No spoilers were included in the writing of this text.
Game of Thrones. If anyone should have missed it, it’s the HBO adaption of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series of George R. R. Martin. It’s one book per series, so the first series (10 episodes) covers the first book, and also takes it name from it. It premiered 17 April in the US (18th in the UK and comes to Canal+ in Sweden in May), and has already been renewed for a second season.
HBO’s marketing department knew no bounds when it came to GoT. Supporting fansites (including offering up announcements to them at the same time as the press); releasing trailers, behind the scenes clips, character specials etc online; creating an online game which leads to never-before-seen clips from the series; sending of elaborate scent boxes that provide clues to said game to various people, including critics, journalists and fan site creators; the GoT food truck; Iron Throne photo opportunities; Iron Throne pedi-cabs; attendance of HBO people at various fan meetings (including the giving away of GoT freebies); creating massive press coverage; screening episodes for fans; huge billboards; you name it. In terms of fan awareness, HBO wins hands down.
Why am I writing all this? Because I can’t remember ever having been this exited about a show. Everything else pales in comparison. I suppose the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Lord of the Rings films evoked that same fannish excitement, but even they don’t even get close to what I’m feeling now. I’ve been following the production for years now, eager for any scrap of information. Who’s been cast as who, they’re holding auditions for this character which means they’ve kept them in the show, they’re filming at this location which means that they will make that location in the books look like this in the show, etc etc etc. I didn’t attend the annual fan meetings (where GRRM and, when the casting was complete, some of the cast joined in), even though they were held in Belfast which isn’t really that far away, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t read the minute by minute summaries that turned up online. In short, I’m invested.
And when the greatest moment of them all came, I wasn’t disappointed. When I was about to watch the first episode for the first time, my heart was beating like mad and my hands were shaky. Two episodes in, and this show is GREAT. There are no words to describe how good they are. (Don’t take my word for it, go look for yourselves!) The casting is AMAZING, the writing is SUPERB and the attention to details is TERRIFIC. In short, the entire series is OUT OF THIS WORLD. I wish I could stop waxing lyrical about this show, because if you listen to closely you might be disappointed when you watch it, but I just can’t.
That’s not to say that it’s completely perfect. My major niggle is, why on earth didn’t they let Tyrion and Jaime keep the Lannister blonde hair? There is absolutely no reason for it, and only makes them less distinguished. I mean, I get that it’s difficult to find an actor and an actress who are both good for their roles AND look like twins, but considering how many wigs are used, two more wouldn’t have been that difficult to fix. And the whole point of a certain plot point is that the Lannisters all have that yellow blonde hair. Grumble.
But it’s pretty darn close. And I’ve never seen a filmed version of a book be this close to the original. Not even LotR.
I’m rereading the books in anticipation of the release of the fifth book in July, and I must say, even before the series started, I saw the cast members while I read the book. Yes, the casting is THAT GOOD. And, I must say, it’s agony to reread everything; it’s like watching a train wreck I suppose, you know what’s going to happen but there’s not a darn thing you can do about it. Same goes for watching the show. But a good agony. If that makes sense.
Anyhow, the places to go to for GoT news are, among others, Winter is Coming.Net and GRRM’s livejournal.
Finally, one last mention. The intro is AMAZING. Both the music and the intro itself. A map of Westeros, camera pans over the locations we will visit in the episode (it varies between episodes) and the cities rise up in a steampunk-y way. And, almost hidden away, on the metal surroundings of the sphere, are etchings from the history of the Seven Kingdoms. I almost can’t stop watching - wish there was a way to make Youtube repeat. Did I mention that the intro is AMAZING. At the first viewing it looked a bit corny, but oh the detail, and the general mood, and the music, and… did I mention that the intro is AMAZING? Because it is.
Here’s a link to the intro on Youtube, since the embedding seems a tad unreliable.
*sighs happily*
