Vee
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Everything posted by Vee
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I think that ambiguity is essential to the show, though, and always has been in most of the characters, including the really awful ones like Ramsay. I'm sure at least some of what he experiences is in those books. Ramsay wants to be loved and recognized by his father, that doesn't make him any less a mad dog. The show obviously knows that. It's that or just have him be a total cartoon, and the show tends not to do that to even the worst people like Littlefinger, Tywin, Cersei, etc. Every character on the show has their reasons. That doesn't mean you should love them. And I do think a lot (though not all) of what Theon has gotten, he deserved. But I don't think the show is even remotely suggesting that Ramsay is just a poor misunderstood guy who is just giving Theon his just desserts. It clearly wants you to sympathize with Theon after all that torture and indoctrination and say no man deserves this. It presents Ramsay as a delusional monster whose Achilles heel is his need for recognition. -
I don't think the show has ever presented Ramsay as "not that bad". He's evil through and through, with a daddy complex. He has his reasons, but that is how GOT handles almost everyone on the show whether they are mostly good people or largely awful. He's still scum. The rest, I don't read the books so I feel it's immaterial for me personally, especially as the show's version hasn't aired. I'll see what they do. I can't miss a character I never saw and I think they are very particular on whatever they are doing with Theon, unlikely to abandon it.
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Sheryl Lee is profiled for what seems like a slightly tawdry UK paper about her blood disease which she says wrecked her career. (She does still work quite a bit, in fairness, but as she says, many indies, even stuff like her new acclaimed Gregg Araki movie, pay nothing, something I know all too well from my work.) The article claims she has not been asked back yet (though it does not quote her on it), but I really, really, really doubt she will not be there.
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Telltale Games releases more details about its new GOT adventure game. Telltale is responsible for the incredibly good The Walking Dead adventure game which I highly recommend, available for consoles and computers, as well as, I believe, tablets. The game is focused on characters and choices vs. action and I cannot praise it enough.
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I'm only half through Death in Heaven, but while she's very funny, Michelle Gomez (as the Master/Mistress) is also the best, and scariest, incarnation of the character since Geoffrey Beevers' skeletal revenant in The Deadly Assassin all those decades ago.* Her scenes with Osgood and the Doctor in the cargo hold are terrifying. The show is much darker this year, and has practically reinvented itself - the character exploration of both the Doctor and Clara has been first-rate and executed quite different from the normal dynamic. The tone has been dramatically different since Deep Breath. And I love it. It's almost as though it's a whole new creative team. They knew they could not continue with the Eleventh Doctor's fairy tale mythos, so now we have something much harder-edged. Capaldi is incredible - he invokes the darker, spookier aspects of Tom Baker for me constantly and the warmest and crotchiest parts of Jon Pertwee or Colin Baker, just as this run invokes the Philip Hinchcliffe era - and Jenna Coleman has finally come into her own. Series 8 has leapt up into my top 3 of post-revival DW, up there with Series 3 and 6 (3, ironically, was only marred by the end of its Master arc). It's excellent. (* - We'll leave off poor Derek Jacobi, who was incredible but only there for one episode.)
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I'm sorry, but I thought Tara was dumber than hell not to mention that [!@#$%^&*] to the others. The minute he said he sabotaged the bus I would've known he was lying. At the very least, you tell someone. Good episode - not as good as last week, but very solid. TWD has, over the years, picked up a lot of personnel from The Wire both in front of and behind the camera. Tonight's episode was very well-directed by the legendary Ernest Dickerson, longtime cinematographer to Spike Lee who has directed a number of TWD episodes (including Too Far Gone, Seed and Welcome to the Tombs, among others) over the last few years, as well as a lot of The Wire. Next week, another Wire vet, Seith Mann, will apparently be directing again - he's also done a few. These guys are the best around and elevate this show. TPTB bring on such great crew for the writing and directing that , along with the actors, lift up what could be some very rote stories. (Also, I figure if we keep bringing up The Wire and they keep hiring all the same people eventually Carl will have to watch it, after finishing the PP soaps.) I am glad Abraham beat the hell of that idiot. Maybe now they'll both shut up. I am tired of Abraham, Rosita and Mulletor.
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That was, I thought, an incredibly strong episode. Very, very well done and they've managed to do what I once thought impossible: Build Emily Kinney and Beth up as a strong new young female lead. I also loved, loved, loved her with Tyler James Williams (Noah), who was the title character on Everybody Hates Chris as a kid and now is in theaters in the big new indie Dear White People playing a black gay college student. Noah and Beth had real chemistry, it must be said. I doubt we have seen the last of him. Very, very good stuff. The further they go from the comics, the better they get. I just hope that [!@#$%^&*] rape camp doesn't kill Carol. Joan was played by Keisha Castle-Hughes, the young New Zealand star of Whale Rider all grown up. She is featured on GOT next year as one of the daughters of Oberyn Martell in what I think is planned to be a substantial role.
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I am two episodes behind, but have found Series 8 to be the show's strongest since - well, Series 6, but I think it's probably the second best of the Moffat run for me after that and one of my top since 2005. Very good and Capaldi is incredible. Anyway, I wanted to bring this here. Per the description, Capaldi replied in-character to a letter from a young fan:
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I can understand the choice, though I'm not thrilled. So long as they don't recast (and I have no expectation that they will - he's not like the other random Lannister kids, he is a principal cast member, and God knows he hasn't had any trouble aging since Season 1). He'll come back in a big way, which makes me happy. Team Bran.
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I'm not watching it. I voted, did my part. Midterms often suck for the incumbent, but one way or another we will endure to the next election.
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The National Enquirer - hahahaha - is apparently alleging Lara Flynn Boyle is "frantic" about trying to get onto the new show but has heard nothing. I'd quote or link it but their site is an absolute debacle and I do not recommend going to it. Supposedly a "close friend" of hers says Boyle is beside herself since - this is its wording - 'friends' MacLachlan and Sherilyn Fenn have been contacted, but not her. Another "source" seems to think Lynch and Frost will call her eventually. As always, this is the National Enquirer.
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I am up all night with work again and I hate myself and my raw throat. I am bored to tears, so here - have some of Joel Bocko's wonderful video series analyzing Twin Peaks from top to bottom. There is much more - 11 videos so far - at the video link. Some of the insights I am familiar with - I remember first hearing about Otto Preminger's classic Laura, or Hitchcock's Vertigo, from one of the TP promotional tie-in books written by some television writer during the hiatus between Seasons 1 and 2, back when people were still theorizing that Maddy was actually Laura, a la those films (and the show is full of very deliberate references to both). That said, it's nice to see it all laid out so well and so expertly, with supporting footage. I personally don't agree with everything he has to say about the show, particularly re: some of Season 2 with the non-Lynch directors and the Audrey at One Eyed Jack's saga, which I think works, the run-up to the killer's reveal and Episode 16. But I do think he makes wonderful points, and all the cultural layering featuring Lynch and Frost's past work in television and film (with footage from Hill Street Blues, etc.) is wonderful. Just great work, a very, very rich audiovisual essay that helped me rediscover the show as I began rewatching it from the start for the first time in a number of years. This series is ongoing (it has just hit the post-Laura episodes), and will continue to be updated.
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I just don't see Glenn or Maggie as having been emotionally disconnected from the others. I don't remember that ever happening - they were separated physically, but they were always trying to get everyone back together. They even bid their tearful goodbye to Bob tonight.
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I just don't understand why people keep trying to negotiate and [!@#$%^&*] with Guile Abraham. What has he offered the group other than looking like he just got off a two-year stretch as a body man for Vanilla Ice? He always starts saying some crazy, out of step [!@#$%^&*] that has nothing to do with what's going on in front of them, and everyone's all like, 'whoa! hey! Calm down, Abraham, how about we go get you an Orange Julius right after we do this thing? We promise, we'll do whatever you want in a few hours! Please, Abraham, please!' He's like a giant toddler with neon orange hair. Captain Cosplay. I can understand wanting to go to the capitol, fine, do that, but I don't get why they put up with his demands. Feel free to quick-march your ass to Washington for this highly speculative plan you got from Dr. Kenny Loggins, or you can wait for us to finish our business and go with like a dozen people on a bus. Your choice! And I don't get why Glenn and Maggie are so into it. Other than that, I thought it was a fine episode. Rick keeping his promise to Gareth, the hipster cannibal was deeply satisfying. Seth Gilliam is making the best of his role as the kooky preacher - his meltdown was actually very touching, but honestly I just kept thinking of his years of brilliant work as Carver on The Wire. Speaking of, I will miss Larry Gilliard. And while I love Chad Coleman and I do like Tyreese a lot, I will admit I had come up with the nickname "Cryreese" by the end of the hour. Sorry! I don't agree at all that Glenn and Maggie were never family, though. They absolutely are, they have been for years now. That's why their going off with Abraham is weak to me.
