Picked this up for the wife who has read the books. So far we've seen the first two episodes and I'm not really sold on it. Guess I just don't carry for these 'period' type shows.

They have to hold back some content for eventual complete series set so people will buy it after they've already bought the individual seasons.

I thought the 1st two episodes, especially the Pilot started out slow when I watched it on HBO last year. Be patient with it. It gets really good.

...I thought the pilot wasn't in the set?

When I said Pilot, I meant episode 1 "Winter is Coming". The guys have been talking about an Unaired Pilot, which is not in this set.

BTW, I thought you don't give a rats ass about TV or TV shows?

This is TV-MA and is about 600 minutes long (if you count the whole season and don't go by an episode-to-episode basis). Plus, it helps that it's not animated.

Arya with her fingernails painted bright red is just wrong...

I'm rewatching this on Blu-ray and it's amazing how many little details I've picked up on. Of course, when I first watched it I had no idea what was going on but now everything makes sense.

Also, the PQ is insane. There's a few close up shots Kaleesi and you can see both colors in her iris, in the center is a gold starburst and the rest is green. It's just amazing.

Damn. Just got through this over the weekend and was truly amazed and drawn in. Well acted, written and produced BD set.

Watched the first episode Saturday and immediately went and picked up the Blu-ray set. Only up thru episode 3 but the show is amazing as is the blu-ray set.

Just watched the first two episodes!

Now am not sure whether I should stop watching and read some of the book that I bought last year. It was always my intention to read the book first.

You're overselling it.

you're saying it doesn't have more sex and violence?

Other than the fantasy setting, I think GoT has very little in common with LOTR. LOTR is "bigger" with the fate of the known world at stake and the main focus being Good vs Evil with the One Big Quest to Eliminate Evil Once and For All.

GoT, while still offering plenty of epicness, is more grounded in reality (dragons and White Walkers aside), and more akin to The Wars of the Roses on a really big scale. The fate of the Westerosi nation and its ruling government is up for grabs but the world as a whole still goes on regardless.

That show is incredible!

I can't wait to buy the first season

GoT is similar to the cinematic version of LoTR in that care was given to character casting. GoT had the added difficulty of casting children whose characters are integral to the story.

Can't wait for S2 to start in a few weeks!

The commentary for The Kingsroad was kind of disappointing. Just Lena Headly saying "Fucking brilliant!" a lot. I thought the commentary with the kids was much more entertaining (great opening!) and informative, if you can believe it.

Finished this wknd. Overall I enjoyed it, but it still wasn't able to overcome the "made for tv" look and feel imo. Given how much my coworkers rave about the book series and show, I can't help but feel a little underwhelmed...and it reminded me why I have never been crazy about an HBO series. Granted, it's the best television show of it's kind, but I can only give so much extra credit points for a limited budget. I still think they could've done more epic/sweeping shots than what was there, the framing just felt very constrained.

^^^ Limited budget? The budget for season 1 was approximately $60M for 10 episodes. That makes it one of the most expensive television programs currently on right now.

That's right, and that just goes to show how tough it is for television to compete with a feature film visually, which is why I'm not much into television. With 6mill per episode I still would've liked to have seen more dynamic second-unit shots. Perhaps even shooting at a wider aspect ratio would've helped sell it a little better.

If HBO would let their shows look more unique I'd be more interested. It's why I haven't even bothered with Boardwalk, because it looks too modern and I don't buy the time period for a second.

For the time and money they have, the show looks amazing. But still, it's a trade-off and you have to pick your poison. For the more limited small-screen budget, you get an uncompromised script that hasn't been focus-tested into banality (even LotR has some cringe-inducing bits of cheesy dialog) . You also get something far more hard-hitting - GoT would've been rated-X (or whatever the rating above an R is) if it were submitted to the MPAA.

Basically, when you have less money, you can take bigger risks.

And television these days (GoT, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Justified, Boardwalk, etc) has taken greater risks and has had far more interesting stories and characters than theatrical features have, by far. Sure, they may not look epic, but they don't need to hide behind a big budget.

Bear in mind that this was the equivalent of four shows in terms of separate casts and locations (Winterfell/The Eyrie, King's Landing, Across the Narrow Sea, The Wall). There's only so far a budget can stretch.

Totally agree. I don't buy GoT not looking "epic" enough. It looks better than anything else on tv and rivals a lot of movies.

This is probably a golden age we're living in for television (GoT included) and far better quality than feature films.

As long as Tyrion doesn't say "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" I will be eternally grateful.