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All-purpose TV nitpick extravaganza thread.


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On the subject of nitpicking, I think I can live with all of the actors I can recognize (there might be some in the trailers who are so off from their characters that I haven't realized who they are playing yet). Many of the hairstyles rub me the wrong way (especially Jaime's hair being too dark), but I think that's been covered well enough already. The other thing that disappoints me slightly are the accents. I know that there are many parallels between medieval England and Westeros, but, possibly because Martin is American, I have never pictured the characters as speaking with British accents when I read the books. I can get used to the accents, but I was hoping for an elevated manner of speaking, but not so clearly British.

the problem is - american accent really can't work with fanatsy... it's just too "modern" IMHO

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On the subject of nitpicking, I think I can live with all of the actors I can recognize (there might be some in the trailers who are so off from their characters that I haven't realized who they are playing yet). Many of the hairstyles rub me the wrong way (especially Jaime's hair being too dark), but I think that's been covered well enough already. The other thing that disappoints me slightly are the accents. I know that there are many parallels between medieval England and Westeros, but, possibly because Martin is American, I have never pictured the characters as speaking with British accents when I read the books. I can get used to the accents, but I was hoping for an elevated manner of speaking, but not so clearly British.

As a Brit i've always heard at least some of the characters speaking American. Tyrion and Jaime especially.

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Well, I have gone back and forth between finishing this thread first or posting my reply. I chose just to post. I will try to go back and finish the thread. Sorry if anything is too redundant!

Dislikes

-The accents! My major complaint is the English accent thing (sorry Brits!). Why oh why do the powers that be always think there need to be English accents for a show or movie to be authentic?! If they were all real accents I could roll with it but they clearly aren't and to me there is nothing more distracting than a fakey sounding accent to ruin the dramatic moments of a scene--and isn't that what this show is going be relying on the most? Does anyone have any thoughts or insight as to the thinking on this? Just to make it sound "medieval"? The series has a modern sensibility in so many ways that I think an American accent, while still using the real dialogue would have been quite suitable IMHO. Or I am being to ethno-centric or something? Or maybe the accents could vary from region to region. That would be ok too.

-Don't like the Robert Baratheon casting. Sorry. The actor is like 5'6" or something. I mean I get the tired, drunk thing as he is supposed to be "now", but he doesn't look like he ever was attractive in the way the book describes.

-Don't like the casting for Cersei, Catelyn and Dany.

-Jon could work. It wasn't what I pictured but I think they are trying to give him this look that separates him from everyone else since they are going to have to get uneducated viewers to understand the full implications of bastardy in the Westeros world.

Likes

-Very happy with the casting for Jaime, Littlefinger, Sam, Tyrion. Robb's fine. Sansa and Arya remains to be seen. Can't really tell much yet. Sandor's probably fine. I agree they should have lightened Jaime's hair a bit.

I haven't seen the whole cast yet so there's many I can't comment on.

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On the subject of nitpicking, I think I can live with all of the actors I can recognize (there might be some in the trailers who are so off from their characters that I haven't realized who they are playing yet). Many of the hairstyles rub me the wrong way (especially Jaime's hair being too dark), but I think that's been covered well enough already. The other thing that disappoints me slightly are the accents. I know that there are many parallels between medieval England and Westeros, but, possibly because Martin is American, I have never pictured the characters as speaking with British accents when I read the books. I can get used to the accents, but I was hoping for an elevated manner of speaking, but not so clearly British.

I could have saved myself some typing... This is what I would have said lol!

Yes, they could at least tone it down. It's quite distracting in the clips I have seen.

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Part of the reasons for going with the accents that they did was since they're filming in Ireland, it is probably a lot easier to get Irish and British actors who live nearby as oppose to American actors who would have be flown a long distance over there, which while doable, does add more expense and potential for more complications with schedules. Ireland, as I understand it, was also an ideal shooting location, due to them being able to use real castles and other places instead of having to construct every set from scratch.

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Part of the reasons for going with the accents that they did was since they're filming in Ireland, it is probably a lot easier to get Irish and British actors who live nearby as oppose to American actors who would have be flown a long distance over there, which while doable, does add more expense and potential for more complications with schedules. Ireland, as I understand it, was also an ideal shooting location, due to them being able to use real castles and other places instead of having to construct every set from scratch.

Hmmm. I think going from Irish to American would be much preferred. It's way less noticeable, at least with the examples I can think of. Even if there were traces of the Irish, it would not sounds as bad as fake upper class British.

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Hmmm. I think going from Irish to American would be much preferred. It's way less noticeable, at least with the examples I can think of. Even if there were traces of the Irish, it would not sounds as bad as fake upper class British.

Just to clarify. They are filming in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. Most of the actors are British. So no surprise that they are speaking in a British accent. :) There are a few Irish in the cast as well (North and South) but given our rather small size, no surprise that there are a lot more from Britian.

I'm not sure who is speaking in a fake upper class British accent?

Don't like the Robert Baratheon casting.

He is 5'10 IIRC.

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If everyone had more or less the same (undesirable it seems) accent, that to me would be less off-putting than mix-and-match accents from all over, some American, some Londonite, some Dubliner, etc...

It's likely my American ear, but a weak english accent is easier to hear than a bad American one. Hugh Laurie does well, and a few others, but a couple are cringe-worthy.

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If everyone had more or less the same (undesirable it seems) accent, that to me would be less off-putting than mix-and-match accents from all over, some American, some Londonite, some Dubliner, etc...

It's likely my American ear, but a weak english accent is easier to hear than a bad American one. Hugh Laurie does well, and a few others, but a couple are cringe-worthy.

Dominic West's American accent was so bad in The Wire that it was distracting to me - whereas I thought Idris Elba and Aiden Gillen did great. It might be that I really liked those characters (and they are both smoking hot) way more so than McNulty :P

Big fan of Christian Bale's and Hugh Jackmans' American accents - most people I know don't even know they are British/Austrialian.

Anyway, the majority of the actors are from the UK, totally fine with the accents - even Dinklage's, as he seems to speak differently depending on the situation (and over time it will improve as well). I don't consider "accents" the be all and end all of acting - there are great actors that don't do accents well but evoke subtle emotion and embody their characters VERY well. Some actors are better at accents but aren't as good at expression or characterization. It's great when an actor can do both great - but to me it's not necessary to a great performance. Then there's Keanu Reeves in Dracula and well - it's bad in every way :P

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Well perhaps its the instant similarity to the British Isles and the wars of the roses, but I definitely had the north = northern english in my head, while the south (particularly Lannisters and Tyrells) were distinctly southern/upper class english. That always seemed natural to me. So I approve of how they're doing it in the show.

On the other hand, there were a couple of characters (like Tyrion, Littlefinger) who I read with an American twang. I think its just how George ended up writing the character.

I understand that it probably bugs American readers, but as a British reader I'm secretly thrilled.

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I understand that it probably bugs American readers, but as a British reader I'm secretly thrilled.

I don't think it bugs most American readers - (at least not this one in the least). It's so common in medieval type settings that it's almost a cliche - after all, there were no American accents "back then" (although I know it's fantasy and not historical fiction). I guess I expected it, considering where it is filmed, the cast, and the inspiration for the location. I mean they had British accents in freakin Rome and I was fine by that - that is way more "inaccurate" than the approach they are taking with AGOT. Plus Rome had James Purefoy and everything he speaks is magic.

Oh, just thought of another British actor with a shitty American accent - Stephen Moyer. It grated on me a bit (only through first season of True Blood so maybe it improves but good lord it's bad).

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I don't think it bugs most American readers - (at least not this one in the least). It's so common in medieval type settings that it's almost a cliche - after all, there were no American accents "back then" (although I know it's fantasy and not historical fiction). I guess I expected it, considering where it is filmed, the cast, and the inspiration for the location. I mean they had British accents in freakin Rome and I was fine by that - that is way more "inaccurate" than the approach they are taking with AGOT. Plus Rome had James Purefoy and everything he speaks is magic.

Oh, just thought of another British actor with a shitty American accent - Stephen Moyer. It grated on me a bit (only through first season of True Blood so maybe it improves but good lord it's bad).

Well, it obviously bugs a few. I'd say though that the use of Northern/regional english accents is much less common in this sort of thing, and that could be both a plus and a minus, since while I think it fits for example, the average American viewer may simply find it hard to understand.

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...like Tyrion, Littlefinger) who I read with an American twang...

The two most devious Westerosians, speaks volumes of your opinion of Americans ....hmmph. :laugh:

I understand that it probably bugs American readers, but as a British reader I'm secretly thrilled.

I prefer it myself, but then too, I am a bit of an anglophile, God Save the Queen tattoo and all.

not really

Oh, just thought of another British actor with a shitty American accent - Stephen Moyer. It grated on me a bit

Definitely, for someone 140 years-old, it certainly felt like he should speak better. I think it has improved somewhat, or perhaps I grew used to it, but season 1 was painful. OTOH, Ryan Kwam-something is an Aussie, and I never would have known if I hadn't seen an interview with him, he has dopey southerner perfected.

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Well, it obviously bugs a few. I'd say though that the use of Northern/regional english accents is much less common in this sort of thing, and that could be both a plus and a minus, since while I think it fits for example, the average American viewer may simply find it hard to understand.

Well some people think Dany and/or Jon are fat, doesn't make their opinion legitimate or shared by many :)

Personally I use closed captioning or subtitles even with American accents - I have a hard time understanding everyone because of a small amount of hearing loss. I don't need it 80% of the time but it really makes a difference for that other 20. But when captioning/subtitles are not available I don't have any more trouble with British accents than American. This may be due to formerly working for a London based company and most of the people I worked with had some kind of accent. Maybe for some it's more difficult but they'll get used to it or they won't. I think that for people that are THAT turned off by British accents they probably weren't going to watch the show for some reason any way.

The two most devious Westerosians, speaks volumes of your opinion of Americans ....hmmph. :laugh:

Definitely, for someone 140 years-old, it certainly felt like he should speak better. I think it has improved somewhat, or perhaps I grew used to it, but season 1 was painful. OTOH, Ryan Kwam-something is an Aussie, and I never would have known if I hadn't seen an interview with him, he has dopey southerner perfected.

LOL good point about Tyrion and LF - maybe there's a bit of prejudice coming from both sides :)

Yeah I need to watch the rest of True Blood - only one season in. Ryan is way hotter than Stephen Moyer too (usually I would think the other way around, emo dark haired guy versus buff blonde boy, but Ryan Kwateen or whatever is smokin').

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Yeah I need to watch the rest of True Blood - only one season in. Ryan is way hotter than Stephen Moyer too (usually I would think the other way around, emo dark haired guy versus buff blonde boy, but Ryan Kwateen or whatever is smokin').

I am sure it helps he is rarely fully-clothed. My GF vacillates between liking him and Eric Northman. Having read the books, I have a pretty good idea what they have in mind for this season, and Eric is likely going to pull ahead in that race.

BTW, those books are good time killers, but not really great literary art, luckily there are about a dozen, so I guess quantity over quality.

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Yeah, I definitely encourage people who have a rough time with the English accents to watch the show with closed caption/subtitles. My mom is almost entirely deaf, and so even though my hearing is fine, I have gotten quite accustomed the subtitles and feel a bit lost without them. I've also had trouble understanding some of the things the characters have said in the released videos and trailers, and so I'm really looking forward to watching the show with said subtitles.

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While I share many of the reservations already brought up in this thread (Robert's physical stature, hair color/styles of various characters, etc.) I think acting merit will always be worth more when bringing a character to life in a screen adaptation. Ideally, I won't be bothered by Robert's hair color because I'll be too distracted with how well he captures the role in other ways.

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