After intense, almost deafening speculation, HBO’s Game of Thrones finally arrived in April and will see the end of its first, ten-episode season this Sunday. I can safely say the show is neither a massive disappointment nor wildly successful, instead falling somewhere in the middle.
The BEGINNING of the show felt more like the end of the second act, where so much had already happened, I needed a map to keep up with it all, even though we were never shown any of it. Of course, the show is based on the intensely popular books but so is True Blood and I didn’t feel completely lost during its first season. Game of Thrones takes for granted that all of its audience already knows the material, but I don’t know how many obsessive fantasy readers out there have HBO subscriptions. After a few episodes, I got the hang of it, found out who was who and what elaborate backstory was between them, and started to enjoy this show.
What’s more, I absolutely believe each episode gets better than the one before it. In fact, I’m now eagerly waiting for each Sunday’s new episode and am disappointed the season is so short. The show spun its wheels for half the first season, but it ends right when things are getting good? I guess it’s discovered the rhythms of a successful HBO show that takes time to marinate (The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood) instead of one that breathlessly rushes from scene to scene, desperate to get you to keep watching (i.e. True Blood).
Supporting Scene Stealer: In a cast this big there were bound to be a few (The Wire’s Aidan Gillen is having fun as a similarly shifty politician) but my favorite so far is Peter Dinklage’s crafty Tyrion Lannister. I know the Lannisters are supposed to be the bad guys, but they just seem to be having so much more fun than the honorable but dreary Starks, who are easier to admire than they are to like. With “villains” as sympathetic as Dinklage, who can possibly root for Sean Bean’s brusque, not-too-bright Lord Stark that keeps making all the wrong moves (even if they are noble)?
Once I started watching GOThrones it was really good. It has all kinds of possiblities.
Dragons hatching in the end…..cutting off the head. Bloody good.