A Blog of Ice and Fire Part 2: The Series

Now for the fun part.  The rating for Game of Thrones on IMDB (a 9.4 out of 10) to me is a load of bollocks.  I know that for any adaptation of a book the adaptation is never better, but HBO being HBO focuses on the wrong aspects of A Song of Ice and Fire.  You know its bad when scenes are added that never actually occurred.  Even worse is when scenes are not as epic as in the books (the wildfire scene for example).  Long story short, I have to look past the nitty gritty details that are omitted or done the wrong way.  However HBO did butcher an entire character story line (if you watch the show you'll understand).  Ok I'm done with the ravings of a mad man.  The show is actually very good and deserves praise, but it is not as good as George Martin's series.

Let's start with the characters.  The actors play their characters well.  That is one of the aspects of the show I appreciate.  Peter Dinklage was the perfect choice for the Imp.  Sean Bean as Ned, priceless.  The greatest part about the casting is that many of the names are unfamiliar.  Rather than know the actors, viewers get to know the characters they see on the screen.  So instead of watching the show just to see a bunch of familiar actors that people only see as actors, the characters, I hate to use this expression, come alive.

Another part of the show that I liked, especially in the first season, was how lines were taken verbatim and incorporated into the screenplay.  That made it more authentic even though the show deviated from the books in several ways.  Even some of the lines that were not in the books originally were very good.  Most of Tyrion's lines were not from the books but were funny.  So even though plot wise the show does not follow the books as much as I would have wanted it to, Game of Thrones makes up for it with an entertaining title sequence and a very accurate depiction of the setting.

I have to discuss the theme sequence for the show.  It won awards!  I have never seen anything quite like it.  Best part about it, the sequence shows each major setting for that particular episode.  Ingenius!

So there are great things to be said about the show Game of Thrones.  However, it should not have focused on the explicit nature of A Song of Ice and Fire.  I know they needed the fanbase, but that was where it deviated the most.  Because HBO focused too much on minor points that were probably inconsequential in terms of the big picture, the important parts of the plot had to be changed and certain parts now don't flow.  That being said I recommend watching the show AND reading the books.  It's cool to see what HBO does in terms of depicting the major scenes that George Martin created.  I can't wait for both the show and the books to be done!