Game of Thrones - Review

One episode in then.  Consider this an interim review?  Cool.

Last night's post detailed how much I love the books and there was real concern that the series would be a huge watered down disappointment.  The opening, taken directly from the text, was pitch perfect.  Atmospheric, violent and scary.  I'd forgotten how Game of Thrones started, but without that beginning, and despite the fact it's barely mentioned again in the book, you have no sense of where this story might be heading.

George RR Martins' vast cast of characters has been brought to life pretty well.  Sean Bean was great as Eddard Stark (and I had my reservations) but the real star was Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.  The character who many call their favourites is brilliantly realised.  Funny and dark, just as Tyrion should be.

There's been no holding back on the underage sex or the incest either.  The violence, which last night included a beheading and some entrails spilling out of a chest hasn't been toned down in the least.  Game of Thrones is set in a harsh, realistic(ish) world and without the sometimes shockingly brutal acts the story just wouldn't work as it should.

Many of the other characters that some of you met for the first time last night don't really come to life until later books and the ten episode series has a couple of big challenges to come, but episode one did a good job of setting things up for another nine more mouth watering weeks.  And to be honest all that really mattered was that the Whites were done well.  And they were.

Winter is indeed coming.

A great start.  Well done HBO.

★ ★ ★ ★ 

The Lost Eleven Minutes of Lost - Review

I'd been looking forward to this even though I wasn't one of the Lost fans beating my fists on the floor, wailing for answers as Jack closed his eyes and the credits rolled.

So what do we get in the eleven minutes and thirty seconds or so that didn't make the final cut?

SPOILER ALERT

To be honest we don't get much.  We all knew this was going to be a brief snap shot of Ben and Hurley running the Island, what I wasn't expecting was for none of it to actually be on the Island.  We get Ben talking to two employees of the Dharma Initiative somewhere in the States, packing food in boxes for the residents of the Island ten years after the Dharma crew have been ousted.  Ben lets them down gently, pays them off and shows them one of those training videos that explains the presence of Polar bears on the Island.

Cheers.  That one was really bothering me.

There's then a brief segment that will probably thrill the Lost fans who were complaining that poor old Walt, so important during Season One and Two, got short thrift in the finale.  And when I say short thrift, I mean he wasn't in it.  At all.  

It's a nice tie up for Walt's plot line and we briefly see Hurley in the back of a car, but to be completely frank, you can see why this stuff ended up on the editing room floor.  It's just TV fat that never made it into the pot.

I was a bit naive I think.  I was hoping for an eleven minute Match of the Day style highlights package of Ben and Hurley running the show and that's a long long way from what this is. 

I loved Lost.  Loved the two hour final episode.  This...?  Hmmmm.  Lets just say I wouldn't recommend anyone buys the Box Set of the final season just to see it.

★ ★ 

Lost - Review

**SPOILER ALERT DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE FINAL EPISODE**

Dr Who - Review (or...man eats fish custard... and look at you... just sitting there!)

Every one else is having a lil go at writing about the first episode of Dr Who so I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring and say what I thought.

I loved it.  Probably as much, if not more, than Tennant.  Why?  Well Karen Gillan helped.  Quite a bit.

True Blood first Episode -Review

True Blood started on Friday with the first episode being aired on FX. Made by HBO this was a very impressive start.

Firstly I'm a massive vampire fan.  I've always found any Vampire myth fascinating, from Buffy to Dracula, I always like to check it out.

Of course this being HBO there are few half measures.  This is Buffy ramped up to the max for a new generation.  Gratuitous sex scene, check.  Blood and gore, check.  Witty dialogue and ridiculous premise, check.

Some of the out door sequences, particularly those at night, looked a little like they were filmed in a studio, but other than that this had the usual HBO sheen on it.  Two charismatic leads in Anna Paquin (the telepath Sookie) and Stephen Moyer (the brooding vampire Bill) already ensure that it's been series linked.

The set up is a simple one.  Vampires are 'out of the coffin,' since the Japanese invented a synthetic blood substitute that the demons are able to drink rather than suckling on your neck.  They want to be treated with respect but the world hasn't quite got used to them, particularly in the Deep South where the series is set.

HBO don't fail often, at least we don't seem to see their failures in the UK, and Alan Ball, the creator, was the man who brought us one of the best TV shows of recent years with 'Six Feet Under'.

A great start then, and it's always reassuring when you know a second season has been commissioned, so many shows in the US die a death after their first year, not always because they're rubbish either.

It's not the Wire.  But it does have vampires, sex and swearing of the best kind.  What more do you need to know.  Watch it.

4/5

Episode 2 Friday 24th July 10pm on FX.

Lost Season 5 - Review

Just finished watching the last episode of Season 5.  (God bless Sky+)

I should warn you:  THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE.  

That clear enough?

Good.  Now where was I?  Ah yes, last episode of current Season just completed.  Do we know what's going on yet?  Well no, not really.  They're not really lost anymore. Should kind of change it to 'Stuck'...  But did I like it?  Yes, very much.

It is by now, if you haven't been watching, utterly bonkers.  Half the cast were back living in the 1970's for most of this Season, some for all of it, some still in the present day.  Ben (evil evil Ben) has kind of found some redemption despite killing John Locke.  Who's not actually dead.  Well maybe he is...  The giant toe statue thing that was glimpsed in season 1 (I think) has been back, both as fully formed statue and as the home of Jacob...  Are you following?  No me neither.

The early episodes of this Season focused on time jumping and the members of the cast who had escaped the Island trying to return to save their friends.  

You do still wonder when someone is going to ask Richard, who doesn't age, wtf is going on as he seems the most likely candidate for some answers.  But no one ever does, which still grates sometimes.

What I love about Lost is the illusion of coherence.  Even after five seasons, not all of them glorious, I still feel like I am following the time shifts and craziness.  I am glad I've stuck it out and will be sad to see it finish next year.  However that does come with a caveat.  The end will be a let down.  It is just inevitable.  If it isn't, it'll be a pleasant surprise.

So, a good, solid entertaining Season then.  I'm off to watch the Wire.

4/5