Rispon Avenue

A Game of Thrones, that is.

I know, I know, I’m dreadfully late in reporting this, but yes, A Game of Thrones, by George R R Martin – FINISH THE NEXT BOOK, GEORGE – has been picked up by HBO after the pilot was shot late last year and earlier this year. I’m excited, I must say, to see this come to pass.

I do know that I’ve said in earlier blog posts about this that I was trepidatious, that I was concerned for the ‘corny’ factor, the clichés that could arise, but I have to say, after watching Rome recently, and having just bought three more seasons of The Wire because the first was so bloody good, I’ve got confidence in HBO. They put on some damn fine shows, I have to say. More on that story later.

So yes, the show has been given the go ahead, and the first season shall cover the first book, and will contain ten episodes in total. That seems a little on the skimpy side for such a massive book, but so much can be said without words that I suppose it should be alright. I’m just hoping to see the story play-out as faithfully as possible to what happened. No missing certain awesome characters – Tom Bombadill is noticeably missing from The Lord of the Rings! – or just altering things for the sake of making it easier to understand or some such. I hate to see that sort of thing happen, but I do look forward to seeing this play out.

Of course, I have no expectation that all the books will be made into a season of the series. I mean, seven seasons of A Song of Ice and Fire would cost quite a fortune, I believe, and HBO does have a history of cancelling shows if the cost is getting too high.

I suppose, though, that this show will have a huge following before anything is even shot. That’s the bonus of working with non-original content, I suppose. Anyway, this particular geek is most anticipating this one!

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I bought the Fawlty Towers series off iTunes the other day, and I’ve already watched both seasons twice through!

The title there is of course a reference to the changing sign that’s shown at the beginning of each episode. The sign is changed by the paper-boy, who’s taking out his resentment at Basil by messing with the sign. It’s cute, and one of those things that stick with you about the show. The little details.

It’d been a while since I last saw the show, but I was looking through my old – and surprisingly extensive – VHS collection the other day, and noticed that I had a few episodes that I had taped from the TV. I popped one in the old VCR and saw that these tapes had been watched a lot. The condition was pretty bad, so I took a look on iTunes and found that the two seasons of Fawlty Towers very actually pretty cheap. I mean so they should be considering there’s only six episodes per season and they’re about half an hour long, but anyway.

I bought both seasons and I’ve already watched nearly every episode twice! I love The Builders episode, as well as The Germans, Communication Problems, and others that aren’t coming to mind right now.

I know there’s been a few documentaries about Fawlty Towers in recent times, and I’d like to get a hold of those too. It’s just so much fun, and I do wish there were more, though I can see why Cleese and Booth wouldn’t write more, the intensity of the acting is enough to fear an onset of apoplexy for John when he’s playing Basil.

It’s so much fun going back and watching something you’ve not seen in a long time, and it bears up just as well as it did a decade ago. You’ve got to appreciate that, it’s certainly an amazing feat.

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It is with mixed feeling that I relate that the pilot for A Game of Thrones has begun filming here in the UK.

Okay, to explain where I’m coming from… If you’ve seen Rome, which is sort of an equivalent to this series in terms of production values, and the production group – HBO – but I have to say that many of the actors are of a much better calibre than Rome, anyway, back to my point. If you’ve seen Rome, you’ll know what I mean when I say there are moments of complete cringing. It could be a line in the dialogue here, or a gesture there, but sometimes you are ripped so forcibly from your tentatively shallow level of immersion that all of a sudden you realise you’re watching a bunch of guys prancing about in little dresses, taking themselves very seriously…

It’s not like that all the time, and I think Deadwood didn’t quite have this going so much as Rome – again, made by same group, HBO – but I’m still very highly aware of the fact that that just because these are great books, doesn’t mean they’ll make a great TV series… Can you imagine watching some of the stuff that happens in that book in the form of a TV show? I’m concerned I’m going to feel like I’m watching a school play the whole time. The seriousness of whether or not Jon will be allowed to go and join the Night’s Watch or not… yeah, goodness me I hope all the actors really do this well, and that the sets work and everything.

So far all the filming has been completed in Scotland, at Doune Castle in Scotland to be precise, which is where they shot all the scenes that took place in the courtyard of Winterfell. Next they move onto Paint Hall Studio in Belfast which is where everything will be shot, except the stuff that’s supposed to be happening in Pentos and all that, which is being shot in Morocco.

So yeah, I respect many of the actors involved in this, but still feel like I’ll be wearing a grimace throughout the entirety of the first episode.

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I really like this series, so I’ve been buying them on DVD.

I’ve seen all the seasons so far, and I’m watching season six for the first time now. It’s been a very good series, in my opinion, with more than enough to keep me enticed into buying more seasons, though some tropes of the show do become a little frustrating after a while.

For instance, the fact that there always has to be another one behind the scenes, pulling all the strings, and then we find out that guy is just a dupe for another guy who’s really pulling all the strings. I think this would work just fine whilst it was on television, and you only got one episode a week, but when you watch them back to back over the span of about a week, those tropes don’t work so well.

Nonetheless, the show is awesome. Jack Bauer is one of the best protagonists on TV, hands down my favourite character in any show that’s currently airing. It is so refreshing to me to see someone who is willing to push, to go the whole hog for their morality, who has a morality which they abide by, even if it isn’t great for them or doesn’t quite fit inside the law.

Season six is shaping up alright, Jack’s dad being one of the major bad guys is… interesting. I liked that Chloe is being more humanised in the show, too. I’m about half way though the season at this stage, Jack’s just called the previous president, the little crazy megalomaniac Charles Logan. That guy is so creepy, in my opinion, and not just because of his willingness to kill his citizens to gain access to more oil, but the way the guy moves. That little cocking of the head up and to the side… he looks very… wrong. I’ve no other way to put it, he gives off ‘wrong’ very strongly. :lol:

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A Game of Thrones the TV series by HBO will start shooting in October, and here are the cast names that have been released so far…

Now, I think these books, A Song of Ice and Fire, are the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. I’ve read a lot, and these are the best, in my opinion, so far. That’s a pretty big call, but I’m making it. The people behind this series are the same who created Deadwood and Rome; two good shows, in their own ways. Today I’m going to outline my response to each of the announced cast choices. George R R Martin also said on his Not a Blog recently that six more characters are about to be cast, but we will have to wait some time for the announcements. When they are announced, I will do a follow up post. I’m interested to see how this series works out, because as I said, this is an amazing book they are working with, and Martin has even been involved with the screen plays, I believe he is writing one episode himself. Now, onto the cast and my impressions!

Sean Bean will do quite well as Eddard Stark, in my opinion. He voiced Martin from The Elder Scrolls Oblivion game quite well, and the character has a similar sense of… rigidity or dourness, so I think this was a good choice.

Peter Drinklage as Tyrion Lanister will be awesome, I think. Drinklage has a tenacious and sardonic personality in many of his roles, and I think this will suit The Imp so very well.

Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark will work very well, even as Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice she had an austere coldness that I think will work wonders – now that she is older – as cold and hateful Catelyn. I dislike Catelyn intensely.

I’ve never seen Kit Harington in anything before, but he looks okay for the part. I would have liked to have seen someone perhaps a little longer in the face, but this serves, and there could be – with hair and make-up – similarities brought out with him and Sean Bean.

Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon is interesting… I’ve no doubt he can play it, I just envision him as being… bigger, swarthier, and at least somewhat intimidating… :lol: But I still think this will work out well.

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon I’m not sure about because I can’t see a picture of him that is anything like recent on the net, so I don’t know. It’s going to take a good actor to portray that horrid little abomination.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen… he seems too old, to me. This one sticks out a bit… but with a lot of alterations, silver hair, lilac eyes, maybe it’ll work.

So far only the pilot is sure to be shot, but if the reception is good enough, more could follow, and I for one, bloody hope so!

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