For a cable channel that has long been associated with quality original programming – going as far back as the 1980s, when such series as Fraggle Rock, Tales from the Crypt, and The Kids in the Hall landed it on the map – HBO managed to do the impossible and top itself in 2014.
It’s normally a pointless (not to mention mindless) task to engage in “best year ever” navel-gazing, but, in this particular instance, it more than justifies itself; not only is it an instructive exercise to see where the future of television may be heading, generally, but also to survey the in-house competition that Game of Thrones, which has been the channel’s flagship series since almost literally the night it premiered back in April 2011, is currently facing – and, even more importantly, what it should be learning from its brethren as it heads into its final stretch.
It turns out that such a comparison is rather illuminating, and one that, sadly, isn’t done enough.
What precisely made 2014 so incredibly, outrageously strong? It’s not just a matter of the quality of its contents; 2004, for instance, saw the stunning lineup of The Sopranos’s fifth season, Deadwood’s first, Entourage’s first, Six Feet Under’s fourth, and The Wire’s third, all of which helped to push or further redefine the boundaries of serialized narratives to one extent or another. And it’s not simply the quantity of series that were on the air, even though ’14 did, indeed, go down in the history books as one of HBO’s most productive years yet.
The reason lies in that intersection of breadth and depth and the unimaginably sweet fruit it managed to produce – from the writing to the directing to the production design and beyond, the cable channel managed to fire on every single cylinder on a remarkably consistent basis that will long be remembered as one of the golden periods of televised content. (There’s also the little matter of 2014 being the year when so many HBO series finished their runs, which certainly didn’t hurt in the dramatics department.) To say that this has been one of the most influential years in television production is an understatement in the extreme.
Enough with the pontificating – let’s actually dive into the shows themselves. Before we do, however, there are a few disclaimers to offer up. We’re only going to be concentrating on HBO’s dramas, as they’re the closest to Game of Thrones’s narrative nature (and, well, I’m not much of a comedic guy, to be frank). And though we will touch on nearly all of the dramatic shows, there is one that we’re going to skip: True Blood, since I myself skipped out on it (I’m only one not-into-comedies guy, after all – and one with a wife, two-year-old child, large workload, and sickly father, to boot).
Finally, lest any of you fear that we might venture into sullied territory in our rundown, rest assured that no spoilers will be offered and your opportunity to enjoy each of these remarkable series will be left unimpeded.
True Detective
Broadcast run: January 12 – March 9
Season: one
Number of episodes: eight
Showrunner: Nic Pizzolatto
True Detective, despite the incredibly – and unfortunately – prosaic name, is a rarity in television for several reasons: not only are all of its first season episodes written by the same individual (creator/showrunner Nic Pizzolatto), they’re all also directed by only one person (Cary Joji Fukunaga, who rightfully won awards for his work).
More than that, however, is the depths to which the story itself plunges. Yes, it features two anti-heroes making their way through a morally compromised world, and, yes, it can be extraordinarily graphic, but, in a world where violent anti-heroes increasingly populate the small screen each and every week (particularly on HBO), the resolution of these character arcs – if not also the underlying plot – and the culmination of the violence reach an emotionally engaging and, much more profoundly, repercussion-filled denouement that strips the usual romanticism of such tropes away and reveals a profoundly naked characterization of what such an existence ultimately leads to.
Add in the heaping helpings of existentialism, the extremely nuanced portrayals by Woody Harrelson and, particularly, Matthew McConaughey, and the surprisingly (and comparatively) optimistic finale, and you have one of the best television shows to ever be produced.
There is much for Game of Thrones to learn from here, starting with the consistency of tone and ending with an intensity that comes more from the quiet performances and still moments than swashbuckling feats of derring-do or copious amounts of nudity.
Game of Thrones
Broadcast run: April 6 – June 15
Season: four
Number of episodes: 10
Showrunners: David Benioff and Dan Weiss
There has been so much analysis generated and controversy (both real and manufactured) examined, it’s nearly impossible to add anything new to the discussion over Game of Thrones‘s most recent endeavor to bring George R.R. Martin’s dense narrative to the small screen.
Let’s leave it at this, then: HBO’s flagship series is notable both for its extremely refined production values and overall execution and for its oftentimes threadbare deviations from the source material, both of which reached their peak last year. Since season five looks to exponentially expand on both points, 2015 may deliver the most paradoxical – and, possibly, uneven – performance yet.
True Blood
Broadcast run: June 22 – August 24
Season: seven (final)
Number of episodes: 10 (normally 12)
Showrunner: Brian Buckner (third showrunner)
The Leftovers
Broadcast run: June 29 – September 7
Season: one
Number of episodes: 10
Showrunner: Damon Lindelof
Equal parts ambiguous, surrealist, histrionic, and pedestrian, The Leftovers is simultaneously everything a 21st century viewer would both want and despise in a television odyssey. A remarkably strong premise – a Rapture-esque event claims two percent of the world’s population, plunging those left behind into an existential malaise that is seemingly impossible to break out of – is glued with pseudo-mystical plot twists and strong dramatic underpinnings, wrapped around the center of a strong anti-hero (but of course) that was fashioned especially for this adaptation.
The bad news here is that everything about the series, from its characterizations to its overarching plot to its musical score, is relentlessly bleak, producing a sort of “nihilism porn” that the characters – and, presumably, the production crew behind them – can’t get enough of. The good news is that the premise is so intriguing, the narrative potential so strong, and the unfolding story – which includes the remarkably strong performances from the entire cast – so expertly crafted, it’s a series that’s hard to look away from for too long.
But it does create a tension within the viewer, a nauseating tug-of-war between pulling one’s hair out in sheer exasperation (or is that desperation?) and the urge to immediately cue up the succeeding episode. It is as if HBO decided to take Tony Soprano and plop him into the thematic world of Westeros.
There is, of course, a cut-off point with any story in any medium, and in case Game of Thrones wasn’t enough to push audiences there – hello, Red Wedding! – The Leftovers certainly reaches that threshold, even without the help of all its HBO cousins. Just how much self-inflicted pain should viewers perpetrate upon themselves? Just how much pointlessness can a narrative sustain before there is a point of no return? How grey can a character become before he is irrevocably lost in the void?
The clear critical consensus is that audiences are willing to make the leap of faith with the channel’s newest, even though the first season exhausted the novel it is based on already. Seeing as how Dan Weiss and David Benioff are nearly at the same point, they should be paying particularly close attention to The Leftovers‘s sophomore outing; all of these showrunners will be taking their lives into their own hands – figuratively as well as, perhaps, literally – very soon.
Both rides better be worth it, for all our sakes.
Boardwalk Empire
Broadcast run: September 7 – October 26
Season: five (final)
Number of episodes: eight (normally 12)
Showrunner: Terrence Winter
Boardwalk Empire has long suffered in the shadow of its progenitor series, The Sopranos (the former’s showrunner, Terrence Winter, served as essentially the number two executive producer/writer on the latter), and with good reason: it tries to one-up its predecessor while never quite being able to step out of its shadow.
Nowhere is this better manifested than in Boardwalk’s ability to outshine Sopranos in terms of its production values (it’s almost impossible to find a show that is as lavishly detailed in realizing its setting, either historical or not), but also its inability to live up to the sublime multi-dimensionality that has made David Chase’s magnum opus one of, if not the, best television tales ever told. There is a certain, distanced flatness to Boardwalk’s characters, which is further reinforced by the show’s propensity to shoot with wide-angle lenses and the unfolding of its oftentimes unwieldy and disjointed narrative; entire locations, subplots, and, even, protagonists are introduced and dropped at a moment’s notice, resulting in a lot of spinning of circles in what is, essentially, just one man’s personal story of corruption and repeated attempts at redemption (sound [somewhat] familiar to Game of Thrones fans?).
Still, what makes Boardwalk Empire an absolutely must-do television excursion is, without a doubt, its final season, which pulls a feat that is hitherto unseen in the medium: rather than continually amping up to a cataclysmic showdown of epic proportions, Winter and his writing staff instead ramp down to hone in on the character of Nucky Thompson; rather than introducing new action beats or mob-infused story arcs, the writers dabble in the realms of emotion and thematic motif, leaving the final episode to be an unapologetic character study in the extreme.
The end result is a finale that has a surprisingly potent level of closure, of bringing the character – and the overarching story he finds himself trapped in – full-circle. It’s a breathtaking example of narrative experimentation, one that is as poetic as it is satisfying (if not also as uneven in its attempts at getting there).
One can only hope that both George R.R. Martin and Benioff and Weiss are taking notes.
The Newsroom
Broadcast run: November 9 – December 14
Season: three (final)
Number of episodes: six (normally 10)
Showrunner: Aaron Sorkin
Let’s just call The Newsroom what it is upfront: a sermon. It is to liberals what Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is to conservatives (though it does, of course, feature a fair bit more in the common sense department).
Beyond the show’s constant speechifying, however, there is a deeper flaw, which revolves around the sorry fact that each and every one of its many characters – from the lead roles on down to the recurring parts – is actually the same person, with identical reactions to emotionally charged situations and, at times, the same exact cadences of speech. Again like Atlas Shrugged, each individual secretly knows the true philosophical and moral error of his ways deep down and can only shrug good-naturedly when the fighting-against-the-machine protagonists call them out on it.
What nonetheless makes the show a fun and rewarding watch is its unabashed sentimentality, its on-the-nose old-school sensibilities – and, okay, its unified point of view. Particularly when accosted with the non-stop ontological ravages of True Detective, The Leftovers, Boardwalk Empire, and, yes, even Game of Thrones, it’s refreshing and, perhaps, a little mandatory to take a breather and enjoy the resolute knowledge that the good guys will always win (despite the costs inflicted along the way) and true love will always find a way to flourish (no matter how many rom-com twists it may take). There is a simple, almost home-grown quality that The Newsroom brought to the table that somehow left the viewer with a refreshing taste in his mouth – one that HBO will be sorely missing this year.
(If the show’s overriding ethos seems particularly superficial or otherwise unbelievable, there is actually the same exact danger that the fundamentally opposed series also risk invoking: painting everything black is just as unrealistic as spraying it uniformly white, a point I made in much more detail regarding George Martin’s narrative some time ago over at Tower of the Hand.)
As both Martin and Benioff and Weiss start contemplating the home stretch of their respective version of Game of Thrones‘s story, they could do much worse than to look at Newsroom’s bittersweet (a word that Martin has consistently used to describe his ideal ending) and emotionally resonant finale for inspiration – though, hopefully, theirs contains less by-the-numbers resolutions.
Did you enjoy my analysis? You can find plenty more, focused specifically on Game of Thrones, in my latest ebook: It Is Known: An Analysis of Thrones, Vol. II. (Vol. III will be hitting the electronic stands soon.)
As a liberal, I’ve got to say there’s nothing about The Newsroom that I find appealing. It’s about an older white man who is always right and logical and oh so wise while all inferior neurotic women flutter around him.
Not so progressive.
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
Agreed. Try as I might to enjoy, I just found Newsroom silly. Strange as it sounds, GoT is much more realistic in its approach to human emotion.
Thanks for the thought provoking article.
I believe TD only had 8 episodes, not 10. I wish it had 10 though.
Nice thoughts, MK. Unrestrained by commercial tethers, HBO leads the field of enticing entertainment…although FX and others are not too far behind!
The Leftovers has my attention, although I always fear that it will end with someone waking up…’tis but a dream! Sensually delusioned.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Speaking of FX, I am a little confused and perturbed. I didn’t watch Fargo during the run because I thought I could binge On Demand. But lo and behold, it is only available on a pay per basis. So paying twice -once for cable service, once to see series. Bah
I feel that Thrones gets too much criticism headed its way simply because it’s derived from the books and thus has a direct point of comparison. Even if some scenes are good and make sense in the context of the show, there is at least one person who gets angry over them for the deviation. For example, the Craster’s Keep stuff was entertaining filler that also served a purpose- it made Bran in control of the situation, for once, rather than have him following the tile; now, it shows that he is self-determined to go north. However, the majority act as if that scene was some heinous crime. Anyways, it was easily the best show this year for me. Silicon Valley was the only other one that stood out in my opinion.
Patchy Face,
I hear you. Further limitations of “free” on-demand shows seem to be a ramification of the “a-la-carte” movement. Sometimes even early episodes within the current season are not “free” anymore. Ugh.
Great article. 2014 was a very strong year for HBO. I’m very interested in seeing what 2015 brings us with so many changes taking place owing to the end of some long running properties in 2014.
True Detective S2 being moved to the summer creates a little bit of a hole to start the year as I don’t believe I’ve ever seen 4 comedies run in a block for HBO over a season. Obviously they have Girls (which is polarizing but a show I still very much enjoy) to try and more or less launch the other 3 comedies around it so it should be interesting to see if any of those can establish themselves. Girls most likely has a limited shelf life, it’s been renewed for next year already but probably won’t go for much more than that.
Obviously, going into April, they’ve got GoT which is their juggernaut and a property they can lean on for at least 3 more years. I like the strategy they are using by putting 2 comedies behind it as opposed to another drama. I think, much like Lost (who ABC tried to launch a million dramas with), GoT is such a zeitgeist show, that after an episode is finished airing, people are more inclined to want to talk about it then watch the next thing that’s on and they certainly aren’t as willing to dive immediately into something that’s going to cause them to commit emotionally to. Silicon Valley and Veep are two of HBO’s best comedies and having them follow GoT is a nice change of pace and allows them to flourish as well.
We shouldn’t forget that another great HBO show launch last year was John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight which originally looked like it was going to be a Daily Show rehash which would struggle to remain topical but in my mind surpassed the Daily Show by using its ability to have longform reports to really delve into the insanity of some of these stories. It is easily the funniest news show on TV right now and I’m pleasantly surprised HBO has made it into such a success. Having John Oliver helps obviously because he’s awesome.
Going into the summer, it appears like we’ll have the 1-2 punch of the second seasons of True Detective and The Leftovers. That’s just great TV and while I might have to spread out these viewings in separate nights because they’re both ridiculously heavy, I am happy to have 2 great shows that are on over the summer which is a traditionally lean time for TV (although not as much as it used to be).
For the Fall, this appears to be where Westworld will debut (taking Boardwalk Empire’s spot). If you don’t know anything about Westworld, look it up because it should be amazing. It will most likely become the new HBO “buzz” show which should set up nicely for the transition once GoT is done. Here’s a little bit about it here:
http://io9.com/first-look-at-hbos-new-westworld-series-looks-crazy-goo-1674491523
The rest of the year is a little more unclear. 3 new projects seem to be scheduled for 2015 so they might be showing up around this time:
The first is the Martin Scorcese (as yet untitled) music project which will deal with the 70’s rock n’ roll and disco scene in New York all seen through a record producer’s eyes. Terrence Winter (showrunner for Boardwalk Empire) is also involved so this will surely be extremely watchable and happens to be a subject I am psyched about.
Another project is less known (The Brink). A comedy starring Jack Black and Tim Robbins about the government being on the brink of a nuclear crisis. Sounds like it could be a little like a Dr Strangelove clone but it’s hard to say much at this point.
And finally, there’s Ballers which stars the Rock as an ex-NFL player (as opposed to pro-wrestler) trying to get into Hollywood. It’s not clear whether this is a comedy or drama as they could go either way. Having the Rock involved makes it worth checking out.
Patchy Face,
Found myself in the same boat. Got the Blu-Ray for around 20$… worth every penny. Absolutely worthy of all the praise.
I typically to prefer the cable dramas over their comedies as well, but I have enjoyed Veep when I have watched it. I do somewhat look forward to Westworld but I don’t see much ‘future programming’ so far that I do. The Leftovers disappointed me and I’m not sure they can recapture the same feeling of True Detective with the new cast.
Expanding the topic to premium cable programming overall, I’ve felt that the others have been improving a bit as well in the wake of GoT. I don’t see them as the same level but still decent.
Camelot on Starz was awful in my opinion, but since then they’ve created a couple entertaining shows in Da Vinci’s Demons and Outlander and they now are the ones developing American Gods.
Showtime’s six current dramas are all worth a watch when one has time. Some episodes are very good, some aren’t, but there’s a good base. They’re also developing the revival of Twin Peaks which could be fun.
The Knick on Cinemax is also interesting.
You are certainly correct, Mr. Bastard, and the article has been updated.
Thank you for catching that — and, of course, for the compliments. 😀
~M.
Interestingly (comically?) enough, I actually wrote an op-ed about this very issue over the summer for Tower of the Hand, going into the subject — and why it’s so thematically dissonant with the rest of the narrative — very much in-depth.
You can find it here, if you’re so inclined to waste some time on it:
http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2014/07/16-fighting-fookin-legends/index.html
🙂
~M.
King Tommen,
That’s an excellent collection of thoughts, and you even dropped some knowledge on me (Twin Peaks is being resurrected? :O). Thank you for spending the time to write it all up.
Now you should make it an official article at the site. 😉
~M.
bristolcity,
Tysha though… Leaving her out while having set her up was quite condescending to the audience. It’s a shame, and the only thing I regret about the choices which have been made.
Sopranos. The Wire. Entourage. Deadwood.
Uhm, one of those is not like the others…
And the pilot of The Leftovers was one of the dullest and most uninspired and uninteresting things I have ever seen in my life, I couldn’t get through another episode. Just unbearable.
And my opinion on BE is the opposite of the writer: it had a decent but too overhyped first season, three great middle ones, and a last one that suffered immensely because the creator wants to move on to something, but not abandon this project to someone else, so we have a closing season that literally re-writes history (the Commission meeting never happens in 1929, for example) in a show that was mostly faithful, kills one of the most compelling characters (Rothstein) off-screen and focus too much on Nucky, who has never been the most interesting part of the show.
I’m progressive and liberal though I cannot bring myself to watch Newsroom. Boardwalk however is amazing. Boardwalk & The Wire were my favorite HBO Shows alongside Arliss.
As as a non-liberal I too find the Newsroom unappealing. Boardwalk Empire was really good though, the quality of the sets and costumes etc. are immaculate.
Hadn’t realised Fraggle Rock was one of theirs. All I have in my head now is the exact plot of GoT done in the latter’s style, puppets, songs and all. This image will not leave me so I thought I’d inflict it on the rest of you. Cue the “Oh well never mind, let’s have a cheery sing along” mere seconds after Oberyn’s death/the red wedding/something else that’s the total opposite of nice, fluffy viewing. Let the music play…down in Westeros!
Newsroom, I thought, ran 23 episodes too long.
After the first two episodes, which I liked, except with a little internal spin on corporate management, I got to feeling it was Ground Hog Day, watching the same episode over and over. The cast was good.
I thought Boardwalk Empire suffered from the same problem as Deadwood, two fine seasons and then Meh! Fine cast and production values but story petered out.
True Detective: As long as the story was Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson , man!, it grabbed me. However the veneer of soap just seemed like soap, keep hoping they would get back to the detective story. The ending was a shaggy dog story! Seemed to build to some kind imperial conspiracy by southern evangelicals , but no just some guy straight out of Texas Chainsaw Murders. I keep thinking “well next season they will pick up with the religious conspiracy”, but no! different story next season! Weird.
To clarify, Fraggle Rock was a Canadian production which aired on CBC. HBO eventually licensed to show in the U.S. So it’s not really one of there own shows per se.
I am protective of our Canadian shows because there are so few good ones that we can claim (Trailer Park Boys is another).
I love the Leftovers because it is an extremely polarizing show. The people who like it, like it a lot. And for those who think it’s boring or too depressing, that’s fine, everyone’s tastes differ.
But for a number of people, the show seriously clicked. Many critics too. Alan Sepinwall had it as his #1 show of the year so this certainly isn’t an outlier opinion.
King Tommen,
Aaaah I see, you must have achievements overshadowed by/erroneously allocated to your southern neighbours a lot so gotta stake your claims where you can. In honour of one of your major sports* I now have the cast of Fraggle Rock acting out GoT while playing ice hockey stuck in my head.
*I was gonna say your national sport but not sure if it is? (not a sports fan). I also wanted to add a pun something along the lines of winter is always coming in parts of Canada anyway due to the climate. But that might be massively stereotypical, bordering on racist so I shall keep it to myself. She said posting it on the notoriously private and not-at-all-global internet. I’ll stop digging and go away now :O(
my god The Leftovers is such a fascinating show.
you’re absolutely right, there’s hardly ever any resolution, but the performances and story are just so captivating you can’t look away.
Here are the dramas that I am most excited about in 2015:
1. GoT -HBO (obviously)
2. Mad Men – AMC (final 7 episodes)
3. True Detective – HBO
4. Hannibal – NBC
5. Fargo – FX
6. The Leftovers – HBO
7. The Walking Dead – AMC
8. Penny Dreadful – Showtime
9. Better Call Saul – AMC
10. Westworld – HBO
11. Outlander – Starz
12. The Affair – Showtime
13. The Americans – FX
14. The Returned – A&E (because I love the French version it’s based on)
15. Homeland – Showtime
16. Halt and Catch Fire – AMC
17. The Strain – FX (thought it would be better but still going to watch S2)
Yeah, and that’s one network drama in there (Hannibal). That’s how terrible network TV is right now.
You are correct in noting that our nation lives and breathes hockey (although it technically shares the title of “national sport” with lacrosse for some reason even though no one here really plays lacrosse anymore).
And you would be very accurate in characterizing Canada as the Westerosi-equivalent of The North. The bulk of the population is crunched against the southern border and we have our own “land of always winter” as you venture into the northern territories where our own Wildlings (the Inuit) live in very small pockets. We don’t however possess a Wall because we’re too polite to ever segregate that way.
True Detective was, in my opinion, highly overrated. It had some great acting, but other than that, not much. The Leftovers on the other hand, truly surprised me. I know that it was a bit polarized and not everybody’s cup-of-tea, but I found it to be very compelling.
As someone who has yet seen The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire was a fantastic series (from start to finish). It might’ve been a bit slow at the start of every season, but the way it usually brought all of its characters and plotlines together for an explosive finale was amazing. And the final season really did a great job of giving us an interesting story to one of its least interesting characters (its protagonist).
King Tommen
OMG Fraggle Rock was filmed in Toronto…. is that why I have a nagging memory of meeting the Doozers? Mind blown entirely….Doc was on Today’s Special, of course, I was such a child not to connect the dots
King Tommen,
I’m fascinated and concerned where they are going with S2 of The Leftovers since it seems to be getting a reboot with many supporting characters not returning and the story shifting to a different locale. I guess it makes sense since S1 had a decent closure.
I agree that one either loves or hates the show. I chose to stick with it and to this day I am still affected by the disturbing events of eps 8 (Michelle MacLaren!), 9 & 10. I thought it balanced the mundane and chaos of an evil rapture very well. Very unsettling.
What’s interesting about S2, is that they more or less made it right to the end of the source material (the book) by the end of the first season so they’re free to go in whatever direction they’d like now. It should be interesting.
Ayn Rand (whose books I haven’t read) had contempt for the “god, family, country swamp” of conservatism. National Review had Whittaker Chambers review Atlas Shrugged, titled “Big Sister is Watching You“. It’s most well known line is “From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: “To a gas chamber — go!”” Rand was closer to libertarianism, although she professed to oppose libertarians, perhaps because she though they were all like Murray Rothbard (an anarcho-capitalist kicked out of her circle because his wife was a Methodist, and retaliated by writing “Mozart Was a Red” and “The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult”).
bristolcity, I absolutely agree that Bran making a choice elevated that above other “near miss” scenes for the Stark family and much of the rest of Bran’s journey.
Boojam, there was a somewhat loose familial conspiracy, and the show was explicit that they did not and won’t “get them all”. If the conspiracy is a stand-in for the evil which exists in the world, then of course our two protagonists won’t. But they can and did get their man. The Wire also ended with many criminals free as “the game stays the same”, although that was intentionally going the cynical route (small sparks of optimism for certain characters aside).
King Tommen,
I’m in England and, to massively generalise 45-odd million people’s opinions, we tend to think of Canadians (and some others like Aussies and New Zealanders) as distant cousins. Not sure if it works the other way around though? Some of the things you’re known for over here are big open spaces, some very cold bits and what we call ice hockey (‘cos some still play the grass version). Politeness too; we are usually although we did build a big wall to keep out our northern (Scottish) neighbours a while ago when that sort of thing was socially acceptable. I think one verse of our national anthem mentions massacring (sp?) them if they get too far south!
It’s been said before but watching GoT for a lot of Europeans is sometimes like a history documentary. But with more bewbs.
Lulu’s Mum,
There’s plenty of bewbs in history. Not so many dragons though…
As a Canadian, I certainly identify with British institutions even though I’m not even the slightest bit ethnically British. Though I don’t really care for the monarchy and us having to pay deference to them from all the way over here, we’re quite thankful for the parliamentary government and socialised medicine.
I’d like to see the Chicken Lady from Kids in the Hall coming on to Hodor…and Hodor’s reaction. That would be a good bit.
People might not want to see all the bewbs on tv but I think they were prevalent in the time…brothels were aplenty and Noblemen could have their way with any peasants girls they liked.
The Who’s this? video made with the joint nightmare before xmas plus GOT theme was pretty good.
Maybe someone can do one for the fraggle rock theme song…dance your cares away…worrys for another day…let the music play…er, what’s that? rains of castemere?
—Dead Stark—
down at fraggle rock (winterfell)
…there be no other days in GOT.
I think for the most part, Canadians do romanticize the connection to the monarchy but in practice, it’s at this point looked at as a little bit of a silly outdated custom that we adhere to only because of tradition.
We do go wild for any of the Royal visits however so we still live in a bit of a contradictory state.
Most of the stereotypical notions about Canadians are unfortunately for us, fairly accurate. We love hockey, beer, have wide open spaces in most of the country, we are exceedingly polite, have an inferiority complex when it comes to America and have lots of Mounties (although they’re usually not always dressed up in the full garb everyone associates with them).
The one thing that’s exaggerated IMO is the weather. Yes, it does get cold but that’s just in winter (3-4 months) and the rest of the year it’s very nice and in the summer it can get pretty damn hot. As I stated, most of the population lives very close to the U.S. border so the weather in a lot of Canadian locales is identical to that of northern U.S. cities like New York, Boston, Chicago or Seattle.
Kids in the Hall: Head Crusher: http://youtu.be/8t4pmlHRokg
That is all.
Alex,
Considering that GM already ripped off the Muppets with Maggy, I’m sure Fraggle Rock is next.
I agree with most of this, but of GoT’s finale is anything like that of Boardwalk Empire, I will vomit until I die.
GoT is not much like Boardwalk, in terms of construction. Boardwalk was always really about Nucky. GoT is much more spread out and they would never be able to do what Boardwalk did for their final season and episode, in terms of narrowing the focus. I actually loved Boardwalk Empire’s final season, but it’s not comparable to GoT, in my opinion. Apples and oranges.
Sue the Fury,
I agree 100%!
For those of you who like the GoT scope, that at times can thin out deep character development due to so much screen share time, please watch ‘Vikings’…
I just finished watching ‘Marco Polo’ and it’s like GoT on scale, custome, beautiful sets and locations but it seems to lack the witty dialog and just all around interesting characters that GoT overflows with…
That’s one thing GoT has really no peer. Not the sheer amount of characters but the sheer amount of extremely interesting characters.
Rygar,
Yea and LS is obviously a rip-off of The Woman in Black.
Very nice!
I agree with King Tommen that Last Week Tonight is outstanding, and able to do a lot more than Daily Show due to format and HBO factor.
I may be the minority voice here but I do appreciate Newsroom, have always loved Sorkin’s dialogue (West Wing, Social Network, Sports Night) and well, I take the preachiness and the style for what it is. I can understand it’s not for everyone. Best show ever? No. Enjoyable to me personally? Absolutely. I was very sad to see it end, but glad it ended well rather than dragging on.
Greenjones, King Tommen
I meant bewbs on display in a documentary rather than people having them in general. As far as I know women have traditionally usually had two each, as they still do now, but man boobs and larger lady ones would have been less common until fairly recently as ordinary, rather than very rich, people wouldn’t have had the kind of diet that would make them noticeably overweight.
Dragons have always been fairly rare, let’s face it there would be Jurassic Park type chaos if there were lots of them. I think they hang out in Wales these days, there’s one on their national flag. Lots of wide open space for flying, plenty of sheep to eat, and the M4 motorway for easy access across to places like Bristol and London if things are a bit too quiet!
As for the royals, we’re pretty divided on them over here so feel free to borrow them if you fancy it, although I think they’re fairly high maintenance so you’ll need a decent budget. We get told they cost each person in the UK something like 58 pence per year (very roughly $1 US) and what a bargain that is, but that’s still about £30 million. You might get a better deal if you just go for some of the more junior/obscure ones 😉
Am I the only person hated true detective? I watched the first episode and started watching the second and 5 minutes in I felt like… it felt like a spoonful of horrible vegetable. I was so bored unhappy. I said why am I doing to myself?? I can just stop watching it right? and so I did!
dragonreborn,
My you missed episose 4 of True Detective(with the one take shot). One of the best episodes of TV period
True Detective was magical. It would of been my #1 show of the year had Fargo not appeared on the scene. I also have to give props to Silicon Valley, the show is absolutely hilarious.
Dogcheese,
I think you’re confusing the Woman in Black with the Swedish Chef.
Great stuff.
Are we getting another Bryan Cogman Q&A anytime soon?
If so my question for him is:
Why does the Three Eyed Raven have 2 eyes on “The Children”? Is the three eyed Raven a different character than the “three eyed crow” from the books? (Similar to how Talisa is different from Jeyne Westerling)
As far as I can tell, 2015 is probably going to surpass ’14 for HBO.
Right now they’re airing Girls, Togetherness, and Looking in a kind of indie comedy block, and Real Time with Bill Maher and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel are airing new episodes, as well. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Vice, and a new limited documentary series Jinx: The Life & Deaths of Robert Durst will begin over the next two months.
Then we have Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Veep, and a new season of Project Greenlight following that first block of programming, with The Leftovers, True Detective, and The Brink all given the tentative and malleable air date of “summer”.
Westworld will likely air in the fall, alongside Ballers. Beyond that, we know they’ll be airing another season of Doll & Em, and hopefully Getting On will be renewed for a new season. There’s also the untitled Winter/Scorsese series, which is likely to air in 2015, and the Steve McQueen drama Codes of Conduct might also make it to air before the end of the year. On the comedy side, Mama Dallas (from the creator of the incredibly underrated Enlightened) and Danny McBride’s Vice Principals could also appear.
We’ll also be getting two mini-series’, Crime and David Simon’s Show Me A Hero, and the original film Bessie.
My guess is that once the stand-alone HBO Go service premieres, HBO will work to increase their output as a way to differentiate themselves from other streaming services. They would offer a large number of high-quality shows, in addition to sports, comedy specials, documentaries, movies, etc. As a fan of most of what they produce, this is pretty exciting stuff.
Funny how much that has changed. I enjoy shows like Grimm, Sleepy Hollow and Arrow but they seem pretty much B material compared to cable and independent productions nowadays. I really like Person of Interest though.
Hahahaha! We still do this around our house. Great stress reliever!
Khal-A-Bunga,
Thanks for mentioning Vice. One of my faves, along with John Oliver’s show.
I, too, am not a fan of HBO’s comedies. I’ve tried to watch all of them, but my reaction is much the same as my teeth meeting up with buttercreme frosting–painful and unpleasant. Nor was I a fan of TD. I quit after two episodes.
I must agree with Arthur (Hi Arthur! Welcome back!) that Vikings is a very interesting show. Gritty and authentic–at least from this historic distance. I also must say that Outlander has been a pleasant surprise. Despite pulling from some very rich and often implausible (even for fantasy) source material, the show has been a faithful reflection of that source material without resorting to too much hoke. I am jazzed to see the coming season. Stars seems to be attempting to up their game, so I am also very excited to see what they will do with American Gods.
As for HBO’s future lineup, I hope that they can work their cross-genre magic on Westworld. Loved the movie as a pre-teen Sci-Fi geek back in the 70s. Yule Brynner was RELENTLESS and made a few appearances in my nightmares!
Thanks for the article, Mr. K, and for all of the updates, fellow Watchers!
OT: I went on to fandango.com (a movie tickets site) to see if they had Game of Thrones listed as an IMAX movie in my area, and they do! I checked other random cities (NYC & LA), and I noticed that they all have only one showing available for purchase at this time, and it’s for Fri Jan 23rd at 10pm. I would check it out to see if it’s showing near you. Hopefully, they add more showings soon!
Edit: In the SF bay area, I was only able to find two theater locations, and they were both in the burbs (Brentwood in the East Bay and Cupertino in the South Bay)
Ahhh yes, great article and the legend even made an appearance in the comments!
True Detective was the best thing I saw on TV last year and certainly up in my top 3 ever (only The Sopranos and The Wire beat it). I thought it was truly exceptional in almost every respect. I do understand people having issues with the resolution; it became slightly clichéd for the first time all season, which is a shame. But it doesn’t undermine what went before; beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, compelling told. Bravo.
Boardwalk Empire was quite compelling and very shocking in parts, but not particularly memorable. I enjoyed it but I don’t miss it.
I don’t think I can bring myself to attempt The Leftovers. The one consistent thing I keep hearing is how bleak it is; I could probably do without that to be honest.
Where Game of Thrones stands among all these is hard to say. I don’t feel I can judge it objectively.
Great post.
Rygar,
I am so totally okay with them changing Maggy into a muppet for this show.
This morning, local media in Quebec are reporting that HBO is preparing a GOT Season 4 DVD launch event at the Quebec City Ice Hotel “at the end of January”. Some cast might attend, they did not specify who. The same news reports that there will be a lifesize Iron Throne sculpted in ice at the Quebec City Winter Carnival (which happens the first 2 weeks of February).
I’ll see if I can attend and snatch pictures for here.
lavignac,
That sounds awesome, hope you’ll be able to attend.
How awesome would an ice Iron Throne be though, looking forward to it!
Season 5 trailer delayed to Jan 29. Dammit Imax
Turncloak,
Hm, I doubt we’ll get the trailer with the first screenings, which as you say have been delayed until the 29th. Doesn’t make any sense. The trailer is a big part of the incentive; HBO wouldn’t upload the trailer before the screenings are over. Unless you mean a shitty version someone recorded on the theatre… that we’ll get the 29th or soon enough, I’m sure.
Turncloak,
They (HBO & IMAX) are getting a HUGE response from the fandom. Like I mentioned previously…logistics, man, logistics!
I was actually thinking the same as you for the first few episodes. It took me several weeks to watch the season even though I didn’t start it until it was complete. It was a pretty slow program overall, not unlike Fargo really. However, as with Fargo again, after completing the season I was glad that I watched it. There are some very good pieces within those programs that lifted the entire run, but I would agree that there are some very “boring” stretches as well.
Luka Nieto,
Clob,
well maybe I can give it another try if you say so, but I’m not sure.
I never got bored in fargo. even when the story didnt move, the characters were interesting. the main characters in tru detective (for as much as I saw) just annoying to watch
Great article! Couldn’t resist reading it all and I’m glad I did!
You didn’t really miss much by skipping through “True Blood”, it’s generally silly, the performances are not par to other works from the portraying actors, and, except for the Pamela Swynford de Beaufort – which is a name I’ll regrettably remember – character at times, it doesn’t do much justice to the vampire subgenre.
Jorge Tuero,
Thanks!
In other HBO news, I guess we shouldn’t forget about this recent announcement:
http://screenrant.com/mike-myers-hbo-tv-shows/
I hope it results in a Dr. Evil show. 😀
~M.
This article kinda feels like one big hbo advertisement. Talking about boardwalk empire is warranted and of course TD season 1 makes a lot of sense because you can argue it was a better show than GoT. Other than that, why bother talking about the Newsroom? It’s a completely different show. Plus, The Leftovers is also completely different and not very good. True Blood supposedly hasn’t been good for a long time now.
If you are going to compare it to other hbo shows exclusively, why not contrast GoT with the classics? Rome? Oz? The Wire? Sopranos? Etc etc.
I thought Broadwalk’a last season was quite good. Definitely one of the strongest final seasons I’ve seen in a series considering the shorter run and the time jump. In retrospect I liked it much more than TD season 1, and that’s saying something.
Rygar,
I clicked on it. LMAO
Al Swearengen,
Jeez Al, you had to praise Fargo! I was curious and thought of giving it a chance because it beat HoC at the Golden Globes. Now you did this I really have to see what it is all the fuss about! (hope you had a nice holiday, stranger)
Would definitely add House of Cards, Person of Interest and The Good Wife to that list. TGW and POI are probably the only network dramas other than Hannibal that have consistently been excellent.
I watched half of the season and I find myself in perfect agreement with your comment. I do like Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan and is probably the only one that stands out as far as acting goes. Not sure if I am going to watch the rest. I just don’t find myself invested in their story.
I was going to sputter “Ayn Rand? A conservative??!!” but then I remembered that conservatives who claim to be fans of hers do indeed deliberately forget all her anti-religion, pro-adultery messages.
https://www.etsy.com/il-en/listing/218978377/dragon-night-lamp-inspire-by-game-of?ref=shop_home_active_1