Game of Thrones [SPOILERS]

[Quinton]

Finally got around to watching this (through episode three) and it's not badly done overall.  Peter Dinklage does a fantastic job as Tyrion (who has great dialogue which certainly helps).  The quality does seem to suffer a bit on the other side of the narrow sea. 

[Zetor]

I didn't know Syrio Forel was Russian.

[WayAbvPar]

I thought they pretty much nailed Syrio. Maybe a few years older would have been ideal, but he was very good.

[Yoru]

I thought they pretty much nailed Syrio. Maybe a few years older would have been ideal, but he was very good.

Agreed. The guy playing Syrio is excellent. Littlefinger, on the other hand, is stiffer than a cock in a brothel.

I think the construction of #3 is the best so far - no more rapid cutting between plot lines, they seem to mostly stick to one and shift between the relevant locations/plots at a more reasonable pace. I'm a lot happier with the series now than I was after episode #1.

[Threash]

The only disappointing part of the show continues to be the almost complete neglect of the dire wolves.  Jon specially should hardly ever be apart from his.

[Lucas]

Well, I admit I almost cried out of happiness during the last scene with Arya and Syrio: the background music, the subtle expressions of both actors (and by Sean Bean at the end)...The book and its characters really came alive, but even more than that, it was a fantastic moment of TV. Loved it. 

[lamaros]

All the bits the "writers" have made up are fucking awful. Crass and unsubtle.

[Zaljerem]

All the bits the "writers" have made up are fucking awful. Crass and unsubtle.

Cry some more. I take the show for what it is ... an adaptation.

For real enjoyment, I'm reading the books.

[lamaros]

So because it is an adaptation it is ok that it's crap?  

I agree the Syrio bit was spot on Lucas.

Jon and his scenes are good too.

Not a co-incidence that they are the least "adapted".

[proudft]

I'm not sure what you were expecting.  How long are the audiobooks, 30 hours or something?  If you include every line of dialogue, that right there is 3 seasons of show for just the first book, and that is, in this universe, not going to happen.  So there are going to need to be cuts made, things added to clarify points that were only in character's internal dialogue and, you know... adaptations. 

I've been enjoying it a great deal so far.  You are free to not enjoy it, of course, but why keep watching it then?  Those that dislike it, are, from the boards I've been following, in a very very small minority (the non-spoiler threads on somethingawful.com and televisionwithoutpity.com are the main ones I've been reading). 

There are a lot of people out there in internet-land who never read the books (televisionwithoutpity.com in particular has a ton of 'em), and I find it fun to follow along with the nubs and see what they like the most.  Tyrion is a big hit, of course, but there are a surprising number of fans of Jaime, which is pretty awesome/hilarious.  And by and large they seem to be following along fine with who is related to who and who is in charge of what, and are united in their hatred of Joffrey - so far so good, as far as I'm concerned.

I think the casting is great - Jaime and Arya in particular, and Jorah had a bunch to say in episode 3 which impressed me out of nowhere.  I always thought he was pretty bland in the book, but his little fireside chat with random Dothraki guy was cool.  Tyrion is good too, but that is really, like, who is the one actor who will work for this, is he available? - great!

After three episodes, my only remaining concerns are with the show's budget.  King's Landing is, uh, pretty sparsely populated, the Dothraki Horde is like 40 people, and the presumably eventually CGI grown-up direwolves and coming battles worry me a bit.   If you never saw HBO's Rome, the big battles on Rome were, um, creative (let's talk about the coming battle, blurry camera pan over six guys fighting, battle music for 15 seconds, 'welp we won' post battle discussion).  However, despite that, I really liked Rome.  So I remain hopeful.

[lamaros]

I'm not arguing the necessity of adaptation but the quality.

It is possible to be critical of something without having to abandon it completely.

I agree with your points regarding budget. There is no real sense of place outside the wall, which is of vital importance in conveying the atmosphere, especially politically, that the characters find themselves. It very often feels like you are looking at sets, which puts a lot more pressure on the dialogue to carry the scenes...

Which then leads to my criticism on the 'adapted' dialogue not having as much quality as that taken from the book and being less able to hold it all together.

[proudft]

You're just losing me on the dislike of the quality of the new stuff, then.   I reread the books not too long ago - a couple of months, I believe - so some of the new scenes stick out as obviously new to me, but some of the scenes I am honestly not sure of - 50% of which I attribute to a shitty memory and 50% to them doing a decent job.   

Cersei & Joffrey from this week, though, I wasn't really sold on the necessity of that.  Humanizing Joffrey - pshaw!

[Lucas]

[Arthur_Parker]

Well, I admit I almost cried out of happiness during the last scene with Arya and Syrio: the background music, the subtle expressions of both actors (and by Sean Bean at the end)...The book and its characters really came alive, but even more than that, it was a fantastic moment of TV. Loved it. 

For me it was kinda a meh episode, apart from Arya scenes at the end, lots of backstory but nothing much happening.  I can't wait for episode 6.

[Ironwood]

3rd part was another mixed bag of 'This is actually ok' to 'for fucks sake, how do you follow this shit, they're all taking about crap we have literally no fucking clue about yet, stop it it's unbelievably fucking exclusive you utter cunts'.

So, I'm not sold yet.

Dwarf remains the highlight.  Indeed, a show starring only the dwarf and the wee tomboy would suit me just fine.  He could call people bastards and slap them and she could grow a few more years.  It'd be awesome.

If anyone wants me, I'll be over here on the fence.

[Paelos]

Dwarf remains the highlight.  Indeed, a show starring only the dwarf and the wee tomboy would suit me just fine.  He could call people bastards and slap them and she could grow a few more years.  It'd be awesome.

If anyone wants me, I'll be over here on the fence.

People feel that way about the books too.

[murdoc]

The only disappointing part of the show continues to be the almost complete neglect of the dire wolves.  Jon specially should hardly ever be apart from his.

This. Very much this.

I thought the 3rd episode was by far the best, but it still has it's rather glaring faults.

Syrio was great, Littlefinger - not so much. His little aside to the audience when Ned went into the brothel to see Cat was PAINFULLY bad. The stuff on the wall is shaping up a bit better than I expected. I'm looking forward to that getting established and moving forward. The Dothraki stuff wasn't quite as cringe worthy, but i think the scene with Jorah helped that immensenly. I have a feeling that he'll save those parts of the story for me.

The passage of time is portrayed really poorly I think, which would confuse a lot of people who haven't read the books. The scale of the land is poorly portrayed and Kings Landing DID feel very small. They'd done an alright job with trying to show the vastness of the wall, but as someone else said - it still feels very much like sets and not locations.

[Draegan]

I think Littlefinger is fantastic.  Loved all the scenes with him in it.  Kinda matches perfectly with the books imo.  Scheming little bastard.

[Bzalthek]

I barely remember anything in the books, it's been so long since I've read them, but I don't see how the show is hard to follow. 

I'm a bit disappointed Ghost isn't in more scenes, I only saw him once in a panned out scene.

[Lucas]

Slight increase in the ratings:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/05/03/game-of-thrones-ratings-rise/

Steady ratings in the UK, with 510k viewers.

[Typhon]

Dwarf remains the highlight.  Indeed, a show starring only the dwarf and the wee tomboy would suit me just fine.  He could call people bastards and slap them and she could grow a few more years.  It'd be awesome.

If anyone wants me, I'll be over here on the fence.

People feel that way about the books too.

This is me.  The Others + The Game?  Why have both?  The Others are pretty awesome on their own, unfortunately they serve to show just how pointless the The Game is.  I like individual parts of the books, I'm put off by the totality.

[Threash]

As far as the "made up" scenes go, i thought most of them were well done and Arya "practicing" stabbing Joffrey was a great addition.  Cersei telling Joffrey when he was king the truth would be what he said it was perfectly illustrates her style of governing in future books and  Robert drinking and being a complete asshole was also fitting and true to his character.  I can't remember any other ones of the top of my head,  oh yeah Jorah talking to the random dothraki was quite good, i assume that guy is gonna end up being one of Danys bloodriders.

[AcidCat]

I think Littlefinger is fantastic.  Loved all the scenes with him in it.  Kinda matches perfectly with the books imo.  Scheming little bastard.

Yeah I like the casting choice too.  Really overall I've been impressed with most of the casting, especially of course Tyrion and Arya.

Third episode was kinda slow, but things should pick up. Though I still  just groan every time we switch to the Dany storyline. I hope it's kept to a minimum, that whole aspect just comes off as cheesy, except for Jorah, who really carries every scene he's in.

[Bzalthek]

[Ingmar]

EDIT: Removed my spoiler lest I inadvertently overspoil. Carry on!

[proudft]

[Lucas]

'til it gets removed for copyright reason...Syrio Forel and Arya training scene from episode 3  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Invy0tvOc

When her smile beams and she says "...a needle!" I can't help but smile as well, no matter how many times I already watched this :)

[Bzalthek]

[Lucas]

In other news:

http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/05/season-two-auditions-begin-today-in-london/

he auditions for season two of Game of Thrones are set to begin today in London. In fact, they are likely on-going right now. These auditions will only be the first round of many, many rounds of auditions, so don’t expect casting announcements any time soon.

If it is any thing like last year, the first round of auditions will only be in front of a casting associate or two. They will be recorded and sent to Nina Gold, David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and George R. R. Martin. From there, they will make a list of callbacks and those folks will come in and audition in front of Nina and usually either David or Dan. So we’re only at the start of a long process.

Also, for those who have hopes of making it onto the show, this post has some good information on where to send your headshot and CV. It also includes a rundown of the types of extras they need. I haven’t seen a call go out from Extras NI yet, the company that supplies the extras, so this info might just be a rehash of last season’s extras casting call. But I’m sure they will need more of the same.

[Threash]

'til it gets removed for copyright reason...Syrio Forel and Arya training scene from episode 3  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Invy0tvOc

When her smile beams and she says "...a needle!" I can't help but smile as well, no matter how many times I already watched this :)

I love Syrio's satisfied hah! when Arya catches the sword the second time.

[Paelos]

The whole exchange is adorable. I do like the actors they chose for the roles.

[Draegan]

I think Littlefinger is fantastic.  Loved all the scenes with him in it.  Kinda matches perfectly with the books imo.  Scheming little bastard.

Yeah I like the casting choice too.  Really overall I've been impressed with most of the casting, especially of course Tyrion and Arya.

Third episode was kinda slow, but things should pick up. Though I still  just groan every time we switch to the Dany storyline. I hope it's kept to a minimum, that whole aspect just comes off as cheesy, except for Jorah, who really carries every scene he's in.

I started rereading the book before the series came out.  I'm in book 2 now and the show's version of Arya is so much better than what I had in mind.  The rest of the characters are pretty much spot on.

[Khaldun]

The Arya and Tyrion scenes got my wife back into it. She really does not like the Dothraki plot even now that it's less rapey, and the Stark-Lannister rivalry stuff is still baffling to her. Littlefinger also confused her.

[Quinton]

I love Syrio's satisfied hah! when Arya catches the sword the second time.

Just so.

[lamaros]

The Arya and Tyrion scenes got my wife back into it. She really does not like the Dothraki plot even now that it's less rapey, and the Stark-Lannister rivalry stuff is still baffling to her. Littlefinger also confused her.

The Dany stuff really should have been introduced before the marraige part, with some of the negotiation between Viserys (spelling?) and the Magister providing some context for who they were and where they were and why. Being dropped in without that makes it more confusing. Plus it is just bad...

The same goes for the Stark and Lannister stuff. I don't know why the pilot was so scattered. Surely you're better taking it slow at the begining and establishing some ground for the characters, then cutting and speeding it up later rather than the reverse? The houses stories are histories and it is going to take a while to slowly build them up to the point where those who haven't followed the books can follow things.

It's no co-incidence that those with the smaller political back-stories are coming across better at this point, because they are easy to establish.