I just finished watching the premier. It has all the familiar characteristics of Game of Thrones and should appeal to the original fan base. A very solid beginning to the series IMO.
Will catch this later tonight or tomorrow. Question - is the material officially from the author or are the HBO writers making this up ?
Based on the Fire & Blood book by GRRM, released in 2018 much to the chargrin of those waiting for other things from him.
Watching it right now on HBO, looks good, but it’s gonna take some work on my part to get a handle on all the people.
Reading Fire & Blood helps but it isn't crucial. Emphasize solid start. As episode one got rolling, it became more and more compelling. Being a G0T fan, I am absolutely hooked.
my wife and i enjoyed this. I was expecting less...looking forward to the entire season...so far so good. : )
Martin is lucky he was still writing his own Westeros saga when the series was playing catch-up/pass-by...whatever this series does, it can't fail, the finale of GoT having sucked so much air out of the room. It still has that smell of agrarian life and dragon fire in its' atmosphere, with none of the stain of the previous series on it. I don't hold as much faith in Amazon's foray into Middle-Earth, with so many Tolkkies having amassed a legion of ammo against Rings Of Power before it even crawls out of the Shire. They've been waiting to dump on it sight unseen almost since before The Age Of Man began. And Tolkien isn't alive to defend himself.
Hm, after watching the first episode, I am wondering why I did like GoT in the first place? Can't say I enjoyed the unnecessary violence and gore in this episode or the actors performances.
Yeah, felt like a GOT try hard ticking off boxes. Excessive gore? Check. Nudity and simulated sex? Check. Convoluted plot? Check. Worth watching episode two? Nope. JohnK
We became invested in the characters of the Starks based on the writing and their portrayal by the actors. Don’t know if I see that here yet.
Understanding the geography and background of the families involved, while providing enough distance from the events of GOT, certainly made this an easy episode to enjoy. If the story arc is already hammered out and the directing can keep up, HBO may have a successful reboot of sorts. I’m in…for now.
The first episode was a total slog. Thus far I care about none of these characters. The Dragons are boring. The violence is rote. The acting is apparent. "The Rains of Castamere" can't fall soon enough on these dullards.
Haven't read this book yet, but really, really enjoyed this. Even the worst Doctor (Who) couldn't ruin it.
I watched it "live" here in the UK at 2/3am and LOVED it. It definitely benefited from a slower pace and it felt like the early series of GoT. Yes it ticked some boxes (boinking/gratuitous violence), but the first episode of GOT started with some multiple beheadings and incest, so I'd say it's in keeping. Might watch it again tonight to get my head around the characters and families. I'm out of GoT practice
Excellent. The first fifteen minutes I was not sure, but the pace and the plotting soon began. I thought the violence portion was more graphic that GoT, particularly the on foot sword and battle axe competition portion. It made no sense why they would be splitting open their heads just for show, however it certainly brought the pace up. The birth scene was very intense and the outcome brought out all the behind scene plotting and conniving that we will watch evolve over the season. For a first episode that introduces so many characters I felt it was done well. I can't wait for next Sunday and then ones to follow. Any show this complex usually takes at least three episodes for me to begin to understand enough for me to latch onto some characters that I will root for and to fully understand where the story came from and what the real conflicts are that will need resolving.
Liked Game Of Thrones (never read the books) but thought this was pretty dire - mainly the dialogue, even at its worst I don’t remember dialogue this bad in GoT. Everything so arch and stilted. Won’t be tuning in for ep2
I noticed the dialog at the start was unnatural but there was clearly a focus on enunciation and slowing down speech when an important person or place was mentioned so that we'd catch it. Even the explanatory titles were highlighted to show the important parts (173 years.........before Danerys). It did take me out of the immersion of the show early on, but I can see how it was a good idea, and this reduced as the show went on.
