Game of Thrones premiere thoughts
We watched last night, and I was expecting to love it but never to see past the first ep because was expecting Sasha to hate it.
Okay, general impressions from each of us before I hit the spoiler tag for specifics:
Me: At least on my first viewing, I was kinda disappointed in the pilot as far as pacing and character nuance and directorial choices. Part of the pacing and character aspects were no one's fault--there was simply too much to set up from too many angles to do justice to everything in one hour. Am going to watch it again; possibly I was being hypercritical due to stratospheric expectations and such. That said, the Westeros part of the story worked for me as an intro, but I was very worried about the reaction of people who hadn't read the books.
OTOH, the Dothraki/Dany storyline -- here we get into directorial choices, and I can only say WTF? Why why why? To a couple of things. (more details below the cut) . (there were also Westeros-centered choices that I didn't care for, but those were minor quibbles; some of the Dothraki and Dany scenes were flat out *bad*)
Sasha: She liked it a lot, much better than I did. She found it exciting and engaging and thought the pacing was fine. Couldn't rmember the last time she had to absorb so many characters so quickly, but the brief bits of body language and dialogue did an excellent job of conveying what it should have (at least in the Westeros section). All the stuff I was worried about not coming through for viewers who hadn't read the books? She got it.. MOST of it. Except she had no idea Rickon existed until I asked her afterward if she had noticed a Stark child smaller than Bran, and couldn't really tell Robb and Theon apart (note: neither could I, except for the direwolf scene, and that was only by actions), and had no idea that there was a non-Eddard descendant amongst them. And no idea about the symbolism of the stag and direwolf.
The parts I had vaguely warned her about were much less bad than I had warned her to expect (I'd read Melissa's reaction at Shakesville and figured best to prepare for the worst, had feared an extended graphic rape scene), tho she also found the Dany/Dothraki arc the weakest and most problematic.
Anyway, I've gone from thinking 3:1 against her making it through the first season to 51/49 in favor of her continuing to like it. Which is tres good for me. And a very good sign for the quality of the overall production.
Both of us: Thought the acting, casting, etc were great, at least insofar as the Westeros arc. Sasha was especially a fan of Lena Heady as Cersei.
We are going to watch again tonight, and I am almost more excited about the rewatch than the first viewing (in part, prolly cause I was sick last night, and also cause now I know I get to keep watching, yay!)
:
Starting with what we didn't like:
The wedding feast was cringe-inducing. That was going to be difficult to pull off to begin with, but really, cringe inducing. There was no consistent ethnicity to the Dothraki, but as Sasha said, it certainly had a really unpleasant "Look at the savage darkies" vibe. And the dancing was WTF?
Drogo went from a nuanced charismatic leader in the books to a wackily grinning barbarian caricature (okay, this was more my complainint, since Sasha didn't know what he was like in the books, but the caracature bit she remarked upon).
Hopefully these things will be fixed in upcoming episodes.
What cannot be fixed was changing the marriage consummation from consensual and even tender, the first bit of real kindness anyone had ever shown Dany (which is sort of important for the relationship later) to a rape. Um. I don't really know what to say about this. Unless they are going to significantly rewrite the rest of this arc, it was a pure and simple stupid change, made for reasons I can't fathom. (we're supposed to think it's unrealistic for the "primitive barbarians" to comprehend kindness and affection and such? fuck that)
The other huge flaw: Dany. After the ep was over, Sasha asked if Dany was supposed to be drugged or "an imbecile." I assumed the actress was playing the part as "terrified" and explained why. She said NONE of that backstory came across very well, and while she was sympathetic to being terrified about an arranged marriage to a complete stranger, and a big scary looking guy to boot, that didn't explain the constant vacant facial expression or the extreme deference to Viserys. I'm hoping this was a horrible directing choice and not bad acting, since the director will be more or less forced by the storyline to change things up pronto. She also thought the women characters in general came across as overly passive, but I assured her this will change.
She also brought up a question I couldn't answer- how did Will get South of the Wall?
Anyway, despite all those complaints,Sasha mostly thought it was wonderful, and I thought it was adequate, and got all the elements in place for better things to come in future eps. Might post an update after rewatching later tonight.
Okay, general impressions from each of us before I hit the spoiler tag for specifics:
Me: At least on my first viewing, I was kinda disappointed in the pilot as far as pacing and character nuance and directorial choices. Part of the pacing and character aspects were no one's fault--there was simply too much to set up from too many angles to do justice to everything in one hour. Am going to watch it again; possibly I was being hypercritical due to stratospheric expectations and such. That said, the Westeros part of the story worked for me as an intro, but I was very worried about the reaction of people who hadn't read the books.
OTOH, the Dothraki/Dany storyline -- here we get into directorial choices, and I can only say WTF? Why why why? To a couple of things. (more details below the cut) . (there were also Westeros-centered choices that I didn't care for, but those were minor quibbles; some of the Dothraki and Dany scenes were flat out *bad*)
Sasha: She liked it a lot, much better than I did. She found it exciting and engaging and thought the pacing was fine. Couldn't rmember the last time she had to absorb so many characters so quickly, but the brief bits of body language and dialogue did an excellent job of conveying what it should have (at least in the Westeros section). All the stuff I was worried about not coming through for viewers who hadn't read the books? She got it.. MOST of it. Except she had no idea Rickon existed until I asked her afterward if she had noticed a Stark child smaller than Bran, and couldn't really tell Robb and Theon apart (note: neither could I, except for the direwolf scene, and that was only by actions), and had no idea that there was a non-Eddard descendant amongst them. And no idea about the symbolism of the stag and direwolf.
The parts I had vaguely warned her about were much less bad than I had warned her to expect (I'd read Melissa's reaction at Shakesville and figured best to prepare for the worst, had feared an extended graphic rape scene), tho she also found the Dany/Dothraki arc the weakest and most problematic.
Anyway, I've gone from thinking 3:1 against her making it through the first season to 51/49 in favor of her continuing to like it. Which is tres good for me. And a very good sign for the quality of the overall production.
Both of us: Thought the acting, casting, etc were great, at least insofar as the Westeros arc. Sasha was especially a fan of Lena Heady as Cersei.
We are going to watch again tonight, and I am almost more excited about the rewatch than the first viewing (in part, prolly cause I was sick last night, and also cause now I know I get to keep watching, yay!)
:
Starting with what we didn't like:
The wedding feast was cringe-inducing. That was going to be difficult to pull off to begin with, but really, cringe inducing. There was no consistent ethnicity to the Dothraki, but as Sasha said, it certainly had a really unpleasant "Look at the savage darkies" vibe. And the dancing was WTF?
Drogo went from a nuanced charismatic leader in the books to a wackily grinning barbarian caricature (okay, this was more my complainint, since Sasha didn't know what he was like in the books, but the caracature bit she remarked upon).
Hopefully these things will be fixed in upcoming episodes.
What cannot be fixed was changing the marriage consummation from consensual and even tender, the first bit of real kindness anyone had ever shown Dany (which is sort of important for the relationship later) to a rape. Um. I don't really know what to say about this. Unless they are going to significantly rewrite the rest of this arc, it was a pure and simple stupid change, made for reasons I can't fathom. (we're supposed to think it's unrealistic for the "primitive barbarians" to comprehend kindness and affection and such? fuck that)
The other huge flaw: Dany. After the ep was over, Sasha asked if Dany was supposed to be drugged or "an imbecile." I assumed the actress was playing the part as "terrified" and explained why. She said NONE of that backstory came across very well, and while she was sympathetic to being terrified about an arranged marriage to a complete stranger, and a big scary looking guy to boot, that didn't explain the constant vacant facial expression or the extreme deference to Viserys. I'm hoping this was a horrible directing choice and not bad acting, since the director will be more or less forced by the storyline to change things up pronto. She also thought the women characters in general came across as overly passive, but I assured her this will change.
She also brought up a question I couldn't answer- how did Will get South of the Wall?
Anyway, despite all those complaints,Sasha mostly thought it was wonderful, and I thought it was adequate, and got all the elements in place for better things to come in future eps. Might post an update after rewatching later tonight.