A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Tuberski]

Officially picked up for Season 3.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/04/10/ga...nes-renewed-3/

You would think season 4 is inevitable, since it's going to take 2 seasons to cover A Storm of Swords.

ACK!

[Wezil]

HBO has been known to axe shows prematurely. Let's hope this one gets a full run.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I was thinking about this and there is potential for disaster in the sense that Season 3 and 4 will come from Storm of Swords and likely the plodding and lack of (much) movement A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons will be combined and made into 3 (or, God forbid, 4) seasons. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 could be ridiculously slow without much plot resolution causing viewership to slowly abandon the show.

That and think of all the new characters they'll be introducing in Season 5. Though maybe they can push back the introduction of Dorne or the Iron Islands plotline to Season 6.

[Dinner]

HBO has been known to axe shows prematurely. Let's hope this one gets a full run.

I'm still pissed off at how they axed Rome a full year early.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I was thinking about this and there is potential for disaster in the sense that Season 3 and 4 will come from Storm of Swords and likely the plodding and lack of (much) movement A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons will be combined and made into 3 (or, God forbid, 4) seasons. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 could be ridiculously slow without much plot resolution causing viewership to slowly abandon the show.

That and think of all the new characters they'll be introducing in Season 5. Though maybe they can push back the introduction of Dorne or the Iron Islands plotline to Season 6.

I suspect that a lot of AFfC and ADwD will just go away. In particular, I'm guessing that Dany's storyline will be sped up quite a bit and things like the internal events with the Maesters and some running about up north will be compressed or eliminated. The showrunners have demonstrated pretty good instincts on what to cut from the books (though, what they replace it with is a bit more suspect...)

[Wezil]

I'm still pissed off at how they axed Rome a full year early.

Don't forget what the dirt worshipers did to Deadwood.

[Guynemer]

I was thinking about this and there is potential for disaster in the sense that Season 3 and 4 will come from Storm of Swords and likely the plodding and lack of (much) movement A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons will be combined and made into 3 (or, God forbid, 4) seasons. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 could be ridiculously slow without much plot resolution causing viewership to slowly abandon the show.

That and think of all the new characters they'll be introducing in Season 5. Though maybe they can push back the introduction of Dorne or the Iron Islands plotline to Season 6.

Really don't think it'll be that bad. Season 4 will probably be the last half of 3, with the start of 4/5, and season 5 will be the rest of 4/5.

[Guynemer]

Don't forget what the dirt worshipers did to Deadwood.

Hoopleheaded ********ers.

[Dinner]

I was thinking about this and there is potential for disaster in the sense that Season 3 and 4 will come from Storm of Swords and likely the plodding and lack of (much) movement A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons will be combined and made into 3 (or, God forbid, 4) seasons. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 could be ridiculously slow without much plot resolution causing viewership to slowly abandon the show.

That and think of all the new characters they'll be introducing in Season 5. Though maybe they can push back the introduction of Dorne or the Iron Islands plotline to Season 6.

That is a real problem. GRRM introduced so many new characters he has to spend a huge amount of time keeping up with each one which, while it enriches the story and makes the world feel more real, would be hard to replicate in TV format without getting boring. They may have to perform so triage to cut the extra lines down to just the most important ones.

[-Jrabbit]

Turns out Dinklage's GoT contract with HBO is for six years.

FWIW.

[joncha]

I think the most logical option would be to combine books 4 and 5, then split them chronologically into seasons 5 and 6. It's what Martin should have done with the books in the first place.

[Guynemer]

Not sure that would necessarily require two entire seasons, but I could be wrong. Do it in the 1.5 seasons after the post-you-know-what portion of book three takes up the first part of season 4.

[Jon Miller]

It would be easier to know once GRR finishes, but we will be lucky to get the next book out before the end of season 5.

They could start doing 'half seasons'?

JM

[Dinner]

A Game of Thrones - 1996
A Clash of Kings - 1998
A Storm of Sword - 2000
A Feast for Crows - 2005
A Dance with Dragons - 2011

So he was averaging one book every two years at the beginning but it took him 11 years to come up with the last two books (5 years and 6 years respectively). That means he's getting slower not faster with age. And if he keeps the trend up it will take 7 years to get the sixth book though 5.5 might be a better guess. Still, series long his average is a respectable 3.4 years so maybe he'll pick up the pace.

That would mean the soonest we could expect the sixth boom is the end of 2013, the average would be mid 2015, the most recent average (average of the two books produced in the last 11 years) would be mid to late 2016 while the recent trend would be 2018. The good news is he supposedly had half a dozen chapters written in late 2010 so he's most likely well along with things by now though with all the consulting on the HBO series and with him writing other stuff as well I'm not sure how much recent progress he has made.

This would mean HBO has material through season 5 airing in 2015 (but recorded in late 2014) though if book six isn't ready by late 2014 (and it probably won't be) then the series will be in trouble.

[Jon Miller]

It means that going to 'half seasons' or not cutting would be best:

season 1 (2011) book 1
season 2 (2012) book 2
season 3( 2013) book 3
season 4 (2014) book 3.5
season 5 (2015) short 4+5
season 6 (2016) short 4+5
release of book 6 in 2015
season 7 (2017) book 6 or even short 4+5
?season 8? (2018) ?book 6.5? or even starting book 6
release of book 7 2018
movie/miniseries of book 7 in 2019/2020

I think that GRR might be driven more by HBO than his fans. I think that short (8 episode) seasons could work well for seasons 5/6/7 (and maybe 4) (and maybe, maybe 8).

I haven't watched any of it yet.

JM

[Dinner]

You need to watch it, man. It's worth it so get utorrent out and start watching.

Failing that HBO currently has the first season on HBO on demand and HBO GO.

[Wezil]

Don't forget Oerdin - HBO has the luxury(?) of not having to provide content every 12 months. Breaking Bad took a 16 month hiatus and apparently Mad Men was just off for 17 months.

I'd be more worried about GRRM living to complete the books than HBO finding time to air them.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Really don't think it'll be that bad. Season 4 will probably be the last half of 3, with the start of 4/5, and season 5 will be the rest of 4/5.

Season 4 is the last half of Book 3, but then you have Books 4/5 which combined is the amount pages as Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords (so likely 3 seasons). I can somewhat see were a potential Season 6 and 7 can have very interesting cliffhangers (and Season 7 will be awesome if its the last half of book 5, including the resolution of those plot threads at the end of the book), but Season 5 is going to be a slog to get to them.

[Dinner]

Don't forget Oerdin - HBO has the luxury(?) of not having to provide content every 12 months. Breaking Bad took a 16 month hiatus and apparently Mad Men was just off for 17 months.

I'd be more worried about GRRM living to complete the books than HBO finding time to air them.

Tell me about it. He might not get the last two books done for 20 years and he's already in his 60's so he very well may croak before he finishes them. Hell, I'm still mad at that Swedish guy who kicked the bucket and left me hanging on the Millennium series.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Basically this is the way I see it:

Book 3 will be Seasons 3 and 4, and then:

(spoilers through Dance with Dragons)

Spoiler:

Season 5 will be about Dorne and Cersei's chafing at the Tyrells, probably involving storming Dragonstone and Loras getting messed up, Season 6 will end with Cersei's plan to get rid of Maergery backfiring on her so will likely include all the stuff about the Faith Militant & will also focus on the Iron Islands & the scheming between Euron and Victarion, and Season 7 will include Cersei's "punishment", Jon's death, the discovery of Aegon Targaryen, and Dany getting swept away by Drogon to land at the Khal Jhogo's khalessar. Throughout, we'll have the Tyrion travelogue and Jamie's bitterness as well as Dany trying to rule Mereen. I guess having Dorne in Season 5 will allow us to get more attached to the Martell kid that goes to woo Dany (I forget his name) before he gets barbequed. I assume that Brienne's getting strung up will happen in Season 5 to give them something else in that season - but that means Brienne is gone for 2 seasons. I guess they can throw in the Reek/Theon stuff in Season 5 as well. But this leads to nothing really shocking or amazing happening Season 5 - just moving pieces so Season 6 and 7 are good.

[Dinner]

What if there is only six seasons instead of seven? They'd have to edit out something or at least condense something.

[Imran Siddiqui]

To be honest, it's going to be hard. Because in Books 4 and 5 what gets condensed is the POV chapters of the "fan favorites"...

Spoiler:

Tyrion and Jamie are barely doing anything for one and can you imagine seasons where Peter Dinklage isn't in every episode? And in all that I didn't add in the stuff about Arya, Sansa & Littlefinger, and Bran - I imagine Litterfinger can throw Lysa out the Moon Door at the end of Season 5.

[Jon Miller]

I think that they will either need to expand parts, slow things down, have short seasons, or skip some narrative lines.

Or some combination of all of them.

I do want to purchase this set, been on my wish list since before it came out.

JM

[Asher]

The Season 1 bluray set is phenomenal. The picture (shot fully in digital, perfect transfer), the sound (DTS Master-HD lossless audio), and the extras...

My favourite are the actor-narrated hand-drawn exposition pieces explaining backstory and lore. They also have an in-episode guide which you can use to view a map of the area, the characters on screen and their history, etc.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think that they will either need to expand parts, slow things down, have short seasons, or skip some narrative lines.

Or some combination of all of them.

I do want to purchase this set, been on my wish list since before it came out.

JM

The blu-ray is nice... and was $35 at release from Amazon (gone up now, IIRC).

[Asher]

Over the past couple weekends, I watched Season 1 bluray on my 70" TV. And it was awesome.

The sound was the most impressive, though. The DD 5.1 on HBO pales in comparison...it's very...plain.

[Dinner]

The blu-ray is nice... and was $35 at release from Amazon (gone up now, IIRC).

The amount of extras was impressive. There were more gigs of extras then gigs of actual film.

[Jon Miller]

I dont' have a blueray (or a DVD) player at the moment.

I would like a PS3, but probably not this year (I don't own a TV eitheR).

JM

[Dinner]

What computer do you have? If it's a laptop then it's not worth upgrading until it's time to buy a new one but if it is a desktop then you can buy a blu-ray drive for ~$60 now.

[Jon Miller]

I have a MacbookAir.

JM