♥♥♥
 |
| Lord Stark/Sean Bean sits comfortably in the amazing throne made for the series on this gloomy poster for the first season of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' Game of Thrones |
The following contains SPOILERS:
Mysterious 'White Walkers' assassinate two outposts in the forest, and Lord 'Ned' Stark (Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001))) of the North executes the home-coming deserter. The great king of the Southern capital arrives to persuade Stark to take his crown; but Stark's wife is against it, and a shocking letter reveals that their friend behind the king was murdered by the dangerous Lannisters, an incestuous power-couple of twin brother and sister. Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Blackthorn (2011))) pushes Ned's son Brandon to a great fall and subsequent coma upon his discovering their copulating. In the South exiled prince Viserys Targaryen pressures his sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke (Dom Hemingway (2013))) to marry the killing machine wild-man Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa (Aquaman (2018))) to attain his army to ride North with on a future conquest.
Jon Snow (Kit Harington (Testament of Youth (2014))), Ned's bastard son, ventures away to join the Night's Watch, meant to keep beasts outside the Wall. Daenerys, now renamed Khaleesi and pregnant by Drogo, is attacked by her brother and threatens him, if he ever does her harm again. Stark's wife travels with the 'imp', Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage (Pixels (2015))) as her prisoner to her frightening sister for answers. Meanwhile Ned gets captured by Jaime and is wounded in a fight.
He is still able to ascend the throne, empty from the now exiled king, as he learns the disturbing true origin of Prince Joffrey, as a Lannister! Khaleesi is obsessed with the dragon eggs she was given as a wedding gift; and her power-mad brother gets himself killed at the hand of Drogo, by way of liquid quicksilver!
Tyrion's liberation has not reached Winterfell castle, where power-mad Joffrey attacks Stark, as tension rises. Joffrey is successful, as Snow joins the oath of the Night's Watch and slays zombie-like White Walkers. Through diplomacy, Ned is promised his life if he admits to betrayal in front of the people, which he does, only for Joffrey to demand his head nonetheless.
Snow attempts to flee the Watch but is stopped. Joffrey's marrying Sansa Stark, Ned's daughter, is made difficult by his brutality. Khaleesi gives birth to a possibly dragon-scaled stillborn and strangles infected, wounded Drogo to death. She then burns her witch woman and walks into the flames herself, hatching her three dragon eggs.
Game of Thrones is created by David Benioff (Troy (2004)) and D.B. Weiss (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2013, TV-series)), based on A Game of Thrones (1996), the first novel in George R.R. Martin's (A Dance with Dragons (2011)) A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.
It presents an elaborate, major fictional universe that seems to have the ability to be ever-expanding, which can be most meaningfully compared to the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings novels (1954-55). The tone and atmosphere is different here though, with power-madness and extreme selfishness the general rule, and episode stables are sex scenes and violent slayings.
The series has a thrilling pilot and impresses with a handsome score (by Ramin Djawadi (Prison Break (2005-17))) and great performances by Dinklage and Bean. But there are also less than exciting episodes and one that seems downright stalling (episode 9: Baelor). Perhaps the second season will immerse me more fully in the conflicts on the continent of Westeros.
Best episodes:
Episode 1: Winter Is Coming - written by Benioff, Weiss; directed by Timothy Van Patten (Perry Mason (2020, TV-series))
The world of Game of Thrones and its central characters are introduced
Episode 7: You Win or You Die - written by Benioff, Weiss; directed by Daniel Minahan (True Blood (2008-12))
The king is deadly wounded by a wild boar and passes on his power to 'Ned' Stark; assassination attempts are launched against both he and Khaleesi, as tensions escalate.
Related post:
David Benioff: 25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance (novel/screenplay)
Watch a trailer for the first episode of the season here
Cost: 50-70 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: None - TV-series
= Uncertain
[Game of Thrones - season 1 was first broadcast from April 17 - June 19 (HBO) and runs 10 episodes of around 55 minutes, approximately 550 minutes in total. Tom McCarthy directed the original pilot, which was deemed "unsatisfactory" and re-shot by Van Patten. Several episodes were 10 minutes too short for HBO, due to the creators not being used to the strict conventions of TV, prompting Benioff/Weiss to write and shoot 100 new pages of inexpensive dialog scenes, (many of the season's serious criss-cross dialogs stem from this.) Shooting took place in Ireland and Malta. The second season was ordered on strength of the reception of the pilot, which had 2.22 mil. North-American viewers. The season's ratings went from 2.2 mil. (ep. 2: The Kingsroad) to 3.04 mil. (ep. 10: Fire and Blood). Finance-monthly.com have assessed that the season earned HBO 171.5 mil. $. The season won 2/13 Emmy award nominations, an AFI award, 1/2 Golden Globe awards and several other honors. Benioff & Weiss returned with Game of Thrones - season 2 (2012); Weiss also executive produced The Specials (2009-14, TV documentary series). In 2011 Dinklage also appeared in A Little Bit of Heaven and Scat's Continental Crack-up: Part 2 (short); Bean in Age of Heroes. Season 1 of Game of Thrones is certified fresh at 90 % with an 8.38/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Game of Thrones - season 1?
No comments:
Post a Comment