As you know, after an extremely disappointing season 5, as a "purist" (heck, I have a character based on me in the books) I elected not to watch season 6 of Game of Thrones to avoid spoilers and because the production no longer truly followed George R. R. Martin's original storylines. I said that I would watch the episodes once I had read The Winds of Winter.
Trouble is, the novel was supposed to be published this year. And now, as everyone knows, it won't be until 2018. If all goes well. Given GRRM's track record, shit has a tendency to happen and push back release dates.
So I finally caved in and started to watch the show again. And halfway through the sixth season, I can say that it suffers from the same shortcomings that made season 5 so painful to watch at times. Subpar writing, atrocious dialogue, dumbass changes in many plotlines that make no sense. The actors, which were once so great, have become terrible given the crappy quality of the scripts they must work with. Don't expect Peter Dinklage to win another Emmy any time soon.
But the worst is that we get certain storylines and important plot points spoiled (no avoiding that, though it's obvious that quite a few things won't occur this way in the remaining books) by B-movie quality moments scripted by something that feels like poor fan fiction.
For its first 4 seasons, Game of Thrones was as good or better than anything else on TV, giving even Breaking Bad a run for its money. Now, it's just a shell of what it used to be. Relying on epic shit instead of substance and intelligence AND epic material. And all the articles I've skimmed through regarding season 7 claim that it's even worse the more you go on.
A crying shame. . . =(
10 commentaires:
I've posted this elsewhere, but my feeling is that the greatest tragedy of Game of Thrones is that George R.R. Martin willingly gave up the canonical telling & completion of a masterpiece to lesser writers.
To expand: It doesn't matter how different or better his completion of the story is when he completes the books- the show got there first, and the choices they made become the canon and the first things that come to mind: Barristan is dead in a stupid back alley. Lady Stoneheart never existed. Instead of being a classic whodunit and subtly revealed, Frey-Pie is haphazardly tacked-on to the end of an episode. The book(s) are now the adaptation as far as most people are concerned. And regardless of how people felt about AFFC and ADWD, the strength of the overarching story, especially as contained in the first three novels, make this a landmark work in the genre. And instead of finishing as he imagined, he allowed other, lesser, writers to complete the tale. Tragic.
It is tragic, no question.
But it's not a question of GRRM willingly giving up the story. When he sold the rights, he was legally obligated to do so once the HBO series reached a certain point.
Like most people, back in 2009 GRRM didn't expect to complete only a single installment by the time the TV series would overtake the books. It's a sad state of affairs, but it's now a reality all ASOIAF fans must live with. =(
There is really nothing more tiresome than book people whinging about the tv show. I respected this blog for saying they were done after season 5 and then never posting about it no matter how big the show got. I did not agree, but I respected someone who did not hate watch the series because it is popular. But it seems that did not last.
For whatever reason, in planning season 5 D&D decided to condense the story while at the same point GRRM decided to expand the story. And the result is what we got. It's not what I wanted or would have done in D&D's case, but it's what we got. I'm reminded of Ser Alliser's quote about leadership from "Watchers on the Wall." Every ASOIAF fan seems to think they know the true essence of the story and how it should be adapted. But you are not adapting it, D&D are, move on. Stupid conspiracy theories aside, it is not their fault the book series is unfinished.
I am so glad I decided to stay completely away from the HBO series. The books are canon and nothing beats them.
In season 7, all characters, and even armies, have learned to teleport.
It also has the most stupid and contrived story line of the entire series.
Tris, Your claim "...in planning season 5 D&D decided to condense the story while at the same point GRRM decided to expand the story" doesn't make any sense. A Dance With Dragons was published in July 2011, only one month after Season One ended (never mind that portions of the book were already written at the time of A Feast For Crows' publication in 2006). I'm sure they had some ideas at that time that Season 5 would eventually be on schedule, most likely for 2014 when it was actually filmed, but how has GRRM been able to expand anything in in the nothing books he's published since 2011? What is your source for this claim because the timeline simply doesn't bear it out.
And while, as you accurately note, it's not their fault he hasn't finished it, D&D do get to finish this story- at least, they get to tell their version first. And their ability to tell a coherent and internally consistent story is much lesser than his. That's my subjective opinion, to be sure, but it seems to be a pretty popular one among people who care about that sort of thing. Again, you're correct: "it's what we've got", but it's certainly not "whinging" to point out that "what we've got" is a story being told by lesser talents.
And what conspiracy theories are you referring to? There is no mention of anything in the original post or comments so far that imply a conspiracy theory.
I actually thought the first series of AGOT was so close to the books it was barely worth watching, but actually enjoyed series 6 because at least I'm seeing something that is new to me.
Also, we may never see the end of the series in literary form, so at least the series will give us some closure.
patrick :
"But it's not a question of GRRM willingly giving up the story"
yeah sure, cause that author is writing episodes for the past 6 years ... what bs is this ?
martin will not finish the series, because his main desire has always been to be on tv and movies. the last 2 book won't be published. and there will be no sanderson to save this book seires. and good riddance.
if martin dies without finishing the book, i will just throw them to the garbage.
and yes, "if martin dies" is morbid and maybe in bad taste, but who doesn't really
see it as a possibility ?
even the people on the show did.
If Martin dies there will be enough pressure to get someone to finish it and that someone will probably be Daniel Abraham. Dude's legit, and has ties to GRRM through the comic adaptations and with Ty Frank (GRRM's former assistant) as James S.A. Corey.
DontDriveAngry: I'm not talking about real time, I talking about the point in the story after the events in A Storm of Swords/GOT season 4 when GRRM decided to add a whole host of new POVs that for the most part D&D either cut out or greatly reduced. It has nothing to do with when who made what decision. Even if the books had been released, the 3rd act for the show would still have been very different.
And stop acting like saying "we care" makes the constant complaining any less annoying. I did not start watching the show until GRRM announced he would not get Winds of Winter out before season 6. I "cared" so much about ASOIAF that I did not need a TV version to be fulfilled. While they have made a ton of decisions I did not agree with, I have enough self awareness to know that they have to create an entire world on a finite budget on a predetermined schedule. And the overwhelming majority of ASOIAF fans would crash and burn trying to bring the story to life under the same conditions.
Hate the show, I don't care. But the show is what it is, so move on. And the conspiracy theories refer to people believing that GRRM has not written a word of Winds of Winter or in fact has finished the book but HBO is making him hold it until the show is done or some nonsense.
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