"The Bible" Finale Racks Up 11.7 Million Viewers

Not enough to win the night, but nearly so.

It also doubled the ratings of a very meh season debut of Game of Thrones.

The GoT season will, I imagine, get better. But George R. R. Martin does so much leisurely set-up it really takes a while for anything interesting to happen. I'm re-reading the third book, reading it more carefully and not just skimming to get to the good parts. I have to say, reading it this way is boring. He really does pad an awful, awful lot. Not only does he have a large number of "Check-In Chapters" -- stuff where nothing of importance happens, but he feels the need to regularly check-in with important characters who aren't doing much -- but even within those chapters he pads like the Dickens. Reading the Jamie chapters, for example-- Jamie obviously loathes Brienne and has loathed her now since the last book. But he'll write paragraphs like this:

What a stupid, ugly cow, Jamie smiled to himself. "You're a stupid, ugly cow," Jamie told her. Then he smiled to himself.

No, really, an entire chapter is like this, Jamie thinking the same thing, then Jamie saying the same thing, and, seriously, Jamie both thinking and saying the same thing in the same paragraph.

But, anyway, it does get better. The TV series is far better than the book in this respect: they cut a lot of the fat. And there is so much in need of cutting.

posted by Ace at 03:09 PM

| Access Comments