CONTAINS SPOILERS!
After a rather sweaty few minutes of panicing after inserting Disc One of HBO’s Game of Thrones Blu-Ray Box Set into my Toshiba BDX1100KE Blu-Ray player in which nothing appeared to be popping up on screen, the reassuring WARNING! message about copyright popped up and the journey to Westeros was about to begin.
As I’ve said before, I was a little unhappy of having to fork out £30 (okay, in this case it wasn’t me that did – but the principal is the same) for a TV series in which I haven’t seen a single episode because of HBO’s exclusivity with Sky Atlantic over here in the UK. GoT does not get so much as a sniff on iTunes UK. I have had to rely on all the positive press this show has been getting to take the plunge.
I am so glad I did.
Even with the first episode, Winter is Coming, the whole thing feels like a hugely polished, big-budgeted movie. It has beautiful locations, set pieces, costumes, make-up, everything. The actors are at the top of their game – Peter Dinklage as Tyrion is superb. Sean Bean has never been in a finer role. This show is the stuff that network executives have wet dreams about.
It is quite gory and violent – we get some beheadings in the first 10 minutes. The titles aren’t just there to be pretty, the map and graphics are actually very useful in getting one’s bearings on where the action takes place. If feels as if you’re on a rather odd road trip with a Westeros Google Maps helping you find the best route to take.
There is also the subject of nudity. By jove, do the ladies get their tits out in this episode. The ladies of Westeros aren’t shy that’s for sure. And speaking of which, they also seem to like taking .. things up the bottom judging by a couple of scenes – the last one being somewhat.. okay VERY incestuous. And if THAT doesn’t shock you, the very final 30 seconds of the episode will.
But enough titulation. All of the above – the nakedness, the sex, everything – is NOT there for tituation sake, everything is there for a reason. The characters themselves all have their own agendas – they are not merely one dimensional moustache-twirling folk. There is clearly a deep history that I’m sure will be dealt with all in good time to show why certain folk are going in the direction that they do.
By far the most intriguing right now is between Daenerys Targaryen and her brother Viserys – who seeks an alliance with the nomadic Dothraki – which involves a marriage between Daenerys and the clan leader, Khal Drogo. She is unwilling in this, but Viserys insists in the alliance to ensure that he gathers an army to retake back what he believes is his rightful place on the throne.
The relationship between Queen Cersei and her twin brother Jaime is also very intriguing. One that hasn’t been fully explored in this first episode, but I’m guessing that it’ll definitely be explored in some depth in forthcoming shows. The cliffhanger depends on such revelations!
If only HBO could put out the first episodes of their shows in which people can try it out for size before investing money in box sets like these. Thank the Gods that GoT from the start is such a great show, but this could have easily gone the other way and I’d have been left poorer and pissed off with HBO for such tactics.
My only concern now is that I just hope that season two’s box set comes out pretty damn soonish after the Sky broadcast, and that it is priced reasonably.