TV’s rape problem is bigger than “Game of Thrones”

[LanternWaste]

8. After having heard so many good things about the books and the series...

After having heard so many good things about the books and the series, I finally bought seasons one and two last fall. And although it started off promising (I'm a bit of a fan of Sean Bean), the series script seemed to cut against the grain of good script-writing.

In his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman writes as to how plot is moved forward most effectively and most efficiently. 95% of the time, this is through dialog/sub-text. 5% of the time, it's done through action (here's the caveat though-- moving the plot forward via action requires that the action *also* allows us character development; e.g., Jodie Foster's character in the movie The Accused. The rape was central to the plot, yes. But it was eventually even more central to her character's development and growth).

Yet the writers in the Game of Thrones world seemed to be of the mind "advance story-line via either sex or violence, advance character via only dialog/subtext, and never the 'twain shall meet".

A part of me wants to eventually get season three, else I'd have an incomplete video library (and no self-respecting movie geek can allow that), but the (somewhat more) rational part of me says, "give the two seasons to a friend, look up the writers' names and do what you can to avoid their body of work in the future"