SpecialAgentCaptainDoctor here. On break from a little freelance "subcontracting" for El Presidente.
Game of Thrones season one has come to an end. I find this a bitter sweet occurrence. Bitter because I’ll have to wait so long to find out what happens next, and sweet because maybe I’ll finally get to watch something else on television every time I go to Bennett’s house. The man’s a fanatic! He watches each episode over and over! He’s already up to his third viewing of the season finale! I’ve watched every episode but the last at least twice already. Involuntarily! It’s always on!
Thankfully there’s far worse fare where forced repeat viewings are concerned. In fact, I have to admit that Game of Thrones is the best cable television series I’ve ever seen. Sorry Tudors. I loved your historical shenanigans at the time, but we all knew how going it was going to end. Games of Thrones, not bound by actual mundane events, has endless entertainment potential.
First the good. Game of Thrones has excellent production value. The sets and costumes never really let me down (though a few Dothraki sets cut it a little close). When dealing with fantasy it’s easy to get jolted back to reality by cheap props and bad makeup, but Game of Thrones keeps you fully immersed. The story is intricate and expertly woven. I especially enjoyed how the world Mr. Martin created starts off relatively void of magical elements, but then slowly reveals more and more of its fantastic potential as the episodes march on. None of the main characters come across as cliché, (except for young prince Joffrey, who apart from a moment of rash brilliance at the end of episode 9, is your typical evil spoiled brat). The political intrigue is frustratingly fascinating and the twists and turns of the plot have left me hungry for season two.
Now the bad. Bare in mind that I greatly enjoyed the series overall so many of these are mere half hearted complaints. At times the pacing was slower than I would have preferred. The sex was often gratuitous. A few of the characters came across as too stupid to live.
Whenever any literary work makes its way into movies or television I hear endless complaints about how the novel was so much better and how the filmed version left scads of material out. I wasn’t bored with the current pacing but I felt perfectly comfortable playing scrabble on my ipod throughout the majority of these episodes without feeling that I was missing anything important. Maybe they could have picked up the pace and covered more material.
Fans of the bare human form will be happy to know that every episode comes with at least one mandatory nude scene. Some scenes advanced the plot and backstory, but others struck me as over the top and out of place. Yes, I know HBO wanted to make this an “adult” series, but I wonder if so much vigorous exhibitionism was a mistake as far as maximizing potential viewers was concerned. Yes, I’ve heard that the source material is quite explicit, but I fear many a prude was driven away by so many sexually graphic depictions of rape, incest, and same sex relations. Some of this was indeed key to the plot, but they could have handled things less pornographically. I can’t help but wonder if more viewers would have tuned in for a show with fewer heaving breasts and flopping penises.
As far as stupid characters go I’m not going to waste time discussing Ned. Ned makes idiotic choices at every turn. Clearly he should have stayed up north where life was less complicated. I will take a moment to complain about the series’ depiction of the “dance instructor” Syrio Forrel. SPOILER ALERT! I’m going to talk about a specific plot point now, so if you’re not into specific plot points skip to the next paragraph. Syrio became one of my favorite characters from the very instant he first appeared on screen. But in his fight scene Syrio comes across as either arrogant or foolish. Confronted with several armed guards, Syrio is able to disarm and disable all but their leader with his wooden practice sword. All well and awesome. But then Syrio doesn’t bother picking up a real sword, even though the room is practically littered with them. He has time to banter with his remaining opponent, give sage words of wisdom to his pupil, but doesn’t have time to grab a sword that’s right next to him? Unless Syrio really is arrogant and pompous enough to insist on fighting on with a practice blade, this strikes me as a glaring flaw in an otherwise fine episode.
Minor nit-picky flaw finding aside, Game of Thrones is a great series and off to a great start. Anyone who loves a lush complicated tale and isn’t easily offended by nudity, profanity, and violence should definitely give it a try.
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