Monday, April 18, 2011

HBO: A Game of Thrones Premiere





Last night the first televised episode of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones aired on HBO. I haven't seen it because I don't have HBO, but I'm wondering if some of you out there do. I've read the books, but I can only speculate as to the quality of the television series.

Nonetheless, its a major coup for fantasy books with major cult followings as Martin's medieval/fantasy style has earned him fans across the globe over the years and hopefully many more to follow as a result of the new HBO series. I did read online that Martin himself has attested to the accuracy of the HBO series and claims that it follows the first book faithfully.

For those of you familiar with the “Fire and Ice” saga, you know that each novel in the series is immense, high detailed storyline with a vast array of characters that would be daunting to put to film in its entirety. Nonetheless, it should be a fun series both onscreen and on the page, as Martin is still working on book 5 of his proposed 7 book series. Hopefully, they all end up on film at some point.

3 comments:

  1. I think TV is much more suited for complex narratives than film, so this trend of turning novels into TV shows is an interesting one (especially when HBO-type money allows for strong production).

    I haven't yet seen Game of Thrones (due to not having HBO), but I look forward to it on DVD/Blu. The wait will give me time to read the book :).

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  2. I just watched the premiere last night and having not read the books I have to say I'm a bit confused right now.

    It did make me want to watch a 2nd episode, but I think because its a television series, they are trying to flesh out smaller parts of the story and not rush through anything.

    I'm left without really knowing much about the main characters, but I'm excited about the cast which seems to pull actors from many major fantasy films.

    Oh and its HBO so enjoy the rampant nudity...

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  3. It's interesting getting perspectives from people who haven't read the books, so your take will probably prove the most valuable in terms of understandability of the overall TV plot (which is a lot to take in even if you have read the books). Nonetheless, I'm hopeful it will prove enjoyable for fiction fans and newbies alike:)

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