Television in General

Hey again everyone! If you're like me and you don't have HBO GO, you're probably still reeling from what what was, IMHO, the best episode of the season thus far. Quick Plot Synopsis: Tyrion is brilliant, Ned is slow, Theon is a creeper, Bran rides a horse, Dany eats a different horse's heart, Jon is nowhere to be seen for two weeks running, and our first major player bites the dust. Now it's time for some General Commentary!

Hey again everyone! This week's episode of Game of Thrones offered up two important changes with regards to the storytelling. The first is the fact that we spent almost all of the episode in no more than two or three locations. This meant no trips to The Wall or to the continent of Essos in favour of  having pretty much the entire episode take place in King's Landing. This was sad because we didn't get to see any Jon or Dany, but it was mostly awesome because some of the confusion and jerkiness inherent in following half a dozen plots and dozens of characters at once all but disappeared. Episode 5, which was aptly named "The Wolf and The Lion", was all about bringing the brewing Lannister/Stark conflict to a head. It also featured some of the first truly exciting action sequences!

Note: Holy Crap! This review, removed a few days ago by blogger due to the system failing ridiculously hard, was returned to me this morning! It's mad late, but, I figured it was still worth posting :D. At least, for the sake of archiving, it exists. Episode 5 will be up shortly. Episode 4 of Game of Thrones, entitled Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things, has been my second favourite episode to date. Episode 3, my review of which is either still forthcoming or else is never going to happen, would be my favourite. Both of these episodes have one key element in common that the first two were lacking. The majority of characters are now in fixed locations. 

Note: This is a post I wrote after the first 9 or 10 episodes of the season had aired. As the season has progressed, some of what I have discussed has continued to be true (Kurt's storyline being strong, the humour failing, even more Gwenyth Paltrow at the expense of the main cast), while other things have changed (less Bieste, more Quinn, less Sam). I'll likely write a full Season 2 Review as we get to the end, but for now, this is me re-posting what I originally wrote over at SpoilerTV. Enjoy!

Hey all! The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy what with moving to a new apartment and dealing with the Canadian Elections. As such, I've gotten a bit behind on my reviews. This review of Episode 2, almost two weeks late, was written by SpoilerTV contributor darq. I should mention that darq sent it to me on time, but that I wasn't able to get it up until now. My bad. It has been edited slightly and I added my own insight towards the end. I should have a review of Episode 3 up by tomorrow. If not, I'll combine 3 and 4 into one review. I can safely say that The Kingsroad was a far more exciting excursion for me than the pilot. Most of the important character introductions had been gotten out of the way and there was now room for actual character development.

HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones has finally arrived! Was it awesome? Yes! Would I recommend it to everyone I know? Hell Yes! Was it as incredible as I had dreamed it would be? Well... the jury's still out on that one. While I really liked what I saw of this sure to be epic television series, there were a couple of major elements that caused me to enjoy it less than I had hoped. Although I am going to try very hard to review Game of Thrones without the books in mind, the faithfulness of this adaptation to the source material is going to make that an incredibly daunting task. I will steer clear of book spoilers in this review, but be warned that spoilers concerning the first episode, entitled Winter Is Coming, abound. The series premiere of GoT ranks as one of the best I have ever seen; however, it failed to immerse me as completely as I would have liked.

The final moments of tonight's series premiere of Game Of Thrones, which shall henceforth be known as GoT, are what set it apart from pretty much everything else that I have ever watched. Certainly, the rest of the episode had its fair share of gore, taboo subject matter, sex, and profanity, but these have all become fairly commonplace and even expected of shows on cable channels like HBO. This was something altogether different and, hopefully, for those of you who have yet to read the novels, completely unexpected. If you haven't watched the first episode, entitled "Winter Is Coming", then I suggest that you read no further.