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Episode screening in London last night


Werthead

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A number of the GoT actors have been tweeting that they saw the first two episodes of Thrones last night at a special screening in Soho in London. One commentator on WiC has also been talking about it (though he only said "It was brilliant,"). Everyone seems to agree it's awesome. Okay, they may be biased, but it's still good to hear an early positive reception.

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spielberg and everyone else said the phantom menace was brilliant after first screening.

...and many did love it.

Of course we expect the actors to say it was good, they are biased. It's when they go the extra yard and say things like, "brilliant", that gives us hope.

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One commentator on WiC has also been talking about it (though he only said "It was brilliant,").

This commentator has added some more notes, saying that Bean and Fairley are great, and really drive the show in the first two eps, and that production values are excellent. Also claims that season 2 has been given the go-ahead by HBO.

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This is the same person who alleged there would be tickets available to the public, which was absolutely untrue.

I would take what he says, re: second season, with a grain or two of salt. I'm not sure what his relation is to the production, but just knowing that there was a screening and possibly (possibly) watching it don't really mean he's in the the know about anything else connected to the business-side of things.

I do know many people involved in the production are quite confident about the show going forward (not all of them, though), but not a one has hinted that the decision is already made.

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If there was already a firm decision re: season two, I imagine that HBO would have announced it. They have every reason to broadcast a decision like that, because it encourages people to tune it to season one knowing that it won't go the way of Firefly.

Makes no sense. If HBO wants to use a season 2 greenlight as marketing, they'd probably announce it after the first episode airs, when the show's hype will be near its max, just like they did with 'Treme' and 'Boardwalk Empire'. Not saying what the person wrote is true, of course. I didn't know that he'd claimed tickets would be available to the public for the episode 1 & 2 screening, and even without that it would still be taking it on faith.

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As we've said before, it is very possible (but definitely not 100% confirmed) that HBO has 'amberlit' Season 2 already, and I think it's clear they did something similar for Boardwalk Empire, Treme, True Blood and, back in the day, Rome and Deadwood. The initial investment in a series of this kind is huge, and the studio wants to make that money back even if the series bombs in the ratings (which none of those shows really did). Giving the show a significant lead-time of episodes (a minimum of 2 seasons) increases confidence in the series for people to watch it or, later on, buy box sets and so forth, with a view to a longer-term profit over many years of DVD sales or iTunes downloads and so on. In addition, if the ratings are not great and they decide to cancel, this means they can give the writers more time to craft a finale to the series (which worked for Rome, but would be much harder for Thrones, but not impossible) to create a complete product.

So there may be an informal understanding that Season 2 will be greenlit unless Season 1 is a complete and total critical and commercial failure of quite impressive magnitude, but that's still not 100% confirmation that there will be a Season 2. I can understand people involved in the production, maybe moreso friends and contacts not versed in how these things work, assuming that S2 has been greenlit based on that.

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Makes no sense. If HBO wants to use a season 2 greenlight as marketing, they'd probably announce it after the first episode airs, when the show's hype will be near its max, just like they did with 'Treme' and 'Boardwalk Empire'.

I disagree. With a serialized show that requires a lot of upfront commitment from the audience, there's no benefit to keeping the audience in suspense about whether the second season will be renewed or not. People will refrain from getting involved in the show if they think there's a chance that it won't get picked up. So the timing of an announcement isn't the important thing, the fact of a second season renewal is the important thing.

I think Werthead is probably right that GOT will be renewed unless the pilot is an utter disaster. But that doesn't mean that a decision has been made yet.

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I disagree. With a serialized show that requires a lot of upfront commitment from the audience, there's no benefit to keeping the audience in suspense about whether the second season will be renewed or not. People will refrain from getting involved in the show if they think there's a chance that it won't get picked up. So the timing of an announcement isn't the important thing, the fact of a second season renewal is the important thing.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Not enough people are paying attention right now for that type of announcement to have much effect. The people who are paying attention are the ones interested enough to probably want to watch the show, anyway. I don't even know if a season 2 pickup will make that much difference, anyway, but you use it in the wake of the first episode to try and make the show sound like more of a hit. But HBO is already going to market the show like a premiere, gold-plated franchise (cause it is), the type of thing people will want to see cause it's the big shiznit, and not a show that's desperate for an audience. Of course, every show is going to want to be portrayed sort of that way, but some are going to come across more authentic because they actually are a big deal. People probably aren't going to need to be convinced that the show is going to be around, and if the people who are cautious about new shows because they don't want to get invested in a soon-to-be-cancelled show don't watch the first episode to wait and see which shows stick, the timing of the announcement after the first episode will would probably work out fine. Maybe you could announce it before the first episode airs, but I just don't think it sounds quite right to do that. But you definitely don't do it two months before: people need to be made aware the show actually exists, first.

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Not enough people are paying attention right now for that type of announcement to have much effect.

I'm not proposing that HBO would announce the decision once and then not mention it again. I'm saying that they would announce it once, and then feature that heavily in their promotional material. You might as well say that announcing the premiere date in January was a mistake because the average fan doesn't follow news from the TCA press tour.

The reason why this almost never happens is because the networks want to know how a show is going to do before they make a decision re: renewal.

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I'm not proposing that HBO would announce the decision once and then not mention it again. I'm saying that they would announce it once, and then feature that heavily in their promotional material. You might as well say that announcing the premiere date in January was a mistake because the average fan doesn't follow news from the TCA press tour.

The reason why this almost never happens is because the networks want to know how a show is going to do before they make a decision re: renewal.

Yeah, network's are usually going to wait a few episodes before deciding to give a second season go-ahead, but nobody really tends to use stuff like that in their promotions. I'm not really sure how you'd work that in. Do they have an announcement at the end of a commercial: "season 2 already greenlighted!" They usually just release that stuff to the entertainment press, and of course they're not going to bother running a story about it more than once. I just don't really see it as that big of a promotional tool, anyway.

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I just don't really see it as that big of a promotional tool, anyway.

I don't think it's a huge promotional tool either. That's why it makes no sense to hold back information like that for months. It wouldn't do them any good, and may hurt the ratings a little bit.

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Well someone i know from another forum was at the screening and from what he said it's very impressive. Tyrion and Arya were great fit in terms of casting, Cat has been unfortunately softned up a bit from what she is in the books and Harry Lloyd as Viserys is amazing. All in all he was very impressed and the series is dark and gritty and takes itself very seriously.

Oh and there was a mention of the opening credits being great and that they will make fans happy.

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