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Daenerys by Joelle Jones. Game of Thrones fan art

“I just saw the second episode of season 2,” Dinna announced, “and I am traumatized.” I had not seen the episode—I prefer to wait until the season is over, and then watch all the episodes in a day or three. (My personal record: 4 seasons of The Wire in 1 week, 3 seasons of Breaking Bad in less.) However, I’ve read the reviews.

“You mean that people who were not supposed to be having sex in the books are having sex in the TV show,” I said. “Yes!” Dinna cried, revealing herself to be a GRRM fundamentalist. I take a more liberal view: literature and cinema are different forms and a certain amount of revision is necessary in adapting one for the other.

The Game of Thrones Diet in Emotional Weather Report, our column today in the Philippine Star.

Here’s a Game of Thrones Workout we like.

Matt Zoller Seitz in Vulture.

Game of Thrones is doing for sword-and-sorcery what the remake of Battlestar Galactica did for science-fiction on TV, and what the Godfather series did for the gangster story: foregrounding its mythic power, and showing that the genre can be brazenly serious, even ostentatiously artful, and unquestionably adult, without killing its simple pleasures. In one of the new episodes, Tyrion tells an enemy whom he’s exiling, “I hope you enjoy the walk. I found it surprisingly beautiful, in a brutal, horribly uncomfortable sort of way.” He could be talking about the show.

Profiled in the NYT. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sexy dwarf alert.

Auntie Janey is taking this week off to obsess about the romantic lives of Jon Snow (How can I get him to break his oath of celibacy?) and Daenerys (Could she hook up with Jon Snow? But what if he’s not really Ned Stark’s son, but a Targaryen??)

As you know, the second season of Game of Thrones premieres on Sunday, 1 April 2012. The teasers seem to suggest that the Red Wedding of the third book will figure in the second season. Aaaaaaa! Must they hasten our traumas?

While Auntie Janey plays matchmaker to various claimants of the Iron Throne, we call upon you, our helpful readers, to write the agony column this week. Tell us how to spot a philandering partner. What are the clues? Must we really check their text messages and facebook accounts? Better yet, tell us stories of dirty rotten lying cheaters and how they were caught, drawn and quartered.

The Comments box is waiting.

Discuss.

How do you all know what we’re talking about when we didn’t name anyone? (How do we know when we don’t watch tv and are not on facebook and twitter? Oh right, we have ears.) Hahahaha.

1. Watch three seasons of Breaking Bad.

Said to be the best American TV series since The Wire. Just finished the first season. It’s not as Shakespeare as The Wire and not as ambitious, but we love a very black comedy. Funnily enough it is referred to as a drama. Breaking Bad is about a man who only starts living when he finds out he is dying. Why are the best TV series about drugs? The hero of this one is a man who cooks shabu. We watch him go from a good law-abiding citizen to a…he’s not quite bad yet, but we can see where he’s headed. This series has given us a new respect for the periodic table.

2. Read The Known World by Edward P. Jones, who is coming to Manila next week. The Pulitzer-winning novelist will give talks at several schools. He will also be a panelist at the Manila International Literary Festival of the Unfortunate Acronym.

3. Buy the wine for the 5th anniversary party on Thursday November 10.

So now you have a real reason to go.

4. Watch Michael Fassbender as Rochester in Jane Eyre.

We never cared for Jane Eyre, but if anyone can make us it is he.

5. Pick up the Reading Group copies of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, which arrived yesterday.

6. View the group exhibition Ciento Cincuenta at Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo.

7. Attend Ambeth Ocampo’s talk on Jose Rizal on Sunday, 3pm at Pinto Art Museum.