Thoughts on...Season 1 of Game of Thrones

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I figured I would write about my thoughts on the show per season as a whole and also about the cultural impact. So here are my thoughts on Season One.

I first heard about this show in the spring of 2011. It had a lot of hype and a lot of people talking about it since the book series was really popular at the time. Plus they were highly advertising the fact that Boromir aka Sean Bean was the lead role. For some reason, I didn't want to watch this show due to hype alone ( I know) but slowly it started to peak my interest. After the crazy finale, I had to look on Wikipedia to see what this crazy story was about since I had heard about Sean Bean's character death and was impressed that a story would be as bold to do something like that (a la Psycho from Alfred Hitchcock). I then took the summer to read the books and then I watched the show. I finally caught up real-time by the start of Season Two.

I thought that as a book adaptation, this was really well done. The scenery is beautiful and the characters are great in their own separate ways. The show does a good just of introducing the new characters and their stories/relation to current story without getting too overwhelming. Once you're a couple of episodes in, everything starts to click and you know longer have to figure out who is taking. As an aside, TV only viewers should only use the Game of Thrones Wikia for information on the show, if you use regular Wikipedia or A Wiki of Ice and Fire you WILL be spoiled for upcoming events, but the GOT wikia only covers some background and the show up to season 3.

The opening sequences are one of the things I look forward to the most when I'm watching the show because they show all of the amazing locations that the story is simultaneously being told in. Story-wise, it had a great balance of a touch of the supernatural/magical (The Others in the pilot and the dragons in the final) with a wide spread of realism/politics. While some people may hear about this show and think that it's a fantasy, I say it is much more than that. I consider it a medieval-type political story with *minor* fantasy elements in it. In fact, most of the characters don't believe in the existence of certain creature or animals because they have not been seen in a long time and have faded into myth.

Not only is there a character for every viewer to relate to, there are many more who make us question what is good and what is bad. For example, there is Viserys, a man who was forced into exile as a beggar king but also has streaks of madness that would make him an incapable ruler. There is also the unwanted son in Tyrion, who was born a dwarf and also has a heavy penchant for most vices. This show gets you invested by having "good" characters do some bad things and some "bad" characters showing some redeemable actions/situations or they can be pitied (like Cersei being stuck in a loveless/abusive marriage while also carrying on an affair with her brother).

I absolutely loved the show once I got into the series as a whole and from start to finish had great characters, setting and plot. I also couldn't wait to see what would happen next, with all of the set-up conflicts that were emerging.