By Zack Gill
Staff Writer
HBO is aggressively pushing for new content to compete with other premium cable networks, and epic fantasy series “Game of Thrones” is its latest attempt to boost demographics to get more subscribers. Fortunately for viewers, this new show stands up to HBO’s high standards of production values, great performance and quality writing.
This new show has a built-in audience, as it is based on a long-running series of novels that inspired a devoted cult-following. The series fits in nicely with other shows on HBO, and is tonally more similar to “Rome” than “The Fellowship of the Rings,” with loads of violence, nudity and political intrigue.
“Game of Thrones” is set in the fictional continent of Westeros, where various monarchs vie for dominance of the entire kingdom. The land is more similar to medieval Europe than Tolkien’s middle-Earth, although there are some vague hints of magic and dragons as well as a giant wall that separates Westeros from ancient northern zombies.
The cast is enormous, but the series seems to have chosen Ned Stark (Sean Bean) as its main character, a warden to the north. The king (Mark Addy) appoints Ned as his new second-in-command after the death of his former assitant, prompting disapproval from the queen (Lena Heday) and her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who also happen to be in an incestuous relationship. They also have a brother with Dwarfism, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage).
It’s a lot to take in at once, and the pace of the show doesn’t do much to help the viewer. The series rewards those that pay close attention to every frame of the series. Every line of dialogue is integral to understanding what is going on and every character that speaks only one or two lines per episode usually has a complex backstory of her or her own (that is, if they aren’t killed right away. This is a particularly brutal show).
With such a large cast of characters, a few actors shine more than others. Bean portrays one of the most compelling parents on television at the moment. He convincingly disciplines and teaches his children and, as corny as it sounds, the part is written well and Bean is at the perfect age to play it. One could call him the heart and soul of the series.
Dinklage is also wonderful, but for the opposite reasons. He portrays Tyrion, the whore-mongering, sardonic sibling to the queen and Jaime. Although versatility may not be the first trait people consider when praising Dinklage, he fits into his role wonderfully.
“Game of Thrones” is extremely visually appealing. Shots are beautifully framed. The series often has bands of men on horseback traveling the countryside, and shots are framed to be as geometrically pleasing as possible. The production design is also wonderful: everything looks authentic, from the castles to the costumes.
Potential viewers need to be aware that the series is indubitably adult. It is horrifically violent: the pilot episode seemed to feature a beheading every ten minutes, and viewers will wince when likable, innocent characters are butchered. The series is also abrasively sexual: characters give in to violent sex-drives and characters are nude quite often. This is not a show for children, despite all of the swords and the sorcery going on.
If “Game of Thrones” can adhere to the quality of its first two episodes, television viewers will be in for a treat for years to come. The brutal, exciting and artful series truly is television to talk about around the water cooler. “Game of Thrones” is rated TV-MA and airs Sunday nights on HBO.
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