THE PLOT THUS FAR
Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Game of Thrones” is about the struggle for power in the mythical Seven Kingdoms between two families, the evil Lannisters headed by the wife of the King, Queen Cersei and the more honorable Starks, who rule in the north of the realm, led by Ned Stark. There is a third dynasty as well, the Targaryen, related to the previous, murdered king, whose two survivors are the evil, bleach blond Viserys and his beautiful, ethereal sister Daenerys. They live in exile among the savage Dothraki, a race of brutal, nomadic horse riders, and Viserys hope that the marriage of Daenerys with their leader Khal Drogo will help him raise an army of Dothraki to invade the Seven Kingdoms, overthrow the king and put him in charge of the seven kingdoms.
The series has an uncanny ability to unbalance the audience, whether with the shocking death of Sansa’s dire-wolf in the second episode or the more subtle scene in which a troubled Ned watched as his youngest daughter learned sword fighting techniques. It wasn’t a typical episode cliffhanger, but it set the tone for the rest of the series all the same. Perhaps subconsciously, it prepared us for the inevitable: as written in the books, Ned Stark was beheaded at the end of the penultimate episode of the season, “Baelor.” Fan reaction was sharply divided, as anticipated, a fact that only lends credence to the emotional power of the series. The show’s inability – or refusal – to compromise with what viewers wanted as opposed to what the story demanded made it difficult to watch at times, but emotionally rewarding in the end.
The show aptly captures the essence of each of these three story lines, tying them together cleverly so that the audience sees how each of these three threads are being woven into one overarching plot. Given that even 10 hours worth of material is not nearly enough to tell the full story in the book version of Game of Thrones, the writers of the show should be applauded for brilliantly transferring to the small screen all of the foreshadowing, character motivations and personalities, cultures, drama, politics, and emotion of the book.
The acting is top notch. Nearly every actor brilliantly portrays their characters just as they are portrayed in the books. It is worth watching these episodes over and over again just to see their performances. Even the children actors do a fantastic job. The sets and costume designs are also very well done – I wonder if there was any collaboration with those who worked on The Tudors, a somewhat similar series on HBO that reminds me of this show in terms of set and costume designs. Everything from the casting to the dialogue and non-verbal imagery to the set designs are spot-on to how Martin described each environment in his book. Sean Bean, Lena Headyey, Emilia Clarke, and Peter Dinklage, among the other fine actors, do a superb job of making their characters their own, especially Dinklage’s portrayal of Tyrion. The environments capture the air of tense conflict as the story unfolds in each episode, and the dialogue, although not always delivered well with some of the characters, was refreshing to hear overall. It was nice to see each actor take their respective roles very seriously.
The DVD comes with a making-of featurette, commentaries, featurettes and more. The A/V Quality is pretty solid for standard definition, but it pales when compared to the HBO HD broadcast. We only get commentaries on seven episodes, but it helps to flesh out where David Benioff and the team wanted to take Martin’s vision. Check out the Complete Guide to Westeros to help flesh out a lot of the show’s convoluted points for the non-fantasy followers. Hell, crack this set open up and share it with everyone that hates fantasy in your life. It took no less than fifty AV readers to convince me to even check this show out. I’m so glad that I did, as this is easily one of the greatest HBO series ever. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: 03/06/2012
