TV: Old and New

[thistlechaser]

TV: Old and New, or TV: Good and Bad. Take your pick!

The old/good: I'm rewatching Stargate: Atlantis and it's even better than I remembered. I'm in the middle of the second season, and I'm really quite impressed with the storylines thus far, and wow do I love the characters! I can see how easily I fell into the fandom at the time, and boy what was my then OTP sure has chemistry! (Shepherd/McKay) I could easily read it either way though, it would totally work as "just" friendship as well. But I sure wouldn't need much convincing of more!

The new/bad: Game of Thrones. "Oh ho ho," you say, "What's this? The most popular show on current TV? Bad?" This week's episode was, yep.



Know what? Rape for the sake of the thrill annoys me.
Rape called consensual sex by one of the directors of the episode annoys me a hell of a lot more.

I'm no SJW, please don't mistake me for one of those, but know what? If a woman says no, it means no. No ifs, ands, buts, or "she eventually got into it!"s about it.

Know what also annoys me? This ruins Jamie's character. What about all the building up they did last season? His protecting Brienne from being raped only to turn around and rape his own sister?

Something should be done about that director.



I'm almost done with the current book I'm reading. I don't think my reading pace could get any slower. I've been at 75% done for four days now and 80% done for two -- and it's not even a long book! I wish I knew where my drive to read went.

Comments

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Yep, I agree with you about that scene, it didn't sit well with me either for the reasons you stated.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

A number of my friends are going to stop watching the show based on it. I'm going to continue, but I'm not happy with it.

[wow-hazmat.livejournal.com]

I don't watch the show -- have read the books, and the show has way too many porny elements, even for a book series with A LOT of sex, it's kind of generally sex that /happens/ rather than something that's clearly made to titillate (lol pun). But I do keep up with the synopsis of each episode on one of Wired's blogs, and when I read about that part... ugh.

It's kind of sad, but the TV show is making me less and less enthusiastic about the book series. :/ This despite the fact that there are some cases -- Lena Headey's portrayal of Cercei -- where I'm quite happy. I mean, arguably, the TV show in THAT sense -- in season 1 at least, since I ain't seen much of the other seasons -- does better than the books, because Cercei doesn't get humanized at ALL in the books until she starts getting POV chapters.

That little scene between Cercei and Robert in Season 1 that wasn't in the books, for example, was pretty lovely -- showing them as a couple who... don't love each other, but have lived with each other, and it's a lot more complicated than simple love or hate even though there IS hate, because there's also affection, or the ghost of affection.

ACTING.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Agreed on everything you said! My interest in the books is already low (they're so long, so in need of an editor), the TV series is pushing it further down. I have no idea when or if I'll read Dragons once it comes out.

Cercei is so better fleshed out in the show, and I do sort of like her as a character, and I really liked the scenes between her and Robert.

There's so much that's not better in the show though, including a whole lot of things I don't need to see. (Not just one, but TWO scenes of men peeing last night, shot from between their legs. Ugh.)

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

FWIW, that scene in the book happened. It was, however, way more ambiguous. Jaime was missing, Cersei thought him dead, and her son dies...He arrives back in King's Landing just in time for the funeral. Cersei's response is a mixture of grief, relief, lust, self-loathing, etc. They have sex in the chapel, and consent is way iffy (much "yes" and "no" and both initiating various phases).

The internet outcry over the TV interpretation of the scene prompted Martin to comment. His remarks were basically "We never discussed this scene" and that enough other things about the characters had changed that it couldn't play out the way it was originally written.

Having read the books, and following the show...I think they should've made it more ambiguous. Scarily, maybe they think it was. Regardless, this is a turning point for Cersei and Jaime. Exactly how things turn for each of them will make less sense for this scene having played out the way it did.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered it as consensual in the book, but it's been so long it wouldn't surprise me if I misremembered it.

More ambiguous in the show would have been much better.

Yeah, I saw Martin's comment. I wonder how much he could say, if he had wanted to say more? I wonder if somewhere in the contract it says he can't say bad things about the show? (Though it would be in his own best interest not to as well, I guess.)

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

From what I remember from the book it was a sort of "I want to have sex with you, but not next to my sons corpse" kind of thing.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. Well stay classy, Cercei. Keep your standards high. :P