Game of Thrones: Season 1

Alright. So that's what all the hype was for. I began watching Game of Thrones yesterday evening, and before going to bed I had finished six of the season's ten episodes. The final four came tonight, meaning that once I began watching the series, nothing had me stopping except for necessities like sleep and work. So, yeah. It's that good. The series is based on George R. R. Martin's ongoing epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and it takes its name from the first of seven novels. These books take place in a fictional medieval earth-like world, primarily on the continent of Westeros, a land divided into seven kingdoms but united under one king. Several noble families vie for power, wealth, influence, and independence, and it is this never-ending struggle for success that gives rise to the phrase "a game of thrones." Whose daughter will marry the king's heir? Which house will ally with another so as to cut down a third? Are the enemies of enemies truly friends, or is it possible to have a three-sided war? The series no doubt should remind many people of The Lord of the Rings, the last epic fantasy series to be brought into pop culture. But honestly, it feels as much like Braveheart or Gladiator as it does a Tolkien clone; this feels like a fantasy series for those who are too embarrassed to watch or read something resembling Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: the Gathering, as it deals almost exclusively with English-speaking human beings (not elves and orcs and trolls and such) who fight their wars with swords and bows rather than magic spells. More than any other praise I can give it, I have to stress how engaging and genuinely interesting the series is. There are at least thirty important characters and as many as five or six storylines running in tandem by the season's close, but never does anything feel too slow or boring or confusing, and never do you hate to see the show cut away from one group of characters to another, because literally everything that's happening is fascinating. Credit for this is obviously due to Martin for providing the source material out of nothing more than his own imagination; I haven't read the books, but from what I've heard the show so far has been extremely loyal to their narrative, hardly even so much as telling certain events out of order. The show is also just absolutely beautiful in every way, which is a credit to the production value, the costumes, the makeup, the locations, the sets, and the cinematography. I haven't really had time to "digest" the first season, so it's easy for me to exaggerate its greatness having only just watched it, but I definitely would say that Game of Thrones has vaulted itself right up alongside Mad Men and Breaking Bad to contend for the title of "greatest drama on TV today." I'm glad Season 2 debuts in two weeks, because I'm naturally eager to find out what happens next in this intricately complicated series of gambits for power. And, yes, I'm definitely reading all seven books. Someday.