Mark

He's definitely nailed a fair few of the mannerisms. The grin in that first gif is bang on.

There are a handful of things in there that I'm deeply wary about (the "what's on the way?!" didn't bother me, but the "you mean I could save my soul?" set off alarm bells), but quite a lot to like, too. Like slinker, "she did it" got a laugh out of me.

Actor certainly looks the part, not entirely certain of his delivery but I'm willing to roll with it - I've got a couple of decades' worth of my own imagined version of John's voice in my head, so just about anything other than that is going to take a bit of getting used to.

Bottom line is whether they actually get the characterisation right - I can live with just about any changes they care to make to the mythology and spiritual whatever-ness of the show's universe, so long as it's got a character who's recognisably John Constantine at the heart of it.

It's pretty close to entirely down to him, really - he was the one who convinced Catelyn to take Tyrion hostage (by lying about the dagger used to attack Bran), and he was the one who tipped Ned off to the existence of Robert's bastards, then betrayed him to the Lannisters. He was also responsible for orchestrating the alliance between the Lannisters and the Tyrells, without which Stannis would almost certainly have won the war in its early stages.

He's kind of a dick.

Is there any word on when it's actually going to be aired? It's got to be a while off yet.

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't accuse the show of dumbing down. In a lot of ways it's probably smarter than the books, in fact - most of the changes they've made are really quite sensible, exactly the sort of thing that *should* be changed when porting a story from one medium into another. Even some of the changes that have bothered me in previous seasons are making a lot more sense in the long run - I've grumbled in the past about the way Jon Snow is played on the show, in that they've decided to give him a long, slow journey from "clueless dope who knows nothing" to "tough and smart leader of men". In the books he's basically become the character he is now by the end of the first book, and although his adventures north of the Wall are still important in terms of what he learns from them they're far less transformative of his actual character. Doing it the way they have on the show has ultimately paid off rather well - it's a lot more interesting for him to return to the Watch as, essentially, a completely different person than he was when he left. By postponing a lot of his early character development they've managed to do that.

The big difference to Littlefinger is that, in the books, he's subtly one of the most dangerous characters in the series. That pays off in a big way at a particular point, which I really can't talk about without spoiling some major future plot developments. Suffice it to say that I'll be very curious to see what they do with him over the rest of this season - it would take something substantial for me to view the changes they've made to his character as an improvement. But they've proven me wrong before, so...

In the most recent episode, the biggest changes for me are (deep breath...)

There are far more changes than that going on this season (far more than in previous years), some major and some subtle. I'm tiptoeing around quite a lot of them, because in several cases the big change isn't necessarily what's happened so far, but the implications some seemingly minor adjustments hold for future episodes/seasons.

But that's pretty much what I was hoping for, since the second half of Book 3 is the point at which the books start to go off the rails a bit. From now on I'm hoping for some substantial changes to the actual direction of the narrative, rather than just a few character beats and secondary plot strands being added. Fortunately, it looks like we're getting that - at this point quite a few major characters in the show, while still positioned roughly where they should be for the narrative to work, have a bunch of stuff going on that isn't taken from the source material. Almost all of it makes them far more interesting.

Still don't care at all for the way they're playing Littlefinger, though. On TV he's essentially a moustache-twirling pantomime villain, whereas in the books it's completely plausible that nobody around him has a clue what he's up to, because he seems far more innocent on the surface.

It is one of the better aspects of Norway, 'tis true.

Pål - no. No, it is not.

I love the dancing Cyberman.

I loved very nearly everything about it. One of the better action films I've seen in the past few years, and way smarter than it really had any right being. Just the right balance of character and spectacle, well-paced, sincere without being po-faced, gritty without being cynical, and funny without being too silly (all of which are things that a lot of recent superhero films seem to have struggled with to a greater or lesser extent).

Best bit for me was probably the bit where Cap tells Natasha - in all sincerity - to get her feet off the dashboard of the car they've hotwired, because they're only borrowing it. And she does.

And funny it was. Heed not his foolish words :-P

I enjoyed the Beth/Daryl episode too - in previous seasons I'd have absolutely dreaded a character-centric episode in which not much happens except for a lot of talking, but this season has been a massive improvement .

Yeah, the "mutants as persecuted minority" metaphor, while it's been the fuel for some fine stories over the years, does rather fall apart when you consider that a not-insignificant percentage of this persecuted minority are capable of levelling a city on a whim - or, rather more worryingly, entirely by accident. I'm not advocating a kill-all-the-mutants stance, but I don't think that some sort of gun license-equivalent register of mutant powers would be an especially unreasonable policy. Out here in the real world one would hope that the police would keep a bit of an eye on a belligerent drunk with a well-established history of attacking both friends and enemies alike while undergoing one of his not-infrequent violent and uncontrollable rages. If said belligerent drunk could also sprout 12-inch knives from his fists, I'd like to think that suitable precautions would be taken. I don't think this attitude particularly conflicts with my live-and-let-live woolly liberal sensibilities.

As I recall, Josh's birthdate and age on the forum aren't accurate - he's not 71!

He is, indeed, missed.

I liked this one a lot. And yeah, there's absolutely no doubt about what's going on at Terminus now - even without the ending, the dialogue and imagery were just a bit too ridiculously on the nose.

Also, I'm sure I'm not the only person amused by the fact that this is a show that can show a guy ripping another man's throat out with his goddamn teeth, but then has to give him the line "they screwed with the wrong people" because heavens forfend that the family audience at whom this show is so obviously aimed be subjected to the word "fuck".

What's that pic on the right from?

If it helps, I had to have it pointed out to me too.

That was the weakest episode in quite a while, I thought. By and large this season has been far better than previous ones when it comes to character and motivation, but Glenn seemed to take a firm hold of the Idiot Stick this week - virtually nothing he did made any sort of sense, and the fact that he got away with it all unscathed felt a bit off. Still, it's the only episode since the mid-season break that I thought fell below "rather good" (I enjoyed the Daryl-and-Beth episode a lot more than JMac seemed to), which compared to previous years is nothing to be sniffed at.

I can't imagine anything bad happening in the finale, mind - the happy ending to this episode felt completely convincing. What could possibly go wrong?

(Speculation/spoilers for the comic):

Indeed. I also approve of the hat.

Anyway, I am currently unbearded. Also, my hair is purple:

Holy....holy fucking hell. That was...that was one of the darkest pieces of television I've ever seen. This season is knocking it out of the park when it comes to taking specific storylines and incidents from the comic, but making them way, way better. There've been a couple of duff-to-semi-duff episodes, as ever, but on the whole this has been far and away the strongest season of the show to date. Hope they don't blow it in the last couple of episodes. And the heavy-handed and strained "Terminus" references across the past couple of weeks have been getting more than a bit intrusive, and I'm worried we're going to get some really horrible attempts at Big Emotional Catharsis at some point soon, and that it'll flop as hard as so much of the heavily character-based content in this show has done before. Ah, The Walking Dead. What you giveth with one hand, you taketh away with the other.

...

Carmody!

Great to see you. How's Melody? And yourself, for that matter. Life treating you well?

I think it's reasonable to suggest that anyone who professes dissatisfaction with the way they've captured the look of the character is someone who would so clearly never be satisfied that they can safely be ignored. Hopefully the characterisation and writing will be similarly on the money.

It's scifi/nerd culture thing, from a Norwegian perspective. I can't give any more info right now, partly because I haven't heard any of it yet and partly because I've been asked not to for the time being (it's not a big secret or anything, I think he just doesn't want to talk about it until it's actually ready to launch). Sounds like it could be interesting, though, and not just because I massively appreciate being asked to do the music for them.

I've got a bunch of different musical projects and suchlike going on at the moment, which is doing me the world of good - I've got a couple of people who I jam with semi-regularly just for the fun of it, I'm doing the post-rock/ambient instrumental stuff largely on my own for the time being, and I've got two other friends I'm working with for a couple of different studio projects, one of whom I'm also working up a live repertoire with, aiming to start playing around town in front of actual audiences some time in the early summer. So, I'm keeping myself busy, and working for/with other people gives me the necessary impetus to keep me from getting too lazy.

We should totally get together and play sometime. It's been far too long since I saw you anyway - we should probably take this away from the forum, though :-)

Yeah, looking at that I can't imagine them possibly finding a better physical match for John. Hope the actor's good - I haven't seen him in anything I'm aware of - but at the very least, they seem to be making the right aesthetic choices.

pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood

Aww, thanks! That's good to hear - GSYBE! are of the touchstones for the sort of thing I'm aiming for. These pieces are very simple, mainly because they've been put together for a fairly specific purpose. I've got a few more complex things sketched out very roughly that would take it a bit heavier, towards Cult of Luna territory, but I'm going to have to work on those with a bassist and drummer - there are limits to what I can achieve on my own kneeling in front of an amplifier in my living room, surrounded by cables and FX pedals...

- Knock knock

- Who's there?

- The interupting sheep.

- The interrupting sheep wh...

- BAAAAH