"Game of Thrones"

From time to time I'm writing about mini-series. But something spanning multiple seasons, no. There are plenty of reasons. 1. I'm not watching TV series because I don't have time for it (well, except this one). 2. It's complicated to write about a series, because ... it's a series :) = lot to cover. 3. You don't know when to write about a series .. you might be tempted in the 1st season, but what if the 2nd is better ?, what if the 3rd is abysmal ? And I think I can get more arguments. Still, the "GoT" episode from two Sundays ago ( + the fact that again I didn't see any movie the last week :) ) made me "risk" today's entry ...

It's hard to describe the "GoT" subject. In a funny note I could call it a sort of epic soap-opera set in a fictive medieval realm, with a couple fantasy elements ( three dragons, some zombies and a cult getting from time to time some obscure magic infusion from a "god of fire" ). More present than the fantasy is the drama, which is centered on the battle for the land's throne. Or, if the various noble houses fighting can't get there, at least the target is winning a piece of the country. All this leads to extremely entangled situations, involving lots of characters, with very diverse type of human behavior. Probably that's where the success of the series comes from. Unlike others, in "GoT" plenty of the action threads cut the cheesyness and the happy-end, being probably much closer to a real outcome, and often revealing the darkest side of things. Maybe I should avoid a comparison, because it's definitely not the best one, but for me it's sort of a mix between "Dune" and "Rome" (if smth like that can be imagined). Anyway ...

As it's probably known, the series is based on a the writings of G.R.R. Martin, who still has some unfinished books to publish. I didn't read anything, but the script (at least up to the current season 4) is one of the few that managed to keep me on track watching weekly the episodes = the adaptation, no matter how close or not to the original, is excellent. Besides that, the production part (made by HBO) it's far better than many big screen cases. To end with the technical side, we have a soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi, which I'll risk to say it's the best I've heard by now in a TV series. In any case, I've left at the end the most important part .. the casting ...

We don't have many big names among the actors. Actually, I guess many got known through "GoT". It's not the case to start enumerating, because I'll certainly lose somebody. To get back to the intro, as I said, what convinced me to write this entry is an episode - more precisely 6 from season 4. Besides some other scenes + the story development, "the final trigger" to call it so, was the best monologue (acting+script) of a pissed off guy, that I've watched since Pacino in "Scent of the Woman" ( no kiddin' :) ). For me, "Farscape" remains the best TV series that I've ever seen (and for which I hope I'll be able sometimes to get time to rewatch it, but I shouldn't be alone ;) for some reasons). It's one of the few cases which did grow enormously from season to season, up to a level that I doubt it can be easily reached. Even though there are years since then, I can still remember about some episodes like "Daedalus Commands/Icarus Abides", "The Choice", "Into the Lion's Den", "Dog with Two Bones", "We're so Screwed" or others, that most probably don't mean anything to anybody, so I'll stop counting :) ... The point is that "The Laws of Gods and Men" from "GoT" gets to that level, and I'll have it stuck in my head for a while (maybe a bit subjective :) don't know, don't care, but I loved it). Spoiler: the ending, starring Peter Dinklage, script by D.B. Weiss & David Benioff below (for how long it lasts on YT). I don't know how relevant is, being out of context for somebody who didn't see anything from the series by now, but anyway, enjoy ;)

Rating: 5 out of 5 ( until now :) )