(no subject)

I am neither in love with nor against G.R.R. Martin's series of books; they entertained me while I read them, but I never had the urge to re-read one of them. Several of my friends are passionate fans, so I thought I might as well watch the pilot of the tv version, and, well, same thing, only also suffering from Borgia comparisons. Even visually, which is when I decided I'm currently in a shallow phase and gorgeous, colourful Renaissance Italy beats the relentlessly grim North of the Seven Kingdoms. Where we know it's a pseudo-Medieval world because everyone looks grim. And is dressed brown in brown. Unless they're a whore, in which case they aren't dressed at all, never mind the cold, to provide HBO with female nudity. See, in Renaissance Italy, you get male nudity in baths instead, while the women wear gorgeous dresses and have, like, relationships and conversations with each other. Also Neil Jordan has found a way to insert Latin jokes (and the fact wordplay and languages, too, provided sensuality in the Renaissance) in the scripts without putting people off who don't know their lingua latina from their Klingon. Plus he teaches us elegant Italian. Word of the day: sprezzatura! See great illustration of same here.

On the other hand, the three or so scenes Lena Headey had as Cersei give me hope that tv Cersei might end up as a more dimensional character than book Cersei (Martin has created some interesting women, in those books, but Cersei, alas, is doomed to one dimensionality), and I miss Lena Headey on my tv screen, so I might continue watching anyway. We'll see.

In other news, I see Fringe continues to be the most pro-drug show since Six Feet Under made it clear pot and LSD help to no end with family bonding and self realisation. I am still awaiting confirmation that in at least one of the Fringe verses, there was no Magic Alex and Walter took his place. Even if it was Walternate. Where do you think he got his money from anyway?