HBO adaptation of Game of Thrones - will this be just for nerds? (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Who is Theon I have read book 1 and don't even know who he is

He's Ed Starks ward from an island that rebelled against the king, so he's held as hostage by the Ed Stark under the pretense of being a "ward".

I really wasn't taken with the sex/nudity aspects of the pilot, but there's definitely some promise here. (I'm not familiar with the books at all.)

"it seems as if they're gonna write Theon out of the story completely" -- if they do this i will credit them with a certain amount of nous, i guess? there's like two or three things that you can see would be obvious candidates for streamlining the narrative, and that seems like one of them

likewise glad that it's less clear what bran sees -- that said, i kind of think that even knowing who pushes him out of the window is cack-handed plotting: i mean, it makes the whole arc of the book fairly transparent once you learn (isolated datum which will probably be somewhere in the first six episodes)

re: the slate review - http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/04/16/game_of_thrones_review_of_reviewers - someone on tumblr posted a screengrab of that where every single ad on slate was for this show. er

i kind of want to watch the first episode or so of this, i feel like the combination of it being about elves and shit + apparent shitheap of gratuitous nudity = it will be a hard sell for the other half, i think

also i only want to watch it so i can complain about it on the internet? so i shouldn't bother, probably

I really wasn't taken with the sex/nudity aspects

phrases you rarely see

from that salon article "Patterson is one of the sharpest, funniest TV reviewers out there"

oh plz.

Hating Danaerys as she is cast. That part needs a true Scandanavian ice queen with wisp-fine white-blonde hair and hauteur she can wrap around herself like a cloak to shut out her inside from the outside. Not a cheap bottle job with brown eyebrows and too much blusher.

Everything else otm^10.

wife and i thought the pilot was great btw and we're totally onboard for the time being. so is this supposed to only be six episodes as the opening season (like walking dead) or is it just that reviewers have only seen the first six episode and we're going to have a more 13 episode season. bc it seems that with the cast of characters they've got, and the amount of written content Martin has produced, they could easily write episode after episode of compelling material.

wikipedia says 10 eps

I believe the first season is going to be ten episodes.

Ian! We'll review the first ep next week -- maybe we need to ALWAYS re-watch the prev ep before the new one is on? Makes a nice evening with good company even a bit longer.

Plus I want to AWWWWW at the WOLF PUPPIES again.

haven't watched this yet, hope to tonight

did ppl dig it?

Loved. Loved.

i kind of want to watch the first episode or so of this, i feel like the combination of it being about elves and shit + apparent shitheap of gratuitous nudity = it will be a hard sell for the other half, i think

I watched this while my wife futzed around with her phone, her comments were something along the line of "every time I look up there are boobs wtf"

thought the eps was disappointing overall. the opening sequence was *really* well done, pretty much the main reason I tuned in after seeing the preview. set design + cinematography + acting were top notch but I don't get all the hurrahs for the script. characters were weakly written. and the danerys + drago sequences came off like some harlequin skinemax weaksauce.

haven't read the books but it seemed like this would only appeal to someone who loved them?

It's not about elves and shit.

wolves and shit

laurel i've read them, i'm just saying that the look they've gone for with this pretty broadly telegraphs ELVES AND SHIT. 'dragons and shit' would have accomplished the same admittedly

And had the advantage of being accurate.

Waiting for Carcetti to arrive

haven't read the books but it seemed like this would only appeal to someone who loved them?

i hated what i read. the show has the advantage of not being written in terrible fantasy trope language. (gritty fantasy or not.)

and some of the cgi is so impressive that it's more like LOTR where you don't care that it's a theme you've seen a dozen times. like the guard riding out past that huge wall was OMG impressive.

not being written in terrible fantasy trope language.

Man, if you think GRRM is "terrible fantasy trope language", you better just stay away from the genre completely, because, imho, he's one of the least worrisome offenders for this type of thing.

I agree with Mordy.

I like fantasy more on screen than on the page, generally.

this show seems ok

I have never read the books and haven't read much fantasy, but I enjoyed this. Some problems that I'll write off as pilot-issues but I'm looking forward to the rest. We'll know in the next 3 or 4 episodes just how much being a fan of the book matters.

also theon never does anything interesting

martin's not a great stylist, but i stopped noticing/caring about 1/3 of the way into GoT - that's not really why you read this stuff anyway

i had a hard time getting into Book 1 but was looking forward to this. It's great so far but have to agree with this:

"and the danerys + drago sequences came off like some harlequin skinemax weaksauce"

also, drago wedding fight scene was some Star Trek : TOS lolz but with tits and rape.

the title/credits sequence with the little clockwork gameboard showing all the locales is v. awesome imo. and supposedly it changes from episode to episode depending on where stuff's happening

really? thats a nice touch!

not sure if thats true, i just remember reading it somewhere

i hope it's true...we'll have to check the next set of credits to see

martin's not a great stylist, but i stopped noticing/caring about 1/3 of the way into GoT - that's not really why you read this stuff anyway

― cum dude (Princess TamTam), Monday, April 18, 2011 11:51 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^word up

This is why I don't read much fantasy lit. Wish I could get past it but I can't.

martin's prose is functional but he certainly does like to tell you what color people's doublets are.

he likes to say "nearly a man grown"

at least westeros' weird seasons thing invalidates the "she had seen barely thirteen summers" sort of thing because you just know he'd be dipping in that well like once per page

dude is a perv tbh

strikethrough, pimp, http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JjTZojojDPI/SxPR-ffvWkI/AAAAAAAAAok/bzrrZEsb1T4/s1600/0007stfc.jpg &c &c

I was surprised to learn that he uses the word "fuck" in the books.

The robe completes the outfit. and he kind of looks like the playing robert baratheon

for anyone who's watching this without reading the books and wants to get all the characters/houses/history straight, HBO has a great little viewers' guide that doesn't appear to spoil anything that's not pre-episode-1 backstory:
http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/#!/guide/houses/

Video podcast with cast interviews and stuff: http://skyatlantic.sky.com/game-of-thrones/thronecast

this was terrible. so much hair gel. so many stupid accents. and the horselord wedding reception.

i mean http://mimg.ugo.com/201103/9/8/6/183689/cuts/gameofthrones-targaryen01-screencap-11_288x288.jpg

rather http://mimg.ugo.com/201103/9/8/6/183689/cuts/gameofthrones-targaryen01-screencap-11_288x288.jpg

It was distracting how white Drogo's teeth were.

Nah, the third book goes into great detail re: Dothraki dental plan.

i just watched the 25 minute making of that's on the HBO site (still having not seen the first ep) and I gotta say the guy who plays Drogo seems like a bro in all senses of the word.

dude is a klingon