THROWBACK TV THURSDAY: GAME OF THRONES (HBO)

I do not own the copyright for this image

Game of Thrones is becoming one of the most top talked about and watched shows on HBO. If you have a HBO subscription I suggest you watch ASAP. Taking on a world more dark and gory then the fantasy world of Harry Potter this brings epic fantasy drama to a whole new level. A book series by George R. R. Martin, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss created it for HBO in 2011. It is a heavily character involved book series so it may cause people who haven’t read the novels or who aren’t used to huge ensemble cast in TV shows to have a little trouble wrapping their head around it. However, even though the cast is relatively large every actor is brilliant and the chemistry between families mirrors the book and their relationships exactly.

The main families is the royal family of King’s Landing and sitting on the infamous Iron Throne wielded by swords is King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), who has two brothers Renly (Gethin Anthony) and Stannis (Stephen Dillane) who are Lords of other lands in Westeros. Robert Baratheon is married Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), and they are one powerful family, their symbol being a ferocious lion. You will see during the show the Lannister’s are a force to be reckoning with and are full of so much malicious behavior and backstabbing it would make any other fantasy worlds villains look like toddlers. Robert Baratheon’s best friend is Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) who is the lord of Winterfell, which no one likes to visit because it’s basically winter all year round and on the other side of the world in the East in the Free City of Pentos is the last of the living line of Targaryens, two siblings who live in exile, Viserys (Harry Lloyd) and Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) The Iron Throne used to be ruled by the House Taragaryens until the family was ruthlessly murdered and the Baratheon’s stole the throne.

Beside the basic rundown I just gave you what is so mesmerizing about this show is how the creators but this book to life, not only with costumes and settings, which are brilliantly done to immerse the audience into this world, even if they haven’t been following with the books. The chemisty between the actors (and their book characters) really set this show apart from any other, to have so many storylines connected to one another and still manage to keep the audience from being lost is a difficult task, yet they do it well. The editing is well paced and the dialogue is eloquent but easy enough to follow.

The only draw back I saw during this show is how they know its an extensive and very detailed book and yet they change the storyline for no reason on some very important parts. Certain things are inneviately supposed to happen in the book and series and yet the change the way the character gets to that inevitable part of their storyline, which frustrated avid Game of Thrones book readers like myself. Also, certain characters are in certain parts of the show that they weren’t in the book at all! It’s just moments like that that pull me out of the world and I start questioning it, I’m just hoping it sticks more to the books and doesn’t go off the rails like HBO’s own True Blood.

TV TUESDAY: VIKINGS (HISTORY CHANNEL)

I do not own the copyright for this picture

Let me tell you something, this show is so freaking cool and interesting to watch. I thought it was going to be a historical voice over type of documentaries about Vikings, but it blew me away because it wasn’t like that at all! It’s a Canadian-Irish historical drama TV series, written and created by Michael Hirst for the History Channel, which premiered on March 3, 2013. It is a show about a particular Viking hero Ragnar Lothbrok, (played by Travis Fimmel) who legend has it is a direct descendent from the Norse God Odin and his exploration to the West to find the rumored treasures of England.

            Depicted in the beginning of the Viking Age let me just put it out there now that this show is not 100% historically accurate but still can be used as an educational tool to show the way Vikings lived and how they rose to be these warriors and conquerors of land we have heard since we were kids in school. Even the show runner Michael Hirst said that it was hard to try and recreate a society that wasn’t written down and was only orally told until the 13^th century, a few hundred years after these events took place. (Historical inaccuracies are on display on Wikipedia.com).

            However, I love how the History Channel went about describing the Viking Age to the audience, especially through the eyes of the Lothbrok family and Ragnar’s ‘Viking Brothers’/crew, and the Viking tribes that surround the area they live in. By centering the show on Ragnar we see how he is with his family and as he teaches the son about the Viking ways he is incidentally filling the audience’s brain with knowledge about their Norse Gods, their ways of governing in the tribes and about the new inventions and technologies of the time. For instance the sun board acted like a compass so they can travel by boat to new places. It was a very smart way to introduce knowledge into the show so by the child asking about the ways of the Vikings, we the audience were understanding their ways as well.

            What was also enticing was the beautiful cinematography, if you are not getting the close up shots on the characters faces to really get a good look of what a Viking should look like then we are often set in some beautiful wide master shots that show the Scandinavian forests and beauty that is truly breathtaking. These types of shots really allow the audience to submerge themselves into the area that the Vikings once ruled and how they worshiped nature and all that it gave them to survive and thrive back in the day.  It’s truly masterful, thank you Series Cinematographer John S. Bartley. Once we get out of the Scandinavian lands and onto the shores of the monasteries in the surrounding areas (episode two) is only when we see the clash of religious beliefs and how they differ society wise. With these subtle yet vital differences we can experience these cultures and how they were forced to learn from one another, even if they didn’t want to. Of course these types of subtle storylines can also parallel with our own present day ideals in the United States as well as around the world, whether its religious intolerance or any other matter this show puts it all into perspective and it is really quiet a fun, enjoyable (and sometimes gory) depiction of life from a long, long time ago. I give this show an eight out of ten, even if people are saying its not that historically accurate, I don’t mind submerging myself into a different time and place in history to just marvel at for an hour. 

THROWBACK TV THURSDAY: DEXTER on SHOWTIME

I do not own the copyright to this image

In the spirit of watching Hannibal on NBC, I had strange inclination to watch Dexter again. Created by James Manos Jr., he developed, produced and wrote the pilot for the Showtime drama series, which just recently came out saying this is the eighth and final season starting this June instead of waiting usually by late September.

What sets the show apart from any show on the air is the fact that it’s about a serial killer, Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall) who is in a way a good serial killer with a code he lives by to make sure he only kills people who are guilty of malicious crimes and murders before taking them off the streets of Miami. Being a serial killer by night doesn’t pay the bills so by day, Dexter is a blood splatter analysis for the Miami Metro Police Department. Kinda of a reverse Superman, don’t ya think? Blood splatter analyst by day, super serial killer by night.

What I love about Dexter is their simple and clean-cut cinematography (along with their fabulous cast) and how well it incorporates the attitude of the show. The most important factor is the voice over, without it we wouldn’t be able to understand why Dexter Morgan is the way he is, because as it turns out he, himself isn’t too sure about how he is the way he is so its an impactful journey the audience and Dexter embark on together. Through his voice over in the pilot we understand he was born without ‘emotions’ in a way and fakes them (just the way we fake them in our day to day as well) so already the audience is connecting and siding with this damaged man. We are given the chance to be inside Dexter’s head and go along with him because as much as we question him he questions himself, it’s a very interesting relationship and without it the show would be lost. The voice over also allows for some jokes and commentary about regular people’s social behaviors and how they interact with Dexter.

A cinematic choice that I saw in Hannibal but used in Dexter in entirely different ways is the slow motion effect. In Hannibal it’s used to show the slow decent of a dying victim while in Dexter the slow motion usually happens over a social behavior or something that Dexter wants to direct importance to. Such as flirting cues from a police officer or the slow turn from an angry employee or even the slow motion of gazing at a crime scene in awe. In these slow motion examples it is always seen through the eyes of Dexter and we are 99% in his perspective for most of the show. The only time we are not in his perspective is when we are the victims on his table, which is scary and thrilling because we get to experience the last moments of a truly evil person underneath Dexter’s grasp.  Other than that it seems like the camera is always in front of Dexter since we are following him in his perspective.

Then there is truly easy symbolic cinematography I can’t leave out, which is the nature of shadow and how when Dexter is first introduced in the show he is perceived in profile driving along the busy downtown Miami streets. How then we just see his eyes in the rearview mirror, very haunting images with a man we barely know (but will come to accept and love) with his soft, calm, monotone that portrays his lack of connection with the world around him. Even his clothes when he is in serial killer mode are dark thermals and cargo pants. But when he is in ‘Normal Mode’ he wears light breezy pastel colors on the blood splatter job, especially in Miami you need to keep cool outside. He is also always seen for the most part on the same eye level or in the same frame as his coworkers at Miami Metro or his sister (and also a police officer) Debra Morgan (played by Jennifer Carpenter). The only people he doesn’t share the frame with and is usually on different eye levels with are his victims and people he dislikes or dislikes him. When he is our Serial Killer Dexter he is always seen in from a low camera angle, an authoritative mode, like a puppeteer lingering his puppets on their strings of life until he cuts them cleanly off. The victims are usually below him and we only see them close up when they are on the table or from Dexter’s above angle perspective. When people dislike or mistrust Dexter (like a certain Sgt. James Doakes played by Erik King), Dexter is below the eye level of Doakes, which shows Doakes is the more authoritative one and someone we should watch out for since we want Dexter to keep doing what he is doing, which is making Miami safe.

Overall, I’m very sad to see this show go but each season tackles another feat Dexter doesn’t think he can handle based off his ‘Dark Passenger’. Which can be anything from dating, keeping his two jobs from colliding under the Miami Metro Police Force, a nosy sister, religion even being a father/good role model for people. So each season will keep you wanting to know more and see how far can Dexter go without people finding out his dark secret and just try to be a normal, sociable human being on top of it all. If you have Showtime I suggest you take a watch, you will not be disappointed.

TV TUESDAY: HANNIBAL

I do not own the copyright for this image

This new NBC show brings crime drama to a whole new level. Not only do we have an unconventional, socially inapt FBI criminal profiler and teacher at the FBI academy Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). We have the roots of Dr. Hannibal Lecter played by Mads Mikkelsen, the psychiatrist who is rarely expressive yet still manages to have an engaging relationships with his patients. However, the Doctor is not introduced until nearly the last half of the pilot. In this critique I don’t want to give away spoilers but I really want people to understand the relationships of the two main characters and the overall cinematographic picture of the show from my review. The content of the crime drama is fascinating and doesn’t disappoint. However, I need to touch on the opening on this show and how it’s effects and perspective of a crime scene will have you hooked onto Will Graham and this series in a heartbeat.

We spend the first minutes of the show looking at a crime scene like an police officer, the slanted angle of a dead women below us, blood splatter on the walls and Will Graham just standing in the middle of all the police and chaos with a stoic, eerily calm look on his face. We then are stripped of all sound and with a yellow laser effect we have the whole room wiped clean, police, victims, etc. In a slow motion effect to show the reversal of time Will walks backwards out of the room until he is standing in front of the house in the past, moments before the murders take place. When he is finished backing up he charges into the house and reenacts the murders as he has now jumped into the role of the murderer. The craziest thing is we see through his eyes how this murderer did his deed but while he is ‘killing’ the victim is set into slow motion as Will, in normal speed talks about how the person died using the first person. Ex: ‘I shoot the man in the head, causing him to die instantly, this is my design.’ We know he isn’t the killer but we gather the killer’s perspective through the criminal profiler.

After watching that scene I was instantly hooked on the show because I truly liked how Will took on the killer’s perspective to look for clues on how possibly the killer could have fudged up the crime scene. What is special about Will is that he knows he’s not the technical term for ‘normal’ and even says he’s more on the “Asperger’s (a form of Autism), narcissistic and sociopath kind of sociable. However he is amazing at his job because he can empathize with serial killers, which scares him and thrills him at the same time. Now my critique over his character, I think Will Graham is an amazing new character that we haven’t really explored in prime time. We saw this with MONK on USA network, a neurotic former police officer and Will is a socially awkward former police officer as well. Yet Will is compassionate, he rescues dogs and that’s his form of ‘family’. So girls can easily identify him as the Cute and Complicated guy they can follow.

Each week there is a serial killer that is the main focus of the show, the first week is about girls that go missing and are impaled by antlers, as if to bleed them out. Yet one special victim is put back into her bed after her death, Will says the killer was being sympathetic because she had liver cancer and the meat was bad. We cut to a man delicately cutting a sliver of meat and bringing it to his mouth, and we are starring at the darken face of the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter. From then on we escape the crime scene for a few more minutes and divulge into Dr. Lecter’s life. We see a blurred image of a man reaching out his hand and pleading, we think it’s a victim. But when we pull out we see the wide shot of the profile of Dr. Lecter handing a tissue to a patient.

The art designer knew what they were doing when they made Dr. Lecter’s office bleak and more like a study/private library then a psychiatric office. It’s dark walls and covered windows makes you feel you are suffering even if you aren’t a patient. Dr. Lecter is usually shown in partial shadow with his slicked back perfect hair and gray toned suits that essentially ‘tone down’ are already cool and calm demeanor. Graham on the other hand has untamed curly hair and has the lighter tones of the wardrobe, showing his youth as well as his personality.  However as you watch the relationship between Graham and Dr. Lecter grow (it’s already only as of tomorrow, three episodes in the series) and they have already experienced running in on a killer, death, a breakfast meal together and psychiatric sessions.

Their relationship is something that will really steals the show because as of now we don’t know that Dr. Lecter is another serial killer that Graham and the FBI is chasing down but watching two men have that interest in serial killers and how they are criminally profiled is enticing to watch, especially from the audience’s perspective of ‘I know something you don’t know’.

Throwback TV Thursday: The West Wing

           

I do not own the copyright to this image

I fell in love with this show easily after watching a few episodes in my editing class in college. The cinematography sold me on the show, the continuous long shot throughout the West Wing showing the chaos and constant flow of our government and how the news (and our nation’s capital) never sleeps.  You could be walking with Press Secretary C. J. Cregg (Allison Janney) down one hallway and she will bump into Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) have a quick chat and then the camera while never cutting away, follows now Josh who goes off to present the news to the next character. I believe this long continuous shot helped the audience adjust to the fast pace environment of the White House without ever losing their surroundings and the people focused in on the dialogue for that moment. Its fluid movement helps the audience to never lose focus and be able to grasp what’s happening without constant cuts that would make our heads spin.

The fast and quick dialogue adds to the pressure and the constant movement of each issue the West Wing Staff has to deal with not only from outside forces but between each other as well. When the more hard hitting moments were presented on screen an extreme close up of the profile of the character affected is held in the frame and mostly with a dark shadow representing the dark news ahead. One of my favorite shots is the circling around the room of people, whether it’s the staffers or an extremist group, it binds the audience in with the characters and we feel we are a part of the next major issue of the White House Staffers. It sometimes comes off as a ‘victory lap’ around the characters or a slow, long circle that seems to ooze bad news.

           

Like I said, I love the cinematography of this show and can dissect it all day.

           

The show ran for seven seasons from 1999-2006, which of course in our own nation’s history has had some pretty horrific moments not only from forces of nature (Hurricane Katrina) but of course the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Aaron Sorkin, the creator and writer for 155 episodes of The West Wing never took an actual headline from the news between 1999-2006, but reflected the tensions in the Middle East often in the series. He also covered national disasters by Nature (tornados) and the more nitty gritty issues even our government is trying to handle today like recession, education, tax reforms, and minimum wage and the constant battle to get anything done in Congress and Senate.

I’m not a political person but watching President Josiah ‘Jed’ Bartlett (played by Martin Sheen) as the Democratic president for two terms of the United States was fascinating. He showed not only the horribly difficult decisions a president has to make like sending American soldiers into the arms of danger but also the light hearted side of being a father and a husband, and gives off the father figure type of attitude towards his staff when he is not in a bad mood. This show also tackles issues we haven’t really seen in the office yet like drugs and alcohol addiction by certain members of Congress and White House Staff, higher ups battling diseases and sometimes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I deeply enjoyed this show and I suggest anyone who can access this show (all seven seasons are on Netflix) will enjoy the feeling they are behind the scenes of the White House and it’s staff.