Not familiar with a fandom? Or any of them? Well, here’s the place where you can learn the absolute basics and where you can find more information.
A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones
A Song of Ice and Fire is a seven-part epic high fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin (GRRM, for short); five of seven novels have been published, so far. Game of Thrones is the HBO adaption of the novels. The series is set in Westeros, where the seasons can last years and winters are deadly. Fifteen years ago, a rebellion threw House Targaryen off the Iron Throne of Westeros, but the remaining Great Houses are plotting to take the throne for themselves. As winter approaches, civil war breaks out, Daenerys Targaryen strives to reclaim her father’s throne, and forgotten ancient dangers threaten the continent from beyond the Wall in the North.
GRRM’s personal blog is mostly about what cons he’s going to, his thoughts on awards the series has been nominated for and the chances of wining, and his opinions on football. Occasionally, there’s an update on the next novel. His official website is more on topic. It has samples of his current projects, covert art, stuff from his readers, and a list of his upcoming appearances.
For every detail of the novels, A Wiki of Ice and Fire and Westeros.org are the places you need. The wiki is hosted on Westeros.org, and Weteros.org is run by two fans Elio M. García and Linda Antonsson, who are currently working with GRRM on the forthcoming guide-book to the setting, The World of Ice and Fire. HBO has an official site for the series, and it has you need, including cast video interviews, recaps, family trees, and inside the episode features. The official production diary, Making Game of Thrones, has (almost) anything you’d want to know about producing and filming the series.
Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey is a British post-Edwardian drama (starting 1912 and going through to the ’20s) that airs on ITV in the United Kingdom and airs on PBS in the States. (PBS has cut the US broadcast down a sizeable chunk though.) Series four has just been commissioned. Series three has just finished airing int he UK, and it will start airing stateside in January. The Earl of Grantham, head of the Crawley family, live in the titular Downton Abbey. He has no sons, only three daughters, so his cousin James is heir. When Patrick and his son drown in the sinking of the Titanic, the next heir is the Earl’s third cousin once removed Matthew Crawley, a middle-class solicitor the family has never met before. When Matthew moves in and doesn’t want to conform to upper class life, he finds himself at odds not only with his family but with the highly opinionated servants downstairs too. When it comes down to it, the series is a melodrama/soap opera. Everyone is trying to make their way through life (usually though intrigues), and everyone is trying to find the love. Lots of marriage storylines here.
I find that the official ITV site doesn’t really help much if you want to find out what’s going on. It does have some nice photos, some videos, and some news. It also has some press packets somewhere, which are the best things ever in my opinion. Same goes for the official site provided by STV, which airs the show in Scotland. The PBS site is absolutely gorgeous and the most helpful thing. It provides information for all three season, has easy to understand character trees, lots of news and stuff. And it has a counter for when the new series airs on this side of the pond! There are also two books written by Jessice Fellowes, the neice of the series creator Julian Fellowes: The World of Downton Abbey (ISBN 1250006341) and The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (ISBN 1250027624).
Doctor Who
Doctor Who, which airs on BBC in the UK and BBC America in the States, is the longest running science fiction show of all time and is the most successful. It’s a significant part of British pop culture and is a cult hit everywhere else. The series revolves around the last Time Lord, an humanoid alien with two hearts, named the Doctor who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which is shaped as a blue British police box from the 1960s. He has the ability to regeneration and don a new appearance and personality when killed, and eleven men have played the Doctor so far. The Doctor travels with companions, humans who serve as audience surrogates. It has a low budget for such a popular television show, so you’ll have to forgive it for that. The classic series, which ran between 1963 and 1989, featured Doctors one through eight. The revived series, which started airing 2005 and continues today, goes from the Ninth on.
BBC has an official website which looks pretty good for all the current and breaking news. For synopses of literally everything, every episode classic and revived, every novel, and all spin-offs, the Doctor Who Reference Guide is the place to go. There’s also the TARDIS Index File, the best wikia for the series.
The Hour
The Hour is a British drama that airs on BBC in the UK and on BBC America over here. It’s set in 1950s and revolves around a new BBC news program called The Hour. The staff hopes to present balanced and fair news coverage, even if it means giving air time to those who directly challenge the government’s views. This becomes difficult when the Suez Canal Crisis and the unrest in Hungary come to head and when Freddie Lyon uncovers a government conspiracy that brings MI6 down on The Hour. Things become complicated on a personal when the show’s producer Bel Rowley starts a romantic fling with the married presenter Hector Madden and leave Freddie’s attentions unrequited. It’s so well written, and it’s simply amazing. The first series is 6 episodes long, and the second series is currently on air in the UK. I believe the US version is edited down a bit.
All I can direct anyone to is the official websites at BBC and BBC America. They have everything I think you’d need, from news to episode guides to photos to videos to character guides.
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time is an American fairy tale drama that airs on ABC. It’s in its second season this year. To ruin Snow White’s live, the Evil Queen Regina places a curse on all of Storybrooke, taking away their happy endings and memories and forcing them to live forever in a parallel universe. That parallel universe is in our world, in Storybrooke, Maine. Emma Swan is taken to Storybrooke by her son Henry, who she gave up for adoption ten years ago. Henry has a book of stories that has all of the town’s residents in it and he is the only one in town who believes in the curse. He tells Emma that she, as the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, is the only one who can break the curse and bring everyone’s memories back. The series moves back and forth between the present in Storybrooke and the past in the Enchanted Forest. And it’s by Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis, the creators of Lost.
I’m not really sure where you can find info on this series, but I do know that ABC has a really great official site. It has character descriptions, news, recaps, photos, videos. Pretty much anything I would want.
Sherlock
Sherlock is a contemporary update of the original Conan Doyle stories. Sherlock is a consulting detective in modern London. Watson is his weary flatmate who misses the battlefield in Afghanistan. The two solve crimes that all seem to tie-in with a mysterious genius criminal named Moriarty. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson. That’s sure to appeal to some of you. And Rupert Graves is DI Lestrade. Frankly, Graves is unappreciated in this role, and I just want to mention him because I love his Lestrade. The third series is entering production in 2013, so it’s going to be a long wait. The first two series are made up of three, eighty-minute episodes each for a current total of six episodes. The series airs on BBC in the UK and on PBS on this side of the pond.
BBC has a good official website with what you would typically expect: character bios, clips, some news. PBS also has a good website with series breakdowns, individual episode summaries, preview videos, interviews, and the like. BBC also has tie-in websites, which also feature pretty heavily in the series, for Sherlock’s blog The Science of Deduction and Watson’s personal blog. For literally every detail and for the most in-depth that you would want, Sherlockology is your place.
Suits
Suits is a USA Network legal comedy-drama the revolves around two lawyers who, between them, have only one law degree. It’s starts out with the typical USA mentor-mentee format, but it is trying to ground the formula in more serious stuff. It’s actually a good show and is more than I expect from USA. And besides, it has good looking men in good looking suits shooting witty banter and pop culture references at each other. It returns in January to finish up its second season.
USA’s official website is the only place I can direct anyone to. It’s pretty good with bios, summaries of each episode, interviews, galleries for each episode and character, and some news.
The Legend of Korra
The Legend of Korra is the sequel to Nickelodeon’s popular animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series is set in a world where people are able to bend, that is control, one of the four classical elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Air. The Avatar is able to bend all four, serves as the link between the physical and spiritual worlds, and goes through a reincarnation cycle following the four elements. Korra is the new Avatar. As she moves to Republic City to master her last element, air, she finds that there is an anti-bender, or Equalist, revolution in the city. Amon, the Equalist leader, is able to permanently remove a person’s bending and in on a crusade to rid the world of benders. As the Avatar, it is Korra’s job to stop him. The series is entering book two, which is the second half of the first season. The show will currently span four books (that is, two seasons).
There’s the official Nick site but it’s mostly aimed toward younger audiences. But it does have character bios and videos. The Avatar Wiki’s Korra pages are much more useful for anything detailed.
