"The first show to emerge from Bill Simmons' partnership with HBO is After the Thrones, a weekly Game of Thrones recap show that's going to premiere on HBO Now alongsideThrones' sixth season later this month. It's not clear when After the Thrones will air on HBO proper — a HBO press release claims air dates will be announced "as they are confirmed" — but it'll debut on HBO Now and HBO Go on Monday, April 25th, one day after Game of Thrones returns on April 24th. Chris Ryan (executive editor of The Ringer, Simmons' forthcoming website) and former Grantland TV critic Andy Greenwald are set to host, and Simmons and Eric Wasserman are serving as co-executive producers."
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/4/11362712/game-of-thrones-recap-show-hbo-now-bill-simmons-the-ringer
19 comments:
I am proud to report I have no idea what "Game of Thrones" is... yes I've heard of it.. Is it any good?
I haven't watched it, but it's very popular. This caught my eye because Bill Simmons, who left ESPN due to Simmons saying on his podcast that...hmmm what was it...the NFL commissioner(?) was a liar, that he had seen the elevator footage of the NFL player smacking his wife/gf around when he reinstated(?) that player.
(or) Cable - why I refuse to pay for it. ;-)
Internet is enough.
I've never seen Game of thrones either.
If you have read all of the books you really don't need a recap. What is interesting is that they were very faithful to the books which is surprising because of all of the rape, murder and rapine in the stories.
The author George RR Martin is a champion of the forces opposing the Sad Puppies faction of science fiction writers. He is not so affectionately nicknamed George Rape Rape Martin for his tendency to have every one of his female characters raped at one point or another. Talk about someone who has a war on women!
Typical of your social justice warrior he lectures the Sad Puppies about violence and misogyny
will making money off of it.
Jorge has issues. One of which is that he can't write. His characterization is for shit, the dialogue is unwieldy exposition-speak, and the story line never ends. He created an interesting world, many possibilities, but he just can't close the deal. When he got famous he got the urge to be an "agent for Change" which explains his bullshit response to the Sad Puppies. The TV show is going to write the ending so it'll probably be stupid. The story wasn't going anywhere anyway except in circles. The show had a good first season (thanks, Sean Bean), and tons of hype, so a lot of people are invested in it being "great" when it's not. Sorry. Everyone's a "hero" on an endless boring quest for, what?, magical powers (dragons, burning fire, magic, etc.) to assist them in taking over the woooorld. Whatever.
He just repeats himself. That is the problems with most writers. He is also lazy. So even if you invest in the characters you don't get the pay off.
Eric Flint took a different approach. He used his world to create more books with other
co-authors and even had them do books in his universe on their own. So the narrative advances under his supervision but without him having to pound out a book every couple of months. SM Stirling on the other hand writes everything himself and falls into formulas and repetition. So does Harry Turtledove. Their creativity is sparked when they start a new series. Otherwise they tend to repeat themselves and fall into well worn patterns.
I haven't read any of the books, but I'm totally addicted to the show. Last season, one of the main characters raped his sister on the funeral bier of their murdered son. The season before, the little person shot his father with a cross bow while the father sat on the crapper. Finally, a family I can relate to. If you ask me, Downton Abbey would have been a far better show with a few more rapes and axe murders, but tastes differ in these matters. GOT is not for everyone. .....I think GOT, for all its dragons and magic, presents a far more realistic picture of the past than Downton Abbey. There was a time when people really did believe in dragons and magic spells, so you may as well include them in the plot. The rapes and murders, however, are truly are a part of history. If anything, they're far more understated in the series than they are in history.
"He created an interesting world, many possibilities, but he just can't close the deal. "
Yep. He just repeats himself at great length. Has anyone written so many incredibly fat books that were so popular?
I can't handle 800 page novels unless its Tolstoy or Dickens. I'm too ADD.
The funniest thing is that when you criticize the torture, rape, and mayhem in GOT, some of the fans come back, accuse you of being a Pollyanna and say "That's reality".
Reality? In a movie/book that has Dragons!
"Is it any good?"
Watched first two seasons, lost interest after that. Plot twists were somewhat interesting, but too violent, waaay to much hyper-gratuitous sex (spouse called it "Game of Porn").
BTW, I've never liked Bill Simmons. Too much of a SJW. Too much of a jock sniffer. His sycophantic interviews with NBA stars had me turning him off.
I always got the feeling he really wanted to write about the latest Broadway musicals rather than Sports.
So, glad he's found his niche.
It's probably going to be akin to the Talking Dead, a Walking Dead recap show. Pointless twaddle which involves meaningless banter between the host and the celebrity show guests.
Paco Wové said...
"Is it any good?"
Watched first two seasons, lost interest after that. Plot twists were somewhat interesting, but too violent, waaay to much hyper-gratuitous sex (spouse called it "Game of Porn").
You know what's amazing about GoT? if you never read the books and just watched the show, you would basically see that first or second episode *SPOILER ALERT*, and realize that the entire story kicks off and rests on the incestuous relationship between Jamie Lanister and his sister Circe Lanister and how they get caught by a 10 year old Bran Stark, who climbed the abandoned high tower of Winterfell, and see them fucking each others brains out, only to have Jamie Lanister push Bran out the open window to fall to the ground breaking his neck, thinking him dead to hide this fact only to have him live, but rendering him paralyzed for life. This starts an entire chain of events the results in the mass murder of a lot of people, ignites wars, intrigues, the death of the king of westeros, the death of ned stark, a fracturing of untold people and families. and so on and so forth.
All from the incest of a brother and sister and the curious climbing skills of a 10 year old. George RR Martin has one hell of a vivid if not perverted sense of imagination.
Yeah. Better Call Saul (excellent), the Breaking Bad prequel about Saul's life pre-Walter White, has a post-show. I watched a little bit of the first one, and it was just lame. The star had a 'what the hell am I doing here look.' Actually he looked a little ticked.
Is Thrones a kind of satire? It sounds ridiculously over the top.
From what I've read the violence is somewhat less than existed in the world of the late Middle Ages, early Renaissance. An Ottoman general laid siege to a fort on one the Greek islands. The commander of the fort negotiated a surrender of the fort and safe passage off the island. The Ottoman general at the time of the surrender felt that the fort commandant was surrendering in too arrogant a way. He massacred the commandant's troops. The commandant himself, he had sknned alive. He then had the skin stuffed and mounted as a taxidermy exhibit in his chambers. This incident is alluded to in one of the GOT's episodes. A lot of the most hideous events in GOT have a historical precedent.
Of course, you're right, William. I've been listening to history lectures, and should have known better.
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