Are you happy about the TV series?

mushroomyakuza

mushroomyakuza

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Likes: American television, strictly no British ru
How do you personally feel about the TV show being made? I remember thinking ages ago that it would be great - if done right, and that I wouldn't want it to be done at all unless it was done right. But, HBO are definitly the network to do, so long as it doesn't get cancelled. Which brings me to my other concern....

I'm worried that it will get cancelled after one or two seasons, and I'll forever see the Seven Kingdoms through the eyes of the TV show rather than my own imagination, which was pretty damn good. Anyone else worried about this?

On the other hand, I think it's less likely they will cancel this. Recently HBO have not been thier usual selves. Since The Sopranos, and The Wire finished they've been relying on the odd season of Entourage and Big Love to tide them over, but it hasn't really been enough. They're entering a new era again now though, with Boardwalk Empire, Treme, Bored to Death, Hung and now A Game of Thrones on the way, and I hope these shows stick around to help rebuild HBO's stellar reputation. Recently they've been pretty severly outdone by ANC and FX. They need to reclaim their crown, and I hope Thrones will be a big part in that.
 
mushroomyakuza said:
I'm worried that it will get cancelled after one or two seasons, and I'll forever see the Seven Kingdoms through the eyes of the TV show rather than my own imagination, which was pretty damn good. Anyone else worried about this?
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This is all depending on ratings from the viewing public
 
You run the risk of ruining what you imagined with images from a TV show, movie, play, etc. amy time you see something that has been taken from book form and moved to another medium. I think that when done properly, actually seeing the characters and places that you have only been able to imagine enhances the experience, at least when done well. Two examples of this for me would be The adaptations of "The Lord of the Rings" and The Godfather". Both were absolutely faithful in creating the world of their respective book, and both had characters which were as perfectly matched with what the original authors wrote as possible. While my imagination is good, watching either of those movies creates a level of reality that one could never achive in just reading.

I'm also confident that Martins' presence in the process will ensure that the show has a chance to be successful. He has the added advantage of having experience with creating TV (Beauty and the Beast), so his obvious familiarity with the material coupled with that experience will give the show a big advantage over other print to screen adaptations.

One last thing. What's being prodeuced (from what I understand) is a pilot. I don't think HBO has committed to an entire season. I suspect that the show will be well received, but you never know. In other words, there's nothing to cancel at this point.
 
There's quite a bit of excitement about this over at the ASOI&F board. Sean Bean and Jennifer Ehle have been cast as Ned and Catelyn Stark and Peter Dinklage has been cast as Tyrion (sp?) as well as many others. Filming is to begin at the end of next month and I'm keeping my fingers crossed about the pilot being picked up.
 
The Imp said:
He has the added advantage of having experience with creating TV (Beauty and the Beast), so his obvious familiarity with the material coupled with that experience will give the show a big advantage over other print to screen adaptations.
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He also worked on the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone series.


(If anyone is interested, the Winter is Coming website - http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/ - has various links to what is supposed to be the proposed script of the Game of Thrones pilot.)
 
Your knowledge of GRRM's (and perhaps others') threads is close to being a superpower, TK.

Amazing.
 
Yeah, Big Bear, I agree. TK is a freak... uh, I mean his nitpicking... err, well, his detailed memory is legendary.

mush, I use the Internet Movie Database for quick info on all TV shows and movies. Here's the link to The Game of Thrones pilot.

murph, I'm also excited about Dinklage and Bean.

As for my expectations, I'm being very easy going about this because I was so wound up for The Lord of the Rings. My babysitter told me tales of Bilbo and Frodo when I was eight. I cracked The Hobbit at age nine, saw The Hobbit (the animated film) when I was ten, read The Lord of the Rings at eleven, saw Bakshi's fim at age twelve, and discovered The Silmarillion at fourteen. When I was fifteen I read Unfinished Tales and at age sixteen I read the newly published Book of Lost Tales. Middle-earth was everything to me. My adolescence revolved around reading Tolkien, pouring over JEA Tyler's The New Tolkien Companion, practicing writing Khuzdul, speaking Quenya, decifering the Shire Calendar system, and figuring out Aragorn's exact genealogy. I've read The Lord of the Rings over forty times.

In all fairness, Peter Jackson's films could never have satisfied me because I was so emotionally invested in them and I'd built up strong images of what Middle-earth looked like and what their denizens should do.

In contrast to my level of involvement/commitment to Tolkien's works, I also grew up reading Spider-Man and The X-Men. The first comics I bought (Turok and Spider-Man) were only fifteen cents. (That was a lot of money for a five year old to dig out of the heating grate in 1970.) The point is that even though I'd read Spider-Man and The X-Men longer than I read Tolkien, I was not as emotionally invested. I mean Kirby and Lee would sometimes include secret drawings of 1407 Graymalkin Lane or of the Baxter Building, but those can't compare to the appendices of The Return of the King. The recent rash of Marvel Comics movies have been fun for me to watch. I know the X-Men film was a major departure from the comics' story line, but what the heck, the characters were basically the same. Maybe the lessons from the dissapointment of Jackson's trilogy allowed me to hold on loosely and just enjoy the films.

As long as Robert is drunk, Ghost is silent, Tyrion is short, Jaime is an arrogant $#*&%, Eddard is honorable, Lysa is delusional, Littlefinger is manipulative, and Cersei is a slut, then I'll give the show the benefit of the doubt.
 
I think it helps to tell yourself in advance that a TV or movie version is another animal from a book or history.

The casting for this pilot looks very good to me. I hope the dialogue is acceptable, and the adaptation works.

I sympathize with the LOTR emotions. But honestly, the setting was awesome. Gollum brought life to that character. Sam was hawt.;) Galadriel was lovely. The Council of Elrond was blessedly shorter. Gimli was funny. Legolas was dashing. I was not sorry that Tom Bombadil was cut. There is a good side.

(Boaz, I made up a lettering system and a language, 'cause Tolkien was cool)

And if it is bad, we can gleefully trash it.
 
The way I look at it, the series will hopefully be great in its own right. If it isn't, it won't detract from my enjoyment of the books; I'll just think the series is rubbish.

<analogy>
You like a film, then they make a game of it. If the game sucks, it doesn't make you think less of the film, just the creators of the game.
</analogy>

Cast and script look good though - I'm hoping the series will be great and raise the profile of the books so when I rant about how good it is to my mates, they join in rather than faking a smile and their eyes glazing over :)
 
mushroom, I don't recall Wert addressing this specific issue in his previous posts.

I don't know if HBO that thinking about just one season. I don't know that the contract would allow them to proceed one season at a time. ASOIAF is seven seasons long. Since there are four books published, HBO may be forced to commit to those four if they decide to proceed after the pilot. Then again since the fourth book and the fifth overlap, HBO might only buy the first three and see what happens from there.

I'm sure the contract has numerous clauses to allow HBO to room to cancel the show if ratings are not high enough. But there must also be minimums for HBO to observe, eg. If they decide to pick up the show, then they must commit (pay GRRM) for three seasons and if HBO wants to go forward after the third season, then they must buy a minimum of two more seasons, etc.

Changing topics... if ASOIAF on HBO is successful and progresses to AFFC and ADWD, then how do you see HBO portraying these books? They take place simultaneously. Will the producers stay in order of publication or will they mix the books to produce a chronologically correct show? Of course, this is all premature since neither they nor us have seen ADWD and how it fits with AFFC.
 
I think the current plan is to mix and match the POVs in AFFC and ADWD together but depict them over two seasons. So Season 4 will end halfway through AFFC and halfway through ADWD and Season 5 will pick up there.

How effective that is depends on what happens in ADWD. I'd be worried that a relatively slow fourth season coming after a strong third one might not be the best of ideas, but other TV shows have survived worse (Babylon 5's final season being very weak, The X-Files going on about four seasons too long etc).

My understanding is that HBO's contract is for all seven books/seven seasons. Otherwise if the show is a huge hit GRRM could demand a lot more money for them to pick up the rights for the later books.
 
Ahh, Boaz beat me to the obvious question in a different thread :/

Boaz said:
As long as Robert is drunk, Ghost is silent, Tyrion is short, Jaime is an arrogant $#*&%, Eddard is honorable, Lysa is delusional, Littlefinger is manipulative, and Cersei is a slut, then I'll give the show the benefit of the doubt.
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and let's be honest...Lena Headey all blonded out acting the slut would (will) be REALLY hot.
 
Lofwyr, I think Lena Headley playing a nun would be really hot.
 
Here's a thought: Considering that GRRM has had a hand in the script, could it be that the HBO series will give us a better glimpse into what elements of the books are more important for the final outcome? I say this because, one would assume that because of limited time and to avoid going off on too many tangents, the producers of the series and GRRM will want to focus on things that are more important. This is also to avoid confusing viewers, especially those who may have not read the books I(while we fanboys are many, we are not enough to carry such a series for HBO).

It may be less evident in the pilot but if the series gets picked up, then it could give us a better idea of what was not so important, what was a red herring and what really makes a potential big deal to how it all turns out with the various characters.
 
Alternatively, if GRRM has a hand in the scripts he'll have an opportunity to distract us with even more red herrings.
 
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