The Weak Points of Game of Thrones

Monday, April 22 9:23 am

This post is completely spoiler free. The only thing that even comes close to mentioning plot lines can be found in the foot/sidenotes. So avoid those if you haven’t watched an episode of season 3 and you don’t want to risk seeing even names of characters

Season three of HBO’s Game of Thrones is in full swing at this point. In a recent episode of the podcast, we had a discussion about the fact that there are just too many characters and plot lines going on in this show. That is both a blessing and a curse of course. But 25 episodes in, there are a couple of other things to consider about what has now become’s HBO’s flagship show.

Game of Thrones is of course based on A Song of Fire and Ice, a series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin. The title of the show is the same title as the first book in the series, which was released in 1996. According to Wikipedia, it was originally planned as a trilogy, but has now been expanded to have seven books. As of April 2013, five of the books have been released, with two more still to come. These books are tomes, with the most recent one weighing in at over 1000 pages, and 73 chapters.

The fact that this origin material is so recent undoubtedly helped spark the popularity of the television show. That built-in audience is comprised of exactly the kind of internet nerds who would spread the word, in addition to loving every minute of it. I know that I personally would likely not have watched this show if Chris hadn’t told me it would be worth my time based on his experience reading the books. It’s very unlikely a show this massive and expensive would have succeeded, even on HBO, had the rabid fan base of the books not loved it, and talked about it, from the get go.

The fact that show is based on existing material, and thus far has chosen not to venture off that path whatsoever1, is both a blessing and a curse. It keeps the show on track, and prevents the writers from forcing typical TV moves that can often ruin good shows, but also creates some issues (more on these later). The writers don’t have to worry about contradicting themselves later, or having some storyline down the road not make sense because they painted themselves in a corner years earlier. Instead they just stick to lore that is already written for them. In some ways it’s like making a show about historical events, like the Civil War, instead of just coming up with new characters and stories. Before the show ends, the books will have told those who care how the story is going to end, and that means all the show runners really have to worry about it presenting the story the best way possible.

The existing material also makes the show easier to follow, assuming the viewer knows someone who has read the books and can help fill in holes without giving away the story. Chris has done a very good job of explaining things to me when I have questions without giving away future parts of the story. It’s so complicated at times, and the characters have such abnormal names, it’s very easy to get lost, especially in the first few episodes of the first season. Additionally, because the books are so long and deep, there is a lot of exposition that is divulged in random conversations or monologues, and as a result, it’s really likely that most people would need to watch episodes multiple times to be sure not miss something.

The show is not without it’s downfalls though. The deep, rich universe the books create leave this show overloaded with characters. In the midst of season 3, there are no less than eight distinct story lines to follow. This leads to lots of jumping all over the place geographically, and even skipping entire story lines for an entire episode. This really creates a flow problem that makes some episodes hard to watch. Boardwalk Empire suffers from a very similar problem, although that show at least has the advantage of having one main driving character. Both shows seem to present themselves much better as “binge” watches, that is, watching all the episodes of a season in a short span instead of the traditional one episode per week. Contrary to something like Breaking Bad, where a single episode is so intense that you need a Xanax afterwards, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones offer a rich experience over the long haul.

Over the short term though, it’s full of uninteresting story lines. Other TV shows would likely abandon things that just aren’t working, but Game of Thrones doesn’t have that option because so many of these characters will need to stay relevant for long term story lines2. This had led to four stories this season that, so far, haven’t done anything for me3, and at least two4 that I feel robbed of because of the others.

Big picture, this show has been tremendous. When the series is over, it will be a great, epic story. It also likely won’t suffer the same fatigue as say Mad Men has, where later seasons are really starting to show a noticeable decline from the show’s peak. The real question for Game of Thrones is whether or not the show runners stay true to the books, or eventually decide from a TV perspective, certain liberties have to be taken. Until that happens, this show is likely on pace to be the show of the ’10s5.

  1. So I am told. I haven’t read one page of the books [↩]
  2. I assume [↩]
  3. Bran Stark, Brienne/Jamie, Stannis and Theon [↩]
  4. Jon Snow and Danerys [↩]
  5. My assumption is that Mad Men and Breaking Bad are ineligible because so much of their time was in the ’00s. And that Homeland’s first season was it’s peak [↩]

Cleveland (Sort of) Rocks

Tuesday, April 16 9:10 am

Continuing my trend of visiting midwestern cities (not on purpose) we whisked away to Cleveland for a night. My dad’s 60th birthday was motivation to go see the White Sox play the Indians at Progressive Field and visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both which were parts of a family trip back in 1996.

Unsurprisingly Cleveland in early April, like Chicago, was cold and wet. We stayed just outside of downtown, and Progressive Field is in the middle of downtown Cleveland. It is right next door to the Quicken Loans Arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play, and the two facilities share parking structures. There are no parking lots like at U.S. Cellular Field or lots of other baseball stadiums, but garages do serve to offer some advantages. A couple of the garages are connected directly to the stadium and getting from your car into the game takes literally 2 minutes, instead of half mile jaunt across a big concrete parking lot you find other places.

Progressive Field is laid out like many other newer baseball stadiums, where the it is open so that tall buildings of the city are visible beyond the outfield. There is a massive scoreboard in left field with a great, crisp, video screen. It’s difficult to determine if there are any blind spots to the scoreboard besides the seats directly below it, but it doesn’t seem like it. It definitely makes the scoreboards at U.S Cellular Field look their age1. The park is clean, and concession and bathroom lines were non-existent. That tends to happen though when the announced attendance is under 15,000. It’s difficult to determine if this would be the case during a sellout.

The variety of concessions seemed pretty good. Two highlights for us were two of the Food Network stands. One served a variety of macaroni and cheese options (a Hippo favorite), including one with buffalo chicken and bleu cheese, one with pulled pork and smoked sausage and one with crab meat. These each ran $6 and provided a decent amount for that price at a ballgame. The other Food Network stand offered large hot dogs and sausages on gourmet buns with a variety of toppings that are available. The hot dog with pulled pork was simply amazing. This includes potato chips as well and ran $9.50. Again, decently priced for the amount of food it provides2.

There was a great selection of beers and other food as well. It happened to be $1 hot dog day, and these were available at most food stands, but not all which meant that the non-$1 hot dog stands were free of lines. They offer frozen custard, which my sister braved despite the 40 degree temperature. They also had steak sandwiches and nachos which looked good, but we didn’t partake in. Of the best parts of the food stands is that many of them had samples of the food set out so that you could see exactly what you were getting before you ordered it. This was a nice touch that more parks should copy.

Getting out the park was a bit cumbersome, especially considering the park was nearly empty. The lines in the parking garages were long and most of them funnel to the same street. It still didn’t take as long to get to un-congested areas as it does at U.S. Cellular Field, but if the stadium was more full it likely would have been much different.

Saturday included a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My dad and I are huge rock fans and we were both looking forward to this part of the trip. The bottom floor is comprised of the history of rock music, including influencers and a timeline of how the genre evolved. There were plenty of cool pieces of memorabilia, but lots of bands were under represented (see Zeppelin, Led.) The second floor has a small exhibit about Cleveland resident Alan Freed and his influence on promoting rock music3, as well as a little bit on Les Paul and his progress with the electric guitar. The third floor houses a large theatre that plays clips chronologically on a loop of inductees from each year. It’s really not anything special and spending too much time on this is probably unnecessary4. The circular stairway that goes to the 4th floor houses the signatures of every inductee, and apparently is the only representation of the complete list of inductees in the place.

Unlike other hall of fames, there doesn’t seem to be a plaque or blurb about each inductee. It seems like a strange decision, that perhaps is a result of just too many inductees, but that would be a silly reason. This was probably the most disappointing thing about the visit, the simple fact that if you wanted to see if a certain band had been inducted, there didn’t seem to be a way to do that. The connected hallway at the end of the signatures has sections for the inductees for the current year. This includes a little summary of the artist as well as bunch of memorabilia, the exact thing I would have expected to see for each and every inductee.

Before we headed out of town, we had planned to hit Melt Bar and Grilled, a Cleveland chain with a few locations that specializes in gourmet grilled cheese. We had heard from some people that it tends to be crowded and have incredibly long waits. The wait at 4 pm on Saturday was over an hour, which is preposterous. Luckily an employee at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had recommended an alternative, Eddie ’n Eddies, right across the street. The marquee advertises burgers, bourbon and apple pie. We all tried different things, although almost everyone had a beef burger of some sort. I actually went with the buffalo chicken sandwich which was ground chicken made into a patty. The consistency was stupendous and made it much more enjoyable than just putting a chicken breast on a sandwich. The fries were very good and they had several great dessert options. The pecan pie and Spumoni were both heaven. Although we had been looking forward to Melt, we were more than satisfied with our choice.

Overall Cleveland was an enjoyable trip. Progressive Field is right up there in my top five baseball stadiums with AT&T in San Francisco and Miller Park in Milwaukee. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a bit of a disappointment for anyone who wanted to learn something, but great for people who already know all the names and faces. Eddie ’n Eddies is a great alternative to the length wait at one of the Melt locations. And the drive from Cleveland to Chicago is as boring as it gets.

  1. U.S. Cellular is just 4 years older than this stadium [↩]
  2. A regular hot dog with grilled onions runs more than $5 at U.S. Cellular Field [↩]
  3. Freed is credited with coining the term “rock and roll” [↩]
  4. Apparently for anyone except my dad [↩]

Episode #98 – Were The Guys From Major League There?

Monday, April 15 8:19 am

Hippo’s trip to Cleveland. Veep is back. Shameless series 3 wraps. The current state of Game of Thrones. Mad Men season 4 premiere.

  • Shameless: 6:50 – 12:46
  • Game of Thrones: 12:46 – 22:05
  • Mad Men: 22:05 – 29:51

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Co-Host: Chris (http://twitter.com/LionEsquire)

Running Time: About 32 minutes

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Independent Scout Evaluates the White Sox♣
Monday, April 8 10:29 am - suntimes.com

The Sun-Times reached out to an AL Central scout to evaluate the White Sox anonymously and independently. It’s hard to disagree with most of what was said. A week into the season most of it is spot on. He was not high on the back end of the White Sox rotation especially, and didn’t give many positive opinions on the lineup outside of De Aza, Viciedo and Konerko.

A week into the season, nothing has changed for me. There is still a ceiling here that has the Sox in the playoffs. Chris Sale is a bone-a-fide ace if he can stay healthy. There is a lot of upside all around and Flowers and Beckham have started strong. If my life depended on it I wouldn’t pick the White Sox to make the playoffs, but it’s still a possibility.

Episode #97 – Too Much Percy Jackson

Monday, April 8 8:02 am

We preview the summer ahead of movies. What are we excited about? What will we see? What won’t we? Includes some talk about The Hangover franchise, The Rock’s career, Will Smith, Rob Zombie and more.

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Co-Host: Chris (http://twitter.com/LionEsquire)

Running Time: About 44 minutes

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Late Night Talk Shows Are Dying

Wednesday, April 3 9:12 am

Alan Sepinwall on Jimmy Fallon taking over The Tonight Show:

I just don’t see the generation that’s even younger than me turning these shows into their habit the way previous ones did for Johnny, Dave and Jay. They’ll also watch the viral videos, but not the shows themselves, and until the business figures out how to make a radical shift, that’s not where the money’s being made. Right now, it’s a case of holding onto the audience that’s still trained to look for these shows, and if that’s the case, NBC’s probably better off just rolling with Jay for as long as he wants to do it (a.k.a “for the rest of his life”).

There have been a lot of articles about “late night” TV floating around in the last couple of weeks, mostly based on the news Sepinwall discusses, that Jimmy Fallon will take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2014. It seems like NBC has been down this road before. Oh right, when they handed the keys of the franchise to Conan O’Brien and then took them back a year later when it didn’t work out.

In all honesty, it wasn’t completely Conan’s fault. When he negotiated his new contract in 2004 part of the deal was that he would take over The Tonight Show in 2009. The landscape was so much different in 2004 though. Even though the internet was taking off, it still wasn’t mainstream. And the idea of consuming large quantities of video online hadn’t remotely taken off yet either. The Colbert Report didn’t exist, and as popular as The Daily Show was, it was still growing. Conan had a young following and it make perfect sense to pretty much everyone that he was “the guy” to take The Tonight Show to a new generation.

By the time he actually took over in 2009, things were very different. There were so many more places/ways to consume video content, and comedy had become such a different animal1 that traditional avenues just weren’t as appealing to a younger crowd. Sitting through a monologue or fairly simple jokes, and cookie cutter interviews with celebs who were only there to promote their latest work is just not interesting. As a result, Conan bombed, Leno came back, Conan went to TBS, and is pretty much irrelevant at this point.

Part of the problem is that the idea of the late night talkshow just seems dead. Johnny Carson went off the air in 1992. That means anyone under the age of about 25 probably never even saw him on TV. There are likely very few people under 35 who remember much, and certainly none who were big fans of his. What was once the ultimate dream job for many is now the equivalent of being the heavyweight champ: most people know it means something, but it doesn’t have much historical significance anymore.

As for the future of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon will probably do OK. It’s likely his ratings won’t be as high as Leno’s, at least out of the gate. He should still fair better than he does in his later time slot though. Unless he is contemplating a career change there is no reason not to do this, but this certainly is not going to create some sort of late night talk show renaissance. Like boxing, these shows will hang around because (they seem) cheap to create, they fill a time slot that not a lot of things would be successful in, and there is a certain group of people who still enjoy them. But it’s difficult to see The Tonight Show existing in it’s current format 10 years from now.

  1. Look at the state of sitcoms now vs. 10 years ago [↩]

Episode #96: What Would Happen to Wrigleyville?

Monday, April 1 10:27 am

Tony Romo’s new contract. Being a fan of both the Sox and the Cubs. The Cubs moving to Rosemont? Opening Day as one of the best sports days. The Rock’s movie The Rundown. The G.I. Joe movies. Olympus Has Fallen. Broken Lizard’s The Slammin’ Salmon. Celeste and Jesse Forever. Parks and Recreation. FX’s new channel FXX. Game of Thrones status and season 3 excitement.

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Co-Host: Chris (http://twitter.com/LionEsquire)

Running Time: About 35 minutes

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2013 MLB Predictions

Monday, April 1 9:24 am

Everyone else is making MLB predictions, so I might as well too.

(*- Denotes wild card teams)

AL East

  1. Tampa Bay Rays – Good pitching and defense, but some questions on offense.
  2. *Toronto Blue Jays – Big splash offseason. Still no slam dunk.
  3. New York Yankees – Great pitching. Lots of injuries and lineup holes.
  4. Baltimore Orioles – Lucky last season. Improved though. Should be about the same.
  5. Boston Red Sox – Spent a lot of money without getting much better.

AL Central

  1. Detroit Tigers – Rich got richer. Top to bottom best team in AL.
  2. Chicago White Sox – Need to stay healthy, but have solid pitching.
  3. Kansas City Royals – Up and coming. High ceiling/low floor.
  4. Cleveland Indians – Solid signings. Still too many questions.
  5. Minnesota Twins – Long way to go to get back. Time to rebuild?

AL West

  1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – Amazing lineup. Pitching questions.
  2. *Texas Rangers – Underrated offseason. A bit on the decline.
  3. Oakland A’s – Typical A’s offseason. Not a lot of key losses.
  4. Seattle Mariners – Astros keeping them from worst AL record.
  5. Houston Astros – Look out in 2016. Until then…

NL West

  1. Washington Nationals – Full season of Strasburg is huge. Best in NL.
  2. *Atlanta Braves – Great lineup. Potential for great pitching.
  3. Philadelphia Phillies – Should be better, but keep aging.
  4. New York Mets – Can thank the Marlins for keeping them out of last.
  5. Miami Marlins – Could be historically bad.

NL Central

  1. Cincinnati Reds – Well rounded. Votto might be best hitter in baseball.
  2. St. Louis Cardinals – Aging lineup. Health questions.
  3. Milwaukee Brewers – High ceiling team with a lot of questions.
  4. Pittsburgh Pirates – Not quite ready to take the leap.
  5. Chicago Cubs – Growing, but still bad.

NL West

  1. San Francisco Giants – Elite pitching staff. Top 5 player in Posey.
  2. *Los Angeles Dodgers – Lots of hype. Could bust if things don’t break right.
  3. Arizona Diamondbacks – Underrated pitching staff. No lineup standouts.
  4. Colorado Rockies – Solid lineup, but as always questions in rotation.
  5. San Diego Padres – Decent all around, but still growing.

Playoffs

ALCS

Tigers over Angels – Could be high scoring.

NLCS

Nationals over Giants – Should be an epic series.

World Series

Tigers over Nationals – Tigers rotation is just too good.

Five Crazy Predictions

  1. The Tigers are the first team to win 106 games since the 2001 Seattle Mariners
  2. Stolen bases take off and someone steals 80 for the first time since 1988.
  3. At least three teams lose 100 games.
  4. Both the Yankees and Red Sox miss the playoffs for first time since 1997.
  5. Tampa sweeps the AL awards (MVP-Longoria, Cy-David Price, ROTY-Will Myers).

HBO Considering HBO GO For the Masses

Wednesday, March 27 9:24 am

Sean O’Neal of The A.V. Club on HBO considering cutting the cord:

But HBO’s chief executive Richard Plepler now seems to be coming around on at least one of those: He tells Reuters that the network is considering allowing access to its popular HBO GO service to people who don’t have cable TV, and looking into partnering with broadband providers to package it with monthly Internet services. This is still just in early talks; as mentioned before, HBO would have to deal with its current distribution partners and take care not to disrupt an arrangement that still generates billions of dollars for everyone involved.

This is a drastic 180 from where HBO was a year ago, and it really surprises me that they would talk about this if it wasn’t close to becoming a reality. This idea makes some sense, and it seems likely they would restrict this only to broadband providers who also have cable services, which in theory means that individual providers wouldn’t lose subscribers over this. This probably makes sense for HBO, but O’Neal references a $10 to $15 price range, which seems highly unlikely to me. DirecTV charges about $15/month to add HBO to an existing plan right now. HBO would almost certainly have to make an agreement not to undercut that price (for now). Otherwise, cable providers that don’t provide internet access (like DirecTV) would be screwed. I would expect the price of something like this to start at least $20, which would probably still be OK with most people who don’t have a cable subscription.

The reality is that most people that have a cable package with HBO don’t have a cable package just so that they could have HBO. So most of the people who would be interested in this option would be those who don’t have cable already, which is why the price must be high enough to deter people from dropping their cable subscriptions. But if HBO comes in above that price point there is no reason to think that there would be a mass exodus from cable/satellite plans.

The number of HBO subscribers was holding strong last year (I haven’t seen updated numbers recently), but cord cutting is only now starting to gain steam with more “regular” people. HBO is a progressive enough company that they can see where things are going, but they can’t just bite the hand that feeds them all at once. By finding a way to keep money going to the cable providers (through their ISP arms) they can try to appease these companies while also taking advantage of an untapped market. The advantage of HBO using cable plans though, is that they don’t need as much of their own infrastructure, and get some free marketing from them as well.

If HBO pulls this off, expect the floodgates to open. This is the opening that consumers are hoping for to potentially lead to a more “a la carte” model of channel selection. Other premium networks could follow, and then the whole world of television could change. That is when cable providers will need to worry.

Move Big Ten Football Championship to Chicago

Monday, March 25 8:58 am

Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com wrote this last month about the Big Ten Football Championship game:

Attendance has been a challenge in Indianapolis for the first two Big Ten football championships – last year’s event drew only 41,260 – and also for some recent basketball tournaments. Chicago could have an easier time there because there are so many more Big Ten fans in the area. A bigger obstacle for the city could be logistics, as Soldier Field isn’t nearly as centralized as Lucas Oil Stadium.

Anyone who watched the Big Ten football championship game in December likely noticed a pretty sparsely populated stadium. Two high profile programs like Nebraska and Wisconsin couldn’t fill the place, and it’s questionable whether other teams would be able to either. Perhaps teams like Indiana or Minnesota would draw more fans because it would be a more unique event to their fans. The reality though, is that Indianapolis was never the best choice for this game.

Indianapolis is a fine city1, but it doesn’t offer much flash. It might be local bias, but Chicago is on another level. It’s the third largest city in the United States (Indianapolis is 12th) and offers a great number of tourist attractions (even in the winter) as well as some really quality dining options. It’s likely that many Big Ten fans have been to Chicago at one point or another, so maybe that doesn’t offer the same uniqueness as Indianapolis, but it’s also likely that most Big Ten fans would rather pay a visit to Chicago anyway.

Rittenberg also makes the point that Chicago has a lot more Big Ten alums in and around the Chicago area, which would make it much easier for fans to make a last minute decision to go. Think about it, if a Penn St. alum lives in Chicago and Penn St. makes the title game, making a decision to go within a couple of days is a lot easier when a hotel and other expenses are not required.

Rittenberg also makes another common point, that Lucas Oil Field is a dome, and Soldier Field (the logical Chicago destination) is not. No Big Ten team plays their home games in a dome. Most Big Ten cities are in cold weather cities. The argument about it being cold in Chicago in December don’t seem to bother most people. Also the type of fans that would buy tickets for this game don’t seem like the kind of fans who would be bothered by this. Part of the problem is that the Big Ten is probably trying to turn this into the Super Bowl, and the type of sponsors and other big whigs they want to attract might not be keen on December Chicago weather. But Soldier Field has plenty of suites and it’s unlikely this would truly be an issue.

The other option would be to play the championship game in a specific school’s stadium. The argument against this is undoubtedly the fact that plans need to made in advance for logistics, travel, etc. But they could come up with some plan to make this work. What if they alternated which division hosted the game? That would drop the possibilities to just seven locations per season. Half the Big Ten schedule is usually in the books a month before the championship game, and by then at least a team or two is going to be eliminated, which could make it a bit easier. But in the long haul this probably isn’t really a viable solution. Although it would almost guarantee a sellout every time.

The next three championship games are locked into Indianapolis, but if attendance doesn’t improve the Big Ten will also be much more interested in moving to Chicago and trying something new. Of course, by 2016 the new college playoff system will be implemented and the whole world of college football could be different.

  1. At least it was last time I was there, which was almost two decades ago [↩]