Sunday Night TV- Gigolos & Whores

[kmo]

 
It's helpful when my two Sunday night shows are united by similar visual motifs. 

Game of Thrones 3.03

- Great way of establishing the Edmure/Blackfish dynamic and what a giant tool Edmure is. Blackfish you are my favorite ambiguously gay tertiary character in asoiaf!

- Show continues to remind me that ASoS is my least favorite Arya storyline. It's all about her running around the riverlands getting kidnapped by by various people. Though the good-bye with Hot Pie was cute. Aww, gonna miss you, bro. I also like Gendry a lot better on TV. He can keep taking his shirt off. I'm gay not blind, HBO. The only thing I really hope they include (and it is so small, they probably won't) is Arya's meeting with Lady Smallwood of Acorn Hall. I can't even say why but that vignette just tugs my heartstrings. Lady Smallwood is my favorie quaternary character. 

- Jaime & Brienne! aswhajwkljwf! Please just give them their own spinoff buddy cop show where they run around Westeros being snarky, having sexual tension and solving mysteries. Like Bones but set in the Middle Ages. I want this almost as much as I wanted the Tywin-Arya-Jaqen H'ghar spinoff last year- My Two Badass Dads. 

- I also really liked the change in the rationale for why Jaime loses a hand. One of the big themes of the books (and will come up again at the Red Wedding) is people questioning power based on tradition/wealth/class. 

-DANY. You are the BEST. You are like Harriet Tubman with dragons. I can't wait for next week. 

-Confession: I have a soft spot for the curmudgeonly Stannis. This week's Melisandre/Stannis scene was the best yet, I think. Melisandre's amused shooting down of Stannis is the best thing I think she's done so far. Oh Stannis, looks like you need some cialis or some shit. 

That dumbass scene with Pod in the whorehouse. I can't even, HBO. Is this even necessary? Do you have to pay a fine or something if you fail to show a naked lady in less than two successive episodes.

-So last week I was sad there was no "Bear and the Maiden Fair." Erm. Thanks for hitting home, show, that this song is apparently a metaphor for date rape. I mean, I knew there was a beauty & the beast vibe to the story, but I felt like the song was presented more comically in the book. But with Bolton's men singing it right before Jaime tells Brienne they're going to gang rape her....yeah. 
 
I really don't have a lot of Mad Men thoughts this week. Other than I think Peggy and Stan's late night calls are my new favorite thing, and definitely the best phone calls since "Pizza House!" Oh and *slow clap* for Trudy Campbell. Trudy Campbell for the Iron Throne! Still, not enough Joan. Moar Joan. 

Comments

[likeadeuce]

spuffyduds was visiting me last night and I made her watch the end of the episode with me (she's only on season 1 of the show, I think, but she's read far enough in the books that I was able to start re-enacting the way this scene was played and then realized I could just play it for her.)

Anyway, one thing that I realized on rewatching it was that Brienne was WINNING (or at least holding her own in) that fight before Jaime's sapphire gambit. At least, it doesn't look like they'd even begun to knock her down or get her clothes off. I mean, she was outnumbered and they probably would have eventually gotten the best of her in some awful way, but I thought the way that was staged complicated the 'you should just lie back and surrender because otherwise they'll knock your teeth out' version that we get in dialogue.

Haven't got to Mad Men yet, glad there is Trudy.

[kmo]

huh, that's interesting. it does seem like one of the reason Jaime decides to help her is because she does fight back, against his advice. the one thing i did really like about that moment is that Jaime already has a grudging respect for her, he sees her as a kind of equal even before he has lost his hand. in the books i think it's less clear...it's more like Jaime becoming disabled teaches him empathy/makes him need Brienne's protection, therefore he helps her.

Trudy's awesomeness aside, it was kind of a generic episode of Mad Men. which is fine...the season always starts out slow.

[likeadeuce]

Yeah, it's obviously a really complicated issue and I don't want to read it as a moral judgment on the idea of fighting back (it may indeed be Jaime's moral judgment but he's hardly the one to look to), but it does acknowledge Brienne's physical strength and complicates the victim categories a bit.

I think the book sequence works primarily because of Jaime's inner narration, and I like that the show seems to be recognizing the moments that don't translate and finding ways to make them more dramatic; (I think the changes in Theon and to some extent Cersei's characterization reflect this too; a lot of the dramatic tension in Theon's chapters -- and then later on when see more of Cersei -- is the contrast between self-concept and what's going on in the real world. The show can't do this so we see more external motivation.)

I also wonder if they're moving some events around deliberately to preserve a sense of suspense for people who know the books -- you are waiting for this stuff to happen but aren't prepared for exactly when. The slow dawning of 'oh this is THAT scene' was a hell of a thing.

[kmo]

yeah, i'm also trying not to read a moral commentary on fighting back vs. not fighting back ("legitimate rape" and all that garbage). but i think, given the scene that came before where Jaime said he would make them kill him if he was a woman, and seeing Brienne put herself in a situation where her rapists might actually do that- Jaime was able to recognize a bit of himself in her.

i also think Brienne is coming across as far more quick-witted and snarkier than she does in the books, which i am also enjoying.

yes- i am ok with them mixing stuff up in general as long as whatever they come up with is equal to or better than what's on the page. so i don't mind the altered interpretations of Cersei & Theon or Tywin getting Roose Bolton's storyline because i actually like them better. still miss Roose's leeches, though. not gonna lie. ;)

[likeadeuce]

Oh, I see what you mean about Trudy!

Pete is really terrible at EVERYTHING, isn't he? Including cheating.

I loved Don tanking the Jaguar meeting, and Pete being confused about what Munich was. (It's less extreme but that scene reminded me of The Sopranos when Christopher is surprised to find out that the Cuban Missile Crisis really happened. "I saw that movie! I thought it was bullshit!")

The non-office stuff was not as interesting to me and there is not enough DNW in the world for more of Don's flashbacks.

[kmo]

the recap at entertainment weekly called Pete Salieri to Don's Mozart in the realm of cheating. that was a bit generous for Pete but still made me laugh.

OMG you think they would just *learn* already with the Dick Whitman flashbacks! To put it in an SAT analogy- Flashbacks : Mad Men :: Random brothel scenes : Game of Thrones

i'm feeling sorry for Megan. I want her to leave him and have a fabulous life of her own. I don't know what's up with Sylvia but I do like Linda Cardellini. oh and now you have made me miss Christafuh.

[likeadeuce]

I was screeching 'Oh my God, Megan, do not have a baby with this man!!!'