(This article will contain spoilers for both the Game of Thrones series and the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books)

When the Game of Thrones series began on HBO, it was one of the most faithful book-to-TV adaptations in recent history. Nearly every chapter of the book was present and intact, and the few segments left out (aside from a potentially game-changing dream sequence in one of Ned’s chapters) were not significant. If anything, season 1 was notable for adding scenes to the story. Since the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book chapters are all written from the perspective of specific characters, any moments not involving those characters could not be included in the books. This wasn’t a problem in the TV show, where we could get scenes between Cersei and Joffrey, or Varys and Littlefinger, without breaking up a pre-determined narrative structure.

Continue reading Game of Thrones and the Nature of Adaptation →

Louis CK’s bizarre, critically-acclaimed FX show, Louie, is now in its fifth season. At this point, most series begin to either repeat themselves or rest on their laurels. The time for self-discovery has passed, the audience has certain expectations, and the writers are playing to what has worked previously.

In a way, this seems to describe the start of Louie’s new season. However, given that the unpredictable nature of CK’s series, what qualifies as a status quo is far from the norm. In fact, last season’s “experimental” structure, which consisted of a six-part episode, a three-part episode, an hour long episode, and three stand-alones, ultimately congealed into what felt like a regular serialized arc. Thursday’s episode, with its strange cult-y potluck and bizarre throwaway lines (such as the pot luck host describing her sperm donor as “my friend from work who is gay and who died”) is more singular and unique than a lot of what occurred in last year’s outlier of a season.

Continue reading What is Louie? →

(This post will contain spoilers from the most recent season of The Walking Dead. It is written under the assumption that the reader has some level of familiarity with the series)

The Walking Dead wrapped up its most recent season on March 29th, and it was…decent. Not the best they’ve done, but far from the worst. The issue at the center of the season’s second half, whether or not Rick could acclimate to Alexandria and be trusted, was resolved. All of Rick’s “family” stood up for him, and Deanna gave Rick the order to kill Pete (the wife-beater). It was all in service of getting Rick into a leadership role at Alexandria, which should help them fight off their next threat (presumably the “wolves”) when the show returns.

You wouldn’t hear that from the fan reaction online, though. The most common complaint seems to be that the finale was “boring,” or that “nothing happened.” Others are pointing out something Norman Reedus said prior to the episode airing, telling fans to “bring a tissue.” In retrospect, this was probably an intentional misdirect to make a particular scene (with Daryl and Aaron trapped in a car surrounded by walkers) more dramatic, but fans did not appreciate the added stakes.

Continue reading The Walking Dead and the Cycle of Death →

(The following article contains spoilers for The Last Man on Earth, up through episode 

The Last Man on Earth is currently halfway through its first season, which makes it an unusual candidate for my blog. Typically, I like to write about TV shows at the beginning or end of a season, but The Last Man on Earth is doing something that I’m not quite sure I’ve ever seen before. In short, it is a sitcom without a status quo.

As I’ve stated in this blog before, the sitcom formula is built on stasis. Since the core of a “situation comedy” is a specific situation, it is difficult for characters to change or advance because that very change threatens the show’s premise. The Last Man on Earth, however, has been functioning since the pilot as a show where change IS the status quo. It’s been exciting to watch, gaining some ground from the “what will happen next?!” feeling that’s usually reserved for dramas, but also makes it very hard to get invested in the show’s future. We’re now halfway through the first season, and still have no idea what the show is about.

Continue reading The Last Man on Earth Won’t Settle →

The below article will openly discuss spoilers from all four seasons of American Horror Story.

When the first season of American Horror Story was airing, there was quite a bit of confusion over the series. First of all, the show introduced a shocking amount of ideas right from the start: ghosts, stitched-together Frankenstein babies, ghostly red-headed twins, a prophetic girl with down syndrome, a maid whose appearance shifts depending on who’s looking at her, a marriage-in-crisis, a school shooter, and a gimp-suited rapist entity, all in the very first episode. Even stranger, the show did not seem to have any qualms with making rather permanent narrative decisions. Major secrets (like the identity of the gimp suit entity) were revealed midway through the season, and several main characters died, or were revealed to have been ghosts the whole time. It was certainly fun to watch on a weekly basis, but it was hard to fathom how the writers would be able to sustain it as a series past the first season.

Continue reading Death and American Horror Story →