His character changed once, and that was in the last season finale. I have a feeling he’ll revert back to good guy Rick once they go to the new compound. If not, that’s awesome of course. I hope they all turn into Shane, but the show is about the characters only in an indirect way. The real point is hope and purpose. It’s why the greatest threat is suicide, and why most characters seem (or ought to be if the writers sacked up) expendable. Especially the children. Walking Dead is basically The Road with zombies.
Now, Dexter was a show about the main character, and again I will watch it until it’s canceled (next season, hopefully). But even there you see the serious lack of balls on the part of the writers. They turned the damn show into Pinocchio, Dexter’s quest to turn into a real boy. In the books especially…the writer actually goes so far as to completely victimize and exculpate Dexter by making The Dark Passenger a demon that possessed him from the beginning. I mean, the basic driving force of the show was the morally gray area Dexter worked in, and the show itself made a statement about morality with hints of The Stranger. Now they’ve accepted that what Dexter does is a terrible terrible thing, and the point is how can they get him to believably stop.
Rick didn’t change once. That is a poor reading. Shane stayed the same while Rick slowly changed into Shane. I have no idea why you would think he’ll revert back when the last season ended with him basically voicing that he wouldn’t.
I’ve never seen The Road.
Dexter should have been cancelled 2 seasons ago. Last season was a bad joke. I can only wonder what will happen from here. When it was revealed he was in love with Deb I actually started laughing. Not only did they develop it in like honestly TWO episodes, but the premise, and thought of him with his sister, is stupid, and is obviously their real relationship bleeding over into the show.
Dexter is a pile of shit now. You couldn’t force me to watch next season. I barely made it through this one just having it on in the background while I did other things. It’s horrendously bad now.
Shane was a good guy in the beginning. The circumstances turned him into what he realistically needed to be. Rick’s virtues were shown to be vices in this new world, but instead of killing Rick to make that point, they killed Shane. The message, as I see it, is that Rick was right to be a good guy and hold on to his humanity. Yes, he changed, but I don’t see the writers having the balls to keep him like that. They’ll probably place the group in a new situation full of sadistic Shanes, and use that to make the moralistic point that the best way to survive is to hold on tight to your humanity, blah blah, and with Dale dead, Rick will be the vehicle for that point. I would not be surprised if they use some subtle irony to make that happen. Rick starts out Shane’d out, and the rest of his group losing faith in him, then as the season progresses they all turn into Shane and Rick reverts back showing the errors in their way.
Watch it. It’s great…
[tab]minus the Christan symbolism and glimmers of hope toward the end. again, serious lack of balls…[/tab]
That’s a good question.He doesn’t seem to have an overarching concern or goal. He’s just sort of there supporting Dany’s goals. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up getting himself killed over Dany.
The one character I don’t think we’ve seen the last of is Barristan. That guy was awesome. I’m hoping we see him again, soon.
No man. No offense, but you have it all wrong. The message is that his virtues don’t work, and because he fucked around with the idea of being the ‘good’ guy, he ultimately had to kill Shane, someone who, in the context they are exploring, is a ‘good’ guy in the sense that he protects everyone.
I could be wrong, but there is virtually no way Rick is going back to being good Rick. Like I said, Season 2 ends with him saying ‘It’s fucking my way or the highway now’ and obviously Laurie will be super alienated from Rick because he’s a coldblooded killer now; and by the end of Season 2, Laurie had all but come around to seeing Shane’s point of view. That’s why she apologizes out of the blue, crying, when he’s up on the water tower thing.
You guys have my head spinning comparing some great television shows!
I didn’t watch TV for over two years except for some of these series that Hubs bought on DVD.
Loved Dexter…didn’t even watch last season, though, as I felt it lost it’s edge. Glad to hear Gobbo’s review…I didn’t miss much. TY
Watched Breaking Bad except last season…might have to catch up with that.
Hubs drew me into the Walking Dead…Lori is a manipulative twat…and an awful mother. That being said, I really enjoy this show and will watch next season. It is a lot like The Road with Zombies.
Did a blitzkrieg marathon of Game of Thrones first season on Demand before the second season started on HBO. Great show! Hubs read the books, but doesn’t reveal much. Daenerys/Kaleesi was my favorite character while she was with Khal Drogo. Now, we’ll see how things play out with her, Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Pyat Pree in Quarth.
I believe that Jorah Mormont is in love with Daenerys but I don’t think that it will ever be requited.
Ya’ll know that Theon couldn’t possibly have really killed Bran and Rickon, right??? Exciting ending but Theon is awlful at being a blood-thirsty bad-ass.
Too many interesting characters to discuss at one sitting, but I have to say, with so many strong female leads, it’s easy for a woman to get involved in this series.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Rickon and Bran are alright. The rule with all TV shows is if they don’t show the death, the person isn’t dead. I’m fairly sure the two kids are the orphans Bran sent early on to that old guy’s house to help him. IMO Theon is one of the best characters in the show. And you’re right that it has very strong women, but I thoroughly dislike Dany, and I think it may be because I’m not convinced by her transformation to meek young lady with no clear goals to fiercely devoted to her brother’s goals. I mean, think about it. She gets sold off to Drago (awesome character by the way), gets raped, falls in love with him, then suddenly cares about the Iron Throne? Plus the storyline with her traveling from place to place is a clusterfuck. I mean, think about Theon. Yes, he’s not a good blood-thirsty bad-ass, but that’s because he’s not that. He’s trying to be that, because he cares about his dipshit father’s approval. He’s a tragic character. In general, the less Dany there is in an episode, the better it is. Tywin and Arya on the other hand - goldmine.
Also, I have a feeling based on the banter between Jamie and Catelyn’s new huge female bodyguard that they are going to be good friends. And that’s based on the solid assumption that Cat is going to let him go. If Jamie dies, Sansa and, as far as Cat knows, Arya are dead.
I was surprised by Cercei in the last episode and I’m talking about the Sansa/Cercei and Cerce/Tyrion scenes. They’re finally making her human - and I can’t help but think she’s going to die soon as a result.
You don’t think killing your own brother (in one of the most insane deaths ever) is enough of a catalyst to kickstart her want for the Iron Throne? Literally what is she going to do -but- that.
Also, she was trying to get Drago to head over there before he even got sick.
I think it’s a natural progression. I like her storyline except for friend zone. When she went SSJ 1 I almost blew my load.
It’s funny how fast Theon is driving the mental breakdown car. Lol.
Yeah, she embraced her new telos in life even before Drago killed her brother. Before she was married to Drago she didn’t care, or at least it wasn’t made evident that she cared. She was just some girl, sister of The Dragon, all nervous about leaving home and being married. Then, post-rape, and after finding out that she could controll Drago by looking him in the eye when he’s boning her, all of a sudden she cared about the Iron Throne. She sat back and watched her brother die without much feeling because she had embraced the legend behind her family name, and her brother was not a true dragon.
She will take what is hers
[tab]with fiah and bluh[/tab]
Cool thing is that it makes sense for him to be doing exactly what he’s doing. The actor is doing a great job making the ambivalence and lack of authenticity evident, and scenes like the one where he’s forced to kill Ser Rodrik believable.
[tab]>mfw [/tab]
It’s the character that has clones or whatever. He’s too awkward, and what happened failed to achieve the effect it was going for, because we don’t give a shit about any of the characters. We don’t know them. We don’t know the political arrangement of the city, so we don’t know why what happened was significant. All we see is Dany going to a city where she meets some condescending people who refuse to help her with whom she speaks once or twice, then there’s a power-play or something and some nobodies die.
I haven’t read the books either, so when I say this it’s less annoying: it’s more than that. The start establishing her sitting there playing with fire and the eggs and basically thinking ‘I am the dragon, not Viserys.’ She realizes that she is a like a legit half-mythical being and her brother is a girly-looking square clefty bitch guy. If Viserys was truly a dragon, he would have activated and possibly tuned Drago, taking over as King. She might have been fine with that because Targarians intermarry. That is why that scene is so cool. Drago doesn’t kill him. She does. She/the author tests him. Had he activated, and passed the test, then she would have, for lack of a better word, been like ‘OK, at least he’s legit and his incessant whining isn’t all for nothing’
Stannus is off the deep end; Goffery, it has been revealed, will actually turn insane, and it’s been clarified fully by his mother he is a sadist; that gay guy who has the deer banner is dead; the Iron Islands guy obviously isn’t winning anything because he’s boring and shitty—and so Theon is probably going to fold up with him in level-10 breakdown madness before getting killed by KOTN
Hey, Coriolanus! Good call about it being the orphans!
I’m with Gobbo about Dany: Once she “learned” how to make love with Drago instead of being boned like a dog, she connected with him and their eye contact made their hearts as one. I know, kind of schmaltzy female romanticism…but that’s how I saw their relationship. She then felt and realized her OWN power. It was her TRUE love for Drago that had her walk into his funeral pyre with the dragon eggs (after her horrible miscarriage), and emerge with her dragon “babies”. Hey…we never saw the miscarried baby, now did we??? HMMM.
I still like Dany and am interested to see what happens when and if she enters The House of The Undying with blue lipped Pyat Pree.
I agree that Tywin and Arya’s relationship is the most interesting right now. She’s sort of his little “Imp” replacement…someone he can talk freely to with no strings attached.
I think Cat will let Jamie go sooner than later because the Stark’s army are going to kill him for what he did to the guard. Jamie is no good to her dead…so maybe you are right about Cat releasing him with her Amazon knight…who BTW, pledged an oath to Cat. It looks as if Sansa will always be safe being she is still being portrayed as Jeoffrey’s intended as much as she is a hostage. I don’t think Sansa wants to be “saved” and will opt to stand next to Jeoffrey. Plus, Sansa has the “Dog” watching over her.
Maybe her character has run it’s course and as you say, her humanity will have her being killed off soon, but IF Jamie returns…who knows???
Theon is a very good character but I see him as crashing and burning too soon.
BTW…I think all the child actors on this show are amazing.
Yes he is! He’s the brawn for Tyrion’s (the Imp’s) brain.
Maybe waaay down the line. The Dragons have to grow and mature first. Also, there are like 6 or 7 books = as many seasons of the show…lots of places and characters that haven’t been revealed yet.
Stannus and (the dead gay guy) Renly Baratheon are/were brothers to King Robert Baratheon…the “true” successors to the throne. So that basically leaves Stannus as the successor who needs to over throw the bastard child Jeoffry (of brother and sister Cersi and Jamie Lannister) in order to get the throne. BUT…Arya is actually protecting another of Robert Baratheon’s acknowledged bastard sons (Gendry) who wasn’t killed off when the Lannister’s had all of his other bastards killed. He was taken prisoner while en-route to The Wall. So we have him to think about becoming a key player in the future. Of course…bottom line is that the Targaryen’s have the Original claim to the Throne!
OK…a little spoiler that Hubs shared with me…The scene where everyone is killed in Qarth, wasn’t in the book. He seems to think since they were minor characters even later on…they just got rid of them for storyline tidiness and continuity.
P.S. Damn…spell check fixed Quarth for me…look how quick this shit becomes accepted lexicon!! HAHAHHAA!!
I am fully enjoying Game of Thrones, but I would hardly say its great TV in the way that, say, The Wire or Battlestar Galatica were great TV.
The problem with GoT is that all the characters are pretty one dimensional. It’s also full of those one line put downs or quips that seem to end almost every dialogue in mediocre American TV. Its all getting so melodramatic. I’m not a fan of that style of writing. I mean, I’m enjoying it so far but already it is kind of wearing thin. A bit like Lost and 24 both wore thin on me - I never made it past the second season of either of those for the same reasons. Its good fun but not much more. Plus, I know that battle scenes cost big bucks but they are kind of annoying me by cutting all the battles out completely. I heard they are going to show that big battle in episode 9 - I’m looking forward to that at least.
Breaking Bad, at least, is free from cheesy dialogue and the characters seem largely believable. I agree with Gobbo, though, that’s its good but not ‘great’ TV.
Actually I disagree with you that thrones characters are one-dimensional .
There seems to be a great deal of depth to them. I tried reading the first book and gave up.
The series seems much better then the books, so I have no idea what will happen.
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