Hey there, folks, I’m very glad to say that Alyssa Rosenberg (formerly a guest blogger in these parts) is joining the ThinkProgress family and that while some technical aspects of her joining the crew are getting worked out she’s going to be contributing some posts to this space (among other things). Her first such contribution is below:

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By Alyssa Rosenberg

Given how heavily HBO promoted Game of Thrones, the fantasy series it premiered last night, I’m not really surprised that there’s been an outpouring of critical response to the show. What I didn’t expect, though, was that so much of the morning-after analysis would consist of a discussion about whether the show is sexist.

I say this from the perspective of someone who has read all four of the George R.R. Martin books on which the show is based, and who’s seen the first six episodes of HBO’s adaptation. So I come to this with context about how sex and sexuality play into Martin’s larger universe that first-time viewers aren’t going to have. But even knowing what I know about how the characters and their storylines develop, I’m still taken aback by some of the criticism, and dismayed by the reminder that our culture’s in a place where the default assumption is that any depiction of rape or sexual violence is gratuitous. Take this, from Melissa McEwan at Shakespeare’s Sister:

I am, however, averse to gratuitous pornified images of naked women being inserted into entertainment in a way that treats their breasts like props. And I don’t regard the line between the two as remotely fuzzy or difficult to navigate.

Leaving aside the exploitative nature of the storytelling, it’s also just lazy and intellectually insulting. I am a grown-ass adult capable of understanding that Tyrion Lannister is a lech without actually hearing the slurping sounds while he gets a blowjob and seeing three naked prostitutes gifted to him by his brother. I have the faculties to discern that Viserys Targaryen is a horrible shit without actually having to watch him molest his teenage sister’s breast. Etc. And if you can’t communicate these characters’ attributes without lingering close-ups on tits, then you are not a good filmmaker.

Or a question from one Entertainment Weekly colleague to another, “Do the women get to do anything more than be miserable or sex objects (willing, paid, or raped) for the men?” Or the deep and abiding weirdness of the New York Times Ginia Bellafante opining that “The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise,” before going on to insist that no real women prefer fantasy to other kinds of literature and television.

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As I’ve mentioned before, I loved the early episodes of The Killing, and still think Mireille Enos is a strong contender for an Emmy. Michelle Forbes is getting more buzz, but her role’s much more conventional and much less interesting—there are a lot of awards for grieving actresses, but fewer for hard ones. It’s fascinating watching her character do things that real people do, like mess up and leave the photos of a body in plain sight of the victim’s family, then lunge clumsily to close the door after she realizes what she’s done; or when she awkwardly reunites with her fiance, after delaying her move to California because of her involvement with the murder investigation.

But I’ve been vexed by how predictable the political storyline has become. I hate the way American or American-Canadian productions always assume the most interesting thing about politics is campaigns, and that the most interesting parts of campaigns are interactions with shady donors and foaming-at-the-mic reporters, when actually it’s the deep game, the ugly decisions made by staff and kept as secrets by staff, the  masterful procedural moves by players deeply versed in rules and bureaucracy. I think that’s what I love about the politics of State of Play so much, the fact that the story happens in committee rooms and members’ dining rooms, out of the electoral season and in fact, on the sidelines of grand debates. There’s a tolerance for that, and an ability to see the richness of it.

Instead, we’ve got Bill Campbell playing Darren Richmond with an exhausting, brittle rectitude. The character may have a past, but it’s not really playing out in the way he presents himself: I want to see him get hysterical over Rosie Larsen’s death, want to know what really happened to his wife, want him to exhibit some personalized desire for power. I don’t know who he is, or what he stands for, and the pale flame of righteousness starves without that kind of character-emitted oxygen.

Given my writing on Games of Thrones, it should come as no surprise that I’m very happy to hear the news that HBO is considering making a show based on Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. One of Gaiman’s signature strengths is an engagement with the meaning and power of belief, a thread that runs through the Sandman comics (perhaps best in Season of Mists, which in its depiction of pantheons competing over the keys to Hell as they seek to regain relevance or retreat from the world, reads in some ways like a draft for American Gods). Most of the time we try to explain faith through its impact on the people who believe, rather than acknowledging the existence of deities and working from that perspective, hurdling over the question of whether faith is verifiable and finding new metaphors for its impact.

Of course, all anyone will take from this development is that HBO is becoming the Nerd Network. Not that I would complain if that was the case, but two fantasy series do not make a Prestige Syfy make. Depending on how Game of Thrones develops George R.R. Martin’s approach to religion, the two shows could actually have religion in common as much as their fantastical elements. Given the way Big Love ended, it would be sort of amazing if HBO was developing a stealth dedication to theology.

On another note, I would love it if the development of American Gods inspired someone to make Michael Chabon’s Summerland into a movie or a television series. Not that Michael Chabon needs more development deals. But I’ve always thought that while it’s overlooked because it’s a children’s book, Summerland has a lovely and rigorous concept of American myth that I’d love to see on-screen. Plus, it might actually be a decent baseball movie.

Since I imagine a number of you have thoughts on last night’s Game of Thrones premiere, let’s have an open threads! What did y’all think? I’ll be in comments to discuss.