Right from the start Game of Thrones is beautifully well made. As a viewer you would not necessarily know what is going on unless you had read the books but the quality of production is clear straight away. The filming is of very high standard, the sets, costumes, music etc are all spot on. Most of all it is the dialogue, acting and the plot which sets this show way above the normal standard of TV shows. The first episode begins with the quality already all there to see in all these respects.
One negative of this first episode is that there perhaps could have been some clearer and more logical depiction of the passage of time. Dialogue explains a month has passed but this passage of time is unclear in its presentation. Some things seem to have needed a different passage of time. The direwolves found as tiny pups at the start remain very small right to the last scene before appearing as much larger animals at the start of episode 2 which is meant to be only a few weeks later. This is actually a 'fault' of the book 'A Game of Thrones', the first of author GRR Martin's great 'A Song of Ice and Fire' book series. The first book is very faithfully adapted in season 1 (apart from older ages for characters in the series than in the books) and I feel the passage of time could have actually been improved. Martin's book depicts each chapter from a different character's point of view. This is brilliant dramatically and artistically but it does not lend itself to neat chronological progress as things seem to progress at slightly different rates for different characters or at least the passage of weeks and months is not fully clear. For the series it would be better in my view if they showed the initial events of the prologue and the direwolf pups being found as happening around the same time before showing that many months have passed before Jon Arryn's death and initial events at Winterfell with the royal visit then shown to happen later having had time to travel up from King's Landing. That way the pups could have grown already in order that they can believably be normal wolf size (though not full grown direwolf yet) for episode 2 and it would have given a better feeling of time progressing from Jon Arryn's death to the royal visit.
The only other issue is this episode understandably has to introduce a lot of characters, settings and set up the storyline so it is quite heavily laden to take in and fully enjoy when you first see it, unless you have read the first book. It is much more enjoyable re-watching it when you know how it all pans out.
Those aspects means it is not one of the series best episodes but it is excellent in establishing the series roots. The settings and characters are presented very effectively and the story is quite absorbing by halfway through the episode.
It is difficult to pick out any particular actor. The ensemble cast all deliver top performances. Sean Bean immediately makes Ned Stark a fully three dimensional character you are sympathising with and Kit Harrington as Jon Snow gets you on his side from the beginning too. Cersei and Viserys immediately make your skin crawl while Mark Addy and Peter Dinklage make you laugh as King Robert and Tyrion. I feel Tyrion is slightly less sympathetically presented in this episode than he is in the book but he goes on in later episodes to be presented more favourably.
The differing ages of characters from the books to the series is quite a big difference. In the books Jon and Robb are 14, Dany is 13, Joffrey is 12, Sansa is 11, Bran is only 7 and Rickon is 3 whilst Ned, Robert, Cat, Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion are all only meant to be mid thirties at most! It is a 'double edged sword' because in some ways I think it would have been nice and made sense for the ages and timescales to be the same as in the book but it was much easier to present some of the events with older actors as the Stark children and they make it all work really well. I am happy we got the cast we did.
The cliffhanger at the end of the episode is done to perfection and is the hook that grabs you. From that point I was on board 100% and could not wait for the second episode.
8.5/10
One negative of this first episode is that there perhaps could have been some clearer and more logical depiction of the passage of time. Dialogue explains a month has passed but this passage of time is unclear in its presentation. Some things seem to have needed a different passage of time. The direwolves found as tiny pups at the start remain very small right to the last scene before appearing as much larger animals at the start of episode 2 which is meant to be only a few weeks later. This is actually a 'fault' of the book 'A Game of Thrones', the first of author GRR Martin's great 'A Song of Ice and Fire' book series. The first book is very faithfully adapted in season 1 (apart from older ages for characters in the series than in the books) and I feel the passage of time could have actually been improved. Martin's book depicts each chapter from a different character's point of view. This is brilliant dramatically and artistically but it does not lend itself to neat chronological progress as things seem to progress at slightly different rates for different characters or at least the passage of weeks and months is not fully clear. For the series it would be better in my view if they showed the initial events of the prologue and the direwolf pups being found as happening around the same time before showing that many months have passed before Jon Arryn's death and initial events at Winterfell with the royal visit then shown to happen later having had time to travel up from King's Landing. That way the pups could have grown already in order that they can believably be normal wolf size (though not full grown direwolf yet) for episode 2 and it would have given a better feeling of time progressing from Jon Arryn's death to the royal visit.
The only other issue is this episode understandably has to introduce a lot of characters, settings and set up the storyline so it is quite heavily laden to take in and fully enjoy when you first see it, unless you have read the first book. It is much more enjoyable re-watching it when you know how it all pans out.
Those aspects means it is not one of the series best episodes but it is excellent in establishing the series roots. The settings and characters are presented very effectively and the story is quite absorbing by halfway through the episode.
It is difficult to pick out any particular actor. The ensemble cast all deliver top performances. Sean Bean immediately makes Ned Stark a fully three dimensional character you are sympathising with and Kit Harrington as Jon Snow gets you on his side from the beginning too. Cersei and Viserys immediately make your skin crawl while Mark Addy and Peter Dinklage make you laugh as King Robert and Tyrion. I feel Tyrion is slightly less sympathetically presented in this episode than he is in the book but he goes on in later episodes to be presented more favourably.
The differing ages of characters from the books to the series is quite a big difference. In the books Jon and Robb are 14, Dany is 13, Joffrey is 12, Sansa is 11, Bran is only 7 and Rickon is 3 whilst Ned, Robert, Cat, Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion are all only meant to be mid thirties at most! It is a 'double edged sword' because in some ways I think it would have been nice and made sense for the ages and timescales to be the same as in the book but it was much easier to present some of the events with older actors as the Stark children and they make it all work really well. I am happy we got the cast we did.
The cliffhanger at the end of the episode is done to perfection and is the hook that grabs you. From that point I was on board 100% and could not wait for the second episode.
8.5/10