美国国家公共电台 NPR HBO Summer: 'Game Of Thrones' And More Return

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's July, but if you're an HBO subscriber¹ and a fan of intense explicit² television, winter is here.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAMIN DJAWADI'S "MAIN TITLE")

MARTIN: Tonight, HBO will begin airing the penultimate season of its hit drama "Game Of Thrones." With more than 20 million viewers every episode, "Game Of Thrones" is the crown jewel of HBO's summer season, but there are other fan favorites which HBO is also rolling out in the coming week. So we thought we'd call NPR's TV critic Eric Deggans to hear more about what HBO has in store. Hi, Eric. Thanks for joining us.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE³: So I'm still looking through my dictionary for penultimate. What does that mean? The second to last. OK. Got it.

MARTIN: You work here. You'd know that. So HBO earned 111 Emmy nominations⁴ last Thursday, the most if any TV outlet⁵. So what does this say about television right now and HBO's place in it?

DEGGANS: Well, HBO has always sort of sat, I think, at the top of the sort of quality television ladder. And it's been in this competition with Netflix. Netflix came along and kind of usurped⁶ HBO's formula for success in terms of getting these buzzy star-driven projects that could go out into the zeitgeist and make people talk about their outlet and then get people to sign up for them. You know, Netflix got 91 Emmy nominations, HBO got 111. And so they're both in this intense competition. And that's great news for TV fans, which means, you know, we're getting a lot of great television. And they're spending a lot of money to tell us about it.

MARTIN: So what can viewers expect tonight on "Game Of Thrones"? And what are you going to be looking for?

DEGGANS: "Game Of Thrones" started out as sort of an anti-"Lord Of The Rings" kind of a series, a place where heroism⁷ was rewarded with early death basically. And this idea that everyone's cynical⁸ and the people who succeed are mostly wealthy and powerful, even if they're horrible people, especially if they're horrible people. And the show has turned. And what we've seen last season especially is that some of the characters considered heroes have started to rise up. And so we know that there's going to be some epic⁹ battles as these key characters fight. And that's what I'm waiting to see.

MARTIN: This coming week, we get Dwayne The Rock Johnson as a high-powered sports financial adviser¹⁰ in "Ballers." And we get Issa Rae as a millennial¹¹ trying to figure out her life in "Insecure." Now, have you seen these shows' new seasons? Do you have the sense that they're also finding their footing and winning a following?

DEGGANS: Yeah. You know, "Ballers" in particular, like, I've been told people who watched this show since it started because there's a tendency to shrug¹² off this show as like a sports and Miami-centered version of "Entourage." It is not that. And it's not that primarily because of Dwayne Johnson. As good as he is in movies, he is a really good TV presence. And he makes you identify with this character. He's playing an ex-NFL star who decided¹³ to start a financial services company. He wants to help athletes who are like him hold onto their money, but he also wants to be a success in his chosen field. And in this new season, he's trying to bring an NFL franchise¹⁴ to Las Vegas.

On "Insecure," we saw Issa Rae kind of blossom. You know, she first cropped up on YouTube, "The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl." And she's searching for romance and love at a time when she's just broken up with this long-term relationship because of infidelity. And in this new season, we see her trying to figure out, how can she move on? Or should she move on? And it's a story about average millennial black women, which we have never really seen.

MARTIN: Do you see any throughline here about some sort of secret sauce that contributes to HBO's success? I mean, it isn't everybody's cup of tea. I mean, some of these programs are just too explicit for some people, so people don't want to pay that money. I mean, those premium¹⁵ channels are expensive.

DEGGANS: Yeah. I mean, the secret sauce is trying to come up with a show that not only pushes the boundaries of storytelling on television. You know, again, I told you about how distinct "Insecure" is. You know, "Game Of Thrones" is epic film-level production values done on a TV show level. It's doing something unique with the form. And it's also doing something that kind of touches the zeitgeist, that tells us something about where we are today or that feels like a fresh new voice on the scene.

And so at a time when we are trying to figure out how we feel about how people of color relate to the mainstream¹⁶, and at a time when we're finding all these new modes of expression for people of color, it's a perfect time for them to come to the fore¹⁷.

MARTIN: That's TV critic Eric Deggans. Eric, thank you.

DEGGANS: Always fun to talk to you.

1 subscriber   

n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者

参考例句：

• The subscriber to a government loan has got higher interest than savings. 公债认购者获得高于储蓄的利息。 来自辞典例句
• Who is the subscriber of that motto? 谁是那条座右铭的签字者？ 来自辞典例句

2 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

5 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

6 usurped   

篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权

参考例句：

• That magazine usurped copyrighted material. 那杂志盗用了版权为他人所有的素材。
• The expression'social engineering'has been usurped by the Utopianist without a shadow of light. “社会工程”这个词已被乌托邦主义者毫无理由地盗用了。

7 heroism   

n.大无畏精神，英勇

参考例句：

• He received a medal for his heroism.他由于英勇而获得一枚奖章。
• Stories of his heroism resounded through the country.他的英雄故事传遍全国。

8 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

9 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

10 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

11 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

12 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

15 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

16 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

17 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。