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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Yeah, But Is the Book Better?

I have a new television addiction.  In the past, I've fawned over series like Lost, Alias, and especially 24.  I can now add Game of Thrones to that list.

I was a little late to the Game of Thrones bandwagon since I didn't have HBO this time last year; before you jump on me for being stuck in 1995, let me (weakly) defend myself by stating I had Starz and Showtime in a package with DirecTV while I was living in Virginia.  When I moved back to Baltimore, my roommate had HBO hooked up, so I had access to all their programming once again.

By the time I got HBO again, the first season of Game of Thrones had already wrapped up.  I didn't read any reviews or spoilers on the season, so I had no idea what the show was about or what happened during the course of the season.  I wanted to give the show a shot since I'd heard it was so great and get caught up to date in time for season 2's start.

I chose to wait on watching season 1 until about a month before season 2 kicked off, thereby avoiding having to wait too long for the new season to start.  I finished the season about a week before the new season started, but I made one crucial mistake: I went on IMDB to read some trivia about the show.

The reason that was such a bad mistake was because I had gone on there abou halfway through the first season, and IMDB had a piece of info marked with a spoiler warning, but I read it anyway.  I won't divulge the spoiler for anyone who hasn't yet watched it, except to say it involved a major character's fate late in the season.  Suffice to say, I kicked myself for having read it and ruined a great surprise near the end of season 1. 

Anyway, I've been watching season 2 live on Sunday nights, and it's been excellent so far, especially this week's episode.  I'm not going to review the show per se, but a couple things came to mind about some of the things I've read about the show online.  Before I get to those thoughts, I have to comment on a couple things.

First of all, Joffrey Baratheon is the biggest ass I've ever seen on television.  This is probably the most backhanded of compliments I can give someone.  I really want to hit that little piss ant with a metal shovel across the face because he's such a vile character, but that's actually a credit to the actor who portrays him.  Jack Gleeson plays Joffrey, and he could have made Joffrey completely over the top, but that would have completely ruined the character.  Joffrey is supposed to be hated for what he's done thus far in the series, and I can say I can't wait to see him get his payback for his actions.  He seems to find a new reason for the audience to hate him every week, which is pretty impressive given what's happened so far.

Second, I'm a little disappointed by the overall lack of action on this show.  For the most part, it's people standing around and talking about things.  Before I sound too simplistic, let me make a couple things clear.  First, I don't mind a lot of dialogue in a show.  Game of Thrones is extremely complex in its various plot threads and characters, and that I enjoy.  Second, I know that action sequences, especially in a period piece like this series, are extremely expensive.  HBO already spends an enormous budget on the costumes, set design, and actors, so spending more on fights and action sequences would probably make the show unafforadble.  At the same time, people are constantly talking about going to war, winning battles, and the like, so why can't we see some of those battles?  This week's episode featured the aftermath of a huge battle between Joffrey's men and Robb Stark's army, but we never got to see the battle at all.  Plus all the talk of building up to action can only go so far.

Now having said all that, let me get to the main point I wanted to make.  Game of Thrones is based on a series of books by George R.R. Martin, who is also an executive producer on the show.  Each season is an adaptation of a single book in his series, and many comments I've read online about the series mentions how it compares to the books.  I haven't read the books yet, but from what I can tell, season 1 followed the events of the first book fairly closely.  Season 2 has veered away from the book's plotlines a bit more, which has disappointed some of the fans.  My perspective is this: Whether Game of Thrones follows the plot of its source material closely or not doesn't matter to me.  In fact, I feel this way about any film or television series that is adapted from a book.  Books and films are completely separate mediums, and comparing the two isn't fair to either side.  Can anyone reasonably expect a 500-page novel to be adequately adapted into a 120 or 150 minute film without making substantial changes?

I'll give two examples to make my point.  Consider Fight Club for a moment.  It's not a long book by any means of the sort; in fact it's just over 200 pages.  However, it's written in first person and completely stream of consciousness in style, thus taking away any linear story from the book.  I'm still amazed 13 years later than the film managed to construct a linear story from a whacked out book.  The movie had omitted the final chapter from the novel, but that's okay because the final chapter was essentially unfilmmable (I won't spoil it for those who never read the book).  The important part was that Fight Club, as a movie, took a novel with no real events or conventional story, and made a movie that was completely faithful to its source material in spirit.

Now compare Fight Club to A Time to Kill.  I absolutely loved the book when I first read it.  I blew through it in only a few days and couldn't wait for the movie to come out. 

Then the movie came out.

I actually had missed it in theaters, but I rented it on video later on.  I shut it off about halfway through it because it was just so incredibly boring.  The one noticeable difference between the movie and the book was how Carl Lee Haley killed the two rednecks who had raped his daughter, but otherwise it followed the book's events fairly well.  The problem was that the spirit of the book wasn't carried over into the film.  The same issue was in The Da Vinci Code; the movie followed the events of the book for the most part, but it was an insufferable bore. 

I know I started off talking about how I was late in getting into Game of Thrones, but it's now led into a wholly different topic of comparing films and television series to their source materials.  I would like to read the Game of Thrones books someday, but I'll be a happy viewer of the series as long as it stands on its own merits.  And this week's episode certainly proved the show's value, leaving me wondering just what on earth happens next.

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