One of the things that’s kept me so distracted lately is downloading “Game of Thrones” series and watching them over the course of a week. It was awesome.
I’ve always thought this story would work a lot better as a TV series than a book. I am not noticing huge changes, but then it’s been several years since I first read the books. From the beginning of the prologue in episode 1, I could tell they were going to get it right.
The casting is nearly perfect. One of the great things about having
read the books, is that I can tell who characters are even before
they speak or are addressed. I could pick out Jon Snow and
Littlefinger from the crowds around them. The biggest exception is
Sean Bean as Ned Stark. He doesn’t quite look like the father of his sons
and he’s not different enough from Sean Bean as Boromir. I love Peter
Dinklage as Tyrion; he’s clearly having a great time with the role.
I love the way the guys chat about battles the way guys do about cars or
computers. I love that everything looks beautiful but they’re doing
terrible things to each other. The prettier someone is, the less you ought
to trust them.
I am disappointed that the Dorthaki appear to be mostly white people
dressed up as Mongols. Surely Genghis Khan has enough descendants that we could have cast someone who looks like him to play Khal Drogo. But then, if we want to talk about race, in a way, the whole story is Europe’s worst history filtered through an American viewpoint that says, You people were morons to put your trust in kings.
The ending of the last episode was abrupt, but it makes more sense as the conclusion of Series 1 than the ending of a novel. I plan to buy the DVD set when it comes out, so I can use the excuse of trying to understand what it does to me that I like so much (and it’s not just the nudity) and watch it again. In the meantime, the series was so good, when I saw the latest book on sale at Readercon today, I felt tempted to buy it unread. But you’re not going to get me that easily. I still haven’t quite forgiven Book Four. I can wait. It’s only request #220 at the library.
Writing Every Day 