Game of Thrones 1x01 - Winter Is Coming

Tyrion: Let me give you some advice bastard. Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.
Jon: What the hell do you know about being a bastard?
Tyrion: All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes.

In case you all didn't know, I want to get better at writing about TV. I like TV, and I like talking about TV with people. So I'm going to try to make a weekly schedule for myself on this blog to write about different TV things, one of which will be an episode-by-episode look at "Game of Thrones." Because practice makes perfect, right?

I'm going to handle these reviews in the same way my TV critic hero (yes these sorts of things exist in my brain), Alan Sepinwall, does. Overall thoughts of the episode followed by general bullet-point items at the end. Spoilers ahead for all of those who have yet to watch the episode (no worries to those who haven't read the books - I'll keep the review clean!), and let's begin, shall we? 

Well, that was interesting.

In terms of setting the mood for the series as a whole, I'm not sure how good of an impression this first episode made. Don't get me wrong, there were some amazing bits. To be fair, there were mostly amazing bits. Like the fact that any cheese-factor I was worried about in terms of scenery was totally unfounded. Winterfell looks beautiful and ancient and a bit sad, just as it should have, and the brief glimpse we got of King’s Landing is as grandiose as I had hoped it would look. And the casting! I read in an interview that there were only two parts that have essentially been cast since the conception of the show – Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister (for obvious reasons, but we’ll get to more on him in a bit) and Sean Bean as Eddard Stark. Everyone else was a casting free for all, the most terrifying roles of all to cast being, of course, the kids.

Imagine my surprise when everyone was good. Not just good, but pretty damn good. Given that many actors had all of three lines throughout the episode, they still were able to convey a sense of their characters if not their essences (see what I did there?), which is no mean feat. Which comes around to the one bit of the episode that I didn't love as much as I wish I did. Everything was too damn brief, scattered, and glancing. From the characters to the settings and the storyline, we got too little of everything to really connect to anything happening in front of us.

To be fair, the same could be said of many other pilots, particularly HBO pilots with huge casts and complicated scenarios to learn, like "The Wire," "Deadwood," and "Boardwalk Empire." The major difference being that at least in those shows we have a world (or even something approaching a mythology, for the likes of "Deadwood" and "Boardwalk Empire") that is familiar. As is, I think it's a big leap of faith from the show runners (Benioff and Weiss) to assume investment from viewers after what has been little more than a glorified teaser to the story they have to offer us.

But, damn them, the stupid teaser has worked anyway. And, funnily enough, for the same reasons I ended up slugging through the first portion of Martin's book when I was a wee thing: Dany and Tyrion.

As of now, Dany (whose complete name I will never attempt to pronounce, much less spell) herself has little to do with why I'm so intrigued. So far, she's been offered up as a child-bride to a culture of savages, and as such all Emilia Clarke has had to do is cry, seem frightened-like, and look good naked. It's not a ton to do with her first episode, but she does it well, and I've heard nothing but praise for the work ahead of her (which will be significant). Yet for all of  her relative passivity, Dany and Viserys' story is by far the most action-packed (good ol' Dothraki weddings and their murders!) in the first hour, Dany's situation being the most distressing, and the most compelling. Even more than Bran's state after being shoved off of the abandoned tower, I want to know how Dany's doing in Dothraki society, I want to know if Visery is going to get his army, and, well. I want things to work out for the poor girl, you know? That was not the nice wedding night I would have hoped for a woman in her position, and that concern and tension is enough to carry me through to the next episode I type as if I wasn't planning on watching the entire season out of pure geeky devotion. Thank goodness, because otherwise the most exciting thing that happened up until the conclusion of the episode was seeing a wolf puppy become a slightly larger wolf pup. Freaking awesome, but not much in terms of drama to sink your teeth into.

Tyrion, on the other hand, has had absolutely nothing of significance to do. He's whored a bit, gotten drunk, and been sarcastic. But dammit, Peter Dinklage has done such a good job of depicting the whoring, drunkenness, and wit that I must see more of it. It's a lucky thing too, because there really is no one else to play the role of Tyrion but Dinklage, and I was terrified that he wouldn't be able to take my favorite character from the books and give him life. Happily, I was being idiotic. Dinklage has got the chops to make Tyrion as smart, funny, and vicious as he needs to be. And as entertaining. Even the brotherly interaction between Tyrion and Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - another name I can't pronounce much less spell, so this actor will never be referred to again) was hilarious and (dare I say it?) charming, and it didn't have any reason to be except for two charming actors with good chemistry doing their thing. Much like I thought as I was beginning the books, I would actually be totally fine with just following Tyrion around and forgetting about everyone else in the story at this moment, before he's even had much to do. I'm hopeful that the show will impress me much as the books did - there's more interest to be had from these other characters than their initial introductions give them credit for.

In short, I think the pilot episode of "Game of Thrones" was slow, unwieldy, and that it could have done with a more focused, centered storyline than what we were ultimately given. However, I also think that a) this is a pilot and b) those were essentially the same things I thought after I was finished watching the pilot episode of "The Wire." And I was as wrong as humanly possible about that pilot too. From here, I look for this show to pick of the pace, up the intrigue, and give some of its excellent actors more to do. Sean Bean looks too severe already, and he hasn't had all that much to be distressed about yet. Thank God Mark Addy's there to make me giggle through the taciturn stoicism. (I mock because I love.)

Other thoughts...

• "Game of Thrones" has already been renewed for a second season! Huzzah!
•  The opening sequence is amazing. Apparently, it will change each episode depending upon where in Westeros we end up, meaning that we'll be getting different toy-castles built for us every week. AWESOME.
•  Ayra Stark is a fan favorite, and Maisie Williams has been hailed as one of the best child casting gems to come about in ages. I can't wait to see why.
• I'm curious as to how everyone else whose watched the show is doing in terms of keeping up with the characters. Yes, there's the history and the mythology that's complicated, but those are always less important than learning who people are and how they relate to each other in the story. For me, it's obviously easy since I'm such a nerd, but I'm wondering if people will have the same patience with "Game of Thrones" as with many had with "The Wire" and taking the time to memorize all of the players... 
• As noted in Alan Sepinwall's review, there's a ton of exposition in this first episode. If it becomes a trend, I might comment upon it and its effectiveness, but as of now, I'm not having as big of a problem with it as he is. Don't get me wrong, I'd love some flash-back like re-enactments, but that doesn't necessarily hold true to the books. Which, speaking of...
• This episode was remarkably like its source material, up to and including much of the dialogue. As time goes on, this could be a brilliant move or a terrible one. Let's see!

This is the part in the blog where Sepinwall usually asks what everyone else thought. That seems a bit pushy though, especially since I suspect that I'm the only person I know watching this show. (Because the rest of you obviously aren't cool enough/don't have enough money to get HBO.) In any case, I hope to hear what you all think!