Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

Game of Thrones Season Four (SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON AND POSSIBLY BEYOND) At this point, it seems much of the Game of Thrones discussion relates to its divergences from George R R Martin’s novels. These have increased gradually throughout the latest season, and there is a general furrowing of brows and clutching at straws in attempts to working out just where it is the series will go from here. It has hit many of the books’ most acclaimed events, the ones spoken of in hushed tones so as not to spoil it for the unsullied. I haven’t made much headway with the novels, and as such I’m rather enjoying not knowing what is or isn’t true to the page. On the downside, I can’t present my case for what has been improved, but on the up I can avoid the disappointment of what looks to be the increasing expurgation of favourite characters in order to stick to a path the producers have laid out. I viewed this run in two halves, as I’ve find the series’ momentum is easily broken on a weekly b

True Blood  Season 6 (SPOILERS) The longer True Blood continues, the more it seems as if it was only ever a deeply average show wrapped in very sexy gore. Which is sufficient. It’s rarely less than entertaining. The performances are dependable and, if it’s never reached the heights, neither has it succumbed to the lows of its family-friendly progenitor Buffy . But by this point it’s quite clear the show is coasting. For every inspired idea decently executed (Vamp Camp) there’s one that is muddled and tepid (Warlow). This is a season that has a good thing (Rutger Hauer), then forgets to use him, and makes a stunningly misshapen misstep by showing solidarity with a character no one cares about enough to get on board with a whole episode mourning and eulogising him. True Blood Season 6 is an HBO series on its last legs, one that should have probably ended two seasons before it will. As ever, the show tirelessly sledgehammers commentary on religious hypocrisy and prejudi

The Zero Theorem (2013) (SPOILERS) I'm prone to anticipating the arrival of a new Terry Gilliam film more than the fare of any other filmmaker, barring perhaps Joe Dante.   And yet I have learned to temper my expectations in recent years. Whether it’s been a continued difficulty (of temperament?) in getting projects off the ground, the limitations of budget infringing on his high-powered imagination, or simply that he is past his prime, nothing he has made since Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has attained consistent greatness. That said, I enjoyed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus immensely; inconsistent, certainly, but it proved to be a gloriously ramshackle greatest hits package. The Zero Theorem also nurses many of the directors favourite recurring obsessions and themes, and in some respects it stands as a counterpoint to Imaginarium . One shows a director still in love with the escapism that comes from dreams and the creative impulse, and not allowing the world to