Game of Thrones - Episode 1 - "Winter is Coming"

I wasn't planning on writing anything substantive about the premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO, but then I figured - why not? This won't be a review per se (there are plenty of those out there already) but more just my general impressions, focusing on how close it hews to the book or if there are any substantive changes that I either like or dislike. For anyone wanting to read an actual review of the show, please check out What's Alan Watching at Hitfix. His reviews are always interesting, and I have great respect for him as a TV critic. Plus, he's never read the books so you get a fresh take on the show.

Spoiler-filled discussion after the jump.

Now that the preamble is out of the way, what did I think? In short - I loved it. I thought the ambience of the show was perfect, they nailed the look and feel of Westeros (and of Pentos), and the costuming was equally great. I didn't have a complaint with any of the actors, or the writing. Obviously a lot of exposition was needed in the early episode, as we have to learn about the history of Westeros through dialogue. The recent history of Robert's Rebellion is a huge deal, and the driving force of much of the story, and in television we can only hear people talk about it, we don't get to look inside their heads. I still think it was handled well.

One thing I noticed, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, is that every character trait seems exagerrated to some extent. That is probably intentional, to give the viewing audience a shorthand to understand who a character is. Some examples: Tyrion drunk and lying with several whores (shows us Tyrion loves the drink and the ladies, and enjoys a good time); Robert drunk and getting intimate with a serving woman in front of the queen and all of Winterfell (Robert is a boisterous whoring drunk); and even Arya shooting the bullseye when Bran couldn't even hit the target at all (look! Arya is a tomboy!). Like I said, I think moves like this help the audience relate to the characters, as they don't get to "hear" Arya think about how much she prefers swords and getting dirty as opposed to working on her needlework.

The actors all seemed to fit their characters perfectly. Understandably HBO aged the characters for the television audience, something that I'm definitely okay with. I always pictured the characters as older than they actually were as I read the books anyway. I knew Sean Bean would be great as Ned, and Peter Dinklage was born to play Tyrion, but the others were surprising. The girl that played Arya (in the future I'll try to learn the actors names, but for this post just bear with me), anyway I thought she had just the right mischievious look about her. Jaime didn't look like how I pictured him, but I think I actually like how he looks in the show better than my mental image (that doesn't happen often). Viserys was actually great, but if anything I pictured him as more intimidating in my reading. Daenerys is beautiful and looks the part, but time will tell if her acting chops are up to it.

Okay, that's my rambling thoughts, and a few more quick nitpicks that I had.

• The "white walker" looked nothing like I pictured. I pictured something almost like a tall pale creature with white hair and armor made of ice - so they actually looked "white." I think the creepy armored blue-eyed creature works though, and the sword they used looked made of ice. And the sound effects were of ice cracking - which I thought they nailed.
• Catelyn tried to talk Ned out of going South, even after receiving Lysa's letter - a definite change and one that I think makes her more sympathetic, but also makes her seem weaker. I didn't like that Cat pushed Ned to go, but it did show she was much more politically astute than Ned was. I will have to see how Cat acts in future episodes before I form a definite opinion.
• I did not like Drogo and Dany's wedding night. Instead of Drogo seducing Dany, showing that he was actually gentle and caring instead of just a savage, we see something that is borderline rape. Dany was his wife, and this was her wedding night, but however you want to phrase it their sex did not seem consensual. This paints Drogo in a much different light than in the book.

Those are my thoughts, what did everyone else think?