Thoughts on Season 1 of Game of Thrones

Brief thoughts on the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones, from the vantage point of having read the first three books in George RR Martin's series:

It's hard to evaluate, since it's basically the first book verbatim.  Aside from a few scenes between supporting characters, most of Game of Thrones is lifted directly from the novel it's based on.  There's only one new character, for good reason - why would you add more characters to this series?  For a similarly good reason it would be hard to create entirely new plotlines, since the books are so densely plotted.  It makes me interested to read the Walking Dead graphic novels now, since I've heard that the tv show takes several detours from the comics.  I'd like to see what the AMC series chooses to add and ignore, and to what ends.

That said, it's a solid adaptation.  No roles are miscast, the characterizations are superb, the sets and costumes look great, and I never skipped over the opening credits sequence.  If you're going to adapt a book into a tv show without changing anything, you'd better get all the details right.  Aspects such as Peter Dinklage's performance have been (deservedly) exhaustively praised already, so I'll single out the design of the Eyrie (and while I'm at it, Kate Dickey as Lysa Arryn) and the brief appearance of David "Argus Filch" Bradley as Walder Frey.  The slight shuffling of chronology for the season finale works perfectly too: the scenes of Jon Snow heading beyond the wall followed by Dany becoming a true khaleesi are expertly scored and edited.

But it also suffers the faults of the book.  Oh, Theon Greyjoy, nobody cares about you.

I appreciate Starz' Spartacus series even more now.  Game of Thrones features some brief male frontal nudity but most of the naked parts are courtesy of topless prostitutes.  There's also a minor foray into gay male sexuality but it's nothing compared to a rather explicit lesbian prostitute romp.  There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but it's oh-so predictable. Something something gender politics, something something pay cable.  Spartacus is much more egalitarian about its nudity.  There are plenty of boobs, certainly, but there's a fair amount of man-ass and dong, too, if that's your thing.  On one hand, it seems like the show is written by a sexually-depraved bisexual 15-year-old.  On the other hand, that promiscuity welcomes the baser pleasures of both sexes and all persuasions with open arms.

How the hell are they going to film the rest of the books?  There are some ungodly expensive battle scenes in the second and third books.  Who knows how they'll play out on a television budget.