So, A Game of Thrones episode one and The Fall of Sam Axe are coming out Sunday. I will probably have to find them some other way than watching them on TV, since a) I have no TV, and if I did I'd be highly unlikely to even pay for USA, let alone HBO. But I am quite excited about both.
A Game of Thrones is based on a book series that is trying, as far as I can tell without reading them (which I have committed not to do, reasons to follow) to be the anti-Tolkien in all but two ways. Full of unheroic protagonists, plot-dependent narrator character deaths, oh, and a lot of really bizzare sex ranging from incestual to underage and all the in betweens, Martin loves being a pain in all those heroic epic fantasy lovers' sides - especially since a) he's writing heroic epic fantasy - just look at the scope and actions that happen within his stories, and tell me otherwise, and b) he's really bad about finishing things.
While I have a magnetic pull to read the books (I do adore epic heroic fantasy, after all), I have avoided them for three main reasons: 1) no one really talks about prose quality, which doesn't seem to bode well; 2) I don't particularly enjoy that kind of content in such quantities; 3) I don't want to get engaged in a series with no definite conclusion (or would take too long to reach that conclusion - see also, Wheel of Time, Lost, etc). However, I may change my mind about 3 if Martin ever finishes his dratted books (7 years is a bit steep for finishing one book, though I think he's been working on other things, so it's probably not as bad as the more annoying fans say it is), and if he upholds his promise to provide a satisfying ending (if his given definition of satisfying is anything close to mine, which, admittedly, is unlikely).
But the series looks like it could be cool. Hopefully they've avoided the kind of ridiculously stupid writing that plagues this kind of cable series (sorry, but Pillars of the Earth was just very, very poorly written, and the bits I've seen of The Tudors, The Borgias, and Spartacus don't dissuade me). The acting talent they've gotten is extremely impressive, though they've probably dropped the ball in casting Sean Bean as the main protagonist...not because he can't do it (he definitely can) but because everyone know that when Sean Bean is cast, one of two things happen to him: 1) he's evil; or 2) he dies. Flightplan doesn't count. Cause it was bad and stupid.
Also, the TV series will hopefully keep things moving faster than they seem to be moving in the later books - again, I've not read them, but I find that when I read summaries of the first two or three books, I get the sense of densely plotted, intelligent, exciting narratives. The last two books seem much more like "and then we raped people and then we used the bathroom and then we killed people and then we slept and then we woke up" kind of stuff that gets praised as "gritty" because of the rape and bathrooms but no one seems to notice that they are as badly written as this run on sentence.
Anyway.
Sam Axe, eh?
Bruce Campbell is a big part of why I'm such a fan of Burn Notice (well, that and the extremely sharp writing, which hasn't dropped in quality like so many of the shows I used to love, like Chuck or Castle). I am extremely excited to see him get a whole movie exploring the character and backstory of his fabulously funny but admirable character. And hope it's good. Cause I just bought the first two seasons, and I don't want to have bought another series that goes significantly down in quality (Veronica Mars doesn't count, cause I knew I wasn't going to buy the second or third seasons when I got the first one).
So, Sunday should be fun. For those who have DVR and cable.
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