Post by Ignis FatuusI was evidently wrongheaded in thinking that this pseudo-medieval
fantasy would have anything in common with Lord of the Rings or even
Legend of the Seeker. Instead we were treated to the bedroom antics of
a bunch of uniquely unpleasant characters, in a soft-porn soap that
has more in common with Dallas, Dynasty, and the like. The unfolding
plot is complex, repetitive, and unremittingly dull.
Well, I've seen it now, and while I wouldn't call it unmissable, I
don't recognise most of the above - though not necessarily for
positive reasons. I can't see, for instance, how such cliched
characters can be described as 'uniquely unpleasant', nor how a plot
that so far has amounted to "the bad guy doing a Lucius Malfoy
impression is planning an invasion using equally caricatured barbarian
horsemen as his army, while back home the Henry VIII clone has
appointed his loyal but dull friend as his deputy. Oh, and by the way
there's some ancient evil in the woods because, well, where else would
an ancient evil lurk in a fantasy world?" can be described as either
"complex" or "repetitive"; there's roughly as much nuance to the
unfolding story so far as there is to the villain telling his sister
that he'd let the entire barbarian horde sleep with her to get their
army.
All that being said, however, I enjoyed it - good fantasy, especially
good TV fantasy (which is much rarer even than good TV sci-fi), is
about world-building and atmosphere, and the first episode scores on
that count due to having the highest production values I've seen in a
fantasy TV series (with admittedly the odd slip up - who knew that
dragons laid pinecones? No wonder they're always in a bad mood).
What's more I know from experience with fantasy novels that they often
have a slow build and characters that appear shallow and caricatured
at first - this is a novel adaptation (and, as I understand it, a
rather faithful one) rather than a made-for-TV show, and so it's not
necessary or necessarily desirable for it to put in a self-contained
plot with setpiece action in each conveniently 45-minute-long section.
I do agree that it was oversexed - at least four sex scenes, and more
nakedness, is by no means necessary in 45 minutes, and it's neither an
enjoyable spectator sport nor, in all but one case right at the end,
obviously relevant to the plot. I hope that gets toned down in
subsequent episodes, since it does raise a concern that this might
degenerate into the kind of "cool kids think sex on TV is adult" teen-
opera that I hear True Blood was, and which killed any desire I might
have had to watch that (along with equally juvenile slang like
'fangbangers' in that case). But for now I'm prepared to stick with it
for another few episodes - it's no instant winner as I found Being
Human to be, and so far I haven't been struck by any especially good
writing, strong dialogue or intelligent insights of the kind I've
encountered in fantasy novels by Martin's contemporaries or
successors, but it's watchable enough.
Phil