What TV SHOWS are you watching?

Same with the “time of death only” plot. Overwriting someone who isn’t going to die kills them, and the new consciousness inhabits the body. It’s immoral, which is why they don’t do it. Which is dumb considering the stakes.

Just finished season 5 of Game of Thrones. The show is good, better than I could have hoped for in some respects. But the books were great. I understand why the show had to take some liberties with the story, to streamline it and make it fit within the budget. And a visual medium is not the same as print, certain elements had to be adapted for the difference in format. Given those issues, the show did an impressive job of covering the first three books.

Sadly, the differences became extensive as the show went on, such that A Feast for Crows and A Dance of Dragons were both gutted. A majority of storylines in those two books were jettisoned, as the showrunners took many characters into different directions, and left other characters in limbo, such as Edmure Tully and the Blackfish. The reason why that is a problem for me is that too many good scenes from books 4 and 5 are gone now. And as each year slips by, it seems less and less likely that George will ever finish writing book 6, let alone book 7 and the possible book 8.

It's possible that Martin still fully intends to finish the books, so perhaps the major changes on the show were necessary to avoid spoilers for the book fans. And yet, I have heard that season seven comes across as bad fan fiction, so maybe not, or maybe Martin gave the show too much leeway.

Season two of The Good Place. The show keeps getting better. It's not amazing, but it is delightful.

Shell, I’m loving these end of season impressions.

I think you’ll really like season 6 cuz you don’t have the book to hold it up to as much

Another Netflix documentary series:

Rotten which explores different aspects of the food industry. One can presuppose the slant given the name of the show that it will be pro small time guy and anti-industrial farming/growing. That's okay though because you know that going in.

So I watched the first episode which is about bees and honey. It was fascinating. I always love when a documentary can take a subject that appears boring and a subject I know exactly zero about and make it interesting and enthralling. There is big money to be made in the honey biz but a lot of shady and shifty shit that goes on too. They talk about the crazy stuff that goes on in the global honey market; cutting, adulterating, contaminating. The continuous game of one-upsmanship that goes on between producers and testers. They put stuff in...we develop a new test to find it...they change it so we can't detect it...we change the test...and on and on.

Also very interesting about the yearly migration of the nations bees to the California almond groves.

So, my point here is that it was a very interesting show and I plan on watching further episodes.





_{And a great big bonus for not mentioning global warming once in the episode}

Second that. Started watching Rotten last week and I'm four episodes in. I'm fascinated by stuff like that. as I've been in or around enviro groups for most of my adult life and it's interesting to get some detail on more recent practices that i'm not familiar with.

Black Barney wrote: Shell, I’m loving these end of season impressions.

I think you’ll really like season 6 cuz you don’t have the book to hold it up to as much

That was my experience. Once the show moved past the books, I pretty much stopped giving a shit about the books. If Martin ever writes book 6, I'll buy it. If he doesn't ... oh well.

I wouldn't describe season 7 as "bad fan fiction" at all. It was an odd season though, because of the smaller episode number. They fucking RACED through plot to the point where geography no longer had any semblance of reality. They also cranked up the "spectacle" factor, but I was cool with that. I wanted to see dragons FUCK SHIT UP, and season 7 delivered that.

Joebot wrote:

Black Barney wrote: Shell, I’m loving these end of season impressions.

I think you’ll really like season 6 cuz you don’t have the book to hold it up to as much

That was my experience. Once the show moved past the books, I pretty much stopped giving a shit about the books. If Martin ever writes book 6, I'll buy it. If he doesn't ... oh well.

I wouldn't describe season 7 as "bad fan fiction" at all. It was an odd season though, because of the smaller episode number. They fucking RACED through plot to the point where geography no longer had any semblance of reality. They also cranked up the "spectacle" factor, but I was cool with that. I wanted to see dragons FUCK SHIT UP, and season 7 delivered that.

I am still hoping for the remaining books, because I want to see how various storylines that were changed/ignored by the show get resolved. For example, I've been waiting over a decade to find out what happened with the Brotherhood Without Banners and Brienne of Tarth. I wanted to see the return of the mountain clans men that moved into the Kingswood after Tyrion was arrested. And I was looking forward to the interaction between Littlefinger and the Blackfish.

It surprised me, but my strongest emotional reaction to the show so far was near the end of Season Five when Drogon swoops down into the arena and starts wrecking those Harpy dudes. I was like YEAH, light em' all up. And it pissed me hearing the dragon in pain when getting hit with spears.

yeah empathizing with the dragons really helps in identifying with Dany's character and not seeing her as much as a pain in the ass. I think feeling for the dragons really goes a long way to enjoying some of the show.

....also, if you like tits.

Black Barney wrote: yeah empathizing with the dragons really helps in identifying with Dany's character and not seeing her as much as a pain in the ass. I think feeling for the dragons really goes a long way to enjoying some of the show.

....also, if you like tits.

I admit that I was getting bored with the tv version of the Sand Snakes until that jail house scene.

I'm surprised that the HBO Powers That Be didn't want to stretch GoT out a little longer. The general reason given at work was, "The actors might actually want to do other things besides GoT," but I'm not sure that I buy that. I do agree with Joebot, in that the show has really stepped on the gas in Season 7.

As for other, lesser shows, if you're dying to watch a reality TV show that doesn't suck, I'd recommend The Amazing Race. There are semi-interesting people, behaving in relatively adult fashion compared to most reality shows, doing semi-interesting challenges, in interesting locales.

Shellhead wrote:

Black Barney wrote: yeah empathizing with the dragons really helps in identifying with Dany's character and not seeing her as much as a pain in the ass. I think feeling for the dragons really goes a long way to enjoying some of the show.

....also, if you like tits.

I admit that I was getting bored with the tv version of the Sand Snakes until that jail house scene.

Oh, I know exactly the scene of which you speak. Shamelessly gratuitous ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't rewind and watch it a time or two.

In general, the Dorne stuff is arguably the weakest part of the whole show, despite pretty good casting (Dr. Bashir!!). But, I think the Dorne chapters are also pretty weak in the books, as it's mostly just a huge, meandering distraction that never really ties into the main story threads. The showrunners cut out 90% of the Dorne book content, and STILL couldn't find much compelling about it.

Other than tits, of course.

RobertB wrote: I'm surprised that the HBO Powers That Be didn't want to stretch GoT out a little longer. The general reason given at work was, "The actors might actually want to do other things besides GoT," but I'm not sure that I buy that. I do agree with Joebot, in that the show has really stepped on the gas in Season 7.

I'm a little surprised, too, but I think it's just becoming too expensive a show. Also, and this could just be my wishful thinking, but it seems like HBO has a better track record of bringing shows to a conclusion rather than dragging them out.

Of course, there are those rumors about them planning several spin-offs set in the same realm...

Joebot wrote:

Shellhead wrote:

Black Barney wrote: yeah empathizing with the dragons really helps in identifying with Dany's character and not seeing her as much as a pain in the ass. I think feeling for the dragons really goes a long way to enjoying some of the show.

....also, if you like tits.

I admit that I was getting bored with the tv version of the Sand Snakes until that jail house scene.

Oh, I know exactly the scene of which you speak. Shamelessly gratuitous ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't rewind and watch it a time or two.

In general, the Dorne stuff is arguably the weakest part of the whole show, despite pretty good casting (Dr. Bashir!!). But, I think the Dorne chapters are also pretty weak in the books, as it's mostly just a huge, meandering distraction that never really ties into the main story threads. The showrunners cut out 90% of the Dorne book content, and STILL couldn't find much compelling about it.

Other than tits, of course.

I assume that the Dorne material in the books was groundwork for a bigger role in the sixth book. If you look at maps of that world, it looks like Dorne is practically reaching out across the Narrow Sea to potential eastern invaders. And Dorne was on very friendly terms with House Targaryen before the abrupt demise of the Mad King, so Dorne would potentially be a great ally to Daenerys. And yet, when we finally got a bigger world map, it turns out that Martin put Daenerys really, really far away from Westeros, unless maybe they are close again on the other side of the globe, like eastern Essos is close to the Iron Islands. Also, Dorne is adjacet to the Tyrell lands, which include Oldtown and the Tarly lands, so it seemed possible that those storylines might cross.

DAENERYS MARRIES THE PRINCE OF DORNE! THEY TEAM UP AND KILL EVERY SINGLE LANNISTER!

Finally I get to spoil stuff for a book reader!