Official TV Show Discussion Thread

[D-Lyrium]

While we're talking about GoT, am I the only one who really hates the casting of Mance Rayder?

 

No. You're really not. I ranted endlessly about it when he was first introduced. It's like when you do online dating, and the girl who turns up at the bar is nothing like she said she was in her profile. ¬_¬

 

Expectation from the books:

http://www.badhaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/stellan_skarsgard.jpg

 

What turned up on TV:

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121230201824/gameofthrones/images/thumb/2/2f/Mance_Rayder_banner_for_Slider.png/640px-Mance_Rayder_banner_for_Slider.png

 

Sorry Ciaran mate, I know not everyone is as cool as Skellen Skarsgaard and you're a lot cheaper, but you can surely understand my disappointment? It's not you, it's me.

[GruntMark]

Yeah, Mance is my first disappoint with the casting. Lookwise anyway. Maybe he'll end up nailing the role.

 

Their first choice was apparently McNulty from The Wire. Which would have been excellent.

[bigtplaystew]

I embrace changing the show and the books. What I love most about Walking Dead are the changes. They allow many of the same settings to roll out through the series, which gives a comic-reading fan that great sense of recognition and anticipation. When I saw the prison at the season finale last season I KNEW I was going to see the Governor.

 

But the Governor of the comics and the Governor of the show were very different characters. So because things play out differently between the comics and the show, I still get to enjoy a sense of suspense because I really don't know what will happen on the show... simply from reading the comics.

 

I've read all the ASOIAF books. They're great. But I don't need the show to follow them so the letter for me to enjoy it. In fact, I hope they change a few things because quite frankly after the third book things really slowed down for me as I found myself only caring about basically two characters at any given time. I welcome changes between the two mediums. I'll always have the books. They aren't going anywhere. Make the show different.

[The Final Countdown]

Speaking for myself, I certainly understand that things will be changed. That's just the way adaptations work. I've got no problem with it. Some things just wouldn't translate to TV well (like the Arstan Whitebeard ruse.)

 

I think some of the changes have been improvements. I like Samwell a lot more in the show than I did in the books at this point, and I also liked the aging up of many characters, particularly the kids. Heck, I hope they make major changes if/when they get to Feast and Dance, because I think there's a lot of stuff there that can be condensed or eliminated outright. But none of that changes my disappointment about the way they've portrayed Mance thus far.

[D-Lyrium]

Yeah, while I certainly understand that some people want everything to be exactly as it was in the books, those people are idiots.

 

But just like not all changes are bad, not all changes are good either.

 

Some things happen differently in the show because they need to cut back on the number of characters and thus merge several book-characters into one, or create new characters to fill in for cut characters in some scenes, who then get a more pronounced role in the story to make them 'worthy' of being on the show (Ros is a perfect example. She's basically a Chataya/Ayalala combo character, but shows up in various other places that make logical sense even though neither of those characters would've been there ). Another example being Tyrion naming Bronn as the new Commander of the City Watch. Big Damn Hero though he was, there was no great need for Jacelyn Bywater to be in the show.

 

Some things happen differently in the show because the medium of television means that they miss out on a lot of description and hearsay about certain characters up until certain points in the story, or don't want to include certain scenes because character cuts would make them less emotional or meaningful for the new audience. Great examples are some of Joffrey's scenes (what he does to the whores that Tyrion gives him, for instance, or the crossbow scene with Margaery) where he doesn't actually do it in the books, but it's perfectly in character for him to do so. It "gets him over" as a cruel, sadistic ****, which is what they needed to do. Xaro stealing Dany's dragons is another example. Didn't happen in the books, but covered for a lot of stuff that did which didn't need to be filmed, and kept things interesting for book-fans (because frankly I almost quit reading Dany chapters altogether at that point. She was never my favourite story arc and never got terribly interesting at any point, but seven hells, Quarth! Ugh).

Examples of this being done terribly: The scene with Ros and Pycelle. Still gives me nightmares. Also, the latest episode, the scene with Pod and the whores. What even...? You cut Vargo Hoat, yet put in a scene where Pod gets pleasured by whores. Really, HBO? The phrase 'own worst enemy' comes to mind. Other than the suave Meereenese Knot reference, that scene was just porn. You're not helping yourselves.

 

Some things happen differently just because it wouldn't have worked on screen. On-screen, we all know exactly who Barristan Selmy is. The same actor with the same voice turning up to Dany wearing a robe and calling himself Arstan wouldn't have fooled a single person. So they just did away with all that (as it won't really affect much, other than Barristan looking even more perfect compared to Mormont in AFFC and ADWD).

 

But there are some things that are just stupid. That they didn't need to change at all, and if they did, changed really badly. I'm perfectly entitled to complain about those things no matter how awesome the rest of it is. Like the fact that because Osha and Asha sound too similar, they changed Asha (by far the more important of the two characters). Why not just change Osha? And not only did they change Asha, but they changed her to Yara. Which of course sounds nothing at all like Arya? Damnit HBO! And the Robb's Wife thing is just completely moronic. There is absolutely no reason. In the books, Robb goes off storming castles in the west for a bit during Catelyn chapters and comes back with a wife that he bedded because of his grief after being told of Bran and Rickon, simultaneously sticking his finger up at the Freys (to whom he was betrothed) and the Lannisters (as he'd married a Westerling). In the show, he meets a random non-canon girl from Volantis in a field and marries her. GG HBO.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bear in the trailer for the next episode.

 

So they've cut the Brave Companions, cut Vargo Hoat's name, yet they're still doing the bear scene? Maybe I'll still get "YOU THLAYED MY BEAR!" then. ¬_¬

[dvdWarrior]

To the surprise of very few who might know me, I've been watching and very much enjoying NatGeo's 6-part series, The 80s: The Decade That Made Us. I may have to pick this up on DVD at some point.

 

:cool:

[crownsy]

Yeah, while I certainly understand that some people want everything to be exactly as it was in the books, those people are idiots.

 

But just like not all changes are bad, not all changes are good either.

 

Some things happen differently in the show because they need to cut back on the number of characters and thus merge several book-characters into one, or create new characters to fill in for cut characters in some scenes, who then get a more pronounced role in the story to make them 'worthy' of being on the show (Ros is a perfect example. She's basically a Chataya/Ayalala combo character, but shows up in various other places that make logical sense even though neither of those characters would've been there ). Another example being Tyrion naming Bronn as the new Commander of the City Watch. Big Damn Hero though he was, there was no great need for Jacelyn Bywater to be in the show.

 

Some things happen differently in the show because the medium of television means that they miss out on a lot of description and hearsay about certain characters up until certain points in the story, or don't want to include certain scenes because character cuts would make them less emotional or meaningful for the new audience. Great examples are some of Joffrey's scenes (what he does to the whores that Tyrion gives him, for instance, or the crossbow scene with Margaery) where he doesn't actually do it in the books, but it's perfectly in character for him to do so. It "gets him over" as a cruel, sadistic ****, which is what they needed to do. Xaro stealing Dany's dragons is another example. Didn't happen in the books, but covered for a lot of stuff that did which didn't need to be filmed, and kept things interesting for book-fans (because frankly I almost quit reading Dany chapters altogether at that point. She was never my favourite story arc and never got terribly interesting at any point, but seven hells, Quarth! Ugh).

Examples of this being done terribly: The scene with Ros and Pycelle. Still gives me nightmares. Also, the latest episode, the scene with Pod and the whores. What even...? You cut Vargo Hoat, yet put in a scene where Pod gets pleasured by whores. Really, HBO? The phrase 'own worst enemy' comes to mind. Other than the suave Meereenese Knot reference, that scene was just porn. You're not helping yourselves.

 

Some things happen differently just because it wouldn't have worked on screen. On-screen, we all know exactly who Barristan Selmy is. The same actor with the same voice turning up to Dany wearing a robe and calling himself Arstan wouldn't have fooled a single person. So they just did away with all that (as it won't really affect much, other than Barristan looking even more perfect compared to Mormont in AFFC and ADWD).

 

But there are some things that are just stupid. That they didn't need to change at all, and if they did, changed really badly. I'm perfectly entitled to complain about those things no matter how awesome the rest of it is. Like the fact that because Osha and Asha sound too similar, they changed Asha (by far the more important of the two characters). Why not just change Osha? And not only did they change Asha, but they changed her to Yara. Which of course sounds nothing at all like Arya? Damnit HBO! And the Robb's Wife thing is just completely moronic. There is absolutely no reason. In the books, Robb goes off storming castles in the west for a bit during Catelyn chapters and comes back with a wife that he bedded because of his grief after being told of Bran and Rickon, simultaneously sticking his finger up at the Freys (to whom he was betrothed) and the Lannisters (as he'd married a Westerling). In the show, he meets a random non-canon girl from Volantis in a field and marries her. GG HBO.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bear in the trailer for the next episode.

 

So they've cut the Brave Companions, cut Vargo Hoat's name, yet they're still doing the bear scene? Maybe I'll still get "YOU THLAYED MY BEAR!" then. ¬_¬

 

All good points, though on the whole Jeyne thing, I just find it hard to care. Mostly because, since Robb is never a POV Character, Jeyne is never fleshed out anyway, so changing her out for a different generic girl Robb married and pissed off the Frey's with doesn't bother me.

 

I seem to also be in the minority in liking Mance's casting, even though he doesn't match what I thought he'd look like in the books. That may just be because I love the actor though.

[Comradebot]

All good points, though on the whole Jeyne thing, I just find it hard to care. Mostly because, since Robb is never a POV Character, Jeyne is never fleshed out anyway, so changing her out for a different generic girl Robb married and pissed off the Frey's with doesn't bother me.

 

I seem to also be in the minority in liking Mance's casting, even though he doesn't match what I thought he'd look like in the books. That may just be because I love the actor though.

 

Aye, couldn't give two shits that they cut Jeyne Westerling and replaced her with someone else. Jeyne literally does nothing of interest in the books. NONE. She's just the girl who marries Robb, nothing more, nothing less. Her backstory and all that is completely irrelevant to the story, and Robb instead marrying some random chick from Volantis serves the same purpose.

 

 

And I liked the Podrick n' whores scene. We needed a little raunchy humor in an episode that had a graphic hand-removal and TWO near rapes. And, in the show's defense, it's the book that has Dany giving very graphic details in her POV about Khal Drogo "thrusting into her" and the "warmth of his seed running down her thigh"... and at some point the flavor of said seed.

[Blackman]

Also don't really care. You have to see it as a different show altogether. If it would be totally the same, it wouldn't be as interesting to fans of the books as they already would know exactly what happens.

[crownsy]

Also don't really care. You have to see it as a different show altogether. If it would be totally the same, it wouldn't be as interesting to fans of the books as they already would know exactly what happens.

 

!00% agree Blackman, I treat them as two different entertainment entities at this point, kinda like when there's multiple universes in anime or some such, and enjoy them both immensely.

 

There are some things the books do better I love, such as the intricacy of the lore and how the reader gets different takes on the same events from different characters PoV, but also alot the show does better, such as fleshing out non-POV characters (Twyin and Robb jump immediately to mind, both characters in the books are sort of just one dimensional window dressing, in the show there motives and ideals have been really fleshed out.)

 

It's what I tell my friends who are boycotting it because it's not 100% faithful to the books, you have to divorce them from each other. to quote MST3K "Just repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax."

[bigtplaystew]

Also don't really care. You have to see it as a different show altogether. If it would be totally the same, it wouldn't be as interesting to fans of the books as they already would know exactly what happens.

 

This is what I should have said. Instead, I went on a nonsensical tangent.

[Jaysin]

I'm on season 2 of Justice League and it kind of bugs me that episodes ignore each other half the time.

 

Earlier episodes with Lex having kryptonite poisoning and than him finding out he has it later? Also, villains meeting for the "first time" episodes after working together and "knowing each other".

 

Ugh, so annoying.

 

As perfect as Kevin Conroy is as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum is just as perfect as the Flash. He's actually become my favorite part of the series.

 

Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman both annoy the heck out of me.

[mike b]

I'm on season 2 of Justice League and it kind of bugs me that episodes ignore each other half the time.

 

Earlier episodes with Lex having kryptonite poisoning and than him finding out he has it later? Also, villains meeting for the "first time" episodes after working together and "knowing each other".

 

Ugh, so annoying.

 

As perfect as Kevin Conroy is as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum is just as perfect as the Flash. He's actually become my favorite part of the series.

 

Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman both annoy the heck out of me.

 

Are we talking animated series i am presuming yes

 

 

 

Anyone seen any clips or anything on new marvel series agent of shield.??

 

I kinda liked it the show what you have to watch is season 2 death of superman based on the novel in parts but no doomsday but still friggin awesome show.

Also the episode with Vandal Savage the 1 hour plus special is also classic.

[guyver3]

I'm on season 2 of Justice League and it kind of bugs me that episodes ignore each other half the time.

 

Earlier episodes with Lex having kryptonite poisoning and than him finding out he has it later? Also, villains meeting for the "first time" episodes after working together and "knowing each other".

 

Ugh, so annoying.

 

As perfect as Kevin Conroy is as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum is just as perfect as the Flash. He's actually become my favorite part of the series.

 

Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman both annoy the heck out of me.

 

if your watching on netflix that could be your problem I've seen before that they have episodes out of order

[Jaysin]

It's the order that's listed on imdb and wikipedia as well though.

[bigtplaystew]

GoT finale was awesome. That is all.

[Jaysin]

I generally don't get into holiday themed episodes of shows because they're generally out of continuity, but the Christmas episode of Justice League was super good. I think it's the first time I've ever seen it.

 

Superman still believing in Santa?

Martian Manhunter discovering more humanity?

Flash convincing Humanite to help kids?

GL and Hawkgirl fighting a entire bar?

 

Seriously, a great episode and I might put it up there with the Hereafter Two Parter.

 

I'm rather excited that I'm almost done with season two so I can start JLU.

[BHK1978]

GoT finale was awesome. That is all.

 

Hodor?

[mike b]

I generally don't get into holiday themed episodes of shows because they're generally out of continuity, but the Christmas episode of Justice League was super good. I think it's the first time I've ever seen it.

 

Superman still believing in Santa?

Martian Manhunter discovering more humanity?

Flash convincing Humanite to help kids?

GL and Hawkgirl fighting a entire bar?

 

Seriously, a great episode and I might put it up there with the Hereafter Two Parter.

 

I'm rather excited that I'm almost done with season two so I can start JLU.

 

Rem watch the 1 with vandal savage its great and also death of superman

[Jaysin]

There was a few with Vandal Savage. The Death of Superman is Hereafter Part One and his return is Part Two. In Part Two, Superman is in the future and the only human alive is a still insane Savage, but he regrets his actions.

 

I'm glad I decided to watch this series again. I finished both seasons of Justice League and have started JLU. Gosh darnit, I love Green Arrow.

 

It's really made me appreciate certain characters more. I still hate Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, but Hawkgirl and John Stewart have a nice chemistry together(plus their son is a total bad ass in Batman Beyond).

 

But I really have grown to love Flash and Martian Manhunter. Enough that I'm going to go out and find as many Flash comics as possible. I've always liked the characters of Manhunter and Flash, but man, such great characters and I never realized it.

 

Also, I love how at Superman's funeral, Aquaman shows up with no shirt.

[mike b]

Did you watch the hour plus special were they went back in time to stop Vandal Savage from trying to change history in ww2 with the Germans winning the war.

 

That was the one i was talking about i really loved that show.

[shawn michaels]

So...Dexter's 7th season was awesome. That finale was probably the most brillian piece of acting i've seen in years (Where's Jen Carpenter's emmy?) And 8th season premiere wasn't bad, but i feel angry because lazy writers have been trying to make Dexter look more and more villanous because they don' have enough imagination to produce an ending that isn't tragic. Bad endings is taking the easy way out when it comes to telling a story. Making thing end well is much harder, but much more rewarding. Plus, am I the only one disapointed with the fact that the Dexter-Debra romance isn't happening?

[D-Lyrium]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="shawn michaels 82" data-cite="shawn michaels 82" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="27929" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>(Where's Jen Carpenter's emmy?)</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Locked in a cupboard behind a guardian that will only let her pass if her character stops being a whiny, selfish, entitled bitch with zero redeeming features. ¬_¬</p><p> </p><p> Admittedly I haven't started season 3 yet, but god damn I hate that woman.</p><p> </p><p> The character, that is. I'm sure the actress is lovely. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png"></p>

[shawn michaels]

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="D-Lyrium" data-cite="D-Lyrium" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="27929" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Locked in a cupboard behind a guardian that will only let her pass if her character stops being a whiny, selfish, entitled bitch with zero redeeming features. ¬_¬<p> </p><p> Admittedly I haven't started season 3 yet, but god damn I hate that woman.</p><p> </p><p> The character, that is. I'm sure the actress is lovely. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Oh yeah, I use to dislike her too, but her character evolves tremendously and she really steps up to some brilliant effin acting. Season 3 is early. You will eventually love her. Season 7 is magic when it comes to her acting, as well as Michael C. Hall's. Pure gold, i say!</p>

[Jaysin]

So I finally caved and started Weeds and I'm almost done with Season 2. Holy crap I can't turn it off.

 

Mary-Louise Parker is almost twice my age and she's just gorgeous.

 

I'm a little bummed Jeffrey Dean Morgan isn't in more than just flashbacks and whatnot. I really like him as an actor.

 

Such a screwed up show, but so enjoyable.