110 replies to this topic

[The Anti-Targ]

Definitely a step up. Ghost looked great, and TBH I never really cared that Ghost was mute, that's uber-geek stuff and I'm just a regular geek.

I thought it all came together fine. I think they've done it reasonably well by bringing in some history at this point, though I do wonder if Ep4 might not have been a tad late to bring the N00bs up to speed.

[Ahriman]

Best episode so far.

[Eddard house stark]

Excellent. Thought the scenes with sam finally showed the true character of Jon. Great ghost scene. Hodor looks nothing like i would have imagined. Cersei looked like a geisha. The hound is getting underplayed and littlefinger overplayed

[Abaddon]

John (Snow) Doe, on 09 May 2011 - 01:36 AM, said:

Overall, I'm losing faith in this show - it's employing the same formula each week, and there isn't much creativity or risk taking in the writing and directing.  I think a lot of people on this forum should take the view of a non-reader and essentially ask: is this a good show apart from its foundation in great literature?  There is a lot of ratings inflation going on.

I think you're missing that a lot of people understand it's incredibly challenging to translate something to the screen from a book (particularly one written with a POV structure) and they are doing a great job.  While the experience is (naturally) distilled from the book, I firmly believe that if one watches the show, they are getting a great experience (my spouse would agree... I was out of town last week and she re-watched the 3rd episode without me).  They can then go to the book and flesh out back-story without many contradictions at all.

I also think the new scenes have for the most part been very well done, giving us glimpses of character interaction we could never see in the book, and in a very believable way.  I am VERY pleased how well those are coming off so far as they really underscore how well the show creators understand the characters.  Of course, there are a minority of cases where I don't like the changes, but overall, well done D&D.

So yeah, if it's not working for you, that's too bad.  But I think people here are being honest, and I think it's a bit cheeky to suggest there's "ratings inflation" going on, when you're part of the "ratings deflation" crew just as much (I personally think both characterizations are silly; we're all just giving our honest opinions here).

[Abaddon]

As far as my own rating, I would give this a 9.  Probably the best episode for me so far, but I am expecting bigger and better things as the story starts opening up again.  For the record, my ratings so far were 8, 9, 6, and now 9.  (The '6' was maybe a little harsh... I might up it to a 7 on further reflection... but it was easily the most disappointing episode for me so far, so I felt it was appropriate to distance it from the 1st episode by more than one point, and will probably keep it there).

About the only real gripe I have (one obviously shared with many others) is that the Hand's Tourney looked very good but way too poorly attended.  Really, they're spending all of this gold on the purse, but only 20 people show up?  Disappointing.  I understand why, and it didn't ruin the episode or anything, but a really grand Tourney would have taken this one easily to a 10 for me.

I've been excited each week for the next episode with the exception of this weeks, due to my disappointment with last week's.  So that's another indication that it has been the outlier for me so far.  The story is really going to explode starting next week and continuing all of the way through the end, and I can't wait!

[drawkcabi]

I thought it was the best episode so far, but I know the story and characters so well, I can't help but be subjective. It was just that this was the first episode that felt like the books all the way through to me, the previous 3 feeling not having this impact.

Even so, it's been a while since I read the books, I didn't even remember until reading this thread that it was Sandor himself that told his story about his brother burning him.

My only minor complaint is at the point where Tyrion is tossing the coin at Theon and then leaves to go to the brothel outside Winterfell, as the scene switches, it looked like the training yard for castle Black was right outside the walls of Winterfell. It might not look that way on a second viewing if I pay better attention but the point is only because I knew better I wasn't confused, where I think I might have been if I hadn't read the books.

[Bronn Stone]

This one gets an 8 from me.  I think that it was a bit of an error to run two action-light episodes back-to-back.  I would have extended the battle where Jon names Sam his Queen of Love and Beauty.  Jon mowed through three men a little too easily, IMO and the episode needed some good swordplay.  This could have been done easily enough without busting the budget like some elaborate flashback definitely would have.

Got a hint of the complications of dealing with the dogs in the scene with Rast.  Just to have the thing sit on him and growl appeared to have been difficult enough that they didn't really show Ghost and any of the actors in the scene at the same time.  I suspect that just getting that growl took FOREVER.

I knew the decision to have LF reveal the Hound story would be unpopular here, and I'm not crazy about it.  But I do like it as a way to show that LF is privy to all sorts of information that is dangerous and secret.  Also liked that the LF-Sansa dynamic was not too overly creepy at first.  Sophie looked great - she seemed a LOT younger in this scene than in previous ones.  Ser Hugh's ugly demise clearly shook her of her storybook ideas.

I was a little bit disappointed in that while Catelyn apparently saw the Bat of Whent, the Twin Towers of Frey and the Stallion of Bracken in the inn, I could see nothing of them.  I understand that there is a concern that you don't want to make the livery look like superhero costumes, (I serve Lady Whent.  Call me, BATMAN!) but the whole point of livery is that it becomes a uniform in the chaos of battle.

[Mad Queen]

7 because of all the Jon/Sam/Wall goodness, the well-done scene at the inn and most Dany scenes, but everything else, especially the expository dialogue, could have been better. Thumbs up for Gendry too.

[flyingwind66]

I gave a 9! my highest rating yet! I loved this episode  

Sam didn't look or sound like how I imagined but that was all ok because he did such a bang up job with his acting

I thought it was funny how they kept mentioning Ross/Rose... I guess she's that redhead with Tyrion in the first episode lol I bet that totally unspoiled speculation thread is going to think she's way more important than she actually is haha!

I like how they added in that scene with Jon and Sam talking about girls and sex... really helped show Jon's hang up on being a bastard and not fathering any etc. it pretty much replaced Benjen with Sam for this bit of Jon's development as a deeper character.  I'm ok with them delaying that from episode 1 to now haha

Also woot to Ghost being there!

Edited by flyingwind66, 09 May 2011 - 12:31 PM.

[Steinman]

Best so far, but still not a 10.

[Ara]

2

They seem to have held the Hands tourney at my local renaissance fair. That was pretty bad and disappointing as I was looking forward to this part of the series since the beginning.

[Daenerys]

Ara, on 09 May 2011 - 01:22 PM, said:

2

They seem to have held the Hands tourney at my local renaissance fair. That was pretty bad and disappointing as I was looking forward to this part of the series since the beginning.

Agreed, it did look very Ren Faire. Budget, just like so much else. Absence of direwolves is one (lots of movies with all kinds of animals doing all kinds of things). Kings Landing also feels kind of small to me (although I like the area around the blacksmith where they found Gendry) and the Dothraki wedding looked very sparse and unimpressive. But even if they can't show a wide shot of thousands of people, it would have been nice to pack the stands around where the Starks are sitting a little more than 3 deep. Can it really cost that much for a couple dozen extras? I mean most little league games are better attended than this "grand" tournament. If the show does well, hopefully they'll up the budget a little bit to make things feel larger. Remember when the Holodeck was just a small room with bright Tron-style grid lines on the walls?

However, I think rating it down to a 2 is way too harsh, I thought the episode was very good and the small size of the tournament didn't ruin it for me.

Edited by Daenerys, 09 May 2011 - 02:43 PM.

[RAddichio]

I gave ep4 a 9, rather than the 10 for ep3, due to a certain lack of Tyrion screentime.  The imp played by Peter Dinklage electrifies every scene in which he appears.  The rather long scene between Benjen, Tyrion and the recruiting officer was especially entertaining in last week's show. Best lines: "I think he's beginning to like me" from ep3, while Ned Stark's "War is easier than daughters" gets that tribute this week.
Characters gaining more oomph than in the book, due to a strong performance, for me are Petyr Baelish, Samwell and Jaime.

Another reason ep4 scored slightly less, IMHO, is due to the dragged out dragon eggs expository scene.  The fantasy aspect of Game of Thrones plays best when exposed least.  Many new HBO subscribers were lured by the historical drama theme - those viewers in particular will remain enthusiastic for the series as long as dragons and whitewalkers are kept to a minimum.

[ExLibris]

Samwell Tarly boosts it from a 9 to a 10. They've made him a good source of comic relief that seems to be in line with his character...though hearing him tell the tale of how he came to the Night's Watch was very chilling. My girlfriend turned and looked at me and said "That's mean!"

Edited by ExLibris, 09 May 2011 - 03:17 PM.

[Bronn Stone]

ExLibris, on 09 May 2011 - 03:16 PM, said:

Samwell Tarly boosts it from a 9 to a 10. They've made him a good source of comic relief that seems to be in line with his character...though hearing him tell the tale of how he came to the Night's Watch was very chilling. My girlfriend turned and looked at me and said "That's mean!"

Randyll Tarly.  Harsh, but fair.  It is known.

[Gungnir]

Three. It was, simply put, boring to me. I enjoyed reading this part of the book, but something didn't translate well to the screen. I think it was the expository dialogue that really put me off. If they could have flashbacks or something...

Anyway, regardless of the reason or my overall enjoyment of the TV series (high), this episode felt like a flop.

Edited by Gungnir, 09 May 2011 - 03:58 PM.

[Sancho]

John (Snow) Doe, on 09 May 2011 - 01:36 AM, said:

7

This episode was very refreshing after last week's travesty: there was legitimate plot advancement, exposition was laid out by means other than shameless 2-way dialogue, and there were some good action scenes.

I still think this show is dangerously lacking in "wow" factors that will sustain a non-reader audience.  The writers should be smarter about departures from the book - instead of having another exposition scene such as the one with Viserys in the tub, why not have a Dothraki raid on an anonymous village, or a flashback to a battle in Balon Greyjoy's rebellion?  There are better ways to give information and advance the story, ways which could also offer broader appeal.

I agree with moonjump05 that Littlefinger telling the Hound's story was painful - why do we have to learn about everybody and everything this way?  It felt just like last week's terrible scene in which Jaime recounted the executions of Rickard and Bran Stark.  

On that note, Sophie Turner actually earned some points in my book this week - I've been skeptical on her acting thus far, but I think she finally showed some promise.

Overall, I'm losing faith in this show - it's employing the same formula each week, and there isn't much creativity or risk taking in the writing and directing.  I think a lot of people on this forum should take the view of a non-reader and essentially ask: is this a good show apart from its foundation in great literature?  There is a lot of ratings inflation going on.

Completely agree with this. This week's episode is much better paced than last week's but while it has a better handle on all the exposition, the fact remains that there is just too much of it... The issue seems to be that the way the back-story as presented in the books, namely trough memories and dialogue, translates poorly on TV. The exposition was well delivered by the actors, but I don't think the casual viewer wants to hear tales about events long past for an hour. It's TV not radio. They really need to find a more creative way to communicate the richness of the world of Ice&Fire and do so more judiciously. (And yes, I am aware of how hard this is to do in only 10 episodes, given the scope of the source material). Still, speaking as a fan, I did enjoy the episode. I just hope that non-fans feel the same.

[Daenerys]

Highest rated episode so far. (update: scores dropped a bit)

Chart: http://www.chartgo.c...o?id=b41a0f22aa (update: added Nielsen ratings)

----------------------

Episode poll ratings (minimum 100 votes, top and bottom 5% thrown out):

Episode 101 "Winter Is Coming" - 7.8
Episode 102 "The Kingsroad" - 8.2
Episode 103 "Lord Snow" - 7.9
Episode 104 "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" - 8.2

Overall series average - 8.0

Edited by Daenerys, 10 May 2011 - 01:26 PM.

[Evrach]

Great episode.
Has someone seen it with subtitle and noted down the names of the dragons Viserys is speaking into his bath, please?

Thank you very much.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

I disagree with some of you, the exposition is a necessary evil. I find it rather annoying, but the people who I'm watching it with (new viewers) appreciate it. Its really impossible to tell the story without it (of course sometimes it could be delivered better, but its definitely necessary and overall doesn't hurt the show).