I blogged several years ago about my dream casting for the HBO series, knowing full well that they’d never cast the people I wanted because a) they’re mostly movie stars they can’t afford, and b) HBO doesn’t care what I think. At least not when it comes to casting.
Those blog posts ended up getting more comments than any other blogs I’ve written. (Apparently the online community cares more about Game of Thrones than Survivor.) While I really enjoyed creating my own casting lists, one of the main reasons I did it was because I wanted to write my own dream scenario down before HBO went and ruined it.
I had low expectations going into the TV series of my favorite book series. There are only very rare situations where a movie/show ever did a book justice. I thought that I’d watch the TV series but only out of loyalty to the books, not because I would really like the show itself. Turns out I’m dead wrong.
I love the show Game of Thrones and I am thrilled that they’ve already signed on for a second season. Ben and I went on a binge this weekend – we were 5 episodes behind, so I had 5 hours of bliss to catch up on. The show takes on a huge challenge of tackling a book that has a massive cast of characters, and somehow successfully integrates all of their stories into one cohesive storyline. I didn’t think this was possible, which was one of my main doubts about the show.
Happily, the author George RR Martin worked for some years in the script-writing industry, and appears to have written the books in a way that can easily be translated onto the small screen. For that, and for completing the 5th book A Dance with Dragons, I thank you George!
If you haven’t seen the show yet, I definitely recommend it! It’s got all the best things: great characters, good plot, plenty of violence, sex, cussing, etc. I’m especially pleased with the actors they cast as Dany & Arya – they, Jon Snow, and Tyrion are my favorite characters in the books, and the actresses are doing a wonderful job! I like the actors who play Jon Snow & Tyrion as well, but have minor gripes about them. I hate Jon’s hair – I think it makes him look like a tool – and I don’t like Peter Dinklage’s choice of inflection when he speaks. In my mind Tyrion has always been smugger in his tone of voice and Peter’s playing it too proper. However, he’s growing on me pretty quickly.
My other huge compliment to the show is their choice of giving the whores in the series a voice. There are a lot of men who sleep with prostitutes in the series, and the writers decided to give these women an intelligent voice & opinion. These “lowborn” women end up having some of the best dialogue in the show! I love watching those scenes & I applaud the writers for choosing to take this convention and run with it.
Game of Thrones airs on Sundays on HBO. You don’t need to have read the books to follow it – the show carries all the best stories & stays true to the tenor and voice of the books.
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3 comments:
I tend to concur with just about everything you've noted here. The cast is surprisingly strong. The actor who plays Jon Snow, Kit Harrington, has been particularly impressive. He looks like a star in the making. I just hope he doesn't get so big they can't keep him around for the full seven seasons.
I've also really enjoyed Petyr Baelish's character. For some reason Littlefinger is more accessible on the big screen, though he looks exactly as I imagined.
I also appreciate the patient, long scenes. It's rare to see slow, unedited conversation in television today. I was wondering how they were going to detail the characters; the prolonged scenes have been an effective method thus far.
It's easy to take Sean Bean for granted but he's been rock-solid as well.
Agreed - Sean Bean is a star for a reason. I also forgot to mention that I ADORE the interactions that Robert & Cersei have together. They really have that poorly concealed hatred for each other thing down pat. They've been stuck together for so long that really know how best to piss the other one off. The actors pull it off magnificently.
The actor who plays Robert has exceeded my expectations.
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