Nymeria sez no

63 minute episode tonight.

Next week only 50 minutes.

I’m to involved watching this show called Power. It is on Showtime. 50 Cent is the producer of the show. It is real good.

Three episodes in and I get the sense that the producers are sort of saying–“Okay–let’s wrap this shit up.”

I agree about the border guards. They just march right in? Really?

Also in the ocean battle Euron won that thing fairly easily. So they kind of got to this point where they get rid of the Dorne group and the Tyrells and the Greyjoys. Jon meets Dany–gets his dragonglass–can’t convince her of the walking dead and yet she believes in walking through fire and dragons and other worldly visions.

I just get the sense that the producers feel a bit “done” with the show and may want to move on to other things. I know they shortened the season. I get that it can’t go on forever. But the winding down feels just a bit rushed at some level.

I’m sure there are some great episodes ahead.

Some epic battles. Some jaw dropping moments.

I’m just talking about how it feels to me right now.

Billy_T wrote:

But, to me, the real surprise is how flat and kinda lame John Snow was when he met Danaerys.

The drama there is that we know both stories, and yet what we see is 2 people who simply do not know each other’s stories. The central piece then becomes Tyrian trying to get both to see beyond their own limitations regarding the other.

What I liked about it is that it defied expectations. We follow both Snow and Danaerys for years. Then they meet. And. What we see is each being suspicious of the other. Each sending out the wrong signals. We see how each one would be wary of the other.

What then comes through is Tyrian, who is the only character who knows them both.

But then even he doesn’t get that Jon was resurrected by the lord of light ritual.

….

And while she needed to be strong, I don’t think she should have appeared waaaay stronger. The Jon Snow of several epic battle scenes just wasn’t on the screen for me. I just didn’t see him as a “worthy” opponent, or potential ally, or much of anything in that scene — which surprised me.

Jon was restrained, and the way I took that, it’s because he is aware that no one believes him about the walkers and the wights. That’s why Davros steps forward for him.

Snow is not a born courtier and diplomat and person of rank. That comes through.

In fact for that matter remember the end of season 6? He could not convince the gathered northern lords to stay together. That was Lady Mormont who did it for him. Heck for that matter earlier on, Snow could not convince Lady Mormont to join him…that was Davros too.

Over and over, it is part of Snow’s character that those who believe in him step up for him. Davros, Mormont, and this time, Tyrian. He is not always on point about doing that himself. We constantly see in him as occupying the place of stymied integrity.

The irony hidden in all of this, as you know, is that Daenarys and Jon are actually blood kin, something neither knows right now.

.

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• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by zn.

wv wrote:

I think the season does seem ‘rushed’ and i assumed it would because some idiot decided to shorten the number of episodes. Its gonna hurt the show. Well it already has, I’d say. Still a good show, but it woulda been better if they had time to develop things more.

I am thrilled that the Dorn women are gone because they reminded me of villains from the old Batman tv series. They were awful.

I still think all the actors/actresses are great, cept the mother of dragons. I’ve never been able to take her seriously. She’s got nuthin, imho. People argue with me about her all the time around here, though. Maybe I’m the onliest one who thinks that.

I guess my three favorite mega-series have been,
The Wire,
GOT,
BattleStar G.

Some good acting, character development in them series.

w
v

I like the actress who plays Danaerys. But that kind of thing is always subjective. I can see your take on the Sand sisters, as they translated to the screen. But from the books, I thought they’d be pretty cool. Oh, well.

I loved BSG. A great show. Of course, not the original. That was too silly for words, IMO, which is one of the reasons I resisted the remake when it was actually on. I binge-watched the new one via Netflix, after it had left the airwaves, and wanted it to go on and on.

My only complaint was the shaky cam, which I really hate. Same thing with another show I binge-watched and loved, Friday Night Lights. If I were the ruler of the world, one of my first acts would be to make shaky cams illegal. I just hate them. They give me a headache, and make me want to treat them like this:

Rude Behavior

Billy_T wrote:

In short, he didn’t bring his A game. She did. Tyrion did as well. Hell, even Davos was stronger than Jon, though I wouldn’t give him an A either. His was like a good preseason performance. Jon’s was like someone about to be benched.

We differ on that. Granted it’s subjective like you said about Daenyris, but I thought the actor did a good job with Snow doing his typical thing where he is not a real game player and someone who believes in his inner integrity steps up for him. So I just think that’s who Snow is. In that situation, granted, it was thankless.

*

PA Ram wrote:

I know they shortened the season. I get that it can’t go on forever. But the winding down feels just a bit rushed at some level.

wv wrote:

I think the season does seem ‘rushed’ and i assumed it would because some idiot decided to shorten the number of episodes. Its gonna hurt the show. Well it already has, I’d say. Still a good show, but it woulda been better if they had time to develop things more.

Billy_T wrote:

It does seem rushed. And they no longer have the foundation of the novels to follow. They’re on their own. It’s all on the showrunners and writers, really. Martin can’t seem to bring himself to complete his series.

I agree with the consensus on this. When it’s just the writers, we see too many contrivances. Like the one I mentioned, where the Lannister army appears out of nowhere and you go…uh, they used to have to march there for days.

Notice btw also, the time lines are all completely out of whack.

There are still some subtly great things. Like Sansa meeting Bran. Remember why Bran was hurt–he was an accidental peeping Tom and Jaimie felt he had do destroy him. Then with Sansa he goes on about seeing her in the wedding dress and how he laments what happened in Winterfell. He is clearly referring to Ramsey, and creeps Sansa completely out by saying all that. He ends up without meaning to being this strange voyeur, the greatest warg of all and the 3 eyed Raven, and thus a different being…who honestly can’t connect to Sansa at a personal level though he doesn’t know it.

So I would say this about the being rushed. It’s clearly true and clearly leads to some just plain clumsy contrivances. (How did Euron’s fleet find Yara’s fleet…at night?) At the same time that’s just the weak threads holding together some still quite good set pieces.

Short version: I agree.

*

wv wrote:

I am thrilled that the Dorn women are gone because they reminded me of villains from the old Batman tv series. They were awful.

I still think all the actors/actresses are great, cept the mother of dragons. I’ve never been able to take her seriously. She’s got nuthin, imho. People argue with me about her all the time around here, though. Maybe I’m the onliest one who thinks that.

wv wrote:

I guess my three favorite mega-series have been,
The Wire,
GOT,

I never liked any of the Daenarys scenes. I don’t think it’s the same quality show with her. I agree, I can’t stand the Dorn stuff. That was all like lesser episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation or something.

I agree about The Wire being #1. I like a lot of others too, but to me The Wire is unparalleled. GOT is in my top 10. But, The Wire is always king of the hill.

….

PA Ram wrote:

Three episodes in and I get the sense that the producers are sort of saying–“Okay–let’s wrap this shit up.”

Well, yeah. There’s only 10 episodes left in the series. 4 remaining this season and 6 next season. That’s it.

I’ll go with:

The Shield

GOT

The Wire

Some comments on others:

Orphan Black: First season was some of the best television I’ve ever seen. Then it decided to get overly complicated, a little too silly with some things and lost me.

Westworld: I’m watching. I’ll watch. But a big disappointment. So many things COULD have been a bit better but the biggest flaw was pretty much taking the park’s human visitor(besides one who is barely human anyway) out of the plot. Still, I’ll watch. Great acting.

Narcos: Only two seasons so I didn’t put it on the list but it could have been on the list for those seasons alone.

Orange Is the New Black: Loved Season One. Season Two was pretty good. Still a good show but it’s getting old.

Fargo: I was just meh on the whole thing. And this season was the absolute worst. Season two was the best.

The Sopranos: Just now starting to watch it. I think I’m 5 episodes in. Not terrible. A little slow. Good acting. I like the Tony Soprano character. It doesn’t make me want to binge watch. I may be watching one episode a month.

Coming up–from the creator of The Wire: The Deuce. I think it starts in September. Looks good. My only reservation is James Franco. I’m not a big fan and I think he plays two parts or some such thing. Still, I’ll give it a shot.

One other comment on a HUGELY popular show.

Stranger Things: Tried. I tried. I couldn’t do it. Terrible child acting was just my first problem. But people seem to love it.

nittany ram wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

I guess my three favorite mega-series have been,
The Wire,
GOT,
BattleStar G.

w
v

For me it would be:

The Sopranos
GOT
The Walking Dead

No big deal, Nittany, but it looks like you have me at the top of WV’s quote.

I can’t say The Wire is an all-time great, cuz I haven’t seen it. But I definitely love the next two. Sopranos was excellent as well. Likely Top Ten. Have never seen the Walking Dead.

Currently reading:

I used to read horror all the time. Then I hadn’t read any for years. Then I picked up, “HEX”, enjoyed it and am trying to get back into it.

“The Troop” is one of the grossest books I’ve ever read.

One word: tapeworms.

lots of great shows noted on this thread……..

one missing from the list is Breaking Bad………

I want to check out Hand Maids tale…. it was required reading in college… trippy story…..

Deadwood very under rated.

Swearingen….. what a fitting name… he cussed all the time

The show’s producers addressed some of the contrivances.

The Lannister army doesn’t just “show up” in Highgarden. They simply show the snippet of the formed army approaching the castle and then the aftermath of taking it. They felt and I agree that simply watching them go through the expensive motions of taking out patrols and sacking the castle wasn’t germane to the story. The point was that the Lannisters gave up Casterly Rock for the gold in Highgarden to pay the Iron Bank. It was pure strategery.

As for the fleet being found at night, it’s not that. It’s possible that they found them during the day or days off, figured out where they were going and sailed an intercept course based on known navigation, staying over the horizon to prevent being seen. At that point, it’s simple seamanship of which the Iron Fleet is unrivaled.

Some of the really important drama was muted because unlike King Joffrey’s demise and the Red Wedding, this wasn’t a surprise. The taking of Highgarden was, but we knew Diane Ladd was going to die and we already knew because she told her daughter that she poisoned Joffrey. So we can’t share in Jaime’s shock and horror because that was old news to us.

As for ZN’s question, yes, Aunt/Nephew is definitely incestuous and would be seen as such by medieval peoples like those in Westeros.

I honestly don’t know if they go to that well again.

As for it being rushed, I think part of it is that the author of the original material isn’t young and isn’t in the best of health and they don’t want to not have him as a resource.

We’ve already seen as the show strays further from the source that it doesn’t have the same punch. Without GRR Martin, I fear the show would devolve into a level of spectacle and petty intrigues that would bore us all to death.

Btw, I’m still getting over episode one. Sam Tarly in his “servitude” was gut-wrenchingly awful. I still shudder at the thought, although kudos for the producers not shying away from the cringe-worthy montage. It added a real weight to episode three.

I still hate this. I’m terribly impatient when it comes to waiting for content which is why I waited so long to start (I watched as season 6 was about to start). This waiting a week between episodes as opposed to just the 9 second logo on HBOGO is infuriating…