Vee
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Everything posted by Vee
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I think that's just a misread, because according to what Loughlin told several news outlets (US Weekly, etc.), she, Coulier, etc. are all already in negotiations with Netflix. She's not saying she was never contacted, what she's saying is that she's not got a deal yet. She's making it very clear she won't return unless there is financial parity, which is fair IMO.
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Pretty great. Loved the stuff with Gilly, Shireen and Sam Tarly. I still think this is going to end in Jon having to take down Stannis and Melisandre himself. Daenerys had no good options, but I'm glad the show is digging deep into the limits of her philosophy vs. the reality of ruling. This Meereen situation may be in pieces by the time Tyrion and Varys arrive. Cersei getting shot down by Kevan was interesting. I just fear whatever the hell she's up to with Qyburn. I'm not sure she knows, really, but whatever he's doing is gonna produce some crazy, awful [!@#$%^&*] that everybody's gonna regret. Great to see Indira Varma again and I've always loved her and Alexander Siddig. Poor Brienne! I was glad they got that over with, so they're clearly going somewhere. Now what? I think her character has always had depth. I think most of them do. She's vicious but she's not smart enough, she never has been, and I keep thinking she'll be lucky to end the season alive. I thought so last year and I think so this year. If Cersei somehow makes it to Season 7 it will be by the skin of her teeth.
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IIRC, she was a drunk author or poet. The scene as scripted is online in one of the original teleplays from the first season, and I remember it being pretty good - Marshall talks about it at length in the interview at the link. What I didn't remember is that (according to Marshall - they apparently shot the scene) she apparently was whoring herself out to rich men, and heads off with a john after tearing into James and telling him all women will use him and leave him. Here's the script - it was actually Season 2, Episode 3.
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I loved Robyn Lively enough that I tolerated it. That whole subplot certainly played a lot less well this last time I watched, but she was fun. I also was a lot more tolerant of Heather Graham's almost non-acting as Annie, and the thing with Cooper - I thought they just pulled that off for the most part, largely through the writing and her charisma, which has covered for Graham's abilities as an actress many times throughout her career. But I also don't think it was anything but an ultimately doomed whirlwind romance which would not last. I know Lynch seemed to really like her when he came back in for the back end. There is a typically well-done ABC TP promo floating around online for one of those very episodes with Lana's silly storyline. It was kind of a pity to see them expending the energy on it. I'll see if I can find it.
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The Evelyn story is where most people draw the line, I've found. As far as it goes, I'm with Harley Peyton and Bob Engels - I think it was a good idea on paper, a classic film noir setup (it's almost exactly the plot of Otto Preminger's legendary Angel Face, with Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons) but they had the wrong actress and the wrong lead actor (Marshall), and the wrong setting (outside town).
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I like the hair. I just think he's much more attractive as an older man. I wish you the best of luck finding boosters for the Evelyn Marsh storyline. According to Annette McCarthy (Evelyn) she and Marshall were literally drunk on-camera during portions of it (there is a champagne scene).
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To me Brienne's story last season was really a sideline at best - she'd had a lot more going on, IMO, in Season 3 and so they gave her a bit of a rest in Season 4. I expect it to get somewhere real this year, frankly, especially now that they've finally apparently dispensed with her chasing Arya's tail. She seems to be questioning her entire identity, which is about right for her at this point, I feel. You see it as the same scene over and over, I see it as running down the throughlines for each character until they reach a turning point - I think we can make that argument for most of the main characters on the show being on that trajectory, whether they're Cersei or Brienne or Daenerys, or Jon or Arya or Stannis or Theon. They all do what they do, or endure what they endure, until something galvanizes them and upends their world and worldview. That's why I don't hold with the opinion I see sometimes that, say, Daenerys' or Jon or Stannis' scenes are repetitive and boring because they're either in the same place or (in the case of Stannis) stuck in the same mindset, and it's the same for me with someone like Brienne. Arya's been the same way. She was going nowhere fast with the Hound, much like Brienne, but her character ultimately evolved and moved beyond him.
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I just don't see Brienne as a character with no development at all. She is one of my all-time favorites.
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Interview with James Marshall, who is a significantly smarter guy than James Hurley. He talks a lot about some of James' most memorable moments (yes, there were some), the cut storyline with his mother, the dreadful Evelyn storyline, FWWM and so on. I have a lot of time for James and Donna in Season 1, where they really are sort of the pure counterpoint to the darkness, a la Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan's romance in Blue Velvet. Also, Marshall looks amazing these days.
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I don't think Oberyn was handled the way you do, but we've been over that before so I'm just not going to argue it. I think Oberyn (as presented on the show, anyway) was a noble and heroic man who owned who he was as a sexual being, in addition to being a warrior. I think his fatal flaw was his obsession with getting more of a measure of justice than he ever could. He should have killed Clegane when he had a chance. I think there are a score of either hedonistic or impulsive and rash characters on this show like Oberyn, whose flaws lead them down bad roads which may or may not have to do with their sexual needs - they didn't with Oberyn IMO, they have with every single one of the surviving adult Lannisters. Loras is a different case, and I think what they've repeatedly shown is that he is a babe in the woods compared to power players like his grandmother or sister, or his intended bride. I don't think that has anything to do with his being gay so much as his temperament and perspective. If Renly had been a woman he'd have been dazzled by those love affairs instead vs. knowing when to play the game. Nice guy, photogenic Knight of the Flowers, dashing lord who just wants to be happy and duel, but not equipped for that political world. Even when Renly was alive, both he and Loras were tertiary characters. I don't think they've turned Loras into a whore just because he isn't actively mourning Renly in Season 5; I think life goes on and so does he. I'd honestly find the former far worse and more regressive - the tragic, sad gay. I know what you're saying about other fans vs. you but I just don't think it's as awful as you make out. To me, ultimately, both of them and their relationship was a subplot, much like Loras' story now. I'm not sure if they know what to do with him but since I don't read the books I'm also not sure what there is to do. Maybe they'll whip up something now that they're going off-road, I'd be fine with that. But I don't think anything they've done with is a signifier about gay characters on GOT or on television, and all I can say is it's never offended me or rubbed me wrong anymore than when the straight characters make blunders in similar situations. I think just about everyone on GOT is fair game for whatever. I think they try to invest a measure of sympathy and dimension into almost everyone, which is why they've stuck with, say, Theon's story even when he was easily one of the most vile and pathetic villains of Season 2. I think that was a bold choice, to follow him into the abyss and beyond, because you come out with sympathy for him even when he made all his own terrible choices. Other shows would have cut him loose then. Margaery, IMO, is a main character, but Loras, not so much. And I like Bronn!
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I just don't see his scenes as lampooning him for being gay. I think we saw Loras' more sober and loving side with Renly, but Renly is dead, and after that I can see why he's thrown himself into a considerably less emotionally taxing thing with Olyvar. He is a third-tier character and that is his arc, and I'm good with that. I also don't think they treat him as any more lurid than any other character on the show - plenty of the guys who like chicks troll for prostitutes, Tyrion included. I think the way they present him is that Loras is the way he is because that's who he is (and because he's a male Tyrell), not because he's gay. He's got a good and loving heart but he sometimes makes poor choices, and he is not equipped to deal with the gamesmanship of King's Landing. There are at least a half dozen other characters we can tag with similar description and they're not gay. The way it was presented last night, both Loras and Olyvar know exactly who the other is and don't care, and I find that nice. Would I like a bigger story for him? Sure, maybe, but it's not a going priority for me with all the other big storylines I enjoy. It's just personally not a major consideration for me, in the case of this show. With another show it might be different, but with GOT I think there is still a source text with certain parameters they have to work within, millions of characters to service, and miles to go. Loras is just one small cog to me.
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Well, I liked that a lot. A slower setup, but I'm good with that. After the last season I think it needed it. I loved everything with Jon and ol' Mance Rayder and the Baratheon camp. There were shades of Vietnam in that moral standoff. I did like the moment of respect between Stannis and Mance, but at the same time you know this whole setup is fucked, that Melisandre's cause (if not Melisandre herself - I think she is still a very canny operator) is insane. I think Stannis has some noble intentions amidst all his rigid, hidebound thinking and addled dysfunction, but I think this has gone far enough that in the end, before this is over, Jon will have to kill both king and priestess. And he'll be right. They won't stop because they can't. I loved the Cersei flashback. I wish we'd seen more of that era. Cersei, of course, is still drinking and bitching and not paying attention to the right things. Jaime was right. I also laughed that they brought in poor Robin Arryn for a minute to get knocked about. I wasn't expecting to see him again. I am thrilled the whole Daenerys plotline is finally moving along with Tyrion and Varys in play - I can't wait to see them with her - but I also may be one of maybe a hundred people in the world out of millions of viewers who really enjoy seeing the nuts and bolts of her leadership, of her learning how to lead, how to manage. Daario was right, and to me so much of her story resembles the collision of ideology with practical solutions, and ruling, only in a much more chaotic world. Daenerys will, IMO, eventually need a more calming equal - like Jon Snow. As for those dragons, all I can think is that in about a year Bran will make a hell of a Pokemon dragon tamer. I was glad they gave Finn Jones and Will Tudor a solid modicum of nudity, because Will Tudor's ass in particular remains glorious. I think that happy couple is doomed because of their impulsiveness, but who knows, really. But I also just don't find there to be anything wrongheaded about that potential development, or about anything with Loras - he's a tertiary character who is sometimes a liability to his family because of a certain lack of critical or strategic thinking and a certain weakness, like at least a dozen other characters on the show, male or female, gay, straight or otherwise. I don't think they particularly demean him for it anymore than they do Cersei for her boozing and insanity, Tyrion for his many foibles, Stannis for his obsessive dogma, Daenerys for her ideological impulsiveness. The Lannisters were supposed to be geniuses but they have all fallen to their own vulnerabilities; the Starks were honorable but naive; Stannis Baratheon (who I personally find fascinating) is in some ways a just warrior, but he is also living the world's most lethal and deranged midlife crisis while being dicknotized by a murderous cult. Every character is flawed. The Tyrells have always been matriarchal in power, and both Loras and his father have always been presented as either impulsive and hedonistic (in Loras' case) or buffoonish (in his father's). I don't think Loras being presented in this way shows anything other than equality between the characters of different orientation mentioned above, because there's a score of other characters on this show with Achilles' heels or weaknesses just like him. Loras Tyrell's a character I like, but I never saw him as needing to be a wholly positive or heroic character (nor do I think they present him negatively, really). Loras as the hero just looking for love, or going on an adventure, is just not a story I've ever expected to see with that character, and to me that's okay. It doesn't matter to me that he's gay, it matters that he is equal. And I do think Sophie Turner and Aiden Gillen actually have entirely too much chemistry. I don't know where that plotline's going but I hope Sansa's packing some steel.
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Stannis Baratheon's style of upper management has begun to remind me of my eccentric boss. "Hurry, Jon Snow!"
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Yeah, it was not as in-depth an interview as the Fenn one, though obviously Sherilyn Fenn is a loopy force of nature who never stops gabbing. The crowdfunding thing is embarrassing to discuss, if sweet, and not going to happen. If this happens it'll happen internally - according to Fenn, who spoke to Lynch a day or so ago, he and the network are talking and he endorses the cast's efforts, so we'll see. I wish they'd talked to him about some of the actual questions posed; I know some of the FB commenters asked about stuff like the Audrey/Ben subplot Bobby got snared into, which neither he nor Fenn apparently liked. I actually loved their chemistry and Bobby in that world, but I was glad it ended where it did.
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