The Official, Long Awaited, TV Shows Thread

[Laa-Yosh]

Spoiler

The last event might have been post Library arrival, but only by a day depending on how fast the white ravens fly.

Nope, not even close.

Spoiler

Oldtown and the Citadel are thousands of miles away from Westeros. If we take Martin's word that the Wall is about a 100 leagues long, and a league is 3 miles, then looking at the map, a rough measurement is about 2500 miles. The Wall itself is about 600 miles north from Westeros.

Based on online sources and speculation, a raven should be able to cover about 300-500 miles a day, so it would take about 5-8 days for a white one to get to Jon from Oldtown.

But Martin doesn't like to talk about exact things, like the distances or population sizes, even though he has probably done some math about the world. Stuff like, how many people a given size of land can sustain with medieval agriculture and the abnormal seasons (multiple harvests during long summers but long periods of time having to live from reserves etc), or how many peasants per feudal lord, how many soldiers based on the size of lands and so on. There's a lot of historical data on this and Martin did a LOT of research - particularly about the period of the main inspiration for the books, the War of Roses.

The point is that Westeros is big (and Essos is even bigger), the distances are huge and travel takes a lot of time, especially for armies, and even information moves very slowly. I actually find it pretty nice that even though we're talking about a fantasy story, there's no instant travel or communication - this helps to make the story somewhat more unique, interesting, and dramatic.
Also, considering the long travels of some characters, this also means that the story so far had to take several years, which also helps with the child actors growing up in the TV show making sense. Although, the writers could have made this more apparent, especially as there are no seasons passing the way they do in our world. Still, we've seen Dany getting married, pregnant, and giving birth (...) all in just the first season, so there are some hints at least.

 

[Grall]

The point is that Westeros is big (and Essos is even bigger), the distances are huge and travel takes a lot of time, especially for armies, and even information moves very slowly.

There's an episode in season three or four, I can't remember exactly (googling says S2... Wtf? ), where Tyvin Lannister chastises one of his underlings for having mailed a scroll to the wrong lord, with unfortunate consequences as a result.

The system with ravens used rather than pigeons is an interesting twist on how old-style messenging in our own world works.

 

[Arwin]

Pigeons, Ravens, Owls, Eagles, psh.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I caved in and bought the second season of Gotham on Amazon Video. Not disappointed in the slightest. It was a very fast, almost breathlessly paced show to begin with, and it's even quicker now. They did a really great job with the new set of villains as well. Very cool Victor Fries, and the Dr. Strange actor seems like he's having the time of his life as well. It's my 24 substitute basically.

Speaking of 24, season 9 was surprsingly good as well. Didn't reach the heights of season 5, but still perfectly good fun.

 

[tangey]

I did a search and didn't think it was appropriate to dig up the thread for 2012, which is the most recent TV based one.

Anyhow in the last few years with the rise of netflix amazon etc, there is new money in the game, and some high standard output is happening. Also with the these various new distribution means, it's easy to never hear about a great show.

I'm going to start off with my current favourite show the netflix "Stranger Things". I'm half way thru and really enjoying it. You know when a show is good when you are lamenting that it only comprises of 8 episodes, and you are deliberately limiting yourself to 2 episodes at a time.

It's based in small town America in the 80's and seen mostly from the viewpoint of a group of kids. It's strong on sci-fi, with some horror and a little comedy in there. Great opening sequence that pulls you in, as does the slow reveal of what is going on. Characters are engaging too. 80's music backdrop isn't too shabby either.

I'd recommend it for anyone that wants a Spielberg/Stephen King mash up.

 

[tangey]

hmmm, not sure why the "post new thread" didn't suggest this thread. I just tried again, typing in "TV show" or "TV shows" doesn't prompt me with this thread. Anyway thanks to the mod for doing the merging.

 

[upnorthsox]

but not tv-shows ....searching sucks sometimes

 

[Laa-Yosh]

American Gods

 

[Malo]

oooh nice! I loved that book.

 

[Malo]

Really enjoying Stranger Things. Almost finished and don't want it to end. Goonies meets dark Stephen King and pulls it off fantastically. Surprised that season two will actually be continuing the story as the condensed tale seemed like a different story each season (ala True Detective) but happy with that as the casting is mostly spot on.

 

[tangey]

I'm going to start off with my current favourite show the netflix "Stranger Things". I'm half way thru and really enjoying it. You know when a show is good when you are lamenting that it only comprises of 8 episodes, and you are deliberately limiting yourself to 2 episodes at a time.

It's based in small town America in the 80's and seen mostly from the viewpoint of a group of kids. It's strong on sci-fi, with some horror and a little comedy in there. Great opening sequence that pulls you in, as does the slow reveal of what is going on. Characters are engaging too. 80's music backdrop isn't too shabby either.

I'd recommend it for anyone that wants a Spielberg/Stephen King mash up.

Well I watched the last few episodes and it didn't dissapoint. I've since goggled just to see if I was alone in thinking this was a great series, and it appears it has been very well received indeed. The variety review even mentions the speilberg/stephen king thing that was very apparent to me.
http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/...-ryder-millie-brown-why-it-worked-1201823780/

 

[London Geezer]

Stranger things was amazing! I watched it all in one day. Mental.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I'm loving it too. Much more advanced effects work aside, this show really looks like a lost relic from the eighties. The colors, the music (both the licensed pieces as well as the Tangerine Dreams-esque synths), the bikes, the clothes, the casting choices, the mannerisms - It's so lovely in its dedication to authenticity. It also moves really well. I'm also quite surprised that King had absolutely nothing to do with it. Heck, the characters speak like they do in his books, the title font is basically lifted straight from his books, and even the chapter names could have been penned by him ("The Vanishing of Will Byers") .

 

[Clukos]

Yeah, really enjoying Stranger Things as well. Didn't expect to like it as much as i did

 

[tangey]

I think one of the reasons stranger things works is that being set in the 80s, there is no internet, no smartphones, so the entire notion of the things that happen being immediately recorded and shared all over the place doesn't exist. There is a guy with a camera, but it's an "old fashioned" film camera. If you aren't in the room/field when it happens, then there's no evidence of it happening, so you have the whole dis-belief thing going on.

I think I'd like more such series set in era for this reason if nothing else.

 

[tangey]

I watched the last "preacher" the other night. Pretty weird series, funny, dark, light, violent, non-sensical, with a lot of threads that don't come together and some that are totally off the wall. I did watch the entire series, it did engage enough for me to get to the end, but I wasn't engrossed by it, and I found the ending was a bit hammy and not well resolved.

 

[London Geezer]

Watched the finale of Preacher and much like the rest of the season, I'm none the wiser. Amazing how something that makes so little sense can keep me gripped so much.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I think one of the reasons stranger things works is that being set in the 80s, there is no internet, no smartphones, so the entire notion of the things that happen being immediately recorded and shared all over the place doesn't exist. There is a guy with a camera, but it's an "old fashioned" film camera. If you aren't in the room/field when it happens, then there's no evidence of it happening, so you have the whole dis-belief thing going on.

I think I'd like more such series set in era for this reason if nothing else.

It also meant kids had to come up with shit themselves if they wanted entertainment. This made for infinitely more interesting kids obviously.

 

[tangey]

Anyone into crime/drama type shows, I'd recommend giving "The Night Of" a look. Pretty decent and it's kept me engaged. Not sure how many episodes there are, but 8 have been aired thus far. First one was 80 mins, but the rest are all 1hr.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401256/

 

[homerdog]

I think one of the reasons stranger things works is that being set in the 80s, there is no internet, no smartphones, so the entire notion of the things that happen being immediately recorded and shared all over the place doesn't exist. There is a guy with a camera, but it's an "old fashioned" film camera. If you aren't in the room/field when it happens, then there's no evidence of it happening, so you have the whole dis-belief thing going on.

I think I'd like more such series set in era for this reason if nothing else.

It has become a lot harder to write coherent stories these days due to ubiquitous cell phone and Internet access. "OMG Mr. A has discovered that the killer is his girlfriend's roommate and she's having dinner with her in 30 minutes! Gotta hurry and get there!!" Why doesn't the dumbass just ring her?

It would be much easier so write just about any genre outside of scifi if you set it in the 80s or 90s.