199 replies to this topic

[Sanjay]

[steveuk]

Confirmed: HBO’s Game of Thrones and True Blood are going to Comic-Con — and you expected that, right?

But here’s the bigger news: Thrones will be presented in the king-sized Hall H for the first time, an honor that typically goes to movies and, very occasionally, giant TV shows like ABC’s Lost. The Thrones panel will take place at the San Diego fan convention on Friday, July 13, and the True Blood panel will take place on Saturday, July 14 in Ballroom 20 (no panel details available yet).

http://insidetv.ew.c...g-to-comic-con/

[Mike]

Wait, is that real? It's not real is it? It's Photoshop? Is it real? Is it!? IS IT REAL SANJAY!?

[Rory Abel]

It's even weirder with the little black boy mural staring up at him admiringly.

Super-Pac attack ads for these tumultuous political times.

[stephanie familiar]

Started watching Game of Thrones the other night. Captivating, great show with some interesting characters but I feel like it’s being held back from greatness by the way it consistently objectifies its female characters/actresses. Nudity, sexuality and scenes depicting sex are one thing if they serve a purpose, but for the majority of the episodes I’ve seen, the only purpose seems to be to titillate. How many brothel scenes are we going to see, or scenes of women teaching one another how to please men, or seeing tits for no reason? I’m sure many of you cannot sympathize, but as a woman, it bothers me. I have no idea what the books are like in regard to this matter (they’re probably just as bad, I’ve read some things that the author has said in regards to women and he comes across as a perv), but the creators of the show should be more respectful of its female viewers. I recall one scene where the actor had to yell his dialogue over the sounds of orgasming prostitutes, and it was so utterly ridiculous that I felt the writers of that episode should have been embarrassed.

The show has enough intrigue without having to resort to that sort of silliness, and I think it’s an insult to male viewers to assume that they would lose interest in the show if it weren’t for all the women falling all over themselves to please men, and the t&a. Again, this show has potential, but right now it feels like one of those shows you don’t want to admit you watch.

[craggy]

hey, we see some guys with their tops off too. mostly alfie allen, granted, but it's still something.

i sort of agree though. if i didn't like seeing naked ladies as much as i do, i'd be a bit embarrassed. maybe.

[Will Carper]

Completely agree, Stephanie. All the stuff with Daenerys and Drogo--especially the rape scene on the rocks by the beach--before they were "in love," was really unpleasant to watch, and stupid. Because it was rape, but also because Daenerys then began "civilizing" the savage Drogo.

Though I did find that it was somewhat toned down in season 2 (though there's one scene were the wildling woman Osha has sex with her captor for.... well it's supposed to be part of some plan, but really it happened for no reason at all).

[Sanjay]

Wait, is that real? It's not real is it? It's Photoshop? Is it real? Is it!? IS IT REAL SANJAY!?

We may need to go to that part of London to check

[Jim Ohara]

I find it refreshing that there's a TV show that doesn't hide sex or have it happen off screen. Sex is a normal healthy part of life, and people use sex to get their way (or just for shits and giggles) all the time. I see no reason why fiction shouldn't depict sex. If someone is in a whore house show the whores, don't have them blurred in the background or covered up discretely.

The scene with Littlefinger was to illustrate that he's not interested in men or women, just power. He's as much a eunuch as Varys, just in a different way. There's no man alive that would be in the room with Roz and the other girl fingerbanging like the devil and not even turn around to pay attention. Yet Littlefinger is only focused on one thing - Power.

Relationships get you in trouble in GOT, it's one of the common themes.

[Will Carper]

Every HBO show ever has sex on screen.

But there's a difference between the sex in Six Feet Under and The Sopranos, and the sex in Game of Thrones or True Blood. Usually having to do with how the women are portrayed.

[Chris D]

On the one hand, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy seeing naked women on TV, especially considering how conservative I feel entertainment has gotten over the last couple of decades. On the other hand, I do think there are a few too many scenes in the show that don't actually need the nudity and sex (or to be included at all). I like that HBO is willing to push the boundaries with sex, because it's always bothered me how terrified of sex American entertainment seems to be lately, but Stephanie is right that the show doesn't need all of that to get by. It's an overall well written and acted show. And I can understand how, especially for a woman, it might be uncomfortable/off-putting.

However, some of that stuff is actually directly from the books (the Dany/Drogo stuff, for example), so that's just the writers being very faithful to the source material.

Edited by Chris D, 20 June 2012 - 09:46 PM.

[Jim Ohara]

The gold standard for needless nudity is Spartacus, but then it's my favorite show. I think every actor and actress ends up nude in it at some point. Which is ok with me because Romans screwed like college kids. It's just a bit shocking to see it when it's so rare on TV. It's much like cursing - people complain there's too much cursing, but just listen to the Irish pupcast and you realize it's still nowhere close to reality.

[stephanie familiar]

I find it refreshing that there's a TV show that doesn't hide sex or have it happen off screen. Sex is a normal healthy part of life, and people use sex to get their way (or just for shits and giggles) all the time. I see no reason why fiction shouldn't depict sex. If someone is in a whore house show the whores, don't have them blurred in the background or covered up discretely.

like i said, there's showing sex and nudity when it serves a purpose, and there's showing sex and nudity just to grab an audience. the majority of the sex/nudity scenes in this show seem to fit the latter.

The scene with Littlefinger was to illustrate that he's not interested in men or women, just power. He's as much a eunuch as Varys, just in a different way. There's no man alive that would be in the room with Roz and the other girl fingerbanging like the devil and not even turn around to pay attention. Yet Littlefinger is only focused on one thing - Power.

that scene was apparently written just for the show, so i don't believe for a second that its entire purpose was to show what you think it showed.

[Will Carper]

The scene could serve the same function in prose, but of course you couldn't layer the two things like you can in a visual medium.

I agree with Jim's interpretation of the scene, but it feels like the writers go to sex first when it comes to character-establishing activities in scene. And I think that's primarily to titillate. My favorite "character-establishing" scenes were the one where the Knight of Roses shaves Renly's chest and the one where Tywin skins the deer. The first was very sexual, but offered a cool twist--the likes of which you don't see in many of the sex/sensual scenes involving women.

[Chris D]

It's much like cursing - people complain there's too much cursing, but just listen to the Irish pupcast and you realize it's still nowhere close to reality.

Cursing is something for which I've never understood the intense taboo. Go to any grade school playground and you'll hear tons of cursing. I had such a foul mouth as a kid. I just knew not to use it around adults. Because for some reason they didn't like that.

But as for the sex on Game of Throne, in particular that Littlefinger scene...yeah, it's pretty clearly there just for the sex. I think we even had an interview linked here with Neal Marshall talking about how there was a producer on set just to amp up the sex on the show. They aren't really hiding it.

[Jim Ohara]

that scene was apparently written just for the show, so i don't believe for a second that its entire purpose was to show what you think it showed.

Roz has been created just for the show, and I don't think it's because the creative team thought they needed more nudity (I don't think the budget of $10 million needs extra tits every so often in order to get the viewers - if that's the case just show an hour of tits and save $9million an episode). She's clearly there to help the audiences understand that Varys and Littlefinger are the ones who are really playing the Game of Thrones, everyone else is just a piece on the board. That didn't come through clearly until later in the series. Most of the changes they've made are fixes to weaknesses in the original material.

[Ricardo_C]

I agree with both Jim and Stephanie, to different degrees.

The "sexposition" phenomenon leaves me cold, for the most part. While yes, there's tons of backstory that needs to be delivered somehow, using it as an excuse to get Esme Bianco naked every other week is a bit much. Sure, we occasionally see the odd naked male, but the fact is they're not treated the same: Nude males are either the target of admiration (Osha oggling Hodor's... Hodor), or they are firmly in control of the situation they're in, sexually and otherwise (Theon, Khal Drogo). Compare GoT's use of nudity with a show like Girls, which also has frequent nudity and sex scenes, but the feel of them is entirely different. There's always subtext surrounding the sex, and there's always a point to make. GoT's approach seems to be "I'm in charge of writing this episode and have always wanted to see actress X naked".

But there's also the fact that the world set up in the Song of Ice and Fire series is brutal, misogynistic, and essentially a pastiche of all the bad parts of the late Middle Ages. Portraying the reality created in the books is not an endorsement of such a worldview, anymore than George Martin writing those scenes represents a personal belief in them. It could be done with fewer flying boobs, but that's not going to do much to soften the nature of the world the stories are set in.

[stephanie familiar]

Though I did find that it was somewhat toned down in season 2 (though there's one scene were the wildling woman Osha has sex with her captor for.... well it's supposed to be part of some plan, but really it happened for no reason at all).

damn! i haven't seen that episode yet. oh well, serves me right.

in the books, isn't osha an ugly, relatively old woman? is that sex scene in the book?

[Will Carper]

Is Roz the redheaded prostitute who was with Tyrion and Theon?

in the books, isn't osha an ugly, relatively old woman? is that sex scene in the book?

I haven't read the books, but in the show she's pretty. She's the same actress who played Tonks in Harry Potter.

Edited by Will Carper, 20 June 2012 - 10:16 PM.

[Chris D]

in the books, isn't osha an ugly, relatively old woman? is that sex scene in the book?

No, Osha is a young wildling woman in the books too. I'm pretty sure the sex scene isn't in the book, though. I don't really remember though. As a scene it didn't really make much sense in the show, however, so I'm going with no.