It's HBO(GO)-Time: True Blood and Game of Thrones!
Well True Blood is back, and looking up from last season so far at least! The premiere, minus the cheesy beginning, wasn't so bad, a step up from last season's premiere to be sure, and then the second epp (which I actually saw last Monday thanks to HBOGO) was much better--can't wait now for next week's epp! And congrats HBO for FINALLY airing an episode July 4th weekend. (Happy Fourth to everyone btw!) My brief thoughts below...
TB 4x01:
First the premiere: Most of the episode was alright once you got past the horrible, completely embarrassing Fairy World sequence. I loved Pam's Ad for Fangtasia best, followed by Eric and Bill's interspersed publicity segments. Tara wasn't whining and angsting and wallowing for once, which was nice, I wish she could just stay there. And the skipped year thing was interesting, adds a bit of mystery and fresh air to it all. The way they are doing the witch thing is interesting, Marnie is creepy though sadly I can totally feel her mourning over her poor birdie baby like that and wanting to bring it back to life...;_; LaFay sure has some power though!
But ugh, the end there, already villifying Eric, or should I say Billifying him with all that "I own you/you are mine" crap. And from the look of the preview for the whole season too, WTF? I mean, buying her house is such an Eric thing to do, but not like this...and WTF at Bill being king? How has he not removed Eric already from office, after his death attempt? The dynamic is all off now, and I wonder if they're going to do the book 8 story arc now...oh well, if it means no more goddamn irritating SA then that's a plus I guess!
Also so sad about the way J/H has turned out, you've ruined my adorable ship Ball! ;_; :(
TB 4x02:
MUCH better than last week, hope it's indicative of the rest of the season! I was wondering if they were going to drag out the Eric thing, so I'm quite relieved to see it's starting already, though I was rolling my eyes at the way they made Eric so NOT the victim in terms of this spell like in the books (and making him threaten Tara, ugh), but whatever, I guess it's to be expected of Ball--but so much for all the speculations about the Slavic poll dancer being pissed at getting no share of his money, lol! :p
I think I can see Tara having that relationship after all she went through,and I sure hope it keeps up and that this woman doesn't have a secret evil agenda, because I like the return of Awesome!Tara rather than Wangsting!Pathetic!Tara we've seen for almost 2 seasons now. She and Lafay were great in this epp, and I loved her sarcastic reactions to the coven and such. Now THAT is the Tara I knew and loved back in the day!
And omg Pam is the best ever, especially when she told Jessica and Hoyt to leave and let the mob continue to exercise "their constitutional right to be f*cking idiots." :p (How I feel in a nutshell about so many people today, *cough* Tea Party! *cough*). Or her reaction to Sookie's plea about Eric: "Did I miss something? Are we girls now? Did we join a book club and read some queer chick-lit memoir, so now we're bonded together by estrogen or sisterhood or some other feminist drivel?" Basically she is flawless and the best part of the show, and I can't wait to see her reaction to Amnesiac!Eric, hopefully she will be in this season more than any other yet! :D
King Bill is certainly a surprise and a tad eyeroll-worthy (Eric's reactions to him were priceless though), but on the other hand if it means no more Sophie Anne (who was a million times more irritating) then I'm happy! ;) (Seriously, Pam isn't royal and yet she exudes 100% more HBIC/BAMFness and regality than SA on this show ever did!).
Oh and I love the Arlene/Terry/Baby thing, Arlene's hysterics and the scene with Sookie was priceless too and omg Terry is the most adorable thing ever...<333 And Sam is a bit less horribly OOC and boring this season than last, so progress on that front as well! I didn't realize at first that the girl he's pursuing is named Luna, like the werebat of book 2, interesting that they're bringing her in now.
Anyway, I was super excited by the end, omg, Amnesiac!Nekkid!Eric has entered the scene, let the E/S games begin at last! :)
Speaking of HBO, as I said in my last post I watched all of season 1 of Game of Thrones via HBOGO the week I got back from Europe, and here is me finally getting around to jotting down my thoughts (spoilers for s1):
I liked it, especially the end once things picked up at and shit began truly going down, but I have to say, it did not quite blow me away the way I was expecting it to from all the rave reviews and squeeing over it I witnessed across the internets...:/ It felt pretty slow a lot of the time, though maybe next season will grip me more since it feels like this season was a set-up for the most part. The world is interesting, as is the struggle for the throne and the threat/fear of the creepy Winter and Zombie things, but I can't say that I really love a lot of the characters (also such a high percentage of asshats in this show)--in part perhaps because they had no time to really be developed, like Robb Stark. Jon Snow I find to be pretty boring, I have to say, I usually like the brooding angsty ones, but he isn't doing anything for me, maybe because we haven't gotten into his character enough yet. I often found myself being all "no wait, go back to the interesting storyline!" when they'd cut away...when I felt compelled to watch the next epp, it had more to do with the cliffhanger at the end of each epp (which annoyingly didn't even get addressed usually until 20 min into the next epp, than with me being "I NEED MORE OF THIS SHOW IN MY LIFE" and loving every minute of it. It was also super confusing with all the characters and names I had no idea how to spell, I wished everyone would wear nametags, lol. And the usual HBO overemphasis on sex and blood (especially how they seemed to contrive it so that 90% of the sex on the show was anal, making me wonder if this was the custom of the kingdom as stated in the books, lol) made me eyeroll a lot. In short, I think that I do love "The Borgias" more on the whole, despite the fail of the Ursula storyline there. (And despite the incestuous pairing being actually incestuous in GoT, Cesare/Lucrezia trump them any day!).
BUT whatever, enough about that, let's talk about the positives. I think the theme is my favorite part of the show, it's just gorgeous and epic and makes me more excited for the show than the show itself, lol. I will be trying to get a copy of that ASAP. The whole opening credits, once I started to actually pay attention to them, are really neat, I love having the visual of the map like that to orient myself by. Then character-wise Daenerys, Arya, and Tyrion are basically flawless and the best, along with the direwolves...I liked Daenerys' storyline best (if it's true that they originally cast Tazmin Merchant, aka Catherine Howard of The Tudors in the role then WISE RECASTING DECISION HBO), she definitely grew the most over the course of this season, and though I feel a bit weird about it because of the rapey beginnings, I do ship Dany/Drago by the end (because they were so sweet and tender and cute together), and felt really sad at Drago's passing. I can't wait to see what's next in store for her, now that she has those adorable dragons to back her up! Arya is just a badass (although ironically I found her storyline to generally be the most boring, since one training scene was like them all to me). And Tyrion is intriguing and hilarious and it's nice to have someone who's smart around...it's great that they were able to find a dwarf who was so excellent in the part! I also enjoyed Bronn (I didn't even know his name until I just looked it up), the man who fights for Tyrion to free him from Cate's cray cray sister and banters with him so well, and Shae (again had to look this up), Tyrion's current concubine, intrigues me as well. So yeah, I am looking forward to next season, though ESPECIALLY just because of this HBIC being cast in it:
It's funny, I was never the biggest Anne fan on the show (both because of my stance historically and because she was just creepy in season 1), and I have no idea who Margery Tyrell even is, but I just know ND will be totally BAMF in this role, and I am excite to see her on the show! :D
Also, I took this quiz, and apparently I'm a Lannister:
In which Game of Thrones house do you belong?
Your Result: You belong in HOUSE LANNISTER - Hear Me Roar
Home to the wealthiest of the great houses, the keep at Casterly Rock sits literally on top of a gold mine, built into the very rock. From that lofty yet uncomfortable position, House Lannister rules over the Westerlands (and influences all of Westeros, by virtue of the kingdom’s purse strings). With the ascension of Lord Tywin to the house seat, the Lords of the Rock developed a reputation for ruthlessness as well as riches. This was due in part to Tywin’s remorseless efforts to keep his bannerhouses in line, but also because Aerys II was murdered by one of his own Kingsguard: Ser Jaime Lannister. Their unofficial motto states, "A Lannister always pays his debts."
You belong in HOUSE ARRYN - As High as Honor
You belong in HOUSE TARGARYEN - Fire and Blood
You belong in HOUSE BARATHEON - Ours is the Fury
You belong in HOUSE STARK - Winter is Coming
In which Game of Thrones house do you belong?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz
Oh well, whatever, Tyrion is one and he is flawless, so I'm just at that end of the spectrum I'd say...:p
And while speaking of GoT, I saw this cool t-shirt in the window of this nerdy comic book shop-type place in Sevilla, and appreciate it even more now! ;)
('Se acerca el invierno' obviously means "Winter is Coming")
Since watching GoT, I've also rekindled my love for the Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey, which GoT reminded me a lot of actually--for all those who love GoT, I HIGHLY recommend reading these books! Deadly palace court intrigue (including a "game of thrones"--this phrase is even used at least once or twice in the first book as I noticed while re-reading), mysteries about the past to be slowly uncovered/revealed, action and adventure, an epic, well-told love story, a complex and grey villain, an unforgettable cast of characters that you will love (I basically wanted to cry in the last book when I had to say goodbye to these characters forever, I loved and enjoyed them so much), this series has it all, and many elements that are found in GoT as well (including some explicit eroticism, but nothing really gratuitous since the protagonist is a courtesan). I've basically spent the last few days re-reading the first book, Kushiel's Dart, and being gripped and unable to put it down despite knowing exactly what is going to happen b/c I've read it at least 3 other times...;) /obligatory favorite series pimp
TB 4x01:
First the premiere: Most of the episode was alright once you got past the horrible, completely embarrassing Fairy World sequence. I loved Pam's Ad for Fangtasia best, followed by Eric and Bill's interspersed publicity segments. Tara wasn't whining and angsting and wallowing for once, which was nice, I wish she could just stay there. And the skipped year thing was interesting, adds a bit of mystery and fresh air to it all. The way they are doing the witch thing is interesting, Marnie is creepy though sadly I can totally feel her mourning over her poor birdie baby like that and wanting to bring it back to life...;_; LaFay sure has some power though!
But ugh, the end there, already villifying Eric, or should I say Billifying him with all that "I own you/you are mine" crap. And from the look of the preview for the whole season too, WTF? I mean, buying her house is such an Eric thing to do, but not like this...and WTF at Bill being king? How has he not removed Eric already from office, after his death attempt? The dynamic is all off now, and I wonder if they're going to do the book 8 story arc now...oh well, if it means no more goddamn irritating SA then that's a plus I guess!
Also so sad about the way J/H has turned out, you've ruined my adorable ship Ball! ;_; :(
TB 4x02:
MUCH better than last week, hope it's indicative of the rest of the season! I was wondering if they were going to drag out the Eric thing, so I'm quite relieved to see it's starting already, though I was rolling my eyes at the way they made Eric so NOT the victim in terms of this spell like in the books (and making him threaten Tara, ugh), but whatever, I guess it's to be expected of Ball--but so much for all the speculations about the Slavic poll dancer being pissed at getting no share of his money, lol! :p
I think I can see Tara having that relationship after all she went through,and I sure hope it keeps up and that this woman doesn't have a secret evil agenda, because I like the return of Awesome!Tara rather than Wangsting!Pathetic!Tara we've seen for almost 2 seasons now. She and Lafay were great in this epp, and I loved her sarcastic reactions to the coven and such. Now THAT is the Tara I knew and loved back in the day!
And omg Pam is the best ever, especially when she told Jessica and Hoyt to leave and let the mob continue to exercise "their constitutional right to be f*cking idiots." :p (How I feel in a nutshell about so many people today, *cough* Tea Party! *cough*). Or her reaction to Sookie's plea about Eric: "Did I miss something? Are we girls now? Did we join a book club and read some queer chick-lit memoir, so now we're bonded together by estrogen or sisterhood or some other feminist drivel?" Basically she is flawless and the best part of the show, and I can't wait to see her reaction to Amnesiac!Eric, hopefully she will be in this season more than any other yet! :D
King Bill is certainly a surprise and a tad eyeroll-worthy (Eric's reactions to him were priceless though), but on the other hand if it means no more Sophie Anne (who was a million times more irritating) then I'm happy! ;) (Seriously, Pam isn't royal and yet she exudes 100% more HBIC/BAMFness and regality than SA on this show ever did!).
Oh and I love the Arlene/Terry/Baby thing, Arlene's hysterics and the scene with Sookie was priceless too and omg Terry is the most adorable thing ever...<333 And Sam is a bit less horribly OOC and boring this season than last, so progress on that front as well! I didn't realize at first that the girl he's pursuing is named Luna, like the werebat of book 2, interesting that they're bringing her in now.
Anyway, I was super excited by the end, omg, Amnesiac!Nekkid!Eric has entered the scene, let the E/S games begin at last! :)
Speaking of HBO, as I said in my last post I watched all of season 1 of Game of Thrones via HBOGO the week I got back from Europe, and here is me finally getting around to jotting down my thoughts (spoilers for s1):
I liked it, especially the end once things picked up at and shit began truly going down, but I have to say, it did not quite blow me away the way I was expecting it to from all the rave reviews and squeeing over it I witnessed across the internets...:/ It felt pretty slow a lot of the time, though maybe next season will grip me more since it feels like this season was a set-up for the most part. The world is interesting, as is the struggle for the throne and the threat/fear of the creepy Winter and Zombie things, but I can't say that I really love a lot of the characters (also such a high percentage of asshats in this show)--in part perhaps because they had no time to really be developed, like Robb Stark. Jon Snow I find to be pretty boring, I have to say, I usually like the brooding angsty ones, but he isn't doing anything for me, maybe because we haven't gotten into his character enough yet. I often found myself being all "no wait, go back to the interesting storyline!" when they'd cut away...when I felt compelled to watch the next epp, it had more to do with the cliffhanger at the end of each epp (which annoyingly didn't even get addressed usually until 20 min into the next epp, than with me being "I NEED MORE OF THIS SHOW IN MY LIFE" and loving every minute of it. It was also super confusing with all the characters and names I had no idea how to spell, I wished everyone would wear nametags, lol. And the usual HBO overemphasis on sex and blood (especially how they seemed to contrive it so that 90% of the sex on the show was anal, making me wonder if this was the custom of the kingdom as stated in the books, lol) made me eyeroll a lot. In short, I think that I do love "The Borgias" more on the whole, despite the fail of the Ursula storyline there. (And despite the incestuous pairing being actually incestuous in GoT, Cesare/Lucrezia trump them any day!).
BUT whatever, enough about that, let's talk about the positives. I think the theme is my favorite part of the show, it's just gorgeous and epic and makes me more excited for the show than the show itself, lol. I will be trying to get a copy of that ASAP. The whole opening credits, once I started to actually pay attention to them, are really neat, I love having the visual of the map like that to orient myself by. Then character-wise Daenerys, Arya, and Tyrion are basically flawless and the best, along with the direwolves...I liked Daenerys' storyline best (if it's true that they originally cast Tazmin Merchant, aka Catherine Howard of The Tudors in the role then WISE RECASTING DECISION HBO), she definitely grew the most over the course of this season, and though I feel a bit weird about it because of the rapey beginnings, I do ship Dany/Drago by the end (because they were so sweet and tender and cute together), and felt really sad at Drago's passing. I can't wait to see what's next in store for her, now that she has those adorable dragons to back her up! Arya is just a badass (although ironically I found her storyline to generally be the most boring, since one training scene was like them all to me). And Tyrion is intriguing and hilarious and it's nice to have someone who's smart around...it's great that they were able to find a dwarf who was so excellent in the part! I also enjoyed Bronn (I didn't even know his name until I just looked it up), the man who fights for Tyrion to free him from Cate's cray cray sister and banters with him so well, and Shae (again had to look this up), Tyrion's current concubine, intrigues me as well. So yeah, I am looking forward to next season, though ESPECIALLY just because of this HBIC being cast in it:
It's funny, I was never the biggest Anne fan on the show (both because of my stance historically and because she was just creepy in season 1), and I have no idea who Margery Tyrell even is, but I just know ND will be totally BAMF in this role, and I am excite to see her on the show! :D
Also, I took this quiz, and apparently I'm a Lannister:
In which Game of Thrones house do you belong?
Your Result: You belong in HOUSE LANNISTER - Hear Me Roar
Home to the wealthiest of the great houses, the keep at Casterly Rock sits literally on top of a gold mine, built into the very rock. From that lofty yet uncomfortable position, House Lannister rules over the Westerlands (and influences all of Westeros, by virtue of the kingdom’s purse strings). With the ascension of Lord Tywin to the house seat, the Lords of the Rock developed a reputation for ruthlessness as well as riches. This was due in part to Tywin’s remorseless efforts to keep his bannerhouses in line, but also because Aerys II was murdered by one of his own Kingsguard: Ser Jaime Lannister. Their unofficial motto states, "A Lannister always pays his debts."
You belong in HOUSE ARRYN - As High as Honor
You belong in HOUSE TARGARYEN - Fire and Blood
You belong in HOUSE BARATHEON - Ours is the Fury
You belong in HOUSE STARK - Winter is Coming
In which Game of Thrones house do you belong?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz
Oh well, whatever, Tyrion is one and he is flawless, so I'm just at that end of the spectrum I'd say...:p
And while speaking of GoT, I saw this cool t-shirt in the window of this nerdy comic book shop-type place in Sevilla, and appreciate it even more now! ;)
('Se acerca el invierno' obviously means "Winter is Coming")
Since watching GoT, I've also rekindled my love for the Kushiel's Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey, which GoT reminded me a lot of actually--for all those who love GoT, I HIGHLY recommend reading these books! Deadly palace court intrigue (including a "game of thrones"--this phrase is even used at least once or twice in the first book as I noticed while re-reading), mysteries about the past to be slowly uncovered/revealed, action and adventure, an epic, well-told love story, a complex and grey villain, an unforgettable cast of characters that you will love (I basically wanted to cry in the last book when I had to say goodbye to these characters forever, I loved and enjoyed them so much), this series has it all, and many elements that are found in GoT as well (including some explicit eroticism, but nothing really gratuitous since the protagonist is a courtesan). I've basically spent the last few days re-reading the first book, Kushiel's Dart, and being gripped and unable to put it down despite knowing exactly what is going to happen b/c I've read it at least 3 other times...;) /obligatory favorite series pimp