E! News did a lengthy two-part interview with HBO’s president of programming, Michael Lombardo. I think HBO is probably a great place to work these days, and their content is so beloved and pop-culture-y right now. But it also feels like HBO has had to take a few knocks, especially regarding two of their biggest products, True Detective and Game of Thrones. Lombardo’s conversation with E! ended up revolving around those two shows and their many controversies. He ended up making some news!
The widespread belief that Game of Thrones will end after seven seasons: “I think ‘seven seasons and out’ has never been the conversation. The question is how much beyond the seventh season we’re going to do. Obviously we’re shooting six now and hopefully discussing seven. They’re feeling like they’re probably two more years after six. I’ve said before, I would always love for them to change their minds but that’s what we’re looking at right now.”
Whether HBO would be interested in a GoT prequel focusing on The Mad King & the Targaryens: “I would be open to anything that Dan and David wanted to do about Game of Thrones or almost any subject matter. It would really depend fully for us on what they wanted to do. I think you’re right, there’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a prequel. But you’d have to have George and Dan and David decide they want to tackle that. At this point, all the focus is on figuring out the next few years of this show. We haven’t had any conversations about that at this point.”
On Sansa’s (SPOILER) rape last season: “This show has had violence as part of one its many threads from the first episode, so I don’t think—again, I don’t speak to any single person’s particular tastes—I think the show is phenomenal. It hit 20 million viewers this year, continues to grow dramatically. I think there are no two showrunners who are more careful to not overstep what they think the line is, doing things that are critical for the storytelling. I support them fully artistically.”
Is Jon Snow dead? “Dead is dead is dead is dead. He be dead. Yes. Everything I’ve seen, heard or read, Jon Snow is dead.”
On True Detective Season 2: Lombardo is “enormously proud” of this season. “I think the show works. First of all, I think you need to watch the entirety of it. I have and I think it’s enormously satisfying.”
The third season of True Detective has already been bought & greenlighted: “I’m not in the business and never been in the business of micromanaging the process in a sense of telling the writer that this is the beat they need to follow in how they tell a story. I think Nic [Pizzolatto] is a very—adventurous is not the right word—he’s a bold storyteller. I mean that only in the most positive of ways. I think he takes risks in how he lays out a story, in the pacing of stories and I think it pays off in this particular season…I have already called him and said, ‘Nic, if you want to do a season three, let’s start talking.’ I’m not calling him to say, ‘Let’s talk about season three if you follow some rules of mine.’ That’s not a conversation I’m ever interested in having or think I need to have with Nic. What he’s doing on True Detective is so much bolder and braver and ultimately, for me, satisfying, that I would happily be in business with him for a very long time.”
Re: Game of Thrones. I thought Dan and David (the showrunners) were pushing the storyline so quickly because they truly believed they have to wrap this thing up the end of season 7? That’s what they’ve always said, but considering GoT is a phenomenon, HBO has been pushing them to extend it for another season. George RR Martin has always maintained that the show should have more seasons so that some of his peripheral characters can have larger storylines. So, Martin and HBO have always been on the same page – “keep the money train going!” – but Dan and David are the ones that need to be convinced. And I’m pretty sure this is HBO’s way of publicly pressuring them.
Re: Jon Snow and how he’s dead. Then why is he all over Belfast as they film Season 6?
Re: Sansa’s rape. I kind of think Lombardo sounds sort of cavalier here. HBO has given David and Dan so much creative control, which is nice… I guess. It seems like Lombardo is like “hey, it wasn’t my call, but it was a good plot point because it got people talking.”
Re: True Detective. HBO gave Nic Pizzolatto two more seasons simply on the strength of Season 1. Lombardo isn’t coming out and saying he regrets that, but come on… you know HBO is talking about maybe not doing a season 3 because season 2 SUCKS SO HARD. You guys, it’s SO TERRIBLE. That being said, I would be all for True Detective Season 3: The Origins of Stan.
Photos courtesy of HBO.
HODOR!
STAN!
OMG.
Hodor = Stan?
Season 2 of True Detective has been so disappointing.
I have no clue what’s going on this season. Unless all of these terrible characters rip off their masks and reveal themselves to all be played by Tatiana Maslany, it’s a total waste.
Abbott I heart you
Why can’t I follow a thing that’s happening? I can’t decide if it’s because the plot is so scattered and convoluted or if it’s just because it’s all so f*cking boring that my mind drifts and my eyes glaze over every time a character speaks.
I couldn’t even get through the latest episode because I started thinking about powdered donuts for some reason, then “how are powdered donuts made?” and “how much does a donut cost these days?” I looked up to see Taylor Kitsch’s pretty face and realized I missed half the dialogue.
Kitten, you don’t like sexy highway mysteries?!?
You’re right, it’s both boring and confusing. The characters are all so unlikable you can’t get invested; the dialogue so terrible you miss parts because you’re looking for the eyeballs that rolled out of your head; the story so boring I’d rather listen to Jessica Biel read tax code outloud.
The only thing I can think of is that Nic Pizzowhatever is flatlining the show on purpose. Get rid of the high expectations of the first season and start fresh for the third. I mean, we really can only go up from Season 2.
“I’d rather listen to Jessica Biel read tax code outloud.”
LOL. Actually this season would a great place for Biel to showcase her supreme wooden-ness.
Yup. I want all the characters to die in a fire.
And every time something even slightly interesting happens with one of them—McAdams’s backstory about the religious compound or Kitsch’s undercover manboy lover, they veer back to Vaughn’s sh*t, which seems to be the main storyline, even though it’s unquestionably the most uninteresting one. (I’m also realizing as I type that I don’t know any of the characters’ names-they are THAT forgettable)
It does feel like they’re deliberately trying to make this season as dull as possible in the most exceptionally torturous way. I’ve heard better character dialogue on Days of Our F*cking Lives.
Also, the voice and the cadence they all use to deliver their lines…who is telling them to talk like that? Is it Pizzasomething?
“Hey so, can everyone do this low, scratchy voice, like you just got a piece of peanut caught in your windpipe? No, lower and raspier…flatter, like you’re a 90-year-old man about to pass away on a gurney.”
The actors are trying their best with something awful so I don’t fault them. Presumably, they didn’t know they were signing up for some Troll 2 sh*t.
Glad to know I’m not the only one who has no clue what is going on this season. I’m watching it with 2 other people and they both seem to have a good understanding of the plot line so I was beginning to think it was only me.
This season of True Detective has not been good despite some good performances. As for GoT, HBO needs that up and coming signature show that resonates with the viewers which they do not have yet, which is why I think HBO is like 8 seasons at least. I expect it will technically seven seasons split in two, each part 8 episodes each.
Jon Snow is dead. Lord Commander Stoneheart is not (I will see myself out now…lol).
“Yes. Everything I’ve seen, heard or read, Jon Snow is dead.”
Ah HA! So there could be scripts YOU have NOT “seen, heard or read”. Clever use of words my friend…
But I guess you are right and Kit was just in Belfast to pick up his final paycheck.
#needscoinformoreskinnyjeans
HBO wanted 10 seasons and D&D said 7. So maybe they will settle for 8. I just hope they are good seasons and not being stretched out just for the $$$.
I don’t know why they would give Nic two more seasons if Season 2 is not even delivering, I mean its on episode 6 already and I have yet to be captivated as I was with Season 1
OT: This might sound weird, but I’m kind of more offended by GoT showrunners’ justification for their depiction of rape (i.e., often, and as graphically as possible) than the show itself. I mean, who do they think is in their audience? Most women I know have experienced some kind of altercation, if not outright rape. So I was really offended when GRRM claimed that GoT had to be as portray rape as realistically as possible for an audience to understand the harsh world of the characters. And I was like, NO Grrm, many MANY people in your audience ALREADY know from their own experience you jerk. It was just so arrogant and clueless on his part.
I think GRRM’s comments had to do with the full context of the characters from the books in comparison to the show. Believe it or not HBO has toned downed a lot of violence and violence again women. The women captured in the Dreadfort face depraved acts that will make you vomit. I myself had to just start skipping some parts because it gave me nightmares.
The character whose place Sansa is in now went through so much degradation and dehumanization on top of the rapes that Sansa’s rape scene was mild in comparison. IMO it’s because Sansa was been shown to be the audience’s “in” and audiences have bonded with her so much that many people were offended because she has become a real person to them who looks like their daughter, friend, cousin etc. Many more women have been raped without a similar outcry.
GOT will not survive as a TV show if it brought to life all the horrors in the books. The things done to the women in the Dreadfort really was almost a break point for me and if it took Sansa getting raped off camera to realize that she married a monster instead of the prior season of tortue and terror then so be it.
Re: Jon Snow – Please, please, please let it be that the storyline is going to follow “kill the boy and let the man be born” and Jon Snow will be a Targaryen. It would be such overkill for them to totally do away with Jon Snow in all forms. If he is dead and completely off the show, it makes his death unnecessary and for shock value and that would be immensely disappointing.
Re: Sansa’s rape – It was disturbing and disgusting, but I wish people had been equally outraged by Dani’s rape by Khal Drogo which we actually had to watch (they didn’t show the scene with Sansa, only “Reek’s” face), and I wish people were outraged by the torture and castration of Theon. All of these have been cringe-inducing, uncomfortable and disturbing moments with gratuitous violence.
Re: True Detective – Not sure I’m feeling too inclined to watch season 3. By this time during season 1, I was completely infatuated. With only 2 episodes left this current season, I still have no idea what is even going on at this point, nor do I understand why I should care.
Nic P may be a bold storyteller, but he’s shit at dialogue. And character. And subtlety. And logic.
Stop asking if Jon Snow is dead. Start asking if he wargs into Ghost or does the red witch resurrects him. And why is Davos at the wall.
Gave up on True Dedective. Watching Poldark instead. Aidan Turner is so pretty.
Hodor
Lilacflowers,
OMG. DAVOS! Davos!!!!!
Totally forgot about Davos being at the wall. Nice! Had another batter in mind but you hit a home run.
Kaiser,
He is right. Jon Snow IS dead. So now his watch has ended. His responsibilities to the Night’s Watch and to a Stark father are now null and void. However the “person” who was in Jon Snow’s body will survive. The Warg bird who was with the the creepy BONES character and the prequel to the last book where Jon Snow dies pretty much spell it out.
In his books GRRM always gives you clues and foreshadowing leading up to a major event and which in retrospect help you predict the out. So yes Jon Snow is dead, Jon Targaryen on the other hand…..
I’ve been watching True Detective & last weeks episode finally caught my interest. The bar singer was gone (thank God) and the blue diamond lead was explored a bit more. During the sit down w/the retired officer he said something about the children of the jewelry store owner. The little boy had to learn to wear so many masks or something along those lines. I think the mask wearing dude who shot Colin Farrell is the boy. Did anyone else catch that? Or am I giving this shitty show too much credit?
You know nothing, Michael Lombardo.
And as hot as I am for Vince Vaughn, I cannot tolerate True Detective.
I don’t have enough patience to watch True Detective, I love most of the foreign crime / mystery shows on MHZ or BBC, Even the hallmark channel is having some good Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.