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.

Solving the Mystery of True Detective BEFORE the Detectives.

 The following post contains major spoilers from last night’s episode of HBO’s awesome True Detective.  If you are not caught up, read at your own risk.

Every True Detective in the land last night finally found out just who was the “Yellow King” in the exceedingly creepy (or depressing) episode, "After You've Gone".  But if you were paying attention, you should’ve already known, after all, I did. 

I, of course, had no problem setting off to tweet about my genius.

True Detective, tonight's episode left me breathless but also, I knew it! I called it way back in episode three! #nevermowanothermanslawn.

— Kevin H. MacLean (@KHMacLean) March 3, 2014

But in reality, the mystery was solved in story-telling 101.

The trick in unearthing the mystery of the murders wasn't in Carcosa or the Yellow King but in the final moments of the third episode of the season, “The Locked Room”.  This of course was the first time we meet the man who would be the “Yellow King.”

I instantly knew something was up with this guy from the moment he came on screen.  As the scene came to a close and nothing seemed to happen, I knew it wouldn’t be the last of Mr. Lawnmower Man, but it wasn’t just intuition, or even the way he carried himself.  It was much simpler than that.

You see, the character didn’t serve any purpose at the time.  He didn’t reveal any important information in the investigation, he didn’t provide any exposition or character development.  In fact, the only piece of information he gives that you can’t tell just by looking at the scenery is the seemingly innocuous tidbit that he “works for the parish.”  In a show as wrought with twists and hidden significance like True Detective, there is hardly the space for filler.

The only two possibilities as I saw them were that he was either a guardian archetype or a villain.  The quickest example I could give for the guardian archetype would be the old man in Home Alone.  An oft wrongly feared and/or misunderstood character, typically elderly or simple-minded, that tries to protect a more helpless character that is abused or otherwise imperiled.  This hypothesis can be discarded, however, because the unnamed landscaper is never given any back-story for the audience to wrongly fear or misunderstand him.

That leaves us with the villain role.  It is common practice in murder mysteries to introduce the killer as a minor character early in the story (see Seven, the photographer).  Don’t forget to appreciate the dramatic irony of detective Cole going off hurriedly on a hot lead when he was standing right in front of the actual killer the whole time.

Flash forward to last night’s closing scene.  It might have been hard to identify him at first, with the loss of his facial hair from earlier in the season, but that creepy Cajun accent was still there and he even reminded the viewers with a brief line about working at “public schools”.

If there was any doubt, it shook away as the camera came in for a close up to reveal his scar ridden face as he lamented to himself in chill inducing fashion that, “My family’s been here a long, long time.”

The Yellow King.

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.