Game of Thrones: Premiere

Adapting any book to television or film is a difficult affair, guaranteed never to match the source material one hundred percent. At the best, one can hope that the visual medium stays true to the written word. Occasionally, you get that sort of alchemy where everyone is passionate about the work and does their utmost to capture it on film. That’s what came of The Lord of the Rings. In that regard, Game of Thrones is no different.

I’ve seen a few reviews that question the display of sex and violence and the role of women in Westeros. They’re valid questions. None of that material was added to the screenplay — it plays out in the same manner as in the novel. Some of it’s repulsive, yes, but when compared to our own past, it bears true to form. Having read the novels, I can only tell viewers who are new to this that it gets better for some of the women in this show, but with this one very important caveat: not one character is safe.

The premiere episode covers the first hundred pages of the novel of the same name. It may come across as a slow start but it fits, given the book weighs in at eight hundred pages. It’s dense, with a massive ensemble of characters, and we’re introduced to many of them as effectively as possible. That’s hard to do in sixty minutes.

Visually, the show is spot on. Winterfell looks exactly as I envisioned it — a rustic border keep lacking any grandeur. The same goes for the Starks. I was surprised, and not in a negative way, how Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairly) looked, especially when sitting next to Cersei Lannister (Lena Hedley). It’s an excellent contrast between the two households, and I have no quibbles with the casting. I would argue that Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) acting came across as a little wooden, but she has such little screen time here that I can admit that it may just be me. Ensemble casts are difficult, and Thrones is a complex story with no black and white situations.

Storywise, the plot is established quickly. King Barethon (Mark Addy) wants Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) to take the role of the Hand of the King. Catelyn gets word that the former Hand was murdered by the Lannisters. Across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys (Harry Lloyd) plots to take back the throne that Barethon usurped from his father, marrying his sister Daenerys(Emilia Clarke) to Khal Drogo(Jason Momoa), a Dothraki warlord (think Mongols, that’s the closest cultural analogue). That is a brief summary of the screenplay, which is a condensed version of the prose. A great deal more goes on in the book.

I can’t find any major faults with this one episode. The acting was top notch, save my one mention, the technicals aspects were spot on. As for being true to the story, they nailed that. Characterization was brief, yes, but given that we’re dealing with over a dozen major personalities, brevity is a necessary evil. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is one person to watch for – in the short time he spent on the screen I could tell they got him right. Same with Daenerys — she will grow into a strong character, just give it time. I was expecting Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann) aka “The Hound” to bear more horrific scars, but it doesn’t diminish the mean edge the character appears to hold under the surface.

The show missed one key detail in the last scene with Daenerys and Drogo, but it would have been difficult to pull off. In the book, there’s a greater degree of intimacy, and despite the language barrier Daenerys realizes she has nothing to fear from Drogo. It’s important because it’s a seed of courage that grows over the course of the series, and the character changes greatly from it. However, I think to play that out, we would have needed to see more of Viserys as well, and that would have been impossible to do without cutting other scenes short.

This is a series worth seeing, despite concerns you might have with some of the content. It can be disturbing, yes, but it’s still excellent television.

Mike Brendan is a proud graduate of the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. When not writing SF/F/H to fund his conquest of the universe, he’s busy negotiating terms of surrender to his kitten, Zaphod.

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