I saw the first episode sunday night at nine on HBOCanada. I'm a Bean fan from the days of Sharpe, and a fantasy fan weened on arthurian lore and a first read of Tolkien back in 67, so I want to enjoy this series. So far so good, all the stereotypes are on their tracks for the moment : good solid salt of the earth northerners, weird stuff beyond the impassable ice border, twisted politicos from the urban south, nasty hunnish barbarians, and so on.
By the way, I have had the pleasure of handling wolf pups and they were way more aggressive than those dire-wolf pups, and that at a much younger age, but the aesthetics are pleasing, alaskan malamutes perhaps...
Is HBO USA playing this also on sundays? I was a bit surprised because of the nudity and fornication, but as a song said back in the sixties : '' Sundays will never be the same''..
Cheers,
Jean-Carle

Here is a docu-short on the weapons of G.O.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM_7ccvNcys

As far as the delay on GRRM's latest novel in the series, I've read that the tv show is to blame since he got so involved in the production to ensure HBO got it right. So far, so awesome in my opinion. I'm really looking forward to where they take the show, especially in portraying the varying perspectives like GRRM did in the books.

Jean-Carle Hudon wrote:

Is HBO USA playing this also on sundays? I was a bit surprised because of the nudity and fornication, but as a song said back in the sixties : '' Sundays will never be the same''.. Cheers, Jean-Carle

Yes they are... but HBO also airs True Blood on Sundays, which features lots of violence and nudity as well, so nothing new for HBO.

I was able to download the premier here and give it a watch.

It's not bad, a bit slow, but more interesting than many movies I have seen as of late. It will improve over the 10 episodes slated, you can't give everything away at once. The dwarf is spot-on and Boromir as Ned Stark works well. Some of the other characters are 'meh', but hopefully as the plot reveals itself, they will grown unto their own.

On the arms and armor, its the typical overbuilt Hollywood prop stuff - nothing really caught my eye as interesting. Stark's sword must weight 10 lbs, that thing is a monster. Everyone else looks like they are carrying MRL LARP boffer swords. I normally like to see at least one or two well-made hero weapons, but there are no notable smiths associated wtih the project, probably due to budget constraints. Not that I mind all the nudity, but maybe there will be some sword or armor eye candy later. :lol:

I will continue watching. It's not all that bad...

Sorry gentlemen, this series does nothing for me except instill the want to have it wiped off the face of my television for all eternity...

EDIT: By that I mean it's really, really bad. IE: Junk :lol: :lol: :lol:

HBO has already renewed it for a second season, televising the second book, A Clash of Kings.

One episode in and so far I'm enjoying it. I don't know how anyone can judge it without seeing the whole. Yes, it starts out slow, but that's because it's a complicated plot with many story lines and characters to develop. I think it shows a lot of promise, and I'm happy to hear HBO gave the go ahead for season two.

Well, I like it a lot better than "Camelot" so far. Plenty of good acting in Camelot, but I'm sick of the young "blond beach boy" Arthur that seems SOOOO formulaic. Why not a scarred, grizzled man of war which the REAL guy the legend is based on probably was? I found a few other details pretty lame too. But I digress.
I am not familiar with the books concerned, but I like the dark edge this series has (at least judging by one episode). I particularly enjoyed the Dwarf. A more formidable opponent than his size suggests, I'll wager. Being a "Medieval/Fantasy series, I'll withhold judgment on details until I see a bit more. But I'm recording it on my DVR for now.

I love the books.

The story is far better than Lord Of The Rings.

Is there anyone here, who has contact to the set?

A dream would come true, if I could play a little role in this... There are hundrets of charakters, big battles and if they realize every book, the story will go on for many many years.

thanks.

Excellent series in my books, surpassing pretty much everything I've seen on TV to date.

I just hope that they can somehow improve the fourth book when it comes the time to turn that into the fourth season of the series. That book was very "meh" in my books (not really advancing the story but just telling what happened to all the characters during the years before the fifth book).

Jean-Carle Hudon wrote:

By the way, I have had the pleasure of handling wolf pups and they were way more aggressive than those dire-wolf pups, and that at a much younger age, but the aesthetics are pleasing, alaskan malamutes perhaps...

It is actually a later breed, called the Northern Inuit Dog:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Inuit_Dog

I feel the tv series is shaping up very nicely. Fight scenes are good, especially the swordmaster teaching scene at the very end of episode 3 is excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing more of that (trying hard not to post a spoiler here ;) ). I also think they captured the poorly trained bouting at the Wall very well.
The Dwarf is quickly becoming a favorite character of mine, that actor is really good. Stark is also great of course, though more low key, I guess that's just in charcter. And the wolves are amazing, so far and this could have been a possible pitfall for the series they've avoided grandly.

Camelot, as mentioned above, is failing on the same terms. Poor, even horribly poor fight scenes with logical gaps and misconceptions about how to do proper training at times -especially the Gawain training session which is more dirty tricks than him showing he can actually fight at all with two swords (doubting it). Double blocking, from a Master? Really? In the aftermath of series like Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, one would think the bar for adventure tv series with two sword fighting would have to hold themselves to a much higher standard than this. They really should get someone from over there to show them the ropes. If not from there then how about that two saber guy from The Scorpion King? This is a point they could really pick up on and do something of, put in that he wasn't really doing his best to train them and intentionally holding back. Get him up to speed Spartacus style, get him back in and BAM! Rock and Roll 2-sword style. But will they do it? One can hope at least.
The storytelling in general has little feel for most charcters despite what I know are some good actors. Perhaps this'll pick up, I hope so.
The only characters I like right now are Merlin wrestling with his inner demons and murdering people for the greater good, and Morgan doing the same but for her own twisted reasons. They're stealing the scenes, stealing the entire show even and they're really all that keeps me watching it. That and Claire and Eva being really hot. Perhaps they should let Claire have more proper acting scenes though, since they got her on the set and all and I know from cinema she can be pretty great.

On second thought, I don't think I'll ever see any fight scene on tv or cinema to top the end of Gods of the Arena. Nothing beats the Ring of Fire. They've spoiled me for life, and any comparisons might be a bit unfair. ;)

Here is a video showing weapons for season 2. Many of the swords look OK, at least from a distance - certainly better than those on many film fantasies. Also, Fire Arrows!! I guess there always have to be fire arrows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i35uZVIsl8k

The new season starts April 1st