Weekend telly etc

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The weather was lovely last weekend. Unfortunately for me, I spent most of it in a car on the motorway. Oh well, at least I got back in time for the Sunday evening tellyfest.

Spoilers behind cut for Being Human, Homeland and Game of Thrones, both show and book, because I have at last - at long last - finished the first book in the series.



I don't know about anyone else, but I'm loving Being Human season 4. It's a breath of fresh air after the misery and angst of the last two seasons. I'm sorry about Nina being written out of the show without even a farewell episode, but I don't miss George and Mitchell at all. Tom and Hal more than fill their places IMO. In fact, I love the dynamic between them, and the 'I'm his boyfriend' scene in this ep had me in stitches. I thought that this episode was one of the best of the show ever, with the only fly in the ointment being how how slow Annie was to see through the incredibly creepy Kirby. In fact, she didn't at all, did she? And he had to threaten her baby to make her angry enough to retaliate (bit of a cliche, that).

But going down that road means you get to that place where, from a social justice POV, it's possible to rip the whole show to pieces, which I could also do to Homeland with no effort at all, as follows:

Lead female character is an emotional mess and not above offering sex in return for favours, dodgy-looking dusky people doing cliched stuff like having harems, heroic African American character who dies, while the white male hero/anti-hero/villain/whatever he turns out to be - is spared. Everything about said character's return home being about his manpain while his poor wife is made to look bad (actually, that last bit isn't fair, because I think most people would sympathise with a woman whose husband has been MIA for eight years assuming that he must be dead and trying to move on). Last on the list (for now), token African American character in a position of authority so no one can say the show is not being inclusive. Also, I'm fully expecting a 'good' Muslim character to be introduced at some point, to counterbalance to a small extent the fact that all the other Muslim characters are bad, bad, baddy-bad bad. Then there was the gratuitous female nudity, which was tedious and and annoying.

Also, in the second episode that hoary old cliche from 24 reared its head, of the intelligence operative promising their 'asset' that they wouldn't let anything bad happen to them. Audience instantly knows that the poor woman is doomed.

All that said, :shrug:, I actually enjoyed the episode very much (it's worth watching just for Brodie's foul-mouthed teenage daughter), even though I watch it with my hackles raised, as it were, and even though the TV listings had promised us a big shock at the end of it, and I had guessed what it was the minute I read about it, except that I'd thought Carrie would see Brodie praying and she didn't. It remains to be seen, I suppose, whether he really has converted or whether he's just acting out. (No spoilers please).

Moving on, with season 2 of Game of Thrones looming closer every day (yay!), I've finally - finally!-managed to finish reading the first book in the series. Have to say - and big apologies to fans of the books - I can't say I enjoyed it much (the fact that it's taken me so long to read - almost six months -is a clue). I thought the style ponderous, and of course was spoilered for the story, which probably didn't help. I did notice the differences between the book and the show, but, for the most part (not the exposition whore scenes, obviously) thought what the show did an improvement. I've decided not to read any further. I think doing so will spoil the show for me, especially as I suspect show and books will diverge more and more as the series continues.

I'm just glad to have finished the thing and feel I am now owed a Terry Pratchett in recompense.

ETA: I've given up completely on Upstairs, Downstairs, btw, but there are so many other things on at the moment I want to watch that they're stacking up on my iPlayer list - like the series about the Tube, for instance, and Jeremy Paxman on the British Empire (last night's ep went to show yet again how there's no hypocrite worse than a former terrorist), Melvyn Bragg on class, Prof Iain Stewart on how to grow a planet etc, etc. Mind you, with what is about to happen to BBC4, this is the glut before the famine. :(

Comments

[ex_peasant441]

Agree about Being Human as you know. Except I found the 'gay' scene a bit clunky and obvious. But then I've never liked the sort of humour that is about people squirming with embarrassment. I like Tom and Hal more and more every week. And I find I am liking Annie more as well - the other two let her heart shine through so she becomes more important. I always felt Mitchel and George were self reliant and could have managed without Annie. She was just there, not essential to them. Hal and Tom however really need her and she has become the emotional heart of the home (and that's not just because of her role as mother, although that strengthens it wonderfully).


I'm about half an hour into Homeland and it has that remaining half hour to amuse me otherwise I'm ditching it. So far it has failed completely to grab my attention. Slow moving I can take if things are actually happening while we move slowly, but this isn't even thought provoking. So far all that's happened is a prisoner is suffering from PTSD - hardly interesting unless you are warped - and a paranoid CIA operative is being paranoid - which could be interesting but they haven't even implied enough to make a threat. I don't know, maybe the idea of a turned marine is shocking to the Americans, to me it sounds no more shocking than any other US citizen turning traitor would. Maybe its a cultural thing and they think about their marines in a particular way that gives the whole thing impact.

Can I selfishly request that you put Game of Thrones spoilers after a wider space, or better still in a separate post or something. My DVDs of S1 will be arriving soon and I so don't want to be spoiled :)

[shapinglight]

I always liked Annie, but I would love her to use her ghost powers more, the way she did in season 1.

I actually find Homeland very interesting, especially the Brodie character, but I suspect we're approaching this from very different angles.

Doubt there will be any more GoT spoilers until season 2 starts and you'd know to avoid those posts anyway.

[ex_peasant441]

So what do you find interesting about Homeland?

I've watched the whole ep now and am pondering what to do next week. On the one hand the plot has become very slightly more interesting with the hareem girl asset angle, on the other hand I found all the wife's behaviour so incredibly cliched and annoying* it had me gritting my teeth. I was expecting this show to have some meaty thought provoking content around the issues of loyalty and nationhood, and was expecting to have to fight to ignore the nasty torture stuff to get to the good stuff. I really wasn't expecting it to just be boring.

The best bit so far has been the joke about CIA woman's sister beating her kids - more or less the only spark of originality in the script to date.


* 'the last 8 years haven't been easy for us either'! I can't believe they actually said that! It's so clunky the tin man would be ashamed.

[shapinglight]

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with your entire comment, I'm afraid.

[ex_peasant441]

Well I've decided to give it another week so maybe it will pick up for me. If not I guess this will be another show where we don't coincide. But I am genuinely interested to know what you are seeing in it that I am missing.

[shapinglight]

Principally, it's the conversion thing (if it's genuine). I've never seen that dealt with before in a show like this. That's why I'm interested but have my hackles raised.

I don't find the wife cliched and annoying, though. Nor do I find the script particularly plodding. Compared to some other recent lauded US shows that turned out to be dull tripe - can't even remember the names of them, but one was that thing with Joseph Fiennes where everyone fell asleep for 2 minutes - I think the script is pretty good.

[caliente-uk.livejournal.com]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm loving Being Human season 4. It's a breath of fresh air after the misery and angst of the last two seasons.

Yay! I'm so glad I'm not the only one to feel this way! S4 has made me fall in love with the show all over again, and I absolutely adore the dynamic between Tom and Hal. I'm surprised at how little I miss George and Mitchell too, but Tom and Hal are so refreshingly different that I can't help but love them.

I still haven't even started the first GoT book, but am eagerly anticipating the new season. I can't wait! :)

[shapinglight]

I'm surprised at how little I miss George and Mitchell too, but Tom and Hal are so refreshingly different that I can't help but love them.

Hal is great, isn't he? I love his OCD habits, and his 'I'm missing You and Yours' was very, very funny. I feel quite maternal towards Tom. Him looking so very like Nephew 1 probably makes it worse. ;)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, Homeland has barely even begun setting things up. Hard to say more than that without spoiling you, though.

[shapinglight]

Ooh, that sounds intriguing. I am interested in it, if only because it appears to be dealing with stuff I've never seen dealt with on telly before, even if it is riddled with cliches. Also, Damien Lewis (?) is just very, very good as Brodie.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I suspect there will be more and more blending of the novels for the season. Many of the character arcs are good, but characters have ways of being sidelined for entire books and tv shows simply cannot work that way. So I'm thinking things we were told about but didn't see with Robb will be shown in the series. And I think a plot point with Jaime that was handled off hand (and off screen) in the book will also be shown. And I'm betting some stuff with Theon will be rearranged so that we get info about the culture of the Iron Islands without all of those endless and intermidable Iron Islands scenes with characters we do not give the least flip about (sole exception being Theon's sister, who I love and who has been cast, so we will definitely be getting her). I'm curious how Sansa's story can be blended between several books because I think it can be handled more seamlessly. Same with Dany, actually, they are clearly (just from the bits we've been shown in previews) expediting the whole misery in the desert part (which is fine.) Again, there's plenty of story, but the arc can be handled more seamlessly by rolling stuff from Books II and III together. I could also see some of Bran's plot being slowed down a bit. Jon's is more difficult to say. (I have a hard time remembering parts of it).

On the other hand, I'm betting that Arya's and Tyrion's plot (and probably Catelyn's) for Book II remains more or less intact because they had plenty of plot in Book II. There's no need to add anything there.

Whereas, I think it's been said before, Jaime had exactly ONE SCENE in book II (that we actually 'saw'), all the rest we simply heard about. So everyone has thought that they'd be stealing from Book III for him.

I think that the books will be an advantage for the show writers because 5 books in, it's possible for them to see the BIG turning points and long arcs. They have a chance to see the bigger picture which, I think, can only help the pacing.

[shapinglight]

I think that the books will be an advantage for the show writers because 5 books in, it's possible for them to see the BIG turning points and long arcs. They have a chance to see the bigger picture which, I think, can only help the pacing.

Oh, I agree. They're at a huge advantage having the plot laid out for them in this way. Besides the things you mention, there's also the fact that they can work out in advance what they can afford to show, and what plot points, which GRRM might have thought important when he wrote them, have turned out to be relatively unimportant and leave them out. In other words, they will be able to take the original material and do something a little bit different with it.

I'm sure you're right that both Robb and Jaime will feature much more than they did the books. If nothing else, neither actor will want to basically twiddle his thumbs for a whole year.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The odd bit with Robb (and frankly why I look forward to what the show will do with him this season) is that quite clearly things did happen with him. Plenty of things. The problem was that Robb's story is told from Catelyn's POV. And when Catelyn is off doing other things (which she is for a substantial part of Book II -- again, I think she has plenty of plot for the season -- we're reduced, along with her, of only reading the expurgated missives about what Robb is doing, stuff that comes to the foreground in Book III. So I'm actually looking forward to 'seeing' it rather than it just being Raven-mail to Catelyn.

Jaime has some stuff in Book II that can work the same way, but really... they're simply going to have to lift stuff from Book III for him. In Book III he becomes a POV character so suddenly we begin getting more info on him. Given the snippets we've seen in previews, I think they're definitely going to end up lifting the first part of this story from Book III and use it at last part of Season 2, and it shouldn't mess up any of the overall story because when he picks up a POV it's when he's no longer with other POV characters. He's functioning independently at that point so it shouldn't screw up the overall pacing.

That's when things will get tricky, when something has to happen to character A before it can happen to character "B", which is why some stories are more difficult for them to restructure. Those with independent narratives are easier to rework than those who are involved with something that has to involve someone else.

And I'm willing to bet that the Season Finale involves the Battle of the Blackwater... because, honestly, that simply has to be the climax. :)

[shapinglight]

So I'm actually looking forward to 'seeing' it rather than it just being Raven-mail to Catelyn.

I can see how that form of narrative might have made Robb a rather dull character in the books. However, Richard Madden seems to have been a hit with the audience so it works out okay for the showrunners to bring the character forward.

As for Jaime, he's very charismatic - all the Lannisters are - it's hard to imagine any of them being sidelined for a whole season.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think that shadowkat is right that a lot of Martin's interest is in the politics and strategy of war and not necessarily in the other parts, so Robb's story only interested him when it became important to the political landscape. So much of the plot seems to be placing various characters in the right place to witness or effect events of the grand scheme of political fates. It remains curious to me, though, that he's never given Robb a POV when he has damn near everyone else in the verse (Save Varys, who Martin claims he'll never give a POV because Varys knows too much of what is going on and would reveal too much. Martin seems to really love playing with limited POVs where there's a bunch of stuff that the character doesn't know.

[shapinglight]

True, though I think 3rd person limited is actually the easiest narrative form to stick to, limiting though it may be in other ways.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Oh and new trailer squee!

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Thank you. Can't wait to get home and watch it.

[shapinglight]

Ooh, it looks brilliant.

:bounces:

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I did by enjoy the book of Game of Thrones either and wasn't interested in continuing the series. I think it was the almost but not quite fantasy aspect of it that annoyed me. That and all the jumping around with chapters - especially at the beginning when you haven't quite worked out who is who. I've not seen the series so I can't comment on that.

[shapinglight]

That sort of po faced fantasy just isn't my cup of tea these days. I can't even read LotR any more without gritting my teeth and wanting to slap the elf characters around.

I do think GoT is a very good show, though, and obviously it wouldn't be nearly as good if it didn't have the backbone of the books.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The first episode of Being Human S4 surprised me, I liked it better than expected and it was far more humorous that about 90% of the previous season. I'll miss Nina, but George and Mitchell had begun to get on my nerves.

Haven't seen Homeland yet, but your explanation is true of 90% of that particular trope on US television and one of the reasons - I found that trope difficult to watch. Will most likely rent the DVDs for Homeland just to see what the fuss is about...but it may not be my thing, can't tell from the reviews.

GoT - right there with you on the books. I made it to Feast of Crows, and have Dance of Dragons...and frankly, have given up.
The tv series is better - in that there's less telling, more showing, and the story is more compressed. Martin's books sort of wander all over the place and you lose track of characters in them or forget people. Also as shipperx states below a lot of the main character's story gets sidelined or told after the fact, which kills some of the emotion. I stopped caring what happened to Robb mid-way through the 2nd and 3rd book, because I got it all through Catelynn, who was busy elsewhere.
The TV series clearly can't do that - so
the emotion is more centered, or accessible.
Also, oddly, I found the tv series to be less brutally violent.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Also, oddly, I found the tv series to be less brutally violent

Oh, me too. At one point, in reading the book it felt like having been dragged through a thousand miles of mud and gore.

I honestly enjoy the books more in retrospect than while reading them, because in retrospect I remember the big character arcs while my mind glosses over the gore and the tedium.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Would agree. I actually like the books better in retrospect as well and for exactly the same reasons. Storm is wonderful in retrospect. Martin has some great character arcs. He just...feels this need to tell us "everything" and in minute detail about war in Medieval Times. Reading his blog? It actually makes sense, that stuff interests him.

Reading Feast of Crows...where I got bogged down,
finally drove me to fluffy romance novels. (Well that amongst various other things...)

[shapinglight]

The first episode of Being Human S4 surprised me, I liked it better than expected and it was far more humorous that about 90% of the previous season. I'll miss Nina, but George and Mitchell had begun to get on my nerves.

Season 4 gets better. I liked the latest episode so much I've uploaded some icons. Had deleted all my BH icons because I hated season 3 so much.

Haven't seen Homeland yet, but your explanation is true of 90% of that particular trope on US television and one of the reasons - I found that trope difficult to watch

I'm not ready to write it off yet. There are enough hints in the first two eps that the show might handle some of the problematic material rather better than other shows to keep me watching. For now.

The TV series clearly can't do that - so
the emotion is more centered, or accessible.
Also, oddly, I found the tv series to be less brutally violent

Blimey, the books must be violent, then. There were plenty of times during the show when I just couldn't watch.

[gillo]

I'm really enjoying Being Human, though I do miss Mitchell and George a bit. I thought Kirby was amazingly creepy, though I saw that way before the characters did.

I enjoyed Paxo last night too, though the woman who bombed the King David Hotel was really creepy, I felt. It's a hard thing to justify a nation born out of terrorism being so self-righteously anti-terrorist, though I imagine that's a view that would get me labelled as all sorts of "ists" in some quarters. He was good at showing how thoroughly the British fouled up the legacy we left, I felt.

[shapinglight]

I thought Kirby was amazingly creepy, though I saw that way before the characters did.

Me too. The horrible 70s clothes and the fact he looked so like David Walliams added to the impression.

though the woman who bombed the King David Hotel was really creepy

Yeah, she's who I was talking about. She made me quite angry.