"The things i do for love" Game of Thrones is here

[radiator]

Not surprising, considering it has been their fastest-selling DVD of all time, but HBO have officially greenlit a third run of Game of Thrones...

http://io9.com/5900741/hbo-renews-game-of-thrones-for-a-third-season

[LARF]

Hell of a lot of [spoiler]shagging[/spoiler] going on in last nights episode.

[Radbacker]

Funny comic Radiator.
I think i've comented before but for a theiving Blood sucker i have a massive DVD/BlueRay collection(over 500 DVD's all paid for and original, no Gold Disc's lots of season box's, only at about 100 BlueRays so far).  If its worth the $ I pay for it as soon as i can get hold of it.

Episode two's a cracker, really wish they opened with the two episodes back to back would've made up for slight drop in season two opener.
[spoiler]Fingerbanging your own sister, for shame Theon [/spoiler]
[spoiler]Tyrion owns it again, i dont remember Millisandre getting it on with Stannis quite so easily in the book IIRC it was quite hard for her to convince him he needed to bang her to gain his throne [/spoiler]

CU Radbacker

[brendan1]

Hell of a lot of [spoiler]shagging[/spoiler] going on in last nights episode.

Is there maybe too much shagging? I'm not a prude but it doesn't really add much to the show for me, it's all a bit .....meh.

[radiator]

Overall I think Game of Thrones is one of the finest examples of adaptation I have seen - condensing the somewhat long-winded novels down to the essentials while also adding a few well-judged extra scenes to show us things that aren't possible in the books POV chapter format. Fleshing out supporting characters like Robert and Cersei, who were hardly more than sketches in the first book and also to provide exposition and set up future storylines and events....

...but I do think they could rein things in a bit sometimes - the TV show has a tendency to amp up the sex and violence aspects of the books to a borderline gratuitous level, which can cheapen it occasionally. The real strength of the show is in the characters, the production values and the writing - it doesn't need to rely on shock tactics quite so much.


Anyone else think that the newly-elongated credits and theme tune could get a little ridiculous with every season as ever more locations are introduced? 

[Satanist]

My worry is that with the ever expanding cast it'll become a bit too confusing for viewers. I find the whos who much easier after reading the books and I've been asked  from a few folk already who/what the hell the woman in red is all about.

[radiator]

Oh, I don't think that will be too much of a problem - everyone who has stuck with the show thus far probably won't have much trouble keeping up - it took me a good few episodes of the first series to work out who everyone was, and it was only on second viewing that I knew for sure so it's to be expected. There's also the fact that older characters are presumably going to start dying off as the story moves forward, leaving room for the new guys.

The bigger problem to my mind is that the whole thing might feel a bit fragmented now that [spoiler]Ned Stark is gone (and without Sean Bean there's no recognisable actor to market the show with). There's no central character to root for anymore - it's Peter Dinklage with the top billing now, but he's not as sympathetic as Ned, and can never be the 'lead' character as he's still a Lannister so will always be one of the 'bad guys' as far as the overall story is concerned.[/spoiler]

[I, Cosh]

I enjoyed the first series as an adaptation and I like the books but I find I have no real desire to watch the new series. My main problem with the first series was that it seemed like a breathless rush to cram in as many incidents from the book as possible. I can only really remember one or two scenes which I recognised as having been added by the writers and those were the bits that worked to flesh it out more. A friend (who watched the first series vanilla but has since read the books) reported that this was exactly how she found the first episode of the new series.

A couple of things in your spoilers there, radiator. One is something which other people have mentioned before. I find it a bit odd to single out one member of an ensemble cast as the draw. Was there a particular lead in The Wire or Deadwood who would've been considered indispensable? Are there really a significant number of people who would watch a programme just because Sean Bean's in it? I'd be surprised if his own mum felt like that!

I'm not sure how far you've read the books, so the following contains mild, implicit spoilers (even if it's just in terms of who's still alive) for further down the line.[spoiler] Inasmuch as there is a "hero" at all, it very much is Tyrion for a couple of books before, probably, giving way to Jon Snow. This may, of course, be simply a reflection of the characters I like most rather than anything else.[/spoiler]

[radiator]

My main problem with the first series was that it seemed like a breathless rush to cram in as many incidents from the book as possible. I can only really remember one or two scenes which I recognised as having been added by the writers and those were the bits that worked to flesh it out more. A friend (who watched the first series vanilla but has since read the books) reported that this was exactly how she found the first episode of the new series.

I watched the first series without having read the books, and it didn't feel rushed to me at all. However, I read the first half of the second book before watching the first ep of season 2, and yeah it does feel a bit weird because I'm looking at it in a whole different way - noticing what has been changed/omitted/added etc. My point is that your perception is skewed if you have recently read the books (isn't that the case with most adaptations?), but I think it works just fine if you haven't - otherwise it wouldn't have captured the imaginations of so many who have never read any of the books - and such a broad demographic - seriously, 80% of the people I know are hooked.

I find it a bit odd to single out one member of an ensemble cast as the draw. Was there a particular lead in The Wire or Deadwood who would've been considered indispensable? Are there really a significant number of people who would watch a programme just because Sean Bean's in it?

Frankly, yes I think there is - don't underestimate star power. The entire show was marketed and sold on the presence of Bean - maybe not for discerning folk such as ourselves, but definitely the mass market. Bean was by far the most famous cast member, and was featured prominently on all advertising. He was there as an in for the casual audience - a familiar face in a strange and hostile world - like Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. While it's undoubtedly an ensemble cast, I would guess that he had by far the most screen-time out of any of them, and it was the actions (or inactions) of Ned Stark that drove the narrative of most of the first series.

[radiator]

Hmmm, watching episode 2 did little to assuage my fears about the excess of gratuitous nudity and naughtiness - I felt at times that it went too far and ended up in self-parody and Carry On-esque campness - I did a bit of an eye-roll at some of the double entendres.

I'm all for the odd sex scene - it's part of the appeal of the show - but I hope they pull it back a bit. Feels a bit like they're overloading the sexiness to compensate for a rather slow story consisting mainly of sabre-rattling and posturing and they're worried people will get bored if they don't.

[TordelBack]

Feels a bit like they're overloading the sexiness to compensate for a rather slow story consisting mainly of sabre-rattling and posturing and they're worried people will get bored if they don't.

Haven't seen it yet, but in Season 1 it was noticeable that almost all the really heavy exposition was delivered while naked ladies were on the screen (usually Esme Bianco or Roxanne McKee, so that was okay).  A bit obvious, but I'll reserve judgement 'til I've seen Season 2!

A bit like Al Swerengen's blow-job/piss-pot monologues, but easier on the eye.

[klute]

Hmmm, watching episode 2 did little to assuage my fears about the excess of gratuitous nudity and naughtiness - I felt at times that it went too far and ended up in self-parody and Carry On-esque campness - I did a bit of an eye-roll at some of the double entendres.

I'm all for the odd sex scene - it's part of the appeal of the show - but I hope they pull it back a bit. Feels a bit like they're overloading the sexiness to compensate for a rather slow story consisting mainly of sabre-rattling and posturing and they're worried people will get bored if they don't.

I felt exactly the same and found not only myself but my wife both rolling our eye's having not read teh book's yet i've no idea if the book's are the same,i hope this tone it down in favour of more story and plots.

[locustsofdeath!]

Yeah, the sex scenes do feel a bit "cheap".

My main problem is that in two episode we've seen Danaerys twice, and maybe for a total of five minutes. We've spent equal time at the brothel where very little outside of the [spoiler]murder of Robert's bastard child[/spoiler] of importance to the story has gone on. We also got zero scenes with Robb.

So we're getting [spoiler]snowballing whores[/spoiler] instead of the characters that could use more screen time. Littlefinger's storyline doesn't need to be pushed into the foreground.

Now...don't let me sound like I'm complaining (although I suppose I am). We're off to a slow start, but I have no doubt this will get better. A Clash of Kings is my favorite novel in the series, and HBO has done such a wonderful job with GoT so far that I have faith there's nothing to worry about.

[klute]

Yeah, the sex scenes do feel a bit "cheap".

My main problem is that in two episode we've seen Danaerys twice, and maybe for a total of five minutes. We've spent equal time at the brothel where very little outside of the [spoiler]murder of Robert's bastard child[/spoiler] of importance to the story has gone on. We also got zero scenes with Robb.

So we're getting [spoiler]snowballing whores[/spoiler] instead of the characters that could use more screen time. Littlefinger's storyline doesn't need to be pushed into the foreground.

Now...don't let me sound like I'm complaining (although I suppose I am). We're off to a slow start, but I have no doubt this will get better. A Clash of Kings is my favorite novel in the series, and HBO has done such a wonderful job with GoT so far that I have faith there's nothing to worry about.

I think to a degree we were spoilt with the first season,not that i think this one is bad.It would just better suit me if there was less sex just for the sake of it.
At the moment atleast to me anyway if feel's as though alot of the main/key player's from teh first season have either had very little or no screen time yet.

[radiator]

It does seem very odd that, in a series where it is evident that they have to be very economic with how they go about cramming as much story from the book as possible, they are adding seemingly redundant scenes with the likes of Littlefinger. You do wonder if there's a bit of wrangling going on behind the scenes - actor's agents jostling for screen time etc.

I felt exactly the same and found not only myself but my wife both rolling our eye's having not read teh book's yet i've no idea if the book's are the same

Yes and no - for the most part, the TV show very much exaggerates what is on the page - things like the relationships between [spoiler]Renly/Loras Tyrell[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Stannis/Melisandre[/spoiler] are merely implied in the books rather than shown explicitly, while the [spoiler]killing of Robert's infant lovechild[/spoiler] happens 'off-screen' and is only referred to in passing in a conversation between two characters. The [spoiler]cum-wiping scene in the brothel[/spoiler] and the [spoiler]sex scene between Melisandre and Stannis[/spoiler] were written purely for the TV show and don't appear in the book at all.

There were a couple of moments in series 1 where I felt it went a bit far, but the most recent episode had about 3 or 4 such scenes. Let's hope it's just a blip and episode 3 gets back to what the show does best - backstabbing, spectacle, intrigue and wonderful character moments.