Television programmes [2]

{{{rather enjoyed BBC Shakespeare live thingy last night- some good stuff}}

been watching The Night Manager. I really like it so far. Tom Hiddlebum is the new Cumberbum. and probably the new James Bond.

I loved the setup, and the show both looks stunning and is stunningly acted. (Hugh Laurie )

The conlusion became..

Spoiler:

http://www.sueboohscorner.com/fyi/2016/4/22/mtv-renews-the-shannara-chronicles-for-a-second-season-shannaraseason2-shannara

Not sure if want:

http://www.tor.com/2016/04/28/tv-rights-to-the-wheel-of-time-optioned-by-new-studio-with-jordan-estates-approval/

It really depends, doesn't it. Even GoTs, which many consider an unmitigated success and is the reason for all these subsequent shows, is a trainwreck as an adaptation.

You really need the right people behind it. And when George couldn't pick 'em, who has worked exstensively in Hollywood, who else has a chance.

Shannara is shit, Legend of the Seeker was High Camp but it was never boring.

Having good source material would be helpful too.

I was reading another TOR.com piece about SF/F adaptations (mainly TV) that are currently in the works and I was a little surprised how little epic fantasy was in the mix, given the success of GOT. Maybe producers learned their lesson from the glut of post-LOTR failures; that epic fantasy is really hard to do right onscreen? Dunno. But other than WOT the only other epic fantasies mentioned were Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle. *larrydavid.gif* (Warcraft, which was not mentioned on the list, is the only major epic fantasy movie that is on the studios' extended release schedule.) I honestly thought there would be a few more. Have very little hope for any of it to be good IMO (and of course, just because WOT and Kingkiller were optioned doesn't mean that anything will come of it), so whatevs.

Just bought the box set of Stargate Atlantis on blu-ray. That and SG1 would have to be up there with the best
shows i'v seen.

Stargate was always exceptionally well done. Few shows are as good at drawing you in.

I never watched a ton of Stargate (only complete season I saw was the initially intriguing but ultimately disappointing first season of SGU) but I caught enough of it via my sister. My favorite SG1 episode by far was the time loop one.

New season of Outlander looks promising. (Last episode of the first got a little too intense for me, but I'll give it a go.)

I'm not sure if I actually finished the first season of Outlander.

Eldorion wrote:I never watched a ton of Stargate (only complete season I saw was the initially intriguing but ultimately disappointing first season of SGU) but I caught enough of it via my sister. My favorite SG1 episode by far was the time loop one.

You can say that again and again and again and again and again and again....................................

watching 'The Durrells' on tv, its very cute.

Eldorion wrote:I'm not sure if I actually finished the first season of Outlander.

If you had seen it, you would have remembered. (It gets pretty intense.)

Season 2 is really good so far. (About 4 episodes in.) Dare I say better than season 1? It certainly shows what a good tv-show this has the potential of being.



Thoroughly recomended.

Saw the first episode of The Magicians, was better than I expected. but it was too adult, the book didn't have sex scenes as far as I can remember.

{{Watched the first part of the second series of the Hollow Crown- the BBC's adaptation of the histroy of the monarchy from Ricahrd II to Richard III taking the Henry's in along the way.
The first episode opened with Henry VI part 1.
I drew some stick on here for my comparison with Game of Thrones- but clearly I am not the only one to see the obvious parallels, both in substance, and in how these particular versions are shot and presented.

The Telegraph review has the banner headline - The Henrys meet Game of Thrones- and the Guardian go with - 'Shakespeare outdoes Game of Thrones in the BBC's Hollow Crown.' And continue in their review with - ' would guess that the first two-hour segment of the BBC version, broadcast on Saturday night, will have also kept viewers riveted to their screens, astonished that Shakespeare could outdo Game of Thrones.' And the Telegraph continue the comparison- 'As the action cross-cut from court to battlefield, from moments of shrewd dialogue to moments of adrenalin-fuelled action, the audience-grabbing spirit of Westeros was everywhere to be seen. To borrow tricks from Game of Thrones should not be seen as dumbing down Shakespeare; rather, as wising up.'
But remember you heard it first, from me, and then moaned about it  

This is the Henry plays reduced yes, they are certainly fairly heavily annotated in places so that prose lies like confetti on the cutting room floor (they have turned three plays here in a two parter with Richard II becoming the final piece of the trilogy instead of the fourth), and there are even some major changes, such as the secret lover of the Queen changing personage.
But all said this first bit does blaze by in under two hours and has all the intrigue, plotting, double dealing, sex and violence you could want in such a setting but this also has the benefit of some fantastic performances. Its hugely entertaining.
Of note here is Hugh Bonneville as the Duke of Gloucester and Sophie Okonedo as the very modern in her day French noblewoman who marries Henry and becomes Queen (and its hard as a Who fan not raise a smile at her being Queen of England as she played Liz 11 in Who).

All in all despite the cuts and changes this is great TV, great writing, naturally, but also good casting, direction, sets, locations and a clever modern script, everything really- this is Shakespeare as fresh and contemporary as you can make it. I highly recommend the entire Hollow Crown set so far, with only Henry V being somewhat disappointing (and that in part because it has Brannagh's superior cinematic version to compete against)}}}

If you had actually paid any attention at all to Game of Thrones, you'd know it was inspired by the War of the Roses. So no need to be so excited by similarities.

But it's Shakespeare, and nobody's surprised by the story or the writing. The apt comparison is to the staging and editing, which very likely was borrowed from the Game of Thrones TV show. To me the accomplishment of the Hollow Crown is bringing Shakespeare alive in a way that can hold a TV audience. If you plonk down cash for a film, you're gonna concentrate hard enough to keep your butt planted. Keeping an audience from flipping the channel is a whole new level of achievement.

But as badly written as Game of Thrones is, I'm not surprised people see Shakespeare as easily outdoing it.

If you had actually paid any attention at all to Game of Thrones, you'd know it was inspired by the War of the Roses. So no need to be so excited by similarities.- Halfwise

{{Ah well Halfy, had you but paid any attention to my original post which got the complaints about the comparison, I made that very point myself! }}}}

I didn't complain about the comparison of the stories' similarities, my complaint was that you implied GRRM was a shitty writer when you pulled Shakespeare himself into it. I think we resolved that matter without bloodshed, however, so no need to start kicking dead horses as far as I'm concerned

Ringdrotten wrote:so no need to start kicking dead horses as far as I'm concerned

Except for Game of Thrones itself of course.