Game of Thrones
After getting in from work this evening, eating dinner, washing up, and clearing up the kitchen, I went searching on the internet to find out how much it might be to extend the stuff we can get on our TV to include “Game of Thrones”. I had been studiously avoiding spoilers all day at work – it began to seem like a famous episode of “The Likely Lads”, where they hid in the church to avoid learning the results of a football match. We finally sat down to watch it at 10pm – but not before watching a ten minute YouTube video doing a re-cap of the six seasons that precluded the latest goings-on. Here’s the thing – when you distill sixty-odd episodes of Game of Thrones down to ten minutes, the madness of the incestuous, twisting, bizarre storylines unfold like some kind of fractal madness.
Suddenly the ridiculous stories of the Old Testament make sense – “Robert, who begat Joffrey, who begat Tommen, who begat Cersei, who will be begotten by Mother of Dragons, First of Her Name, and the rest of her twenty eight titles that have to be read out whenever she enters a room. Daenerys Targaryen. Let’s call her Blondie. While all that is going on, somebody’s bastard son is going to be fighting zombies in scenes not unlike Shaun of the Dead. I’m guessing the Night’s Watch will be heading to The Winchester to decide their next course of action.
It’s better than any episode of Jerry Springer, or Jeremy Kyle, because quite often everybody’s clothes fall off, somebody gets burned alive, or somebody’s head gets squeezed so hard their eyes pop out.
Having waxed lyrical about Game of Thrones, this is where I admit to not having read it. I’m wondering about the value of reading it now though, because the little reading I have done about the books tells me that the stories in the TV show and books have diverged quite spectacularly. I’m having enough trouble admitting to myself that “Ready Player One” will be nothing like the book, without ruining Game of Thrones for myself.
Besides – I have “His Dark Materials” to read before “The Book of Dust” arrives.