Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 that leaked was actually pretty good quality. The audio and video were synced perfectly, the episode was complete from start to finish and it wasn't high def but it was very watchable.
But it's already diverged enough IMO to warrant enjoying them separately. Might as well get the full experience... Plus without the source material to work from I'm skeptical as to just how great the TV ending will be. But I guess we all take what we can get at this point.
Yes, it's almost like "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" divergence level at this point. The movie/show and book(s) are both excellent but tell very different stories.
Douglas Adams changed HHGTG for each medium. Whether from boredom, appropriateness, craft... I dunno. But I do know that I love each retelling on its own merits.
My thoughts exactly, but many people (my wife springs to mind) simply don't care. I'm always amazed how some friends are happy to watch the most awful pirate streams, even where they could comfortably afford a subscription to whatever streaming service it's on.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't see pirating as a sacrifice in quality. You reliably get 1080p releases of episodes as soon as they have aired, often with subtitles.
What you sacrifice by pirating is a bit of conscience and (arguably) convenience.
I often find myself wanting to pirate when watching an official stream that just plain sucks. The worst is when I am forced to watch ads when I start and scrub, then the video fails for some reason shortly after starting (and watching the ad). I refresh the page, watch the ad, scrub to where I was watching, watch another ad, then it fails again a few more minutes in. Finding the pirated copy might be a PITA, but I at least will have a file on disk that I can do whatever I want with and there's no question whether I'll be able to watch all the way through.
This is not my experience with HBO Go, however. There's one skippable "here's what else is on HBO" promo (I think it's skippable—usually I just queue it up while we're settling in to watch), then right into the show with no breaks. Is HBO Now different?
Why watch a show in HD, legally, for $15 a month when I could get 3 latte mochiattos with shots of vanilla, then watch a crappy 360p pirate stream of a show I'm a "diehard" fan of?
My biggest problem is that I am more than willing to pay the subscription fee, but being based outside of US most services won’t allow it or have a delay when the episodes become available.
Actually the leak is quite good. I just watched over a guy's shoulder in a flight as he watched episode 4. It was obviously not for public dissemination but it was very good.
I agree, the show has really declined without being able to stand on GRRM's shoulders. Battles are still good but the dialogue has been terrible and they miss a lot a nuance that's in the books.
It's probably demotivating as a writer to see a lot of the twists you've been preparing for years exposed in the show before, stuff like hold the door, resurrection, etc.
Yeah, S1-2 gave deep insight into the characters and their motivations and the way their world worked. E.g. watching Tywin navigate power structures. Like the first three books. S6 is a soap opera.
Yeah, the first seasons felt like they were book-based, with the detail, development, and pacing, etc.
But, this season (7) particularly feels like an episodic TV show. Much faster paced, with less subtle-dialogue, and kind-of hit-you over-the-head plotlines and dialogue. For instance, in the first episode, Jaime painstakingly described to Cersei their predicament as if he was talking directly to the audience. It felt a bit dumbed-down and beneath previous seasons, wherein Tywin might've talked strategy more cleverly.
They are also using somewhat gimmicky cinematic devices, like Tyrion narrating alternative attacks on Casterly Rock; and Sam emptying toilets, cut with him serving food.
Altogether, I am still enjoying it though. Some of the book's plotlines weren't conducive to the screen (e.g. Bran's). So, reducing time spent in the tedium there was good IMO.
OTOH, it feels a little rushed and more "obvious". Don't know if it's because they are so far from the books now or they are just trying to wrap it up.
I definitely feel the same way: the books were brilliant and as long as the TV series was showcasing the previously written material the plot and dialogue were very solid. Since they ran out of books to show I've perceived a very sharp decline in quality, and they've fallen back on cliffhangers, twists, sex and violence to keep the audience riveted. Unfortunately, for this particular viewer at least, it really isn't working very well.
> Since they ran out of books to show I've perceived a very sharp decline in quality, and they've fallen back on cliffhangers, twists, sex and violence to keep the audience riveted.
It's a subjective thing, but I feel that in the past GoT was a cake where the base was characters, dialogue, and world, topped with an icing of cliffhangers, sex, and subverting audience expectation. Now it feels like a lot of icing with too little cake.
Put differently, yes, those things were always there, but now they are ALL that is there.
The books were junk, honestly. They were the same kind of doorstop novels as Wizard's Last Rule and the Wheel of Time, just with more nastiness, and they are showing the same flaws as those books. Do a standard epic fantasy, bloat it into at least seven novels, and add some transgressiveness to make it spicier.
I think the SF/f genre has really struggled lately...stuff like Brandon Sanderson writes feels so lightweight compared to even the second tier authors of the past, and there's very little flavor in books now; it's formulaic and narrowed to such a tight audience.
Sturgeons law applies, survivor bias applies. There is lots of great SF/fantasy out these days it's just swamped by the not great stuff. Just like in the past.
Agreed. The writing can be downright terrible at times, and it's usually when they deviate from the source material.
I've noticed something similar with Westworld. I love the premise, and I'm a huge fan of Anthony Hopkins in particular. But the writing just feels so bad most of the time. I don't think it's a coincidence that the best scenes involve Hopkins, and what makes them good is not primarily the dialogue.
It's really... jarring to be watching something that clearly cost a lot of money to produce, involved a lot of very skilled people, and yet manages to be absolutely atrocious when it comes to dialogue or plot. It always makes me wonder how the showrunners managed to get the gig.
Both Westworld and GoT are HBO shows, so maybe that has something to do with it. While I do enjoy both shows, it's more for the cultural buy-in and the budgets involved. The writing pales in comparison to that of many other shows on other channels (FX being my favorite, followed by perhaps AMC)
(Incidentally, this is something I've been confused about for a while. How was Moffat allowed to ruin Doctor Who so utterly over multiple seasons? How did Braga/Berman get to be showrunners for Enterprise when at least one of them (don't remember which) was generally disliked for his contributions to earlier seasons?)
I'm curious to see what will come of Westworld now that Hopkins' character is (apparently?) out.
As for quality of material, I don't know whether to list Mr Robot as an example of good writing or not. It's got good dialogue (and accurate hacking scenes!) but overall the plot seems to be borderline-ludicrous and the Anonymous/Occupy Wall Street ”stick-it-to-the-man” objective seems so... puerile?
There are some things they dropped from the books that have really disappointed me. Mostly the whole Lady Greyheart story arc, which I fear will be quickly dropped from any hypothetical new books in the series from GRRM.
I was never a fan of the goody-goody two-shoes Storks. The real heroes are the non-house-affiliated characters like Persistys and Smalltoe. Perhaps Aria too.
I've given up any hope. GRRM will never finish the series. It's made him too much money, and he doesn't have the drive to tie things back together. We're gonna get like 3 more in-the-universe stories, and maybe 3 years out we'll get Book 6, but we will never see 7 or 8.
All the Cosmere books are really good. Warning though, Stormlight is about to release book 3 of 10. Mistborn is also actively being written, but the next book to be released is 4 of 4 for "Era 2". (the eras being self contained but building on the previous)
Elantris is the least well written, so read it first or not first depending if you want to lose interest in Sanderson, or be let down by the writing style. The rest are excellent though.
I remember reading an reddit ama by him where he said his process of writing is more of an architect style: that is, he develops the overall arc of the major events in a series, and then fills in the details in each book. This allows him to project book release dates 1-2 yrs. out.
I enjoy Sanderson, but I really enjoy knowing when the next book in an enjoyable series is coming out as well.
I think GRRM is raking in too much cash from TV to have time to really contemplate the myriad consequences of all the mixed loyalties and character crossings the story has entangled. I'm not surprised the books haven't been finished, and the TV series now seems to have the pedal to the metal with plot development, since they are out of time.
Disclaimer- I'm a mere show-watcher, and avid reader of gameofthrones.wikia.com :-)
Mildly supernatural, no reasonable possibility of that... though it would be incorrect to say no possibility of time traveling for a somewhat generous definition of time traveling (for those who have watched the show, think "hold the door").
I've been thinking about the potential impact of leaked episodes on HBO.
Unless it becomes a sustained leak, do you think that a significant number of people will stop (or fail to start) and HBO/HBO Now subscription? Sales for HBO itself are contacts through the cable companies, and those who have chosen to subscribe to HBO Now have decided that illegal downloading is inconvenient.
Edit: The standalone streaming service is HBO Now, not HBO Go.
I'd say one isolated leak like this mostly serves as PR. People see it and are reminded that they should watch this show that people are committing crimes to see!
Are cable subscribers. HBO Now is the standalone. Anyway, piracy is about as convenient for something like GoT. The back catalogue is great though. I also pretty much stopped pirating because I have the money now, and the content is easy to get.
I am very much against leaks...unless it's a Game of Thrones episode. Yeah, I guess it might suck for HBO, after all they paid for and took the risk for the series, but who can wait until Sunday?
They mentioned the watermarked version of Dunkirk for composer Hans Zimmer. This makes sense... not because they distrust Zimmer, but because they distrust the chain of handlers, and his own security.
Have watched it. Worth waiting till it airs on Sunday. So far the best episode this season. #jamie v #danny v #dragon (hint should be enough for you to wait)
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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 121 ms ] threadTo each their own, I guess.
What you sacrifice by pirating is a bit of conscience and (arguably) convenience.
At least it's only HBO shows.
It's probably demotivating as a writer to see a lot of the twists you've been preparing for years exposed in the show before, stuff like hold the door, resurrection, etc.
But, this season (7) particularly feels like an episodic TV show. Much faster paced, with less subtle-dialogue, and kind-of hit-you over-the-head plotlines and dialogue. For instance, in the first episode, Jaime painstakingly described to Cersei their predicament as if he was talking directly to the audience. It felt a bit dumbed-down and beneath previous seasons, wherein Tywin might've talked strategy more cleverly.
They are also using somewhat gimmicky cinematic devices, like Tyrion narrating alternative attacks on Casterly Rock; and Sam emptying toilets, cut with him serving food.
Altogether, I am still enjoying it though. Some of the book's plotlines weren't conducive to the screen (e.g. Bran's). So, reducing time spent in the tedium there was good IMO.
OTOH, it feels a little rushed and more "obvious". Don't know if it's because they are so far from the books now or they are just trying to wrap it up.
I definitely feel the same way: the books were brilliant and as long as the TV series was showcasing the previously written material the plot and dialogue were very solid. Since they ran out of books to show I've perceived a very sharp decline in quality, and they've fallen back on cliffhangers, twists, sex and violence to keep the audience riveted. Unfortunately, for this particular viewer at least, it really isn't working very well.
When was that not Game of Thrones MO?
Put differently, yes, those things were always there, but now they are ALL that is there.
I think the SF/f genre has really struggled lately...stuff like Brandon Sanderson writes feels so lightweight compared to even the second tier authors of the past, and there's very little flavor in books now; it's formulaic and narrowed to such a tight audience.
I've noticed something similar with Westworld. I love the premise, and I'm a huge fan of Anthony Hopkins in particular. But the writing just feels so bad most of the time. I don't think it's a coincidence that the best scenes involve Hopkins, and what makes them good is not primarily the dialogue.
It's really... jarring to be watching something that clearly cost a lot of money to produce, involved a lot of very skilled people, and yet manages to be absolutely atrocious when it comes to dialogue or plot. It always makes me wonder how the showrunners managed to get the gig.
Both Westworld and GoT are HBO shows, so maybe that has something to do with it. While I do enjoy both shows, it's more for the cultural buy-in and the budgets involved. The writing pales in comparison to that of many other shows on other channels (FX being my favorite, followed by perhaps AMC)
(Incidentally, this is something I've been confused about for a while. How was Moffat allowed to ruin Doctor Who so utterly over multiple seasons? How did Braga/Berman get to be showrunners for Enterprise when at least one of them (don't remember which) was generally disliked for his contributions to earlier seasons?)
As for quality of material, I don't know whether to list Mr Robot as an example of good writing or not. It's got good dialogue (and accurate hacking scenes!) but overall the plot seems to be borderline-ludicrous and the Anonymous/Occupy Wall Street ”stick-it-to-the-man” objective seems so... puerile?
Elantris is the least well written, so read it first or not first depending if you want to lose interest in Sanderson, or be let down by the writing style. The rest are excellent though.
I remember reading an reddit ama by him where he said his process of writing is more of an architect style: that is, he develops the overall arc of the major events in a series, and then fills in the details in each book. This allows him to project book release dates 1-2 yrs. out.
I enjoy Sanderson, but I really enjoy knowing when the next book in an enjoyable series is coming out as well.
Disclaimer- I'm a mere show-watcher, and avid reader of gameofthrones.wikia.com :-)
Unless it becomes a sustained leak, do you think that a significant number of people will stop (or fail to start) and HBO/HBO Now subscription? Sales for HBO itself are contacts through the cable companies, and those who have chosen to subscribe to HBO Now have decided that illegal downloading is inconvenient.
Edit: The standalone streaming service is HBO Now, not HBO Go.
Are cable subscribers. HBO Now is the standalone. Anyway, piracy is about as convenient for something like GoT. The back catalogue is great though. I also pretty much stopped pirating because I have the money now, and the content is easy to get.
The only good way to watch GoT is in 1080p or more.
Which is totally reasonable.