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Hello lovely Steemians
Its time for another episode of The View From The Verandah - My random thoughts about.. well anything going on in my head really. Hope you enjoy the (sometimes loopy) view!
If you've been following my Read between the Wines series, you may have guessed that I have a bit of a penchant for Epic Fantasy.
So it stands to reason I'm a bit of a fan of Fantasy TV shows. Plus when you can't get the authors to finish their work, even when they are years past their editors due date, it helps to have a couple of show-runners who have the story all under control. Thanks to DB Weiss and David Benioff we will at least get a resolution to Game of Thrones if George RR Martin doesn't make it that far. He kinda never really looks in the greatest of health!
But sadly we are only six episodes away from the end of this epic show and I suspect there will be a ginormous Game of Thrones shaped hole in many peoples lives!
So just what will fill it, now that even the mainstream has had a taste of sword and (a little bit of) sorcery.
Good things the networks are on it! Let's review some of the current and potential offerings being tossed around.
Britannia
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I think I've said elsewhere I love a good Celtic romp and this was touted as the show to fill the GoT gap. That was, alas, before it came out. Don't get me wrong.. it's actually quite fun, but it is no Game of Thrones.
Where GoT took itself (and rightfully so) very seriously, left you hanging on the edge of the seat.. and only built more and more tension as it went along (remember how you felt when you found out NO-ONE was safe from losing a head!), Britannia is very irreverent, and pokes a bit of fun at itself.. possibly the writers and probably the cast seem like they were smoking the funny stuff while this was being made. There's blood, guts but unlike GoT there are some REALLY funny moments!
Enjoy it.. but don't expect the same impact that Game of Thrones had.
Lord of the Rings
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Yes you heard it.. there is a Lord of the Rings TV series is on offer, with the expected budget per season to be around 100-150 Million US. As a guide the most expensive season of Game of Thrones was $60 Million US. Netflix and Amazon are still considering while HBO knocked it back due to the price tag. The rights alone are $250 Million before production costs. There are rumours that Amazon has done the deal but I have not been able to confirm either way.
I can't help but wonder though, if this will suffer because of the immense success of the movie franchise
The Dark Tower
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I really was kind of disappointed with the movie version, being this was a pretty great book series by the master of horror - Stephen King. It was okay...but just okay.
It's unclear if this will even make it to the small screen now, given the failure of the movie at the box office. If it does it's likely to be a reboot version and much more faithful to the original books. It really is a story that lends itself better to the tv serial format.
I also felt personally the movie was a lot less gritty than the books trying to pull in a younger audience perhaps, and in so, lost a lot of it's appeal to original fans.
Lazarus
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Amazon are really pushing for a big scope scifi / fantasy drama and developing a live action version of the Lazarus graphic novel (comicbook is apparently not a word anymore). Lazarus is set in an alternative near future where the world has been divided among 16 rival families, who run their territories in a feudal system. Each family has allies and enemies among the other families. To crush uprisings and fight wars, most families have a Lazarus: a one-person kill squad. Okay that's starting to sound a bit Games of Thronesish to me...
I look forward to that one!
Wheel of Time
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Okay I have banged on about this one in the past - but I love this series of books by Robert Jordan. Anyone whos familiar with Jordan work will know he did kind of lose the plot a bit in the middle and the books really dragged on.. But HBO have shown they can successfully cut out a LOT of backstory, characters and story lines without impacting the overall tale, so it could definitely be adapted for TV with the right showrunners.
Amazon currently have acquired the rights but currently not a lot of news coming out. They certainly have the budget to do it justice. Let's hope they have the nouse. There is a special place in hell for anyone who wrecks this show!
Game of Thrones Spin-off
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Well HBO would be silly to just let their biggest money spinner disappear into the sunset and everyone's been a bit crazy since they announced their intention to do a spin-off.
Actually not one spin off but four!
Each of these is expected to be set in a different era in Westeros. Weiss and Benioff are rumoured to produce but not write for these shows.
Of course it's all rumour and no guarantee any will hit the screens - but GoT is a big draw for subscription for HBO so they would want to keep it going.. to be honest its the only reason I have the drama pack on Foxtel.
So there's plenty of options but people now have high expectations and it's goign to take something amazing for any of these shows to hit the mark. Let's hope they can step up.
Til the Next Adventure Steem on With Love and Light
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