
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Jakensama Wrote:Well, unlike 99.8% of other fantasy writers he can actually write fairly well so I give him more of a pass.
Unless he can somehow live forever like Ray Bradbury (who will now die in 2 weeks now that I have said that) then he does not get a pass. If he had writers block then I can forgive that. If he just wanted to dick around and watch football and then die; well I won't forgive him of that.
A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
HE'S QUICK, HE'S STRONG, HE'S ACTIVE!
You can take Alabama Man to the bowling alley, where he drinks heavily and chews tobacco!
HE CAN BOWL, HE CAN DRINK, HE CAN DRINK SOME MORE, ALA-BA-MA-MAN!
When wife asks him where he's been, just use the action button and Alabama Man busts her lip open!
"Shut up, Bitch!"
"Wow!"
BEATS HIS WIFE AND SLEEPS IT OFF, A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
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You seem to be upset that he likes football..
Interesting question about what authors "owe" their readers.. Gaiman has a different take on it:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html">http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/e ... ssues.html</a><!-- m -->
I worry that his fat ass will die before finishing but Gaiman has a point.
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Yes Gaimen is saying that stopping to smell the roses is not a bad thing. It is in fact good and healthy for a writer. Also that having writers block is not a cardinal sin that deserves public and immediate literal crucifixion.
I completely agree with those two points. I also would like to read something good later, rather than reading something horrible sooner. If George RR Martin simple stated that he was having trouble writing the book then I would be happy with that.
Saying that he is trucking away at the book and will be done by X deadline however is not acceptable. Not if he has failed it meet that deadline several times. So my point is writers need to be honest. Either they are working on the book or they are not. Just fucking say so and be done with it.
A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
HE'S QUICK, HE'S STRONG, HE'S ACTIVE!
You can take Alabama Man to the bowling alley, where he drinks heavily and chews tobacco!
HE CAN BOWL, HE CAN DRINK, HE CAN DRINK SOME MORE, ALA-BA-MA-MAN!
When wife asks him where he's been, just use the action button and Alabama Man busts her lip open!
"Shut up, Bitch!"
"Wow!"
BEATS HIS WIFE AND SLEEPS IT OFF, A-LA-BA-MA MAN!
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Is this only available through HBO? No streaming option?
Edit: It looks like there's something called HBO GO, which seems to be an HBO subscription with streaming. I'll have to check into it.
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They have a streaming service where you can watch all hbo shows ever, but you have to subscribe to HBO.
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How do you access this streaming feature and is it available outside of the US?
I'd assume so, since you're on the other side of the world and are mentioning it, but I just want to make sure.
Fretty
Guild Wars 2: Fretty The Charming - Mesmer(currently inactive)
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Your head, my lap. 'Nuff said.
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I just read about HBO having the service.. its called hbogo or something but only in the US.
I just watch it on Sky over here.
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Right now HBO go is limited to only certain cable providers. If you have them and you have HBO. I hear a rumor it will be a streaming pay service for other people, but not sure when.
Frankly I dont know why HBO doesnt. I would pay for this show and True blood for around the cost of my subscription cost.
Maul, the Bashing Shamie
"If you want to change the world, be that change."
--Gandhi
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