I pretty much agree with you. The show just isn't working for me. I don't think this book translates well to the screen, at least not in these short 1 hour episodes. There's too many characters, and way too much going on in the book to be covered. Everything feels awkward and forced. The tone of the story and characters change at the drop of a hat. One minute the characters are jovial and happy , the next minute girls are getting raped, kids are thrown out of windows, political conspiracies arise, and there's very little development in between. It's like you said, there's just not enough time for us to get to know these characters and become invested, and build up to those dramatic moments. Plus there was a lot of pointless dialogue in this episode, such as between the King and Jaime. What was that all about?? And there was that scene with Tyrion and what's-his-face. Did we really need these long, pointless dialogue scenes? Like you said, there's way too much exposition going on. It's not necessary to fill the audience in on every bit of back history. And there are more subtle ways to tell that part of the story. I thought they handled it pretty well in the first episode, but it's been downhill since then. I'm also disappointed in some of the set pieces. King's landing is terrible. It looks like tiny, cheap castle rather then a big city. Everything is so clean looking. I know they are on a budget, but couldn't they have added some special effects or something to make it look more believable?? And what's up with the Dothraki? Why do horse people look like they've never seen dirt in their lives? The fake spray-tans and hair gel doesn't help either. Winterwell and the wall look pretty fantastic though. The bright side of this episode was Tyrion and Arya. I can definitely see them becoming my favorite characters in the show. I like Jon as well.
