Grading the Cast of Game of Thrones, Part 2

Without further ado, a continuation of our grading of the cast of Game of Thrones.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
Grade: A+

Comments: We’ve been fans of Peter Dinklage since The Station Agent, so we figured he’d be awesome as Tyrion. And he is.

Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister
Grade: A-

Comments: Dance’s portrayal of Tywin Lannister left me ice cold. Which is good because he’s a frigid old bastard.

Nikolai Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
Grade: A+

Comments: We were worried that no one would be able to do Jaime Lannister, one of the most complex characters in the series, justice. Coster-Waldau melds Tywin’s coldness and Tyrions charming wit perfectly.

Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
Grade: C

Comments: Cersei Lannister is the role we’re most disappointed with after season 1. More than anyone else, Headey seems to be leaning towards the Lord of the Rings stoicism that takes all the dirty crazy fun out of George R. R. Martin’s series. Still, Headey will have a chance to redeem herself in future seasons, we think.

Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey Baratheon
Grade: A-

Comments: Gleeson gets a minus because he’s another one that’s so hate-able, he’s hard to like.

Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon
Grade: A

Comments: Addy nailed the boozing, whoring King Baratheon and delivered and few laughs along the way.

Aiden Gillen as Petyr Baelish
Grade: A+

Comments: Gillen is another familiar face (The Wire) that delivered the effing goods. Baelish is a much more believable sociopath than the evil wizards of your average fantasy tale. Gillen is convincing as both the charming manipulator and as the snaky creep underneath.

Conleth Hill as Lord Varys
Grade: A-

Comments: Hill is exactly as we imagined Lord Varys, but the nature of his role means he doesn’t get any of the juicy scenes.

Rory McCann as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane
Grade: B+

Comments: Again, McCann fits the part but The Hound didn’t get much screen time in season 1. We’re hoping for more in future seasons.

Jerome Flynn as Bronn the Sellsword
Grade: A

Comments: Flynn is one of a few to have elevated his role, in our opinion. Bronn isn’t particularly memorable in the books, but his scenes with Tyrion were some of the high points of season 1.

Sibel Kekilli as Shae the whore
Grade: B

Comments: I don’t recall Shae being quite so sassy in the books, so I’m not sure if that’s Kekilli’s own spin on the role or something that was in the script. Either way, her screen time was limited so we’ll leave her with decent marks until season 2.

Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo
Grade: A-

Comments: I had my doubts, since Momoa is a Stargate alum. He only had a few lines, but he brought an intimidating on-screen presence that brought the Khal Drogo from the books to life.

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen
Grade: A

Comments: In season 1, Daenerys makes a transition from a shaky, vulnerable girl to khaleesi. Clarke was so shaky early on that I was worried, but in the end it totally worked.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
Grade: A+

Comments: It’s almost too bad that Viserys is such a short-lived character, because Harry Lloyd rocked so hard. But Viserys is such a prick we wouldn’t want him around any longer than necessary.

Ian McElhinney as Barristan Selmy
Grade: A

Comments: When I read the books, I had a hard time imagining an aging knight who was still sort of a bad ass. McElhinney showed me what one looked like.

Ranking the New Shows: #6 – Nurse Jackie

In an early, draft of this list, we had Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” ranked as high as #2, but over time it slid down to#6.

The show: “Nurse Jackie“

Synopsis: A Vicodin addicted nurse tries to balance a hectic work life with a messy love life

Debuted: June 9th, 2009

Our take: I started out really enthusiastic about Nurse Jackie, but by the end of the season my interest had petered out. The way the characters were first introduced was great- nursing student Zoey hovers awkwardly until Jackie snaps. Jackie manipulates her boyfriend into giving her drugs without him realizing that’s all she’s interested in.  And then the show seemed to be dragging it’s feet, which is bad news when your episodes are only half an hour long. The half hour format in itself is an odd fit- I think they were going for a Weeds-style dark dramedy, but a lot of the humor after the first few episodes didn’t work.

For the first few episodes, Nurse Jackie was “gray”- she was snorting pain killers and unabashedly using her boyfriend to get more (behind her husband’s back, of course), and you’re not really sure how you feel about all of this. Mid-season Jackie becomes almost two separate characters- in some scenes she’s clearly written so the audience is with her. In others we’re meant to be against her. There’s something ballsy about putting a character out there that you’re not entirely sure how the audience will react to, and I feel like the writers of “Nurse Jackie” lost their nerve. They write to manipulate, knowing how the audience will react to every scene. A better and more consistent “gray” character can be found in Mad Men’s Don Draper.

What it would need to do to keep me watching: Bring sassy, cynical, verging on angry Jackie back, and let us decide whether or not we’re disgusted or not by her behavior. Oh yeah, and leave the weird slapstick comedy moments out.

Ranking the New Shows: #7 – Eastbound and Down

Danny McBride’s HBO comedy, “Eastbound & Down,” comes in at #7.  Of the 3 half hour comedies in our top 10, this is easily the foulest.

The show: “Eastbound & Down“
Synopsis: Former professional baseball star returns home in shame to teach a high school gym class before mounting his comeback attempt.
Debuted: February 15th, 2009
Our take: There are fairly consistent laughs, mostly coming from McBride and his trusty sidekick Stevie (Steve Little).   The show is largely adlibbed, which winds up being a gift and a curse.  When it works, it’s pretty much hilarious and completely unique.  The problem arises in that it misses just as often, and it comes off as lazy and uninspired.  There are stretches where it seems like no one is trying.  There are also scenes where it seems like the actors are fighting each other for attention, hamming it up to be the funniest one in the scene and those fall really flat as well.  We were also a little disappointed in the way that former “Deadwood” star John Hawkes was used (or should we say wasn’t used?)

What it would need to do to keep me watching: The first season was only 6 episodes.  It’s hard to imagine where the show will go from this point.  It almost has to change directions to some degree, so that could be interesting.  If it showed a little more discipline, it could be one of our highest rated.

Ranking the New Shows: #8 – True Blood

Crap! Fall is here and we’ve falling behind on our rankings.  Let’s try to speed this up.
“True Blood” is up at number 8. The show is incredibly faithful to the whole vampire thing… and by that I mean it sucks.

The show: “True Blood“
Synopsis: Girl bangs vampire.
Debuted: September 7th, 2008
Our take: It’s a good thing for HBO’s “True Blood” that I ranked these shows before the second season came out. While the show’s Nielsen ratings have doubled from last year, they lost at least two viewers in the TV Casualties screening room.

I gave the show 14 or 15 episodes before I threw in the towel. Looking back, the pilot struck me as mediocre, especially considering the talent behind the series. From that point, the series went downhill quickly. I was such a big fan of Alan Ball’s “Six Feet Under” that when I first heard about HBO developing this series, I ran out and read all of the books it’s based on.  I haven’t hated a show this much since “Nip/Tuck,” and I might hate this one more because I had so much invested in it.

What it would need to do to keep me watching: There’s so much wrong with “True Blood” that I can’t imagine it surviving any of the surgical removals I’d recommend. Mainly Anna Paquin. I can’t recall encountering a more obnoxious, irrational, and just plain dumb main character in any book, show, or movie.

The Acolytes: Underground Horror from Down Under

Part serial killer thriller, part good teens gone bad, Australian indie “Acolytes” is the kind of horror movie they should be making more of. I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to this genre, and I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

Mark (Seb Gregory) wanders into the woods one day and spies a man burying something. He and his friends James (Josh Payne) and Chasely (Hannah Morgan Lawrence) decide to unearth the buried treasure, but instead of money, they discover the body of a young woman.

Here’s where the movie takes a turn for the “Kids do the darndest things when they find a body”, and I start wondering if I ever really want to procreate. Instead of reporting the body to the police, Mark and James cook up a scheme to find the murderer and blackmail him into killing an evil scumbag kiddie rapist (Michael Dorman) who has recently been released from prison. Schemes like this in thrillers never play out as planned, so things go from bad to worse pretty quickly for Mark, James, and Hannah.

TV Casualties Rating: out of 5

Run Time: 91 minutes

Directed by: Jon Hewitt

Written by: Shayne Armstrong, Shane Krause

Starring: Sebastian Gregory, Joshua Payne, Hannah Mangan Lawrence

Theatrical Release: 05/15/08

DVD Release: 07/28/09

Production Budget: $4 million

Domestic Gross: N/A

Metacritic Score: N/A

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 83%

With a small budget of only four million dollars, “Acolytes” has a great visual style and excellent performances by the cast, especially considering their age. Unlike most teen horror flicks, the characters in “Acolytes” are handled as real people instead of hash marks on a killer’s bed post.

You’ve probably seen movies that have one twist too many. The theatrical release of this movie has four or five too many- so many twists piled on top of one another is overkill and takes away from the overall impact. The ending is a bit of a cliché for a thriller, which is the biggest let down of all. (The DVD features two alternate endings.)

Overall, “Acolytes” is a movie I would certainly recommend to fans of the horror/thriller genre. It’s dark and disturbing and has just the right kind of jump-out-of-your-seat tension. The DVD became available in the U.S. today.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Steak Knife” & “Pupil”, 7/20 & 7/27

I must have gotten through with the firm talking-to I gave Nurse Jackie last time around, because things are finally starting to happen. On the romantic front, Eddie tries to give Jackie a bracelet in honor of their one-year anniversary. It doesn’t play out so well- Jackie clearly doesn’t remember the anniversary, nor does she seem to really want to even acknowledge it. This leads to Jackie and Eddie’s first fight, and Eddie lets her have it, suggesting she only shows interest in him when he’s giving her drugs. This is the first real conflict in the show and the first time anyone has confronted Jackie about anything. So far, it’s one of the most compelling moments of the season.

The plot thickens further when Eddie discovers that Jackie has a daughter (of course we know she has two AND a husband…) after Coop flaps those gossipy lips of his. So far it’s a non-issue, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a can of worms in the Eddie-Jackie storyline in coming weeks. I do find it a liiiiiittle bit unbelievable that someone would be able to do such a stellar job of keeping her family a secret from most of her coworkers, but hey, it’s tv. If it’s well written, I’ll buy almost anything.

There’s more development with the side characters, as well- Mrs. Akalitus finds an abandoned baby in the ER and instead of turning it over to child services, stays the night in her office with it. Zoey, after watching a show about pupils on tv, discovers that one of the temp nurses is on drugs (irony!!), and Dr. O’Hara has a bit of a meltdown over her personal life.

After a mid-season slump, it looks to me like Nurse Jackie is finding it’s groove.

Ranking the New Shows: #9 – Fringe

Of all of Fox’s recent attempts at the science fiction genre, “Fringe” looks like the most likely to succeed. It made number 9 on our list of best new shows.

The show: “Fringe”
Synopsis: Remember the “The X-Files“?
Debuted: September 9th, 2008
Our take: “The X-Files“ plus insane doctor equals awesome. Some of the time. John Noble carries this show as the mad scientist Walter Bishop. His absurd comments and non sequiturs add an element of quirky comedy to what would otherwise be a crappy cop drama with aliens and monsters. Not only does he make me laugh out loud several times an episode, but the show relies on him to deliver huge chunks of exposition to sell the “scientific” explanation of the disease/monster/wereporcupine of the week to the audience (with little help from the script).
This leads me to the main problem, which is that the story of the week element is extremely formulaic. And the formula is a pretty mediocre one. Even if I suspend belief to swallow the week’s pseudo-scientific disaster, the reactions of the characters and their subsequent solutions are much too cozy for me to buy. (How many times are they going to download images from a dead person’s brain or shove Olivia back into the Sensory Deprivation Chamber?) The season long story arc has compelling aspects but gets buried, and the suspense in general is lacking.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: I’ll keep watching for John Noble, and I do see some potential in the show as a whole, but I’ll never be a devoted fan until they invest more in the long term plot.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Tiny Bubbles” 6/13/09

In this week’s episode, Paula, a former friend and coworker of Jackie’s returns to the hospital. She’s dying of cancer and has been given only a week or so to live. With little more than a *wink wink*, she convinces Jackie (and the rest of the staff) to help her euthanize herself.

The issue of euthanasia is handled with such nonchalance, that I wonder if we’re supposed to believe that in the “Nurse Jackie” world, this is a common occurrence. The writers are apparently aware of this snafu, so they have Eddie the Pharmacist rebuke Zoey the Nursing Student for suggesting it’s some sort of “rite of passage”. Well excuuuuuse me, princess! It’s a little contradictory for the euthanasia plan to come together so quickly and then insist that this doesn’t normally happen.

Also on this week’s agenda is the revelation that Coop’s parents are lesbians. Despite the fact that two more-than-capable actresses were cast as Coop’s Two Moms (Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz), I’m more than a little afraid that we’re in for some poorly handled mommy-melodrama in the weeks to come.

This week really highlights “Nurse Jackie’s” main flaw- a lack of dramatic (or any) focus. The writers continue to inch away from the love-triangle/addiction plot introduced in the pilot and bog everything down with subplots that are not particularly compelling. On top of that, the humor is a lot less sharp. Last week, there was some way over-the-top slapstick (which I didn’t like either). This week, I don’t think I laughed once.

“Nurse Jackie” is at the halfway point in it’s first season. It’s gone downhill after a promising start, but I’m hoping it can recapture some of the excitement of the first two episodes as the season concludes.

Ranking the New Shows: #10 – Royal Pains

Number 10 comes to us from the USA network – a fairly new entrant into the legitimate television drama game.

The show: “Royal Pains”
Synopsis: An unemployed doctor, Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), and his sleazy brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo), enter the realm of the ultra-wealthy when a billionaire in the Hamptons hires Cliff as his concierge doctor.
Debuted: June 4, 2009
Our take: The key ingredients for a great show are here, but it doesn’t quite come together. The dialogue is quick and witty, and Feuerstein and Costanzo have some chemistry and are likeable as the leads. The premise, while not necessarily riveting, is open ended enough to allow a huge variety of stories. The show bogs itself down with some sentimental cheesiness here and there, though, that undermines its strengths. The good guys, even the loser brother, are a little too good. Nobody wants their source of sleazy humor to actually have a heart of gold. My only real complaint beyond that is that the medical details and jargon seem a little careless and melodramatic.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: Tighten it up. If this was just a little more focused on being entertaining and avoided those cheesy manipulative moments, I’d be a fan. Not every disease has to be a super obscure disaster, and the doctor doesn’t always have to ride in on a white horse to stop injustice and save lives left and right. If they made it a little more believable and emphasized the humor, it’d be a good show.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Daffodil” 6/06/09

This week on Nurse Jackie: Coop and Eddie get some toasted goodness from Quiznos.  Hellz yeah! Jackie helps a girl taking care of her sick mom. Also, a man rendered speechless by a stroke uses a flashcard to tell his wife to STFU.  On the whole, this might have been the most consistently entertaining episode so far.

Still, there are strange bits of slapstick comedy that I find jarring (Mrs. Akalitis tazing herself, for example). It breaks the reality of an otherwise believable show, and deflates the meaning more poignant moments. I’ve mentioned in past weeks that Coop (Peter Facinelli) is the comedic powerhouse of the show. Jackie’s nursing student, Zoey (Merritt Wever), is also beginning to provide a more subtle humor.  Both of these could be and should be used more liberally, especially in place of the lowbrow comedy that always falls flat.

The writers continue fumbling with both scale and pace. All of the major plotlines are in a holding pattern with no new developments. They were in a big rush to get the love triangle and daughter’s psych issues out, and now they’re dragging their feet.

And speaking of those psych issues, for a “medical” show, the psychology seems poorly researched.  Jackie’s daughter’s symptoms, which include obsessively watching tv news and circling her desk three times before sitting down so planes won’t crash, sound much more like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder than Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The dour drawings could easily be interpreted as depression.

Next Page »