Game of Thrones to Release Rap Mixtape

You know, people say Seinfeld was a big show, a great show.  I won't dispute that, but I don't recall Seinfeld - or any other show - ever getting big enough to get its own rap album.  That's exactly the treatment Game of Thrones is getting in the lead up to its 4th season, premiering April 6th.

Vibe.com reports that the album is designed (apparently) to help people interested in seeing the show get familiarized with the excessive number of people, places, and things from the world that is known as Westeros (which is actually only one of the two fictional continents on which the show takes place, but maybe Common will explain that more fully through some sweet rhymes on the album).

While this is certiainly one of the most joyously ridiculous bits of crossmarketing I can ever remember happening, I am a little wary of the quality.  The whole exercise is so bizzare that it seems a little forced and the few rhymes you catch in vibe.com's short video don't exactly evoke memories of Biggie's "juicy".

Regardless, in an age of relentless media saturation and instant gratification, this work of love between rappers and dragons is something we should all celebrate.

Game of Thrones: Season 4 Trailer Reaction

 

Polar vortexes, dog turds hidden under the snow, and slushy streets in NYC can only mean one thing:  Winter is upon us.  But also, Winter is Coming!

That’s right, this past week HBO released the first trailer for Game of Thrones new season, set to begin in April.  Being the Game of Thrones scholar that I am I have some thoughts, reactions, ponderings to share about it. 

First off, it’s awesome.  Maybe not quite Season 2: Seven Devils trailer awesome, but a masterpiece of advertisement under any other name.  The only really negative thing I can say about it is that the opening shot of the dragon flying over the city looks surprisingly fake.  A very unexpected criticism for a show that has made its name on great special effects and CGI use.

But aside from that little hiccup it is pretty great.

There have been a few recastings, Daario’s Ed Skrein has been replaced by HBO actor,Micheil Huisman (you can kind of see him at the 15 second mark facing down a charging knight).  Gregor Clegane has been recast (AGAIN) making Hafthor Julius Bjornsson the third really tall, strong dude to play the psychotic brute, but despite repeated reports from people working within the series that the show will diverge significantly from its source material this year, most of it looks pretty recognizable.   I suspect the central reason for these “warnings” from the show runners is to hopefully soften the blowback from fans of the books for the changes they do make.

Probably the most jarring thing for fans of the books to see is the actor playing Oberyn Martell aka The Red Viper.  A very popular character from the novels, Oberyn is described as having olive skin with a slender build, a long, clean-shaven face, and sharp nose.  Most artist interpretations of him have him somewhere between an Italian and Persian man.  On the show he is being played by Pedro Pascal, a scruffy, square jawed Chilean who may be the first person ever cast on the show that actually looks YOUNGER than his character is written in the books.

Really the only truly mysterious images from the trailer are those of the Greyjoy siblings and Rast. 

Who is Rast?  He’s that dickhead member of the Night’s Watch that terrorizes Samwell and ended up murdering Commander Mormont in the pretty great mutiny scene at Craster’s farm (yeah I know, Keep, but it's a farm).

In the books, Rast has been long dead by this time, but on the show they’ve kept him around because he’s a villain the audience can recognize, which is important in a show with so many damn characters.   What is surprising, however, is what they have him doing.  Putting the baby out in the snow to be sacrificed like the second coming of Craster.  In the books, after the mutiny, we never return to Craster’s farm.  The last we saw of Rast heavily suggested we’d be seeing him again, but the show hasn’t had much success with creating new storylines.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Then there are Yara and Theon Greyjoy. two of the best characters in the books, nearly completely ruined by the show.  Both are seen only briefly, Yara leading a group of men rowing a boat merrily down a stream and Theon in full armor riding on a horse looking mildly confused.  Now Yara’s storyline is COMPLETELY different from the books at this point, so it is anyone’s guess what she is up to.  I, however, wouldn’t be surprised to see her take on the role of Jeyne Poole down the road (you book people will know).

Meanwhile, the clip of Theon (1:24) has to be a dream sequence.  It just HAS to be.  Considering everything that has happened to him up to this point, it is just impossible for him to physically ever look that way again.

What did you think of the trailer?  What surprised you?  What looks good?  What doesn’t?

2013 Year in Review: Game of Thrones and HBO

Before this year, it was probably still open to debate what the biggest show on TV was.  Mad Men had a lot of capital built on recognition, Breaking Bad had the awards, Game of Thrones had the cult-like fan-base.  Game of Thrones may not have been able to snatch the crown from Walter White, but with Breaking Bad belonging to the ages, any other show would simply be a pretender.

The King is dead, long live the king.

Ever since the second season and the battle of Blackwater no one could dispute Game of Thrones title for being the most ambitious spectacle of a show on television.  With beautiful locations, incredible sets, and beyond dense story, there truly is no other show on television that exists in a world like Game of Thrones.  In season three, the show took the next step when storylines began to payoff and one of the most shocking scenes ever in a television show happened (for those who hadn’t read the books) and nearly broke social media.

SPOILERS (sort of)

Thrones isn’t perfect.  The sprawling story makes it difficult to follow at times.  The numerous characters and storylines in the source material force the show runners to pick and choose which stories to flesh out and which to gloss over.  Sometimes they choose poorly.  But even with these flaws, Thrones is still one of the most enjoyable and rewarding dramas on television.

The supposed word floating around these days is that Game of Thrones will begin to deviate from the books more and more now that the story is three seasons in.  While most of the more drastic changes thus far have been met with disappointing results by fans (swapping out Jeyne Westerling for some boring nurse and the inclusion of Theon’s torture at the hands of the Boltons to name a few) Thrones has built up enough good will that the worst case scenario should have it enjoying TV relevance for at least two more seasons.

The rest of HBO’s programming is not in quite as comfortable a situation.

Long gone are the days of The Sopranos ruling television and award shows with an iron fist.  Would be flagship, Boardwalk Empire, was promising at the start.  But four years later, the show seems much less inspiring with viewership as low as 1.87 million in its most recent season (compared to 4.81 million for its series premiere).

Is this a villain you could learn to love?

Former crowd pleaser True Blood finally announced it was going away after one more season, two seasons after Alan Ball left and five seasons after the show was still any good.

Shows like Girls and Newsroom go on with most viewers and critics either loving them or hating them, while Treme dutifully trudges along for its final shortened season after enduring three years of horrifically bad ratings.

Even shows that have been roundly praised by both viewers and critics like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep only garner moderate ratings and attention.

HBO’s new series have faired even worse. 

Comedies like Hello Ladies and Family Tree are pleasant enough but far too forgettable.  Enlightened was able to get the critics but couldn’t find the ratings.  Would be tent-pole, Luck, couldn’t manage either and got a hefty lashing from animal rights groups for their troubles.

 

HBO doesn’t need to panic yet.  They still attract the best of the best and in January a new show, True Detective, is coming starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.  But with AMC breathing down its neck and the near misses beginning to pile up, HBO needs to get a big hit and soon.

Dragons may be enough to conquer a realm, but singlehandedly conquering all of cable TV may prove a more challenging feat.