As soon as part one started the other night we lost satellite reception because of storms, so we never really sat down to watch 2 & 3.

Did viewership surpass Game of Thrones? That's a biggie in our family!

Game of Thrones is on HBO, and, as such, has no commercials. The record was for cable with ads. Looking forward to the finale on Sunday night. My husband has read the books but Thrones was new to me.

We watched almost an hour of the first episode- and that was a waste of time. It was one of the most boring shows I've seen in a long time.

I enjoyed it. I didn't love the gore, bloodshed, and senseless killings, but liked seeing history come alive so to speak. I like history and informational programming and miss the types of programs they used to show on the History channel.

I also watched the first hour and decided it was boring and the teasers before the commercials looked like it would be pretty gory, too (of course, the history was pretty bloody IRL). Boring + gory = not for me! :)

Speaking of Game of Thorns, we make the Dianosaur egg pendants that are sold on the HBO website.

"It seems like it will never end and I don't care what happens to any of them."

That's pretty much what I said to DH about The Borgias. We watched the first season, basically forcing ourselves to finish it out or lose our "investment". Then TiVo started recording the second season. We watched, I think, two episodes and the rest stacked up week after week. We realized neither of us liked it and deleted the whole thing. I'd never seen a show built almost entirely of unsympathetic characters. And then I saw the Borgias.

But, Hatfields and McCoys is sitting on the TiVo now. Sounds like you're telling me it may meet a similar fate!

Watching it b/c I am staying at the home of someone who wants to watch it. I can't stand Kevin Costner, so I didn't expect to like it and I don't.

I think they are doing an okay job of not romanticizing the feud, but the stock characters of the sleazy lawyer and the long-suffering wives are too cheesy for me.

If you want to watch something scary (and true) about hillbillies, the documentaries "American Hollow" made by Rory Kennedy or "The Wild & Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" by Julien Nitzberg are both enough to curl your toenails.

We watched the first season, basically forcing ourselves to finish it out or lose our "investment".

Well, turned out my husband had the same thoughts about H&M. Said we already has three hours in. We finished it last night. All I can say is I'm glad it's over.

I saw it was taping the other night & knew it was my hub. No clue when he snuck it into the line up because he hasn't been home much with the new job.

I texted him some of your comments; he said he likes watching paint dry lol.. told him if he starts it & doesn't like it; not to feel bad about getting rid of it; so we'll see. No clue where he thinks he'll find time to actually watch it since he's been gone about 10 days this time; comes home for 1-3 days but is busy doing paperwork. Should have just done him a favor & deleted it lol

Roselvr, I'll bet that men are fueling the viewership of H&M. Something about feuds, guns and general mayhem.

If he ever watches it; I'll let you know what he thinks. Highly doubt he'll have time though.

Well, we watched the first episode last night. I didn't have a problem with the pacing -- it takes time to establish the characters and the timeline and all that. But although I loved Bill Paxton in "Big Love", I never cared for him before that -- too wooden. And now he's in a fuzzy beard in a period piece. Dislike. Kevin Costner is doing a pretty good job, I think.

DH and I commented that they were really going for the sort of Black Irish look in all the women -- sort of overdone. Then we saw why -- it's to distinguish them from the halo-bearing second generation blondes: the star-crossed lovers and the slow-witted kind brother!

I think the bright spots are Tom Berenger (he really melted into the period character of the vile uncle) and Powers Boothe. But I figure they won't last through the second episode.

I just thought of something. When I said that hillbillies weren't my favorite subject, I had totally forgotten how much I love "Justified" on FX. Hillbillies running rampant on that show. Must just be H&M that I didn't care for.

Do agree with jakabedy about Tom Berenger and Powers Boothe, though. When I saw that Berenger was named as one of the stars, I had to look up which character he was playing. Hadn't seen him in quite a while and was surprised to see he was the uncle.

I thought it was excellent. Really great re-creation of 19th c. America, particularly the post-Civil War era in the Border states, where the war had been particularly vicious. McCoy = Kentucky = Union; Hatfield = West Virginia = Confederate. I think it's accurate to say that the Hatfield-McCoy feud, at least during its early years, was merely a continuation of the Civil War as fought in the Border states.

I also thought re-creation of dress, tools, the cabins, the food, the way of life and so on was excellent. Not that I was there of course. :)

What most interested me, and the take-away theme for me, was the conflict between those who wanted a rule of law by the states that would apply to all inhabitants and people living in isolated "hollers" who wanted to live by their own code/rule of law. I believe that lowland Scots wanted rule of law that would encompass the highland clans. And then there was Russia's efforts in the 19th century to annex the Caucuses (Tolstoy wrote about it in War and Peace), much of which was still highly tribal.

It was also interesting to see how strong the sense of the state as an independent entity was, with one state threatening to invade another state over a kidnapping. This was before kidnapping was a federal crime, and much of the action in the show takes place pre-FBI as well.