Trying to imagine this as a movie, I thought it would be difficult to make Therese's extreme naivety convincing to a modern audience, so I wonder if they've altered things somewhat.

Interesting. I suppose I was just picturing piles of snow in New England and going from there. Being generous you could maybe call it blue sky thinking, though ill thought out speculation is more honest!

While I'm (almost literally) pipe-dreaming, why is there not a thousand square mile array of solar panels being built in some uninhabited area of desert?

Thanks. I'm sympathetic to this view, but doesn't broadening it out result in considering most of human existence to be series of ecological disasters? Though I suppose you can make that argument also.

They could (presumably) pay plenty for it, though. I am the most lay of men when it comes to this subject, and the US seems absurdly reluctant to spend money on infrastructure, but would a network of pipes be so difficult. They could even be built alongside a railway network fit for the modern world.

Could you elaborate?

In the spirit of that person who asks why there aren't parachutes provided on commercial flights, why are there not enormous pipes being built to transport water from the many parts of the US where there is more than enough rain/snow, to the drought afflicted parts?

The book link is still there though. I thought Sansa's story was frustrating mostly because - having chosen to make a change - they had loads of interesting places to go with it and then bailed on them to end as the book did, only with Sansa in place of her friend.

I guess it feels clearer now that the show still wants to remain tied to the books as much as possible. Hopefully Martin wields the scythe in this next one.

Yep, when you think that Sansa began as the Stark who was most eager to leave her home and marry a prince and give up her name, if her story is circling round to her realization that her strength comes from her family's name and the loyalty and love it inspires she kind of has to be in Winterfell.

My opinion of the book version of Dorne is skewed by the knowledge that its introduction has added hundreds of pages and many years to an already unwieldy story. But I thought the show version would be good, and it already feels close to irredeemable.

Ha, that's fair. I'm really surprised they've made such a mess of it; I liked the idea of Jamie and Bronn trying to rescue Myrcella but it will be tough to take the Sand Snakes and Ellaria seriously now.

The Dorne storyline has been terrible so far and might cause trouble for the show given that it is now committed to these characters as established.

A 3rd year that reminded me somewhat of the career of Genie Bouchard - struggling to build on a very promising 1st act (Myles' impassioned tennis tweets are my favourite thing about his account).

Is it shocking, or is it pretty much what you would expect if you thought for a while about how this business is likely to work. Not that this makes it any less disgraceful, just that your headline seems to be reaching.

Yeah, I think it is only the novelty of it as a modern film that makes it significant. It's competent and enjoyable but if it had been made in a different time then it wouldn't be noteworthy, I don't think. Though maybe that does make it significant.

I probably shouldn't have jumped into such a hot-tempered topic with vague 80's sketch show references.

It was a reference to a Spitting Image song.

Quelle surprise. Have you ever met a nice South African?

When DD was at some book promotion (he seems set on becoming a multi-hyphenate) she sang it to him. She handled it pretty well, I thought. It must be quite a strange thing to have to age along with.