Oh, we'll see plenty of that in season 2. Speaking of, here is the announcement for season 2 from TV By The Numbers: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...Twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
The combined viewership of all three airings of the premier was 4.2 million. Not great, but not as bad as I had previously thought especially considering the NBA playoffs were going on. http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/04/game-of-thrones-premiere-ratings-released/#comments
I agree, especially considering these numbers do not include DVR and on demand viewings, nor online HBOgo viewings. Also consider international viewers, as the UK had their premiere on Monday night and several countries will not premiere for several months from now. Fantasy genre has a built in stigma for some viewers as the few negative critic reviews highlighted, so to even get that many viewers is pretty strong. Word of mouth can grow those numbers, though with next week's episode falling on Easter it's ratings may take a hit and some of the premiere numbers were no doubt inflated by the free HBO weekend that many cable/dish providers had just like Boardwalk Empire was. Re: season 2 So far Martin on his Not a Blog
Stannis, Davos, Brienne & Melisandre castings should be fun. Looking forward to hearing the candidates. GRRM is writing the Battle of The Blackwater episode...I'd imagine that would have to be an entire episode...drool.
Here is a great character/cast cheat sheet: http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Game-of-Thrones-Houses-infographic-Westeros-101-f.jpg EW also has an episode recap posted: http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/game-of-thrones-season-1-episode-1/
By reading that cast cheat sheet, did I just spoil myself? Or knowing the family trees isn't a big deal?
I'd say it's a very very mild spoiler, like seeing characters in a movie poster before you watch the movie. Nothing that will ruin the movie for you. (Robin Arryn? Bah)
I disagree. This coming from someone who hasn't read the book series, this is what I got from this one episode: I thought Ned was grooming him for something bigger in the future. When they find the dire wolves he seems more compassionate than his 'blood' brothers also willing to question his Father even after he has made an order. It also seems Snow is more protective of Bran and more of a mentor than his 'blood' bros. He isn't as good as his sister at anything I get the sense at the beheading in the beginning he didn't think it was OK to kill the ranger and seemed a bit dismissive of his father when asked if he knew why he had to kill him. I think nuance might kill this show for the read fans of the series. For newbies like myself, I thought it was very well done, especially since there wasn't one battle fighting scene. I'm surprised it kept my attention.
A trailer and a clips from Episode 2. Dany has nice taste in handmaidens. http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/04/a-couple-of-clips-from-the-kingsroad/
Finally saw it and I'm quite happy with it. Look fantastic. Still nowhere better than the book but still excited that it's finally brought to life.
I hope this doesn't die like ROME. The series is just going to bigger and bigger and the budgets will ballooned. The biggest problem I see will be Bran and Arya if they ended up outgrowing the series.
If they can go a series a year then they won't be aging that much more than in the books, must remember in the books one POV to the next for a character can sometimes be a month or more, or sometimes picking up from they were the last time we heard from them. I don't know who is to blame, if it is HBO for not being worldwide or the networks that pick up their shows in other countries but I find it amazing on things this big they don't make sure it's airing within 24 hours in every country likely to have an audience. I mean from my point of view in Australia as someone who read the books, do they really think I am not going to download and watch this when there has been no date set of when it will air in Australia? I know its probably more that they want too much for a network here to air it and they can pick it up cheaper later on but I still find it weird in this day and age. Thousands here will download it and watch and not even tune in to one episode when it hits our TV. True Blood seasons for example were selling in shops before they made TV here, same with Dexter in its first few series, Lost was the only show in its last couple of series to air within 48 hours of it airing in the US.
I think you might be right. Watching the whole episode, I was just anticipating that moment since I had read the book. It takes away from the impact (HA HA HA) somewhat. There were a lot of very subtle, very efficient character moments that I enjoyed. They couldn't have picked a better line to give us a sense of Tyrion than the "all dwarfs are bastards in their fathers' eyes" line. One quick question about a possible change from the books that I'll spoiler: Spoiler In the novel, was Jon Snow quite so eager to join the Night's Watch? I seem to recall being talked into it, somewhat, or the very least being very conflicted. Anyone remember?
Spoiler Yes he was quite eager to go, he had a naive story tale view of how things would be. His conversation with Benjen was pretty close to the way it went in the books, except that Benjen added a bit more about how he should father a few bastards of his own so he would know what giving up women meant, to which Jon angrily replied he would never father any bastards.
I was slightly disappointed that they cut the second part of the line though, which was "All dwarfs are bastards in their fathers' eyes, but not all bastards need be dwarfs."
