Talking of telly: Game of Thrones

So I watched the last three of series 3 last night, and came to the realisation that it's better than I give it credit for. After all, I tend to watch them three or four eps at a time, and they don't bore me, but at no point have I considered that I like it.

See, I don't watch TV Dramas because the pacing always irritates me to one degree or another: I like fillums, and therefore I like the whole story to be told in 90-180 mins or 270 if the director knows his onions. So, when a character in a TV Drama sighs, and says "So........." I'm practically snapping the buttons off my remote to get the channel changed.

But last night I sort of counted the Wows the three series have given me (I watched the first two back-to-back a few months ago, having been lent the box sets) and realised that the shows are good, and the only reason I hesitated before saying so is that it's the pacing I disliked, and not the content. And the fact that I'd never remember to watch it each week is my fault and not the show's. It's telly, and therefore I have to make allowances.

Now, I'm tempted to load books 4 and 5 back into my Kindle and try to read them. IMHO, people watch soaps and serials because of the human need for conclusions (which I think is also part of the attraction of supporting a football team), and while I'm hardly agog to know what happens next I do think it might be interesting. The girl with the dragons looks a good bet, and the devil b***h is unquantifiably capable.

I did try and read the books, but quit about halfway through book one. Sorry, i know he has his fans and I don't mean to judge those fans, honestly, but I really do think he's an awful writer. He features (it feels like) hundreds of front- or second-rank characters and yet only gives humour to two, maybe three. That's not realistic, surely?

His baddies are pantomime villains: there is not a shred of good in Walder Fray (sp), or that bloke with all the wives who kills his boy babies, and there's at least two other similarly hideous characters but they escape me for the mo. Unexpected depths in character are only given, seemingly, when it suits the plot (I'm thinking of The Hound in recent eps).

And now I'm wondering why I bothered to type this, and realising that it's because the shows have made me think about them.

Enough, anyway. If you've not bothered so far and are tempted, get hold of a box set and watch them in batches. They're worth a dabble.

Posted By: Sugbad The Bad on June 13th 2013 at 19:02:05

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