So I watched Game of Thrones...

...as in all four seasons of it. Over the last, oh I don't know, week or two? Oops.

This post contains massive spoilers through season 4 of Game of Thrones. So don't read if you don't want to know.

It's been on my watch list for quite a while now because I'd heard a lot about it (including many, many spoilers... ugh) and the cast is gorgeous:

Emilia Clarke

Kit Harington

Sophie Turner

Natalie Dormer

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

So there's five reasons to watch it right there. (If you're not convinced, look up: Maisie Williams, Rose Leslie, Richard Madden, Oona Chaplin -- why is everyone so attractive?)

I've started reading the books now, figuring that would fulfill my need to immediately rewatch the whole shebang without actually doing that, because that would be ridiculous. And the books are actually great, so far, and the show follows it closer than I would have expected.

When I started the show I knew that I was in store for a lot of violence and sex, and yes, there's a lot of that. I'm pretty wimpy about medieval forms of violence (the sound of swords... *shudder*) so there have definitely been parts where I am content to turn the volume down to the bare minimum and let my eyes wander elsewhere until it's over. (The torture scenes of Theon Greyjoy were literally the worst.)

As for the sex and nudity -- perhaps a little gratuitous. There are definitely times when you think -- does this woman really have to be fully nude for this scene to make sense? It's nice to see a show that doesn't shy away from that stuff (especially when it's so graphically violent -- I hate that violence is more acceptable on television that nudity) but it's almost too much. I've noticed that several female characters are defrocked in their introductory scenes (namely, Daenerys and Margaery) which is kind of shady. Like here's a new character, how shall we grab your attention... Boobs? Boobs.

And while there are a couple instances of full male nudity there is way more female nudity than male. Kit Harington is apparently in favor of closing the gap though. Maybe he should go first, since he's yet to bare it all -- the one time we saw his character's bum it was actually a stunt double. How disappointing.

Now for the actual plot. It's great -- really complex, perhaps too many characters (I have no idea who half of them are) but it's enjoyable. There will be a couple storylines you enjoy and you'll watch those and kind of tune out the rest and that's not ideal, but whatever. I do love some of these characters.


Daenerys Targaryen

Hers is the storyline I've been most interested in from the start and it's not hard to guess why. (It's something to do with dragons... and Emilia Clarke.) I find myself cheering her on -- and now I really want a dragon. Or three. I've enjoyed watching her grow, and the Dothraki are really cool. Not to mention, she has the most amazing hair and the best outfits. She's a little power hungry, but she's got a good heart and I like her a lot. (Though I do put some stock in the theory that she's going to follow in the footsteps of her father, the mad king, and go completely off the wall crazy.)


Jon Snow

His storyline wasn't always fascinating, but I love the character. He's the long-suffering bastard son of Ned Stark, hated by Catelyn Stark, and sent away to the Wall. He's so innocent and honorable, especially in his dealings with his Wildling lover, Ygritte. Now say it with me: You know nothing, Jon Snow. He's actually a puppy.


Arya Stark

Arya is awesome. I love everything about this character, from the beginning watching her learn to wield a sword and later, learn to kill. She's been put through so much: witnessing her father's execution and the aftermath of the murder of her mother and brother, and basically the entire Stark family. Now she's got a little hit-list of people she wants to kill to avenge her family.


Sansa Stark

I'm very wary of whatever she thinks she's doing with Petyr Baelish, but I also sorta love it. Sansa has been through way too much, most of that at the hands of Joffrey, and she doesn't get enough credit for navigating that pretty well. Joffrey had her father's head chopped off right in front of her, okay. This girl needs a break. And she's not gonna get that with the man who only sees her mother, the unrequited and now dead love of his life, in her; but she trusts him for some reason that both fascinates me and makes me want to rip my hair out. She ended season 4 with a very clear visual transition into womanhood so we'll see where that takes us.


Tyrion Lannister

This is the favorite character of the author, George R.R. Martin, and he's one of my favorites as well. He's got all the best dialogue, was one of the few to put Joffrey in his place, and is an all around decent person. But he's been dealt a pretty awful hand in life, as a dwarf, hated by his father and sister. I'm glad he survived the season, but I have to wonder what's next for him.


Jaime Lannister

Oh, I didn't want to love you, Jaime Lannister. But, alas. It's too easy to overlook the fact that he's sleeping with his twin sister because, apart from that, he's a surprisingly decent guy. He's the only Lannister who's ever been nice to Tyrion. And, yeah, he shoved a kid from a tower after the seven year old witnessed some royal incest, but losing his hand in season 3 really took him down a notch. I totally broke inside when he told Brienne the story of how he killed the mad king, and when, after she called him Kingslayer, whispered, "My name's Jaime." I never thought I'd love you so, Jaime Lannister.


Margaery Tyrell

I don't totally trust her, but I like her. (I ship her with Sansa, totally. Not even gonna lie.) I'm loving watching her manipulate young kings with her beauty and cleavage. Of course, Joffrey was a little harder to affect, but Tommen is playing right into her hand. You go girl. I would like to see her achieve her ultimate goal of becoming queen.


Brienne of Tarth

I totally ship her with Jaime and I have no shame. Their friendship was so surprising. Brienne is a great person, and one of the few I would genuinely trust. I completely fangirled when she ran into Arya. I want to see those two badass women take on the world together.


And then some of the characters are the absolute worst. Let's go straight to the top of this list and discuss probably the most hated character ever on television: Joffrey Baratheon.

This inbred little creep makes my blood boil. Watching him die in season 4 was gratifying beyond belief. He's basically the poster child for why humans evolved to have a tendency for incest avoidance. (That being said, his brother Tommen is fine so far.) And it's kinda funny because everyone in the seven kingdoms seems to know he's the son of Cersei and Jaime, the royal twins, but king Robert, Cersei's husband, apparently had no idea. And when Cersei decided to tell her father the truth (for some reason? so she could stay with Jaime, I guess?) he was basically like, yeah, I know, everyone knows, shut up, y'all are nasty.

But Joffrey who started out as a spoiled brat became truly terrifying and sadistic, while still a complete wimp. It's insane to think that they would let this kid have his way with everything and everyone just because of who he was born to -- even though he doesn't actually have a claim to the throne and everyone pretty much knows it.


I love how all these characters are so complexly tied together. There's a detailed backstory of previous kings and wars. There's enough development that even though you may start out hating a lot of these characters, you kinda sorta love them after a while. (Jaime... sigh.) Over all, it's a really great show and I didn't think I would get drawn in so quickly. Seasons 5 and 6 are confirmed -- but we need more books first!

Type faster, George!

Breaking Bad cleans up at 2014 Emmys and all is right with the world

As I said in my Emmys predictions post I was banking on a few wins for Breaking Bad this year (namely, Bryan Cranston for Lead Actor and Outstanding Drama Series) but I wasn't overly optimistic about Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn's chances in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories. Well, turns out I should be more optimistic.

Breaking Bad won 5 out of 6 possible Primetime Emmys, including all acting nominations, writing for "Ozymandias" (as opposed to "Felina" which was also nominated) and, of course, Drama Series. The one lost was directing for "Felina," but Vince Gilligan already got his trophy as producer.

Of course, this is a fantastic way to go out, almost a full year after the show ended, but this elevates these actors, particularly Aaron and Bryan, to an extremely elite category: to have won three (in Aaron's case) and four (in Bryan's) Emmys for portraying the same character is very rare. Both actors are now among the most distinguished actors in television history. Anna is also honored with winning two consecutive Emmys for her portrayal of Skyler White.

Both Bryan and Anna submitted "Ozymandias": a wise choice, quite possibly their best performance of the entire series. Aaron, who actually had little screentime and less dialogue this season, submitted "Confessions", which is definitely his best acting of the final season.

I was not so sure about Aaron's chances going in -- I actually thought the Emmy would go to Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones. I had actually caught up with that show, finishing season 4, the day of the Emmys and was blown away by Dinklage's performance as Tyrion Lannister. And I would've been happy to see him win. But he'll have another chance, possibly two or three more chances, while this is the end of the line for the Breaking Bad crew.

The infamous episode "Ozymandias" was also honored, of course, with the award for writing, going to Moira Walley-Beckett. This was also the first solo drama writing Emmy won by a woman in 20 years.

So basically, "Ozymandias" won 3 Emmys. Including Drama Series, 4. This episode, the third to last, is without a doubt the most impactful hour of television I have ever seen. It packs a punch -- to say the least -- and truly is the climax of the series, accomplishing what Breaking Bad set out to accomplish.

So this is really the end for Breaking Bad -- more or less. The spin-off series Better Call Saul is set to air in February and I'm very excited to see more of Saul and Mike -- the latter is my favorite character in the Breaking Bad 'verse. Or any 'verse for that matter. I doubt it will be as popular or successful as Breaking Bad, but the Emmys this year have shown me that I should be a bit more optimistic.

Breaking Bad and Morality: "it's all contaminated"

Or, "What's a moral center anyway?"

(I really need to publish something so here, have a meta that I wrote and posted on tumblr a while ago.)

In a show as brutally realistic as Breaking Bad, it makes sense that each character’s morality will be muddled, making it difficult to identify one single moral center. Because there isn’t one single moral center. Morality is relative and no one is infallible. However there are many candidates for relative moral center at certain times during the show.

The role of the viewer is most important in this discussion, because different people will relate to different characters’ morality. A handful of characters* have just as a legitimate claim to moral center as any other.

*Must be major characters who are involved in the main plot of the show to be eligible. (They must know something about what’s going on in the drug world.) In this meta/opinion piece I’ll go through both major and minor moral centers as well as major characters who are definitely not moral centers.

Major Moral Centers:

Jesse Pinkman is the most popular choice for moral center. His sense of morality is very nuanced and appeals to many viewers. He is also closely involved in the drug world, and given second-most in screen time and development, which doesn’t hurt.

Strengths: His long-lasting and deeply-felt guilt is one of the qualities that makes him an appealing moral center. He is able to see both the good and bad in others, and in himself. It’s great to see characters who accept their own flaws, even though Jesse may be too harsh a judge sometimes. Which is also endearing. He has a “hurting children is never okay” policy, which is surprisingly not universal among Breaking Bad characters.

Weaknesses: Jesse is a fairly passive person by nature. He’s along for the ride throughout most of the series, and a lot of viewers’ completely legitimate criticism of Jesse is due to this. He can cry all he wants, but he keeps diving back into the business, never reports anyone to the police, never takes serious action to stop the events happening around him even though he full-well knows the consequences.

Skyler White is the moral center who is most constant throughout the series. Her morality is nuanced and relatable.

Strengths: Skyler has the difficult balancing act of looking out for the best interests of her children, her husband and herself. At times, she can’t manage, but not for lack of trying. She is willing to sacrifice the image her family has of her in order to keep them safe from Walt. She is, in that regard, more capable of acting selflessly than any other character.

Weaknesses: Like Jesse, she has an inability to take action. However, this is more excusable since Skyler is not directly involved in the drug world and for most of the series, doesn’t know the full extent of Walt’s activities. Once she knows, she does allow things to go too far. Her “affair” with Ted is not a moral issue. She tried to get a divorce first. She did get too involved in Ted’s legal issues, but Skyler always ends up trapped in bad situations, and she tries to make the best of them.

Hank Schrader exhibits the most “lawful” sense of morality and sees things as very black and white. This may appeal to some viewers.

Strengths: He’s one of the few people who seems to really understand that drugs are bad, and that drug dealers actually ruin people’s lives with the product they sell. He is very dedicated to his idea of right and wrong, which to be fair is the same as the U.S. Government’s idea of right and wrong, so he’s not being unreasonable. He doesn’t compromise. He is able to recognize and take responsibility for his mistakes, such as when he beats up Jesse in season 3.

Weaknesses: Hank doesn’t see shades of gray in people. All drug dealers are worthless in his view. This is obviously not true, neither in the show nor real life. His determination to put Walt in jail is clearly more about his ego than any wrong Walt has done. He is also more than willing to sacrifice Jesse in order to achieve his goal. He is also frequently racist, sexist and unnecessarily rude to Marie.

Minor/Temporary Moral Centers:

Mike Ehrmantraut, despite having killed more people than arguably any other character, is a moral center as well, particularly in the first half of season 5. His “Half Measures” speech establishes him as a character who thinks about right and wrong a lot, and the blame he places on himself for the woman’s death is endearing, as well as the way he rolls his eyes at his past self's idealism: “Just trying to do the right thing. Two weeks later he killed her. Of course.” He does tend to see himself as the ultimate judge of who’s good and who’s bad, but his decisions on that front seem fairly reasonable. Plus - does Mike keep any of the money for himself? He lives a very modest lifestyle, which makes him more trustworthy and relatable.

Marie Schrader doesn’t get a chance to become a moral center until the final season, but she certainly takes the opportunity to become one. As much as she hates Walt, rightfully, she would never hurt him, or anybody, which makes her a bit higher on the spectrum than her husband - too bad she wasn’t privy to this information until sooner. After the initial shock passes, she is able to remember that Skyler is a victim in all this as well. She sees the complexity of the situation. She truly wants to support Skyler, unlike Hank who mostly wants to use her for evidence. Going beyond the moral issues of the drug world, her kleptomania is a bit problematic, but it’s a mental issue and she’s working on it. Her willingness to lie about it, however, is more damning. Marie proves herself to be incredibly selfless, however, especially in her dealings with Hank after he is shot.

Walter Jr. doesn't qualify for ‘moral center’ until “Ozymandias”, but he shines in that episode and in “Granite State”, displaying unflinching morality. He takes a serious risk engaging in the fight between his parents, and his quick decision to take his mother’s side shows an ability to see right and wrong clearly. In “Granite State” he displays selflessness once again, refusing money from his father. And this kid is like, sixteen or seventeen.

Walter White -- here me out. I know that Walt’s deteriorating morality is the entire premise of the show, but he was able to rebuild himself in “Granite State” and “Felina”, choosing to do right by his family and Jesse, slaughter a bunch of Nazis, and all around make some selfless and morally sound decisions. Plus, self-acceptance is an appealing trait and Walt finally got to that stage in the last episode. But, all around, too little, too late. Walt can’t be seen as a moral center for more than one, maybe two, episodes.

Not Moral Centers:

Gus Fring is never really seen grappling with moral dilemmas, and either way, he doesn’t seem to have made the best decisions, considering he’s a meth kingpin who allows his employees to use children in their drug dealing operations. And, you know, he slits people’s throats when he’s angry.

Saul Goodman is an amazing character and I love him to death, but he has a pretty weak and self-serving sense of morality. But that’s the point of his character. He thinks “a trip to Belize” is the answer to a lot of problems, and his entire livelihood is based on helping criminals avoid their comeuppance. In this show, we can’t see him as being nearly as bad as many others. I think Saul has never and would never hurt anybody himself. But he has very little problem with other people doing it, especially if it will keep him out of dodge. Saul’s moral weakness is important to consider, because it’s of a type that is common in the real world, where most of us don’t know drug dealers or hitmen - but we know people who will look the other way in order to make some money or keep themselves safe.

In conclusion... it's up to you

Don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong for seeing Jesse or Hank or another reasonably qualified character as the moral center. You’re not saying that their morals are infallible, or that they always did the right thing for the right reason. This show, in all honesty, probably was not intended to have one single moral center. It’s more complicated than that.

And this isn’t a comprehensive list -- there are more characters that could be considered moral centers at different points during the show. I think Gale, for instance, represents a fascinating moral perspective. (“Consenting adults” and all that.)

The most interesting thing about watching Breaking Bad is that you honestly can’t decide who to root for, or who’s in the right. When Hank beats up Jesse in “One Minute” -- you feel bad for both of them. Neither’s completely in the wrong, or completely in the right.

And Jesse killing Gale in order to save Walt (and himself) -- it’s impossible to make a certain judgment on whether that was the right or wrong thing to do. It’s real like that.

So we should definitely be discussing morality in relation to Breaking Bad, because that’s one of the most important issues in the show, but we should stop arguing about which character is the single “moral center” -- that’s a fruitless argument. Everyone can and should have a different opinion.

I personally relate most to Jesse, Mike and Skyler. Other people with different experiences and opinions will relate to other characters. Breaking Bad is beautifully complex. Let’s not simplify it.

Winning at media representation: Orange Is the New Black edition

This Netflix original owns at representation of all varieties: women (obviously), LGBTQ+, PoC, neurodiverse people, religious people, and even the oft-neglected elderly. In this post, I'm going to talk about all the winning that Orange Is the New Black does when it comes to representation.

Women

Representation of women is the entire basis of this show, to be honest. It's a show entirely devoted to us. But of course whereas most shows strive just to represent women well, OITNB understands that 50% of the population is a pretty diverse group and that no two women are the same. So it's pointless, really, to talk about representation of women in OITNB. I'll break it down into several smaller categories and talk it from there.

Lesbian

Lesbians are a dime a dozen in this show and you sort of get confused when a character is actually 100% straight. And I love that. There's Poussey and Nicky (both of whom I have huge crushes on...) and then there's Boo and Alex and Suzanne and Tricia...

There's a lot of great jokes about "lesbianing" such as when prison counsellor Healy tells Piper, "Lesbians can be very dangerous" with zero irony. 

Gay

Out of the few men shown, two of them are gay. Not much time is given to them as they are men and therefore not given the time of day in OITNB as they are minor characters, but they are present, which is more than a lot of shows can say.

Bisexual

Okay, get ready for my sole gripe about this show. Despite the fact that several characters in the show are bisexual, it is never outright, seriously said that they are bisexual. It's implied to the point where you wonder -- why don't they just say it? Everyone knows. But they don't because bisexuality is still a taboo in television. Yeah. I'm going there.

Piper, our lead character, is bisexual and she knows it and everyone knows it and she gets really close to saying it: "I like hot girls. I like hot boys. I like hot people. What can I say? I'm shallow." And her brother gets close to saying it when he says to Larry that people don't have to be "exactly one thing." Once, Piper even explains that people aren't all one hundred percent gay or one hundred percent straight: that they fall somewhere along a Kinsey scale. But she doesn't use the word "bisexual." When the word is used, it is by Larry, almost scoffingly, when he suggests that she may be bisexual -- which she clearly is. But we better not take that too seriously. This is television, where preposterous scenarios are played out every day, but real people don't get to be portrayed honestly.

Fluid sexuality

There's a lot done with the concept of inmates who are "gay for the stay." I like that this topic is addressed honestly in the show because our society needs a wake-up call about sexual orientation and permanence. It doesn't matter if there's a "gay gene" -- there probably isn't. It doesn't matter if people are really "born that way" -- they probably aren't (is anyone truly born with sexual preferences? I think not). Sexuality is a fluid thing that we try to contain with labels, but we have to start considering that for many people it can change over time, and this doesn't mean that they "turned gay" or anything ridiculous like that -- this doesn't mean that their past relationships are less valid.

There's a sweet moment when two best friends, Flaca and Maritza, complain that they are wasting their best years in prison. Maritza says, "Nobody's kissing my lips!" to which Flaca replies, "I'll kiss your dumb lips." They try it, but it doesn't feel right. They laugh it off.

Transgender

Laverne Cox has been nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Sophia, a trans* woman incarcerated at Litchfield. Her twin brother plays the character pre-transformation, which is an amazing opportunity for television and it was used perfectly.

I was so confused for a while there.

Anyway, there's plenty of transphobia in the show and plenty of awareness of her gender identity among the other characters, which makes sense -- it's going to be a while before we see trans* characters whose character arcs aren't centered on their gender identity. Nonetheless, Sophia is a great character with a complex backstory. I like how she's not shown to be perfect, as the temptation might be when striving to represent under-representated people. She is just as flawed as any of the other inmates, which actually does make her character greater than her gender identity.

Black

If the black inmates aren't your favorites then you're lying.

(Well, except Vee. Vee sucks.) Poussey and Taystee are the two big ones, and their banter is wonderful to watch, especially their teasing of white people as they adopt the voices and mannerisms of Mackenzie and Amanda in a recurring gag. 

The best thing about the portrayal of the black inmates is that they are consistently shown to be very book-smart -- despite their "street-smart" way of speaking. Poussey is multi-lingual. Taystee is gifted at math. Suzanne has a vast knowledge of Shakespeare. Cindy makes a comment about how Monsanto and other companies are "killing us without our consent." These are intelligent women -- but how many of us wouldn't think that after a few minutes of hearing them talk to one another?

Hispanic

The last of the three large racial groups is the Latina inmates. (I'm not going to talk about the white inmates because we don't need to talk about white representation -- it's not an issue.) These women speak a lot of Spanish, or mix Spanish with English.

One of my favorite jokes is from the first episode when Daya arrives at the same time as Piper and is confronted by the leader of the Hispanic group, Gloria. Daya is asked if she speaks Spanish. She doesn't. It's mentioned that Piper, who is standing by, probably even speaks Spanish. She does -- she says a few lines about how she can understand more than she can speak. Gloria turns to Daya and says, "See? F***ing white girl speaks Spanish." 

Asian

There aren't enough Asian inmates for them to have their own group, but they are not ignored. The two focused on are Chang and Brook Soso. The race of these characters is rarely a topic of conversation (except in the case of teasing Soso about her name) which is nice in a show that makes you uber-aware of race.

Neurodiverse

No specific mental illness is ever mentioned in relation to a specific character, but there are characters who are not completely healthy. Lorna Morello is delusional, believing that the man she got put in prison for stalking is her boyfriend -- and yet you sympathize with her.

Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" is shown to have anger issues as well as other vague mental issues, but she is a lovable, wonderful character. Don't call her "Crazy Eyes" or I will cut you. Her name is Suzanne.

Religious People

OITNB depicts, basically, two extremes of religious views and religious people. There is Tiffany "Pennsatucky", the portrayal of everything people hate about religious people, specifically Christians. She spews hate at the lesbians and especially at Sophia, she is poorly educated and believes herself to be a prophet who can heal the sick and injured.

Then there's the former-nun/activist, Sister Ingalls. She represents a loving and accepting perspective, particularly in her caring relationship with Sophia. Even she isn't all good, though -- her backstory reveals that she was a tad self-obsessed, but she seems to truly be rehabilitating in prison.

Elderly

When Red is kicked out of the whities, she joins the "golden gals." It's expressed how no one cares about them, no one notices them, and this is clearly true, both in the show and in our society. However, these women are shown to have a lot of charisma and to be strong characters despite their age.

And now... Whiny men.

The only criticism Orange Is the New Black has received for its portrayals is that of men! Surprise, surprise!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ha.

There are already a lot of men in the show (ugh) and they are actually pretty accurate characters. They're not flawless, but I like Bennett and I like Caputo. Larry is the worst. Healy's bad most of the time. Pornstache (I'm blanking on his real name? And I don't care enough to look it up?) is obviously awful, but I actually kind of enjoy watching him as a character because he's so ridiculous.

I do want to point out that Maria's boyfriend is actually a really great male character, although only briefly seen. He steps up to the plate as a single father, dresses his daughter in adorable clothes, and tries his hardest to make sure she is raised correctly, all while staying loyal to his imprisoned girlfriend.

Good for you, Maria's boyfriend.

All in all, OITNB does a lot of winning at media representation but also as a work for entertainment. It's a great show and employs its diverse cast to create characters you love. Hopefully this show will be an example that having a virtually all-women cast is not risky, that facing racial issues head-on is something people enjoy seeing, and that all conceivable sexual orientations can be represented in a single show -- and represented well. Good for you, OITNB. Now -- give us season 3.