Game of Thrones Season 5

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I'm not mocking any potential sense of fan entitlement because I think that's a bullshit shield terrible creators use to hide themselves behind but genuinely what I actually love about this forum is the type of person that says "GoT needs to be more like the UK miner's strike in the 80s"

What you're saying FM is totally right - the series Treme which is possibly my favourite series is "boring" in many peoples eyes but gets the balance between light and shade that make our everyday reality routinely so hideously terrible and tremendously wonderful. It's something all proper drama should manage but largely always fails to - worlds in "adult dramas" are sometimes just hilariously one-note grimdark (see "Penny Dreadful" - the first season particularly which makes any happiness seem an outrageous aberration. In fact you could pinpoint an incoming murder by anyone cracking a grin).

GoT needs more Podricks and Tyrions - the balance is way off and the fandoms know it too. I mean - a lot of major fan webspots are refusing to cover it any more - it's more than just "oh the Red Wedding that was harsh man" - it's just relentless rape and death for teh shock alone.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

GoT needs more Podricks and Tyrions ...

*nods*

"Hodor"

[Mikey]

I finished watched series 5 on Sunday evening. Have to say I really enjoyed this series overall after hearing folks saying it wasn't as good as the previous ones - I really thought the first 7 episodes worked well as it seemed to focus on some of the smaller interactions between some of the characters, rather than looking at the big ol' Game of Thrones they're playing. Some nice character moments, especially the interaction between Cersei and Marjery! This is why I think they could have essentially finished at episode 7 for this series, because...

(Just in case) [spoiler]...the appearance of the army of the dead (and FWIW, I loved it totally) in ep. 8 was a real change of tone and pace and with the apparent 'death' of Jon Snow, it felt like the rug was pulled away just when we we're getting into another story. I agree it might not be the last we see of him in some form or another: the Brothers said 'for the Watch' and admittedly there was a 'traitor' sign, but I can't help but think somehow Melisandra convinced them he needed to be sacrificed 'for the Watch'. Resurrection may take place, either from the Lord of Light or by 'Frankenmaestor'. I'm more annoyed by the apparent death of Stannis, whom I've loved from the minute he appeared.[/spoiler]

I don't know anyone else in fleshspace who has time for Stannis on screen, but for me the performance by Stephen Dillane is a masterclass in understatement. I can at all times feel the undercurrent of frustration and doomed obligations he feels, the desire for righteousness, plus in his own way he was the only one who, as has been mentioned earlier, tries to do the just thing and is the only one of the main family heads with a legitimate claim. sigh You can stick your Mormont man-crush!

Lena Heady continued her magnificence in the series too. Wasn't really all that interested in Daenerys this time around, but pretty much [spoiler]punched the air when she climbed on Drogon's back.
[/spoiler]

Anyhoo, I miss it already.

M.

[Richmond Clements]

but for me the performance by Stephen Dillane is a masterclass in understatement.

Yup. His performance goes a long way to making what is actually a repulsive and horribly selfish character seem sympathetic. And considering what he's done, that's quite a feat.

[radiator]

I like how they pulled a trick on us with Stannis - there's a lot of effort in the later books and tv seasons to make him likable and humanise him so he becomes someone to really root for, then suddenly we're reminded: oh yeah, this is the same guy who used sorcery to murder his own brother, and who regularly burns people alive in the name of a very sketchy religion.

[Mikey]

See, I just liked his whole thread in the show because from the start it I found it the most genuinely dark and intriguing. Hard to resist a brooding, angry and determined loner as I say to the sheilas with the Onion Knight at his side. [spoiler]I really thought he'd be the consistent thorn in the side of the Iron Throne through most of the story, so was right behind him.[/spoiler] A lot of the characters are right self serving feckers, whose worse excesses are in the family, past or perhaps to come and he just happened to have a religious fanatic on his case from the start pushing him in a certain, terrible direction.

I was also a bit annoyed [spoiler]Bran didn't show this series. That was getting interesting![/spoiler]

M.

[Jim_Campbell]

I was also a bit annoyed [spoiler]Bran didn't show this series. That was getting interesting![/spoiler]

As I understand it, they'd used up his entire (wafer thin) plot from the books by the end of last season and if GRRM knows what's supposed to happen next, he ain't saying...

Cheers

Jim

[Famous Mortimer]

I like how they pulled a trick on us with Stannis - there's a lot of effort in the later books and tv seasons to make him likable and humanise him so he becomes someone to really root for, then suddenly we're reminded: oh yeah, this is the same guy who used sorcery to murder his own brother, and who regularly burns people alive in the name of a very sketchy religion.

Absolutely. Great performance, too, but I think the way they twisted his character to get him ready for what happened (for a man so obsessed with succession, why kill his only heir?) didn't serve him or the show very well. I never particularly bought he was interested in "the greater good" either, power seemed its own end for him. And his much-vaunted tactical prowess went right to hell at the end.

Daenerys is fine from time to time (like getting on that dragon) but unlike Jon Snow, she hasn't grown a great deal as a character. Still making rotten decisions, still that unbearable wait before her character does something relevant to the game of thrones.

The Jon Snow thing...why not, as soon as the gates opened, shout "there's a massive chuffing army of ice zombies! Coming this way! We need to do something!" Instead, he goes and mopes for a bit until the kid, who was obviously going to murder Jon since the beginning of the season, murders him. The best explanation is "some people just aren't ready for Jon's out-of-the-box thinking", but the show could have maybe used some of its sexual violence time and expanded on that theme a little.

[radiator]

I was also a bit annoyed [spoiler]Bran didn't show this series. That was getting interesting![/spoiler]

As I understand it, they'd used up his entire (wafer thin) plot from the books by the end of last season and if GRRM knows what's supposed to happen next, he ain't saying...

Cheers

Jim

They've also said they wanted to rest the character for a while, so that when we see him next he's [spoiler]undergone his training with the three-eyed raven and is totally transformed.[/spoiler]

They referenced how we meet Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.

[spoiler]Hodor.[/spoiler]

[radiator]

Euron Lovejoy...?

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/game-of-thrones-ian-mcshane-1201554773/

[Goaty]

And Max Von Sydow cast as the mysterious Three-Eyed Raven.

They get good castings in Season 6!

[sheridan]

And Max Von Sydow cast as the mysterious Three-Eyed Raven.

They get good castings in Season 6!

Max von Sydow?  I wonder how long his character will last?  Whenever I see him in a film he's generally playing a person in a high position who dies during the course of a movie: [spoiler]Flash, Judge Dredd, Minority Report[/spoiler], etc...

[Theblazeuk]

Well I think he's already technically dead.

I binged a bit of Bojack Horseman. Actually really enjoyed it though possibly a little tired of Hollywood writing about Hollywood.

[radiator]

They are really bringing out the big guns aren't they.

There's two possible roles McShane could be playing, and he'd be a fantastic choice for either.

Really, really curious to see how season 6 plays out. So many popular characters are dead or AWOL, and so many popular storylines are finished. I have a few good guesses what the main narrative thrust of the season will be, and my betting is that we're going to be spending the majority of it away from King's Landing with a much greater focus on the extremes - Mereen and beyond the Wall especially.

[Hawkmumbler]

Kings Landing still has a few plot threads dangling. [spoiler]Marjery and Lorice, Jaime returning with a dead daughter in tow, Frankenstein-Mountain, and Cerci coming to terms with granting the nutters more power than herself.[/spoiler]