Game of Thrones: Review of Episodes 1-4

We are now through the first four episodes of Game of Thrones season one, with only six more to go before the season finale.  As a huge fan of the novels, I followed the production of this show from early on, gobbling up every bit of news and every photo released up until the big premiere.  So far I’m extremely happy with the show with only a few critiques.

Casting

The casting on this show has been nothing short of brilliant.  I really hope that Casting Director Nina Gold wins whatever accolades she is eligible for.  There really isn’t one actor that I can say I’m disappointed in.  Trying to narrow down my favorite actors to just a few is really tough.

Some of the actors that stand out most are the child actors.  Casting kids can be tough – we’ve all seen some bad overacting and terrible facial expressions from child actors.  So far I haven’t seen one bit of this from the lead children.  In fact, they are among the most convincing actors on the show.  The four lead child actors are Maisie Williams as Arya Stark (this girl is fantastic), Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark (great gravity in and handling of some tough scenes), Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, and Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon.  All four of these parts were cast with actors that both look and convincingly act their characters.

Among the adults, there are far too many great performances to mention.  If I had to narrow it down to the main performances based on their work and screen time in episodes 1-4, I would have to go with Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Sean Bean as Eddard Stark (he just looks the part so well), Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark, Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon, Lena Heady as Cersei Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister (he does the arrogant looks perfectly), Kit Harrington as Jon Snow, Richard Madden as Robb Stark (although we haven’t seen much of him yet), and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen.  I was also absolutely delighted with Miltos Yerolemou’s performance as Syrio Forel, even though we only saw him for one scene.

Costumes

The costumes have been quite impressive, especially considering this is a television budget (albeit a large one) and not a major feature film.  The armor and weaponry look authentic and movie-quality.  I really like how they tailored the styles to the different locales in the story, with each region having their own styles based upon climate, society, and culture.

My only complaint here is regarding Cersei and the royal family.  Their wardrobe as described in the book was much more ornate than we see in the show.  Cersei’s gowns in the books were described as having “cloth-of-gold” slashed through them, and the cut seemed to be more risqué than on the show.  By extension, I also thought that Princess Myrcella’s costumes on the show seem a bit shabby as well.  She doesn’t appear to be dressed any fancier than the Stark girls, which she obviously should be.  I do realize that the designers were going for a Mediterranean look for the people of King’s Landing, but I would have liked to see the lavishness of the book’s descriptions incorporated a bit more.

Set Design

The set design and scenery of the show is also quite brilliant.  Again, I’m very impressed with what they accomplished with a television budget.  You really get the feeling that these are real locations.

Castle Black especially stands out to me, as it really does look as bleak, dirty, and dismal as it should.  The shots of the Wall are exactly how I had pictured it when reading the books.

Winterfell itself had the appropriate look of a castle for a lord that is more practical than lavish.  The godswood is beautiful – they did a fantastic job of making the heart tree as described in the book.  The scenes of the countryside outside Winterfell puzzled me a little, as I had envisioned more forest than open land, but that could just be my own interpretation.

King’s Landing, and the Throne Room in particular, are a good interpretation of the books as well.  You get the sense of a large city with distinct districts.  The Red Keep, especially the scene inside Cersei’s chambers, gives the correct impression of wealth and power in comparison to the alleys and brothels we see in other scenes.  I’m looking forward to seeing more locations within the city in future episodes.

The Dothraki Sea looks exactly as I pictured as well, although I imagine finding a tall grassland for filming was rather easy since nature did all the work.

Pacing

The common complaint I have been reading online is the pacing of episodes 3 and 4.  They were obviously slower episodes with less action and more dialogue.  Those who have not read the books may not realize the need for all of this dialogue, but without venturing into spoiler territory, I will say that the information presented in this dialogue is important.  This is a very complex story with a LOT of characters, back story, and relationships.  HBO has some very good reference material on their website to assist with understanding this.  I will admit to feeling some of these dialogue-heavy scenes felt a bit long to me though.  A good example is the scene in episode 3 where King Robert is in his chambers chatting about “first kills” with Tywin, Jaime, and Lancel Lannister.  I realize the scene was intended to introduce Tywin and Lancel and establish the family relationship, but it felt long-winded to me.  The scene of Viserys in the bathtub in the most recent episode felt the same.

I have been pleasantly surprised at the “added” scenes that were not in the book.  I’m not one who is usually a fan of added scenes.  My preference in adapting novels to screen is that the story remains rigid to the book.  However, the scenes added in this show have all served the purpose of providing that all-important back story and character development via dialogue.  The writers obviously could not include all of the back story from the novels any other way (unless they choose to include flashback sequences at some point).  I’ve been blown away by how neatly this has been done in many scenes.

Do I Recommend?

Absolutely!  I don’t think that fans of the books will be disappointed by this adaptation, and I think newbies will be able to understand the story as well.  I do highly recommend reading the books though.  Even those who are not typically fans of the Fantasy genre could enjoy these books, since the Fantasy elements are very secondary to the characters.  This is a prime example of a character-driven story.  I am eagerly awaiting episodes 5-10 and the release of book 5, A Dance With Dragons, on July 12.