It's hard for me to judge this on such universal terms. As a stand-alone TV show episode, it was probably an 8 or 9. As an adaptation of the books, squarely a 5. I landed somewhere in between, making my overall a 6. Obviously, a 6 is rather closer to 5 than 9. I think this is attributable to the fact that there were so many detail changes from the books (Eyrie, Ned fighting, Renly gets a hummer, etc.) that I didn't think improved the source material...only cheapened it somehow. I'm still irked by the fact that HBO felt the need to beat us over the head with Renly & Loras' relationship. That smacks of sensationalism & not particularly good story-telling. ZOMG, THEY'RE HAVING GAY ORAL SEX!!! It's so EDGY!!! The peeps will love it!!! The same could be said of Jory's demise. ZOMG, Sean Bean is a big star, we gotta get him fighting!!! The peeps will love it!!! Ugh... Put me in the "it was good, but not nearly as good as it should have been" bucket, please.
