Water Cooler Podcast: Episode 24 – Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and More Emmy Predix

1. Your discussion of the latest Game of Thrones really upset me for some of your comments made. Firstly the discussion of Theon castration vs. Sansa rape is a point but the main reasoning I see the rape more problematic is because it is more related to today where women sadly get rapped everywhere while it’s rare and never really discussed of men getting their manhood taken like Theon did. Also Craig you believing this horrific event for Sansa will push to seek revenge I agree that that is what the show wants us to believe but as a very close viewer of the show I have seen signs leading up till this marriage where Sansa is given agency but this rape takes it away from her and even the show focusing on Theon somehow makes this experience about him and not her which is a mistake.

   For me this season of Game of Thrones taking time with plotlines in episodes really is working better for me because it really parallels to the book chapters where we get the needed time with characters so went the cards start to fall we see how great the show really set us up for these characters. This week’s episode (Episode #7) really was the best for me because King’s Landing finally bringing down Cersei was so well constructed with the amount of time we spent with the character and Tyrion finally meeting Dany was yet another great moment.

   Again I really think Game of Thrones would be better if they stay away from trying to shock the audience and the difference between something like Cersei being brought down and Sansa being rapped was the former was properly laid out while the latter was more like let’s take this character who we feel hasn’t suffered enough and make her suffer more. Really the writers are judging their audiences wrong.

   1. I’m withholding final judgment on the Sansa developments until we see exactly how they play out. As I said in the podcast, if it winds up with Theon saving the day and earning redemption I will be really mad. But if this is another step in Sansa’s progress from starry-eyed teen romantic to realist/ass kicker, then I’m fine with it.

      The choice to focus on Theon definitely sets off alarm bells though I admit, but I felt it was a choice that allowed them to avoid blatantly showing the rape itself while still driving home the impact of it.

   2. I think we’ve finally agreed after a few weeks. This was the best episode in a while because it gave the audience what it wanted in the Cersei and Dany plot lines. Thanks, as always, for your commentary. As for Sansa, I’m not sure why the writers continue to focus on tormenting her, but the marital rape sequence and the subsequent beatings (and presumably additional rapes) are a natural outcome of marrying her to Ramsay Bolton, IMO.

2. Shouldn’t you be a little more prepared when you talk about certain things? Many of you didn’t even have a clue about most of the shows and tv movies you tried to cover in the last segment. Or maybe it was the point, to let us know that you have this site which covers tv even if you’re not watching much of it?

   1. First, thanks for listening to the podcast and for the feedback! Second, as we’ve mentioned on the podcast before, there’s just way too much great TV for us all to catch. Third, this feature wasn’t designed to provide reviews of all the potential candidates. Instead, we wanted to list the possible candidates, which we did. If you’d like to leave a comment on something you’ve seen that you feel we short changed, then please feel free! Comments are always welcome.

   2. Besides Honorable Woman which we all admitted we haven’t caught up with yet, (though we will), I can’t think of particularly egregious examples of stuff at least one of us hasn’t seen.

      1. How about Worricker (“Turks & Caicos” & “Salting the Battlefield”)? It only has little known actors in it such as: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Helena Bonham Carter, Winona Ryder and Christopher Walken.
         What I was trying to say, in a harsh way for what I apologize, was that this approach seemed a bit unprofessional, or maybe just not what I was expecting, therefore my reaction.

         1. Would it have been better not to mention it? I don’t think so. We can’t deny we don’t see everything, but we have a pretty good eye for what’s going to be in the conversation nevertheless and that’s why we brought it up sight unseen. The cast, the pedigree, the reviews.

            If/when it does get some nominations, you can bet we’ll be on it, but we have to filter. There aren’t enough of us to see EVERYTHING, especially since this is not how most of the contributors support themselves.

            We do our best. We thank you for listening, we appreciate and value your input and we are always trying to get better.

         2. Really like the time queue/topic things. It allows me to bypass the GoT topic, because I haven’t seen the ep yet, come back to it later when the wife and I bingewatch it after the season ends. So definitely keep doing that, as our house finds ourselves simply watching a whole series at once, don’t want spoilers beforehand.

            On Mad Men: I was really glad that Joan wound up on her own and that she didn’t join forces with Peggy professionally. I think it was more reflective of the time, when single working women became more of a common thing. I always thought the Joan/Peggy team-up was too much fan fiction. And I gotta eat crow on the DB Cooper theory, I was absolutely convinced for weeks that the show was going to end in an airport in Portland.

            1. Lol. I have to say that we were all very happy about the DB Cooper theory being incorrect. The show was never about stunts (although Jon Hamm is a ringer for Cooper). Thanks for the feedback on the timing of the segments. We will definitely include it on the episodes where we have multiple topics to cover.

      2. As someone who was watched Honorable Woman it is a brilliant series on the same level as Olive Kitteridge. The series premired last summer and who all need to check it out. (I think it’s on Netflix). Also the Worricker triologu started with Page Eight a couple of years ago and is some great british drama from David Hare the famous playwright. Bill Nighy is great in it and the cast of brits. americans and Australians really makes it a great triology of films to watch.

         While you may not have viewed everything in these categories it’s not really important because the categories usually nominate the bigger names but less deserving nominees.

3. At least we brought it up and recognized it. I doubt everyone knows what everything is all at once.

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