Decided to start Game of Thrones and watched the first two episodes of the series last night. Holy shit did it suck (other than the plethora of naked boobies). Everyone seems to be going insane over this show. I'm going to assume it gets better?
Personally I don't rate it. I've made it to the first couple of episodes of the second season and I'm pretty bored. But then I thought Breaking Bad was overrated as well.
I quit watching out of lack of interest. Almost everyone on the show is a truly loathsome individual, and only really one or two of the characters interest me, mainly Tyrion.
Have you seen the South Park episode where Butters wanders around talking about "wieners" in Game of Thrones? Its hysterical. I've seen the first episode and the whole time I kept thinking, "Somebody is just slavishly following the screenwriting 101 manual a little too closely." You'd see something, and you'd know that it'd be important to the story because the camera would just zoom in and lock on it, even though it was about the most uninteresting thing imaginable in the scene. If you don't mind spoilers, there's any number of podcasts out there which talk about the show, listening to one of them might convince you to change your mind. I listen to a podcast which occasionally discusses GoT, and nothing they've said has inspired me to want to go and watch the series.
If you're not into what is essentially political intrigue disguised as "swords & sorcery", and if you're not into excellent acting, and if you're not into detailed "world-building", and if you're not into impressive set design, cinematography, and costume design... then this show may not be for you.
Yes, I saw that trilogy from South Park a while back and now it makes a little more sense... particularly the music!
I think we finally found out what happened to Uncle Albert. We Are Borg killed him, ate him, and consumed his soul. Next he'll be telling us he hates the idea of direct deposit.
Ok, to answer the actual question: The scenes in King's Landing are generally best, and we get a lot more of them eventually. And the plotting gets better in seasons 3 and especially 4. But this show is hard work. I got to season 3 only because my gf had read the books and loved the show and could explain what the hell was going on. If you're not intrigued and don't have someone to pull you through, you might be better off with some shows that try harder to entertain or to fascinate rather than to impress their viewers.
CD: Naw, everyone is a complex character with both good and bad parts to them. OP: Also, yes, the series is good, becomes great, and you're a terrible, terrible person who probably smells bad and definitely has bad taste if you don't agree.
I think there are just large sections of the books which are difficult to adapt into a scene play. The large internal thought monologues of the various viewpoint characters for example.
You know, people keep saying this, but nobody forced them to do a TV show adapted from these books. Pointing out that there is a good reason for the show's weaknesses only calls into question the decision to make it, it doesn't make it any stronger.
Having both read the books and watched the series in its entirety, I'll say the show is better. Just slightly, but better. The characters aren't quite black & white (i.e. book Cersie has NO redeeming traits, whereas show Cersie is occasionally sympathetic).
April 15th is when the new season starts but I kind of wonder what they'll do since they said they're cutting out the Iron Isles stuff and the Bran storyline is now caught up with what is published. Sure, there is still material to workwith but not a whole lot of character arch resolutions if you know what I mean.
In the book Cersei loves her children. That is her one redeeming trait but also the motivation for much of her bad actions. I've also read the books and watched all the episodes but I have to say I like the books better because there is a lot of extra detail and subplots there which both flesh out the characters/world and occasionally that is how GRRM sneaks in hints about the future. When you go to the Westeros web forums you end up finding out just how much stufff there is which people miss in the first reading but there is a ton of stuff for all manner of theories.
From what I've read, season five will be most, if not all, of books 4 & 5, cutting out the non-essentials like the iron island stuff.
Okay, so I'm pretty much done season one and I can confirm that it does, in fact, get much better! Really liking it now. But those first few episodes were just painful. I guess many other popular television series also had rough starts.
The intrigue is becoming quite interesting and I like the fact that the "good guys" don't always win. The show keeps you guessing. I do find it somewhat difficult to follow all the different kingdoms, histories and characters. Thankfully, I'm watching it back-to-back on Blu-ray and the discs contain a lot of info to help you along. I think if I were just watching it week-to-week on HBO I may have given up. (I've also never read the books.)
Proof positive you... 1) Are a troll 2) Have zero taste. EDIT: Read the rest of the thread....another one assimilated.
Have the "good guys" won...like EVER in this show? BTW....main takeaway from GoT: Don't let George R.R. Martin plan your wedding.
I eventually got a bit tired and stopped watching. There are some good episodes/scenes, but there are also lots of characters that it's hard to keep track of and lots of characters who do very little except walk around talking shit. I might dip back in in the future.
I've only watched through Season 2, but I've enjoyed the show immensely. It is more talky than you would expect for the genre, but the situations and characters are interesting. Just don't get too attached to anybody.