Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 1 "Winter Is Coming"

Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 1 "Winter Is Coming"

April 17, 2011

Oh my! What an incredible beginning to what will become my favorite television series to date. Based on the insanely popular Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by George Martin, David Benioff and D.B Weiss undertook a massive mission to bring this series to the small screen. It could have been an epic failure, but instead this was a big win for HBO and all the audiences worldwide. This series has so much to dissect, so much meaning it brings to the screen. Every episode in this series tells an individual story while focusing on a main arc and that is ripe for quality characterization.

One thing I noticed right away is the look of the series. I never watched the series in HD, but I can still see how immense the production value is. The producers really care for their new baby and that includes giving the series the best look possible. I loved the cinematic presentation with the lavish production design, fantastic costumes, and a rousing orchestral score by composer Ramin Djwadi. The opening title sequence is a thing of beauty that illustrates the setting and characters of the season and it’s a really genius idea, honestly. Fair warning here. The series is presented as a movie, so expect tons of nudity, violence, gore, cursing, and lots of graphic imagery in general. It is definitely a fantasy for adults. Lord of the Rings on mega steroids!

This episode is designed to introduce us to the main characters we will come to associate with over the course of the series. Eddard ‘Ned” Stark (Sean Bean) rules the northern part of the kingdom called Westeros. He lives in Winterfell with his wife, Cat (Michelle Fairley) and his five children; the eldest son Robb (Richard Madden), the princess-in-training Sansa (Sophie Turner), the tomboyish Arya (Maisie Williams), the peeping Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), and the young Rickon. A bastard, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) lives with the family and he is about to fulfill his vows with the Night Watch, an organization bent on keeping the peace of Westeros by guarding the wall that borders the northern part of the kingdom with the icelands of the North. Everyone’s life will change after two events. The first event is when a deserter from the Night Watch claims the White Walkers (which are zombies, more or less) returned. The second event is when King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) pays a visit to Ned at Winterfell. King Robert brings his wife Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), his son Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), and the two Lannister siblings; the warrior Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and the small, sarcastic Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). Robert wants Ned to go to the kingdom’s capital-King’s Landing where he will be Robert’s new Hand (or chief advisor) and investigate the death of his prior Hand, Jon Arryn. Meanwhile, we are introduced to more characters across the Narrow Sea. Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) is a descendant of the Mad King whom King Robert overthrew. Viserys wants to take the kingdom back for himself, but he needs to make an alliance with the Dothraki horde-a group of nomad warrior people led by Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa). In order to form this alliance, he wants to use his sister Danys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) as a bargaining chip.

Wow, that was a lot of plot to sum up! It’s funny because this plot summary only describes the first 15-20 minutes of this dense episode. While the action scenes are mighty impressive, this show makes use of fantastic monologue. I found surprising at first how talkative the show is. Fortunately, the dialogue is interesting and the actors generally carry them well. It allows these actors to chew some scenery.

Speaking of actors, the show has a zillion brand names that delivered very strong, effective performances. The big veterans are Bean, Dinklage, and Addy. All bring depth to their roles. I really liked Dinklage’s performance. His sarcasm is through-the-roof hilarious. Addy delivers his dialogue like no one else does. Maisie Williams is a real find as Arya Stark. Child actors are hit-or-miss for me, but sometimes I don’t even see her as a child actress with this role. There were more characters that are important that I wasn’t able to describe here such as Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont, a veteran soldier allied with the Targaryens, and Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy, a steward for the Starks.

Overall, “A Winter Is Coming” is a very good introductory episode to the immensely popular Game of Thrones. It’s an episode marked with violence and dark themes of death and even incest. Within fifteen minutes, there are two beheadings. That tells you right off the bat what is in store for you. The ending is a dandy of a cliffhanger. It really shows how despicable the Lannisters are and it gets worst (or better from a viewer’s standpoint) from there. This show possesses cinematic quality due to its lavish production design, great makeup/costumes, the broad scope of the show, the fantastic acting from the all-star cast. I had some issues with the plot regarding Viserys. His character often annoyed me and made my unsympathetic to his cause, although Emilia Clarke does an amazing job. Favorite scenes of mine include: the Stark clan rescuing the direwolves, Ned making Bran watch a beheading, anything with Peter Dinklage, and the interaction between Jon Snow and King Robert. It gets better from here, so be ready!

My Grade: A-