{"id":4888,"date":"2011-05-03T21:39:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T11:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4888"},"modified":"2011-05-03T21:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T11:53:00","slug":"tv-show-round-up-game-of-thrones-the-killing-the-borgias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4888","title":{"rendered":"TV Show Round Up: Game of Thrones, The Killing, The Borgias"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the Easter Break I had a chance to check out a bunch of a new tv shows.\u00a0 I’m normally pretty conservative with my viewing habits and stick with what I know.\u00a0 I don’t really try out new shows all that often.\u00a0 I have a laundry list of classic shows that I know I should watch one day that I never get around to (including The West Wing, The Sopranos, Mad Men<\/em> and Breaking Bad<\/em>).\u00a0 I don’t really know what possessed me to try three new shows at once.<\/p>\n

As it happens, I’m in luck.\u00a0 Three for three – I really enjoyed all the new shows I tried out.\u00a0 Here’s a quick write up on each of them.<\/p>\n

Game of Thrones<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Far and away, my favourite new show is HBO’s Game of Thrones<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s only three episodes old at this point but I love it and am impatiently awaiting each new instalment.\u00a0 Which comes as a bit of surprise since I don’t really enjoy reading fantasy novels.\u00a0 This series is based on the Song Of Fire And Ice<\/em> series written by George R R Martin.\u00a0 It has an ensemble cast, high quality production values and a terrific multi-tiered narrative.\u00a0 We are introduced to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros through the perspective of the Stark family, who are the ruling family of Winterfell, a northern territory that is located adjacent to a gigantic wall of ice which keeps out some mysterious creatures.<\/p>\n

The Starks, lead by patriach Eddard (Sean Bean<\/em>) are paid a visit by King Robert Barathian, the incumbent ruler of the land.\u00a0 He offers Eddard a position at his side after the previous Hand of the King dies under dubious circumstances.\u00a0 The Starks come to suspect it is the work of the ambitious Lannister family who are connected to King Robert through marriage.\u00a0 Making matters even more complicated, there is a brewing rebellion across the Narrow Sea from a scheming Targayen prince who wishes to take the throne.\u00a0 And all the while, the Starks warn of a coming winter that threatens to be long and bring with it something evil in the night.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of characters to like in this show.\u00a0 Sean Bean is terrific as the noble and loyal Eddard.\u00a0 There’s also great qualities about his bastard son John Snow and his tomboyish daughter Arya, both of whom are outsiders in their society but are good natured at heart.\u00a0 The show also has its share of entertaining villains likes the scheming Cersei and her twin brother Jaime.\u00a0 And great anti-heroes like the letcherous dwarf Tyrion.\u00a0 One concern I had is that initially it looked like the show wouldn’t really have particularly strong roles for the women.\u00a0 Most of them are introduced in powerless or compromised positions.\u00a0 However, in the proceding episodes you can already see how they can use their wits and savvy to turn situations in ther favour.<\/p>\n

Game Of Thrones<\/em> successfully manages to be a fantasy drama that doesn’t feel too campy or melodramatic.<\/em> There are plenty of well rounded characters and I like how there is a slow build to several stories at once.\u00a0 Of all the new shows I’ve discovered, this is the one I’m most fond of.\u00a0 FOR THE LOVE OF GOD it better not get cancelled prematurely.<\/p>\n

The Borgias<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Not being much of a history buff, I had never heard of the Borgias family before I started watching this show.\u00a0 Reading about them on Wikipedia, its easy to see the appeal of recreating their sordid exploits for a tv show.\u00a0 The Borgias’ were an ambitious Spanish family that rose to power in Rome with Rodrigo Borgias becoming Pope Alexander VI, one of the most infamous Renaissance popes who presided over a corrupt and debauched papacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The unusual aspect of The Borgias<\/em> is that there is no hero to cheer for or identify with.\u00a0 Rodrigo is a stoic Machiavellian figure who uses ruthless means to attain and retain his position.\u00a0 His sons are complicit in his corrupt behaviour.\u00a0 His wife and daughter are not, however they are largely portrayed as victims and bystanders.\u00a0 Even the opposing cardinals who object to Rodrigo’s powergrab aren’t really portrayed particularly sympathetically.\u00a0 They are seen to be in it for themselves and no better.<\/p>\n

So its a credit to the writing and the performances from Jeremy Irons, Holliday Grainger and Francois Arnaud that the show remains as engaging as it does.\u00a0 There are just few passing moments of action in this period drama and so the rest of the time it is up to the central cast to hold the audiences attention with their plotting, scheming and womanizing.<\/p>\n

Happily The Borgias<\/em> has done well enough to get confirmed for a second season by Showtime.<\/p>\n

The Killing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all the new shows I’ve been watching, <\/strong>AMC’s The Killing<\/em> is easily the most conventional.\u00a0 It’s a good old fashioned crime drama.\u00a0 Based in Seattle, it explores the people tied to the events of a single murder case that spans the entire season.\u00a0 The Killing<\/em> is based on a popular Danish television show called Forbrydelsen<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are plenty of familiar crime drama tropes here.\u00a0 There’s an abducted teenage girl.\u00a0 It’s the detective’s final case and she’s partnered up with a cocky fresh-faced newbie who works the case differently to her.\u00a0 There’s a do-gooder running for mayor but he suspects there’s a mole in his campaign team.\u00a0 He’s also somehow connected to the murder.<\/p>\n

It’s familiar territory but the show has a re-assuring pace and a good quality script that makes the familiar concepts still feel interesting.\u00a0 The production quality is also top notch and at the end of the day, I’m a bit of sucker for a whodunnit which means that I’m almost certainly going to be along for the ride until the end of the season to find out who killed Rosie Larsen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the Easter Break I had a chance to check out a bunch of a new tv shows.\u00a0 I’m normally pretty conservative with my viewing habits and stick with what I know.\u00a0 I don’t really try out new shows all that often.\u00a0 I have a laundry list of classic shows that I know I should …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[887,886,885],"class_list":["post-4888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-tv","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-the-borgias","tag-the-killing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4888"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}