When Good Television Goes Mediocre

Warning: This Post is Dark and Full of Spoilers

Last year I wrote a blog post about Why I’m Done With Game of Thrones (On Television Anyway). Shortly after explaining my reasons for abandoning the televised adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga I went online to cancel my HBO subscription. My cable provider made a counter offer that I decided was too good to pass up, and my HBO subscription remained intact for at least another year. And with that done, I could think of no reason not to watch the new season of Game of Thrones when it premiered in April.

It came as no surprise to me that my original thinking about the quality of the 5th season, based on the quality of the source material (A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons), was correct. A compelling and excellent program has become, at its best moments, merely interesting and good. What has surprised me is how uninspiring and mediocre the deviations from the source material have been. Producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss have definitely made the TV show their own creation, mercifully not forcing us to sit through all of the stagnation offered up in Martin’s last two novels, but equally failing to comprehend the nuances Martin brings to the work as a storyteller. Game of Thrones has always been driven by death and violence, even death and violence against some if its most important characters. But it was never as reckless or gratuitous or pointless as it seems to have become in season five.

Now killing Mance Rayder instead of some doppelganger may have been the best choice. The story in the book is rather convoluted, and possibly would have been difficult to follow on television without a lot of exposition. But killing Barristan Selmy seems like a pointless stunt. As if the writers felt they needed to keep the theater of death that is Game of Thrones going and the dart landed on Ser Barristan. Like the death of Jojen Reed in season four, the character was killed because he was expendable, not to advance the plot. So to it was easier to have Sansa fall into the role originally reserved for Jeyne Poole, since most of Sansa's Eyrie storyline was completed, except that this subjected her to gratuitous acts of violence she did not have to endure in the original story. At this point the producers seem intent on piling on the horribleness just to prove something we already know, life in medieval Westeros sucks.

Jaime Lannister also gets diverted from whatever the hell it was he was doing in the books (I don’t remember) to making Road to Dorne with Ser Bronn of the Blackwater. This storyline is inept, treating Jaime, Bronn and Oberyn Martel’s daughters, The Sand Snakes, like comic relief. I thought the whole Sand Snakes story was a rather pointless diversion in the books, but at least it had some subtlety and didn’t become the simple-minded revenge plot offered by the TV show. The storyline for Brienne of Tarth and Poderick Payne also diverts from the book, with them shadowing Sansa all the way to Winterfell, although Brienne seem no more competent at protecting the Starks now than she ever have been. At least the TV show has not subjected us to new Iron Islanders or contending Targaryens.

The show has been somewhat faithful to the High Sparrow/Faith Militant storyline from the books, although again not one of my favorites. The shift in focus from Margery to Loras has led to the accusation by some that Loras on TV has become a ‘gay cartoon.’ I would argue that it is a little too ‘on the nose’ as a social commentary, but mostly, as with this whole storyline in the book, it seems like padding, preventing the saga from moving toward it’s conclusion. One story from which the padding has been removed is that of Jorah and Tyrion, now delivered to the doorstep of Danerys Targaryen. It may be interesting to see how that plays out, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I doubt even Tyrion and Danerys together can do much to improve the fifth season of Game of Thrones.

Book Review: The Curse Merchant

There was a single line in the first few chapters of J.P. Sloan’s The Curse Merchant that convinced me to continue reading beyond the pages of the Kindle sample I had downloaded. “He had a ruddy tone to his face that gave him the look of a man who had been dying from the same heart attack for the past three years.” It was such a vivid and clever description, and Sloan’s narrative style was both compelling and entertaining. The main character didn’t offer much of a challenge, but was likeable enough for me to invest the time and money to finish the book.

The Curse Merchant is a dark urban fantasy set in modern day Baltimore. The protagonist is Dorian Lake, a peddler of hexes and charms who gets caught up in some darker deals when he’s asked to prevent the loss of his ex-lover’s soul. Seems she sold it to a local soul monger in exchange for personal and professional success two years earlier and the contract is about to come due. Now she wants out, and Dorian is her only hope.

The novel follows Lake’s efforts to resolve the crisis and overcome a variety of personal problems that crop up along the way. Some of this stuff seems a little contrived. Sloan is working too hard placing obstacles in the path of his protagonist, and it’s never as much fun when you can see the writing process. The final confrontation between Lake and his primary antagonist, Neil Osterhaus, plays out well enough, but feels ever so slightly anti-climactic.

The supporting characters are never that well developed, although generally Lake has enough depth to carry the story. The ex-lover, Carmen, has no redeeming qualities, and you have to wonder if Sloan created this character based on someone he hates. In addition to what feels like too many artificial obstacles, Lake’s character also makes too many mistakes. Yes, you want your characters to have some flaws, but personally I wouldn’t trust this bozo to handle my supernatural work. And that last mistake seemed like a lot of needless setup for the sequel. But Sloan writes prose like the best of them, and his entertaining style and delivery make up for the weak plot points and under-cooked characters.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies: 100 Word Movie Review*

Orcs and Elves and Dwarves, oh my. No one should be surprised at the identity of three of the five titular armies that go to battle in the final installment of Peter Jackson’s bloated adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Or that the human residents of Lake Town, featured prominently in The Desolation of Smaug, make up the fourth of those five featured combatants. But for the sake of those unfamiliar with the book I’ll refrain from naming the final army, whose critical contribution to the battle seems largely glossed over anyway. But none of the battle sequences in this film feel critical. Well-rendered waves of CGI Elves and Orcs and Dwarves clash convincingly over the well-rendered battlefield of Erebor. But who really cares? The main characters, Thorin, Bard, Gandalf, Tauriel and Bilbo all have brief moments where we get some sense of character and narrative, but mostly the film consists of endless CGI cinematography and warfare. And although Billy Connolly’s turn as the Dwarf king Dain Ironfoot is almost worth the price of admission, the rest of the film, like the others in The Hobbit trilogy, is just too long and too much.

*100 word reviews are 100 words long, more or less. Often more.

Why I’m Done With Game of Thrones (On Television Anyway)

Spoilers Ahead (below video)

There is only one reason that I continue to subscribe to HBO, and it’s not the occasional episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the opportunity to see movies that have not yet made it to Netflix or the slim hope that there will be another season of The Newsroom. It is to watch Game of Thrones. To watch each episode of each season as soon as they are available. That is the only reason that I have continued to pay for the premium cable network. But now that season four, and the adaptation of the 3rd book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, A Storm of Swords, has been completed, I cannot recall a single event in the next two books of the series that I feel an overwhelming need to experience on screen. And even though the producers of the TV series have thrown a few interesting curve balls our way, they’ve thrown enough bad ones to make me question the value of paying $18 a month just to watch three months of GOT in the Spring.

Novel author George R.R. Martin reached the plateau of his story with A Storm of Swords. After the The Red Wedding, the poisoning of Joffrey Baratheon, the second trail by combat for Tyrion Lannister, the Battle for Castle Black and the arrival at The Wall of Stannis Baratheon, and the death of Tywin Lannister, this story was begging for its author to start moving toward the conclusion, something that could have been accomplished within the next two books. Instead, the surviving character we already know get bogged down in story lines that seem to go nowhere. Daenerys remains stuck in Meereen, failing largely to control either the population or her dragons. Stannis and Jon Snow remain stuck at the wall, worrying about Wildings and White Walkers but not really doing anything about either. Sam and Gilly wander through western Westeros. Brienne and Pod wander through eastern Westeros. Tyrion and Jorah Mormont wander through western Essos. Arya has some interesting adventures, but not much else seems to happen for all the other characters we know.

Then there are the new characters, Iron Islanders, the Dornish, even new Targaryens that might have some claim to the Iron Throne. Clearly Martin wanted to expand his saga to cover these new kingdoms and people, but at this point I really just don’t care. Just because you set your story in the seven kingdoms of Westeros doesn’t mean I want to read about all seven kingdoms. And after killing off so many of the characters I was already invested in, what makes you think I would want to get invested in new characters that you will slaughter. Time to start moving toward a conclusion, getting Dany off her throne in Meereen and moving across the Narrow Sea, bringing the White Walkers down from The Land of Always Winter for their big conflict with Dany and her Dragons (assuming that is how the story will end). But I doubt even the next book, The Winds of Winter, will start to significantly resolve these storylines.

I’m not giving up on the story. I’ll continue to read the books as (and if) they are released. But I’m not paying extra for the TV series. I’ll just wait for that distant day when these next few seasons are released on DVD or Blu-ray or finally make their way to Netflix. Because from where I'm sitting, the best parts of this story are behind us, and unless Martin does something truly spectacular with the next book, I have no reason to follow it in more than one medium.

Repost: Does it Matter Who Wins the Game of Thrones?

This blog entry was originally posted in May of 2012.

There was never any doubt about the attack on the Death Star. An armored battle station that solely exists to destroy planets offers little in the way of moral ambiguity to the audience watching its destruction. The only possible reaction is to stand up and cheer. And when Sauron’s ring of power is finally tossed into Mount Doom, ending the dark lord’s threat to enslave all of Middle Earth, no one is inclined to feel ambivalent about that ending. The heroes and villains in these stories are clearly drawn, and the outcomes almost inevitable.

Things are not so obvious in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga, adapted for television as HBO’s Game of Thrones. Sure, most everyone can agree that the cowardly teenaged sociopath Joffrey Baratheon should spend as little time as possible sitting on the Iron Throne, and many can surely agree that his uncle Stannis has the most legitimate claim to that throne of anyone in the Seven Kingdoms, but when the time comes for Stannis’ fleet to besiege King’s Landing and take that throne from Joffrey, both reader and viewer view the Battle of Blackwater Bay with more than a little ambiguity.

The problem is, that no matter how much we may loathe Joffrey, the man at the center of the defense of King’s Landing, his uncle Tyrion Lannister, is one of the more interesting and well-liked characters in the story. A dwarf with an appetite for both women and wine, Tyrion is brilliant, sarcastic and usually underestimated by family, friend and foe. Though not one to deny himself much in the way of pleasure, he’s usually very aware of the consequences of his actions for others. Growing up as the despised son of the privileged Lannister clan has given him both empathy for those usually dismissed by the highborn and an awareness of the treachery that exists within that class. As a result he has compassion for the weak (protecting Sansa Stark from his own nephew) and deals ruthlessly with those he sees as a threat (he sent Ser Janos Slynt to The Wall). So while we would be happy to see Joffrey’s head placed on a pike, we’d be really disappointed if Tyrion were to fail and loose his own head.

So the audience is really unable to take sides in the Battle of Blackwater, and many experience it neutrally, hoping that Tyrrion survives and that Joffrey gets shot in the eye with an arrow. Our investment in Tyrion’s success conflicts with our investment in Joffrey’s removal from the throne. That George R.R. Martin can inspire such a contradiction in his readers demonstrates the sophistication of his work, and gives the fantasy genre a certain depth that it has lacked until now. As in real life, good and evil are a bit more complicated in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

Frankenstein Part II: Crash Course Literature 206

Book Report 4/7/14

Completed Reading (fiction): Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Blackbirds is a novel about a girl who can see the future, a very specific part of the future, the death of any person that she touches. Like most people cursed with such gifts, that knowledge does not give her the ability to make any changes to future events. People are bound to die. Miriam Black drifts around the country using her gift to stay alive, finding the imminent death of some of the people she encounters an opportunity to rob the dead, or borrow their homes and cars for her own use. The vision of the violent death of a trucker who picks her up while hitchhiking leads her into the arms of a con man who wants to exploit her and peril at the hands of the meth dealers who want the product that he stole from them. It's all rather standard point A to point B stuff with plenty of violence thrown in for fun. And I guess this novel was written mostly to be fun, an interesting premise carried by lightweight characters that find themselves in violent conflict with each other. Wendig likes his language coarse, but the effect wears thin after a while. Every time he comes up with another way to describe something in particularly nasty way it is both less shocking and less entertaining than the time before. Outside of that, there is just enough hope that somehow Miriam will be able to beat fate and prevent the death of the trucker to keep the reader invested in the plot, but you shouldn’t expect much else from this story or its characters. B-

Book Report 3/20/14
Book Report 2/27/14
Book Report 2/6/14

Book Report 3/20/14

Completed Reading (nonfiction): Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

Much like a book about the fall of Carthage (see Book Report 1/16/14), one about the decline of Detroit is not going to have much of a surprise ending. LeDuff continues to explore the deterioration of the city through a very personal lens, the impact of that decay on the lives of his family and people he has gotten to know in the city. I guess the title of the book is indicative of the story he wants to tell, but it might have been nice to balance the stories about promising young men gunned down in their prime with at least one example of personal achievement. LeDuff explores the history of his own family, how they came to Detroit and found success by hiding their racial identity. He explores the history of the city, and its own deep racial problems. (Fun Fact: In the 1920’s a KKK backed candidate won enough votes to be elected mayor of Detroit, but since it was a write-in campaign, 17,000 ballots were invalidated due to misspellings of the candidate’s name. Which proves that racists have always been morons.) There is a note of hope throughout LeDuff’s narrative, even as he tells one horrible story after another. It seems somewhere deep inside he still believes in his home town. The book ends with a visit to the place his sister died, a now overgrown field where he spies a deer feeding on the tall grass. He takes this a something of a hopeful sight, but I have to wonder how much hope there is in nature reclaiming the city from its failed human inhabitants. Detroit: An American Autopsy is a powerful, but often depressing book. A

Currently Reading (fiction): Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

I have been following Chuck Wendig online for some time, reading his blog and tweets on a fairly regular basis. I have Kindle versions of his non-fiction 250 Things You Should Know About Writing and a fiction work titled Bait Dog. I tired of the list format before finishing 250 Things and have not yet had the opportunity to read Bait Dog, but recently purchased the novel Blackbirds during a special pricing promotion on Amazon. Blackbirds is about Miriam Black, a young woman with the strange ability to see the (future) death of any person that she touches. The book starts strong. Wendig is clearly in love with his style, his language and descriptions having a rather nasty edge to them. Nothing wrong with that, he uses language very effectively, but if you are easily offended you may wish to avoid his books. Miriam’s second major confrontation within the first few chapters of the book (a bar fight) has me wondering whether or not Wendig is picking these fights just to fill space and keep the action up. It’s as if he wrote “insert bar fight here” on his outline. I hope it has more relevance to the plot than that, though I doubt it. Still, an engaging start to what I hope will be an entertaining novel.

Book Report 2/27/14

Book Report 2/6/14
Book Report 1/30/14

New Television II

Now that the 2014 Winter Olympics have passed, another new crop of mid-season replacement series have emerged to demand our limited time and attention. Here are my thoughts on three of these new series:

Resurrection (ABC)

This series had the unenviable task of premiering opposite three TV programs that I was much more interested in watching, The Walking Dead (AMC), True Detective (HBO) and Cosmos (FOX). Since my DVR isn’t capable of recording more than two shows at a time, I already had to record the midnight encore of True Detective just to ensure I could see all of the programs I actually wanted to see. Fortunately for Resurrection, ABC also played an encore of the premiere on the following Saturday. Unfortunately for Resurrection, that premiere episode did little to make me want to watch more.

Resurrection stars Omar Epps as J. Martin Bellamy, some kind of Federal Agent who deals with immigration issues. When an 8-year-old American boy with no passport turns up in rural China and is returned to the United States, Bellamy is charged with transporting him back home. The thing is back home, Arcadia, Missouri, has reported no missing children, and when Bellamy tracks down a family that he hopes will provide a clue to the mystery, it appears that the boy, Jacob, drowned 32 years earlier. Kurtwood Smith plays the boy’s father; equal parts surprised and skeptical at the return of the son he knows he buried. Is it a miracle, or is it a trick? Even positive DNA evidence does little to resolve the issue. And Jacob’s story about what happened on the day he drowned varies significantly from the official account.

The end of the episode takes us to a predictable place; setting up the next long dead loved one to be resurrected. I imagine they’ll do this every week, new family, new person, new tragic death story, new skepticism, new belief. I doubt it will add up to much, or that the mystery will be solved. They would have to keep the series going after all, should it be picked up. As for me, there not enough here to try and squeeze another mediocre TV show into my viewing schedule.

Believe (NBC)

Much like what happened a couple of seasons ago, when both ABC and NBC each premiered a series with a fairy tale theme (Once Upon a Time and Grimm), Believe is NBC’s answer to Resurrection. It also features a child at the center of the story, although unlike the little boy who comes back from the dead this one features a young girl with extraordinary powers, some kind of telekinesis coupled with the power to control animals (birds, butterflies). The adult in this story is a death row inmate named Tate (Jake McLaughlin) who is freed from prison on the night of his execution because Winter (Delroy Lindo) thinks he is the best person to protect Bo (Johnny Sequoyah), the girl with all the powers. People who want to use her gifts for their own nefarious purposes, the chief among them played by Kyle MacLachlan, are hunting her. Hide, run, action, inspire random person with your power; that seems to be the formula for this particular series. The writing and acting are certainly solid enough, but at the end of the day I just don’t think it will add up to much. So like Resurrection, this series is also one I will pass on.

Cosmos (FOX)

The antidote to the wishful thinking inspired by the previous two fictional series is the 2014 reboot of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. This program promises to reveal the deep and wonderful mysteries of the universe without requiring you to believe in any sort of powers or spontaneous resurrections. Here there is just science and the complexities and beauty of the universe that it reveals. Following faithfully in Sagan’s footsteps, host Neil deGrasse Tyson sets sail on the Ship of the Imagination, showing us our cosmic address by taking us along through our solar system, galaxy and the universe. The episode next takes us into the past to reveal the story of Giordano Bruno, a Renaissance Era Italian who had a vision of an infinite universe, one teeming with all possible worlds, who was condemned and executed by the Roman authorities for heresy. Although an important story, I’d have preferred to see it saved for a later episode, rather than alienate the audience most in need of scientific enlightenment right from the start. Tyson then takes us on an odyssey through time, placing the events of the past 13 billion years on a Cosmic Calendar. From the Big Bang that starts the process at 12:00 midnight on January 1st to the last 14 seconds of December 31st that represents the whole of written human history, this Cosmic Calendar gives us the means to understand the vast timescales that have gone into the emergence of our universe and ourselves. A final personal tribute to Sagan from Tyson nicely ties the new series to its predecessor. Although not really intellectually challenging for the scientifically literate, the new Cosmos is a wonderful and glorious look at the vast complexity of the universe.

Book Report 2/27/14

Completed Reading (fiction): The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson

Having viewed all of the films based on this series, there was little suspense with regard to the ultimate resolution of this novel. Of course in almost any novel it is a safe enough bet that the protagonist, while facing many obstacles and struggles, will ultimately win the day. (Unless, of course, that protagonist is named Stark and inhabits a novel written by George R.R. Martin.)  So it shouldn’t be much of a spoiler to reveal that Lisbeth Salander avoids both a prison sentence and confinement to a mental hospital. Still, even if one didn’t see this resolution coming based on the usual rules of fiction, the novel itself leaves little doubt as to the predicted outcome. The Section, a rogue cabal within the Swedish Secret Police, never really gets their act together with regards to their conspiracy against Salander. They want to silence her because of her father, a Soviet defector to Sweden who was handled by The Section in the 1980s and 90s. But for a group of spies they are notoriously ineffective. Salander’s ally, Mikael Blomkvist, and his associates always remain one step ahead of The Section, and that seriously undercuts the suspense. Slander’s lawyer makes short work of the prosecution and their star witness, the psychiatrist Teleborian, which leads to Salander’s acquittal and release. We are then subjected to an unnecessary sojourn to Gibraltar (sometimes telling is better than showing) before Salander finally gets her hands dirty in a confrontation that ties up the novel’s loose end. Nice to see her back in action, even if only for a small portion of the book. If you are well invested in the Millennium trilogy, and must know how the story ends, you probably won’t consider reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest a waste of time.

Currently Reading (nonfiction): Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

Bodies buried in ice in abandoned buildings. Families members ravaged by drug and alcohol abuse. First responders struggling with inadequate equipment, punished for looting if they take abandoned property. Corrupt and incompetent politicians growing more corrupt and incompetent by the day. The deterioration of old Detroit proceeds apace.

Currently Reading (fiction): Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Book Report 2/6/14
Book Report 1/30/14
Book Report 1/16/14

The Zombie Notpocalypse

Much like the ubiquitous vampires of the recent Twilight era, zombies are a hot commodity, as evidenced by the popularity of The Walking Dead and World War Z. Sure, zombies have probably passed the peak of their popularity, but they may have a couple of years before they become as overexposed and tedious as the vampires.

One unexpected consequence of all this zombie popularity is that it has pretty much eliminated the possibility that the zombie apocalypse will ever occur. I know, you’d have thought that the major problem with that would be biological, that dead organisms can’t really get up and walk around after they are, well, dead. But the presence of zombies within pop culture poses another difficulty to the zombies, should the problem of animating necrotic tissue ever be solved, and that is, we all now know how to deal with them.

Let’s face it, the only thing that zombies really have going for them is surprise, no one expects the dead to get up and start biting people. In a world without a pop culture reference to zombies, people would probably be confused and uncertain how to deal with the newly resurrected corpses. But us, we’ve got this covered. After the initial shock wore off, we’d get down to business pretty quickly, shooting walking corpses in the head and making sure that the dead were properly disposed of.  Even if the generals and admirals were uncertain of how to respond to an outbreak, soldiers and sailors raised on Resident Evil and other video games would step up and squash the threat fairly quickly. Sure there might be some initial panic and maybe even quite a few causalities, but ultimately the zombie apocalypse will never have a chance.

Binge Watch: Once Upon a Time Edition

Honestly, this was the last series that I expected to revisit through binge watching on Netflix, especially after what I considered to be a rather lackluster 1st half for season three. But the reset the curse storyline that emerged in the mid-season finale inspired me to re-familiarize myself with how the story originally developed in Season One. Now OUAT is not Breaking Bad/Mad Men/Game of Thrones quality television, but it has remained compelling enough to for me continue watching through the third season. The decline in quality is not on par with Heroes, which declined rapidly through the 2nd season. Strong performances by Robert Carlyle, Lana Parilla, Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin have offset script logic and continuity problems that have emerged. The rules of magic often seem to be rather haphazardly applied, and the decision to create so many familial connections between the different characters borders on the absurd. The first season had the whole question of Emma Swan’s (Morrison) ability to believe in the curse and magical realms, not to mention the question of whether or not she would be able to fulfill her prophesied role of breaking the curse, to generate dramatic tension. One gets the impression that they have reset the curse for exactly that reason, to bring back that suspense. Let’s hope they do something more interesting than just retelling that story. Perhaps Swan will regain her memories of Storybrooke rather quickly and it will be Henry (Jared Gilmore) who needs convincing that there is a curse and that he is the key to breaking it.

Peter Jackson’s Broken Narrative

With the release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, we get part two of Peter Jackson’s epic motion picture trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s  310 page fantasy novel. It is, exceeding the visual standard first set by Jackson with his adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, a magnificent looking film, an almost hyper realistic portrayal of the world of Hobbits, Wizards, Dwarves and Dragons. But it is also, unfortunately, a broken narrative, a simple story so padded with extra stuff (over long VFX set pieces and material from other of Tolkien’s works), that the whole flow of the story drags.

No, it’s never really boring to watch the interminable battle with giant spiders or the endless Mirkwood escape sequence featuring Dwarves in barrels on the rapids being chased by Orcs who are being chased by Elves. These scenes are nothing if not visually stimulating. But it often feels like you are watching a video game, or an amusement park ride, and the excesses of those scenes do little to advance the story. And then after waiting quite some time to see the titular dragon, those scenes also seem to drag. The tension in Bilbo’s conversation with Smaug is undermined by the length of the dragon’s endless dialogue. The Dwarves’ failed attempt to kill the dragon adds an unnecessary embellishment that allows the movie to delay the actual resolution of Smaug to the third film (which I’m guessing will be titled The Hobbit: The Resolution of Smaug.)

Jackson provides Orlando Bloom with some work, recreating his role as Legolas from LOTR, and finds Lost alum Evangeline Lilly a job as the elf warrior Tauriel. These two kick ass from Mirkwood to Lake Town, but again, how many arrow shots and orc decapitations do you need to see before getting that point. You get very little character from these characters, though there are hints that they might actually be interesting in the moments between Orc slaughter. But Jackson’s excessive extension of Tolkien’s little story into a three movie epic was never about telling an interesting story about interesting characters. It was about action sequences, superbly rendered special effects and profit. Yeah, lots of profit.