Adapted from author George R.R Martin’s admired opus “A Song Of Ice And Fire”, Game Of Thrones has been eagerly anticipated by bookworms and enthusiasts of medieval fantasy since HBO announced its development. Jokingly described as “The Sopranos in Middle-earth” by David Benioff, who’s adapted this saga alongside Dan Weiss, it’s become one of this year’s TV crown jewels, although I remain suspicious the majority of people expect something fantastical, like a small-screen Lord Of The Rings.
I haven’t read Martin’s novels, which puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to promptly understanding the universe presented, but Game Of Thrones shouldn’t require knowledge of the source material if it’s going to work as a TV series, first and foremost. The show doesn’t make many concessions to newcomers (beyond opening titles that sweep over an animated map of the kingdom), and instead decides to drop you into this world and hope you’ll want to keep up. I believe HBO have been offering televised primers, which helps — but they’re not something everyone will have access to, or even want to indulge in. The storytelling gamble kind of works, partly because modern audiences are accustomed to dealing with imagined universes at the cinema, and exercising patience with heavily-serialized dramas like The Wire. But it’s still true that Thrones isn’t as accessible as many would like, as it’s not even clear what the overall story of Thrones is after the first episode’s over.
None of these complaints will matter if you’ve read the books, or have prepared for the series with cursory research online, but speaking as someone approaching this with fresh eyes and an eager mind, I didn’t find “Winter Is Coming” very gripping or original — just atmospheric, stylish and well-made. Of course, you don’t expect to be au fait with everything in an hour, so I’m not saying Thrones won’t manage to hook me by as early as episode 2. But, as of right now, the only things ensuring I come back are its extravagant production, the presence of fine actors, assurances Martin’s books are masterpieces of their ilk, and my acceptance that epic stories often demand epic patience.
Game Of Thrones is set in the make-believe feudal land of Westeros, run by the “Houses” of seven noble families — principally the Stark’s of northern territory Winterfell, the Lannister’s of the Westerlands, and the Baratheon’s of Storm’s End — who are also the incumbent royal family, seated on the Iron Throne at King’s Landing. Across the Narrow Sea in Penos, deposed royals the Targaryen’s, led by flaxen-haired Viserys (Harry Lloyd), are plotting to return to Westeros and reclaim their throne; a plot that requires Visery’s naïve sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) marry the taciturn leader of the savage Dothraki tribe, Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa.)
The issue of intermarriage is a key feature, as alliances have been forged across Westeros by politically-motivated nuptials — meaning, for example, that stout King Baratheon’s (Mark Addy) beautiful wife Cersei (Lena Headey) is a Lannister by birth, while his childhood friend Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) was once his brother-in-law. The show already promises double-crossing and sexual politics, as various characters undoubtedly harbour desires to see the balance of power shift. It also contains a handful of titillating scenes involving female nudity, a shocking moment of incest, and the sight of dwarf Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) bedding nubile beauties.
The cast are excellent, as a cursory glance at the credits will attest. Sean Bean’s presence can’t help shake memories of Lord Of The Rings, but the one-time Boromir’s now embracing the fact he’s not the strapping young buck that made women’s hearts flutter in Lady Chatterly’s Lover and Sharpe, as Stark’s more in the vein of a chieftain whose best days are behind him. Lena Headey (300) brings a glacial sexiness to the role of Queen Cersei, using her smoldering serenity to put you on edge; Harry Lloyd (unrecognizable from his BBC Robin Hood days) makes for a deliciously creepy villain, with a disquieting fascination with his sister, played by compelling newcomer Emilia Clarke. Even better, there are a handful of child actors who are all extremely good (no inexperienced overacting or visible self-consciousness), which comes as something of a relief. It’s somehow easier to believe in a world if even the kids are taking everything seriously.
Overall, Thrones is unquestionably ambitious and a lovingly-crafted TV drama, but I’d be lying if I said I’m totally sold at this embryonic stage. I hope to become a fan once the characters have taken shape, names are quicker to my tongue, and the plot thickens as the action starts to flow (“Winter Is Coming” is oddly lacking in visceral thrills), but until then Thrones earns itself a generously high rating because of its huge potential, striking production, and splending casting. It’s an opening salvo values that reeks of technical care and attention, but doesn’t quite seal the deal for newcomers who aren’t already George R.R Martin scholars.
In fact, casual viewers may feel overwhelmed, and struggle to comprehend what’s going on. Tolerances for its approach to storytelling will vary, but after watching “Winter Is Coming” it dawned on me how brilliantly Peter Jackson adapted J.R.R Tolkien’s similarly dense Rings, which also benefitted from having a simple storyline at its core (dispose of a dangerous magical ring inside a volcano.) Thrones is narratively more ambitious and knotted, but perhaps this HBO adaptation is too slavish to Martin’s work for its own good. I’m sure fans will be grateful for its reverence, but the average man tuning in for some escapism could feel like they’ve wandered into a club that feels, at first, a little excluding.
However, like most people, I’ll definitely be back for more. Thrones should become easier to understand the more you watch; as its faces, names, back-story, and geography starts to sink in. I just think it’s wrong to claim “Winter Is Coming” is anything much beyond a decent introduction of a complex milieu, where the quality of its artistry does a better job selling you on a return visit than any burning desire to know what happens next.
WRITERS: David Benioff & D. B. Weiss (based on the novels by George R.R Martin)
DIRECTOR: Tim Van Patten
CAST: Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Iain Glen, Aidan Gillen, Harry Lloyd, Kit Harington, Natalia Tena, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Richard Madden & Jack Gleeson
TRANSMISSION: 17 April 2011, HBO / 18 April 2011, Sky Atlantic
I will be reviewing Game Of Thrones every week at my blog, Dan’s Media Digest.
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15 Comments
You don’t think the first ep cliffhanger will have an impact on viewers ?…I guess it didn’t on you but it will for most I think…they’ll be dying to see what happens…
Seems worth a look.. Auto – tuned set.
Thanks for the information regarding the cast.
@Coltaine: I guess the last shot is surprising enough to draw you back for more, but there was nothing about the storyline (such as it was) or characters that I felt was especially compelling. I’ve seen far better pilots than this, which made me more instantly attached to everything going on. It’s a marvel to look at, which is its own draw.
Maybe they should have started with a feature-length episode, although I hear that episode 2 and 3 are pretty poor, so a double-bill may have been advised against. The show only really hits its stride around ep5, apparently.. I wonder how many people who aren’t diehard fans of the books already will be sticking around for 5 weeks, if that’s the case. It’ll be interesting to see.
I already know a few people who have gone into GOT expecting magic and monsters to be the order of that day, and this pilot’s a wake-up call. That’s not GOT’s fault — but for whatever reason the marketing has given many people a false impression. I just hope expectations are changed/lowered to avoid too much disappointment.
Well I have read the books and loved this pilot. As far as magic and monsters, what would you call the White Walkers? The books are fantastic and this will be too. When you saw the first episode of Sopranos, did you remember the name of every character and how they were related?
Give it a chance and you will LOVE it.
I’ve just recently read the first couple chapters of the first book and I have to say HBO blows Peter Jackson out of the water in terms of completeness of adaptation. Everything I had read was in the episode. Read the first couple chapters of Lord of the Rings and you’ll notice Jackson left quite large amount of stuff out. Granted that’s comparing a motion picture to a Tv series, but my point is it looks like they’re essentially shooting this series scene for scene from the books, which ought to make the fans extremely happy. It will be interesting to see how the series grows and if they plan to take on all the books. I read something about each book being a season (one of the books being two seasons).
I adored it.
“oddly lacking in visceral thrills”
Did you see the same episode as what was broadcast? Less than Spartacus, I’ll grant you, but there were plenty of gory moments.
The episode started off as a great horror, more tense for me than The Walking Dead. It moved off for a while into just setting up characters and relationships before revealing itself as a thriller with politics and poisons. Just delicious.
I seriously had no problems in getting involved. Very involved. And that ending had me paralysed…
@Shannon: No, exactly – you need to give GOT some time, as I said.
@TheAnswer: A TV series has more time available. 10 hours to cover ONE book, whereas LOTR had a similar amount of time to cover THREE books. It remains to be seen if being so devoted to the book is wise, because a TV show isn’t a book. Things that the book-lovers will adore (just for being included) may send everyone else to sleep.
@Bob: The opening was fairly thrilling, sure. A few moments of gore don’t excite me, really, like the beheading scene. I was just surprised there wasn’t a few more instances of action, in some form. Instead, it was a lot of standing around talking. You can get away with that in books, but TV is a visual medium and it would have been nice to have more going on.
But anyway, I rated GOT highly, so don’t get TOO upset! And, for what it’s worth, having now seen ep2 I preferred that because the story started to develop and there was more emotion to the scenes.
The ratings weren’t good and the excuses have began!
Tv shows are cancelled when Household ratings are bad retard.
GOT is garbage with a terrible casting except Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Lena Headey.
The worst mistake was done when they picked Michelle Fairley to play Catelyn and Sean Bean to play Ed.Michelle can be a good actress,but she is too old to play a 35 years old hot woman.
Furthermore,the story has little fantasy moments and it has several irrealistic holes.
This show can have two seasons like Rome,but in the end it will be a failure.Boring slow paced crap!
I’d have to disagree, anything that works well in book form is going to work as well if not better in screen form if done according to the material. Any aspects that might “put viewers to sleep” would do so just the same if they were reading the book. It takes a lot more energy and attention to read a book than watch a show. If anything this series will reach people that probably would have never been able to get through the series by reading it. You can never fault a series for being too true to the books, that’s ludicrous, and staying true to written source material is for the most part going to see a greater success on the screen because visual images are simply easier to process. Anyone who finds aspects of the series boring, then it’s not the fault of a close adaptation, it’s simply not your cup of tea.
I walked away from your review with a sense that you didn’t actually watch the show, you skimmed it. The evidence to support that is when you state, “mute leader of the savage Dothraki tribe, Khal Drogo.” Khal Drogo is not only not mute, but he speaks in the show that aired last night.
@Sky: Or it was a bad choice of words? I’ll amend with “taciturn” when I get the chance. I have the first 6 episodes. I didn’t skim ep1 — but neither did I rewatch it several times, consult the internet for background details, and speed-read the books — as I feel it’s best to approach these things in the same way a “normal person” would when it airs. And those are my thoughts on it, after one viewing.
Saw first ep, maybe it was my tv.. Not in love with quality of the filming.. or maybe camera ‘s focusing techniques.., it was a distraction …,
I’m a Thrones virgin (though I read a little about the books and story on Wikipedia months before the show aired). I enjoyed the first episode, even though it felt like a million different details were packed into that first hour. Names, places, motives are all still a blur at the moment.
The production values are very good, although I’d like to see more sunlit scenes now and again so it doesn’t become too dark and dreary and dull to look at. I got a bit of a Troy vibe early on; I think that was the dialogue. The actors themselves were all fine.
This show had more to it than the recent Camelot has so far shown. At least Sean Bean is a more interesting and charismatic leader. Harry Lloyd’s blonde king across the sea was the most interesting character so far, perhaps because his sunny setting and style seems far removed from the sword and shields stereotypes of the other lands.
Will continue to watch this show.
Dan I have read the books and I thought you gave a pretty honest and good review. I hope enough folks stick around because the source material really picks up and you have a lot of chances to get emotionally attached to the folks in the story.
I, too, come into the series with no previous experience with the source material and was fairly impressed with the pilot. It had enough to pique my interest in its potential to be a very intriguing series. Sex, politics, violence, family divisions, an element of the supernatural (white walkers I think they were called)… It’s got all of the right themes to develop into something fantastic.
I’m curious as to the budget for this series. Probably my favorite show of all time, Deadwood, was prematurely canceled due to high production values, as HBO wanted to run with Rome instead at the time. (I’m still bitter that they weren’t able to make the initially promised 2 feature films to properly wrap-up Deadwood.) Based on the production values from episode 1 of GoT, I have to believe that the budget for this show is higher, and I would fear that if it doesn’t take off, it too could come to a premature end. Lets say it only makes it through 2 seasons which equates to the first 2 books… anyone who’s read the series can comment if that would leave you hanging? Or do the individual books sufficiently wrap up their story lines well enough that it wouldn’t seem like a completely premature cancellation.