Mr. Smith Surveys "Thrones" – Sees a Flaw?
As Always, let’s start with our recap from HBO.
LOTS happened this week. Robert went on his hunt, but not before slapping his good lady wife for being an insufferable b-word. Wow is she intolerable. In his absence Ned sits upon the Iron Throne. Ned is a man of honor, and honor is one of the prevalent themes with this entire series of books. It’s the thread that holds this extremely complicated story together. The problem with a thread like that is, it’s hard not for others to want to tug at it. And they will. Ned has started a fight that will be a long, long time before it’s finished.
Tyrion’s won his freedom in a trial by combat. I LOVE trial by combat, letting the seven gods decide the innocence or guilt of the accused. Certainly not a perfect system of Justice, but it’s such a romantic notion, choosing a champion, and letting their skill in combat decide your fate. I’d love to be able to arm wrestle my way out of a traffic ticket. Maybe see a lawyer shoved through the moon door. Tee hee.
Ahhhh Daenerys. What an incredible warrior. The lady’s got stones, you know? Feasting on a raw horse heart? Seriously? She’s destined for GREATNESS. Her brother, not so much. He finally got the crown he was promised. And we all trembled as promised. But Daenerys is right, the true dragon can’t be killed by fire.
I am noticing a weak spot in this series though, and feel free to disagree with me if you must, but some of the technical aspects of this show are falling a little short. Everything else is firing on all cylinders, but the sword fight choreography is a little…..disappointing. I just can’t get past it. It looks lackluster and plain and…functional. I get that these fights are supposed to look efficient and brutal, but they seem a little timid. Like a fighting demonstration at a renaissance festival. You never get the sense that anyone is in any real danger, and so that lets the viewer off the hook. I think that’s more about the way it’s shot, usually wide, so you can see how choreographed it really is. I feel if they tightened up the frame considerably, it would place the viewer more in the middle of the fight. This might be because of the nature of shooting for television, with much more tight time constraints, but I really think that it’s an issue that should be addressed, given what’s coming.
The golden crown scene also gave me pause. I’ve spent long hours with my father, melting lead to make bullets for reloads, and that takes a lot of time, and A LOT of heat. One cannot dump soup out of a pot hanging over a flame, add a few pounds of gold, and thirty seconds later dump its molten contents on a dude’s head. As AWESOME as the scene was, and as much as I enjoyed it, I couldn’t get past how improbable it was.
There, I’ve finally abandoned my blatant sychophantism about this show and said something critical. Hope it wasn’t too much for you! I’ll see you next week!
Have a look at next episode, huh?
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I’m with you on the show not looking as “epic” as it could. could be tv constraints, could be they are eschewing CGI, I don’t know. the costumes are great, the script is great, most of the acting is really good, but it just doesn’t feel as big as I wanted.