What's on tv tonight?

I am enjoying Marriage - perhaps because it features a couple who have been together almost as long as my partner and I, and who are navigating that stage of life when children are in their 20s and trying to make their own way. I also like the fact that I have no idea (after watching 2 episodes) as to whether something properly dramatic is going to happen. My enjoyment is further enhanced by people getting into a fluster about the 'theme tune'. I am a huge fan of Caroline Shaw (who thankfully makes regular visits to perform in London) and the music is her Partita for 8 voices for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. The full piece can be seen here:

Btw, I think the first episode of The Great series 2 is about to go off All4 so hurry up if you haven't started it!

BBC4 is showing a repeat of The Buddah of Suburbia tonight from 1993.
Well worth seeing if you missed it first time around.

Still not ready to jump back in after the mess made of the last series of GoT

I really liked the last series! I rewatched the battle for King's Landing episodes again on Now TV last night and they were phenomenal. . Whether or not you liked the last series I'd say give this a go - it's tonally different, more I, Claudius-style court politics thus far, and a more Byzantine look (the 70s sword and sorcery, boobs and bums aspect of the early GoT series haven't aged well).  

I enjoyed Game of Thrones but, much like The Walking Dead, I think it outstayed it’s welcome, and any time there’s talk of potential spin-offs I can’t help but wonder “does anyone still care?” It may be because I had pretty low expectations, but I quite liked the first episode. Great cast too.

My issue with GoT was in the middle of the series - so many plot threads like

All of these things went on for even longer in the books and if I remember correctly, were just as, if not more brutal. I know it's fashionable to say that the showrunners were nothing without GRRM, but they did a great job of pruning these more repetitive plotlines and condensing characters so things flowed.

GRRM has brilliant ideas and has given us a range of characters that feel distinct, with complex plots and story arcs are all the more fulfilling because he planted the seeds in earlier books. I don't want this to come across as hating on him, but he needed a good editor. Someone to ask him 'is this really necessary?', then when he inevitably says 'yes' to follow up with 'but does it all need to be this detailed?' and 'are you sure we need this much description of the food?'

I think the problem was that time was needed for the dragons to grow or so that other characters could get on with their storylines to be in the right place for everyone to come together. I suspect this is also why it's over ten years between the 5th and 6th books.

There were only ever meant to be seven seasons of the tv show to match the seven planned books. The fifth book came out about a month after the first season aired. That was over eleven years ago. He's since attended a plethora of conventions, premieres and awards shows, which suggests he likes (or at least liked) what was happening on tv. He admitted to problems in the earlier books getting the timelines to work, so it's bound to be tougher for the final books.

If he were that precious about the tv show matching his plans for the books then it suggests he'd already got plans for the books, so even if he couldn't write them in time, he could have shared more of the important plot points. We know he did share some important stuff that's not yet published, such as Jon Snow, Shireen and Hodor, and know he shared unspecified aspects of the ending. It was reported that most of the main character endings were to be the same, but it is possible that having seen fan reaction he may have changed his mind. 

Some stuff is definitely different. The most obvious being Bronn, who was a minor book character, who ended up taking a larger role in the tv show. First because the actor playing Ser Ilyn Payne was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and they didn't want to recast him, so chose to have Jaime sparring with Bronn instead. Then he became a convenient and popular secondary character that helped translate the Jaime and Tyrion stories from page to screen.

Not even a footnote? Come on!

On 'House of the Dragon', it's a few hours since I watched it and comparing it with the opening of Game of Thrones, where the characters were immediately engaging and I really wanted to find out what the story had in store for them, I haven't really got that so much from HotD. I think the characters need more charisma, humour, sexiness. Hopefully that will come, [/span]

We are still talking about it. There's another series, which predates the original, and all lots of people can do, including you, is talk about the original series. The series was the top streamed show in the world for the two years after it ended, and is consistently in the top ten streamed shows on HBOMax. It's OK if you didn't like it, but it's hyperbole to claim that people stopped watching it or talking about it.

As it turns out, despite claims that the franchise was ruined, and that no-one ever wanted to be reminded of that world ever again, the first episode of House of the Dragon had overnight viewing figures on HBO of 10 million, which is a record for them for a 'new' series, which is of course expected to grow.

I watched that first episode last night, and it was a solid start, but hasn't yet grabbed me. I went in braced for a lot of new names and ground laying, and that's exactly what I got. It was fun to see places we're already familiar with looking a little bit different, after a period of peace. At the beginning of Game of Thrones, everyone is still recovering from the last war. You can't expect the thrills of the later season finales until we've all put the work.

One of the great strengths of the Game of Thrones series (tv and books) was the different settings and different types of people and distinct characters. People had their favourite characters, families and settings, but hopping between them all make them all more interesting. Hopefully the next episode will expand beyond King's Landing.

One of the reveals was the big terrible secret about the prophecy of what we now know as "The Others" being passed from ruler to heir. My problem with that is that if it's that important, then having periods of time when only one person knows about it, is flawed, and all I could think about was how stupid they were to not have a contingency. Or why it needs to be kept a secret from the wider family or even the public in the first place.