Wednesday, February 20, 2013
‘Game of Thrones’ is one of those genre shows that inspires
an entire regiment of angry fans whenever you dare call its quality into
question.
Still, I was surprised yesterday when I was debating about
purchasing season two for my video collection and I heard a couple voicing the
thoughts I was internalizing.
“I don’t know if we should get it. It wasn’t as good as the
first season.”
Now, it’s important to note that ‘Game of Thrones’ will
probably never be able to live up to its first season because that was one of
those rare perfect seasons. When a show doesn’t make one wrong turn in an
entire season – you know you have something special.
I think that’s why the second season was so disappointing to
me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad season of television. In fact, it was
still better than a good 75 percent of what’s out there – it just wasn’t as
good as it should have been.
I think the biggest problem with ‘Game of Thrones’ is that
the cast is simply too big.
This is an interesting and expansive universe, but there
were times when I found myself struggling to remember exactly who was who – and
what ties they had to others on the canvas – when it came time to fight for the
throne.
I am invested in a lot of the characters – especially Arya
and Tyrion, who both steal every scene they’re in – but there are a lot of
secondary characters that start to drag momentum down.
Sure it was interesting watching the red witch give birth to
the smoke monster from ‘Lost’ last season – but the outcome of that story was
so boring that I couldn’t really get into it.
The other problem ‘Game of Thrones’ has is that they have a
few weak actors in very important parts. The two biggest are Emilia Clark as
Daenerys and Kit Harington as Jon Snow. Maybe I just didn’t notice how weak
this duo was in the first season – after all, I was distracted with Daenerys
getting naked every five seconds and Jon Snow was hidden behind all that hair.
Their shortcomings could not be ignored in the second
season, though, and things stalled when either of them was on the screen.
Side note: If you think Harington is bad as Jon Snow, you
should have seen him in the new ‘Silent Hill’ movie – it was almost painful to
watch, but I digress.
‘Game of Thrones’ has a lot to offer. I’m invested in Tyrion
and his ongoing struggles with his family. I desperately want to see both
Joffrey and Cersei get what is coming to them. I’m even intrigued by what’s to
come for Jamie Lannister.
To get back on track, though, ‘Game of Thrones’ needs to
narrow their focus and zoom in on what is important. I understand book purists
are going to cry like little babies, but if they don’t reign in the show a
little bit – people are going to feel overwhelmed by the world and start tuning
out.
Oh, and for those that are curious, I opted not to get the
second season of ‘Game of Thrones.’ I may buy it down the line, but when I
honestly sat down and thought about it – there was only one episode I had any
interest in rewatching (I bet everyone knows which one).
What do you think? Does ‘Game of Thrones’ need some tweaking
for the third season?
3 Comments:
Honestly I think people that start disliking a show because it has "too many characters" are just dumb. For the record, the second season was amazing,very worthy of purchase, especially for you because you underappreciated it.
Well, I'm glad that the opinions of 3 people in the world means that a series that is wildly popular and successful needs a creative rebound.
You're in the minority. The 2nd season was awesome. Seasons 3 is going to be even better.
In this instance, your audience is divided into 2 types of people: those who read and those who watch.
Most people who read will be the only people who truly appreciate a book-to-screen done well. Those who don't... well... if you don't like reading, chances are, you will get confused and disheartened when a truly epic story like this is brought to the screen.
The tv series only holds probably 75% of what is in the book. Hollywood can only do so much, your imagination is key. And if your brain is too "lazy" to make the effort of trying to follow and piece together the little details that enhance each event, then maybe this is not for you.
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