[Book Spoilers] Too fast paced and.. gratuitous?

[Fredwin]

Man. Season 1 and 2 feel like night and day to me so far. At least the first 7-8 episodes of Season 1 seemed both well-paced and pretty well-balanced. I don't know if this is an editing issue or what, but every scene has been rushed so much that the dialogue never gets a chance to *click*. I think the last scene with Craster and Jon Snow was perhaps the first true scene where you at least get some atmosphere and tension because it moves at a normal speed. I feel like there is so much exposition being throw around that nothing is sticking. I'm afraid that the average viewers that make up the bulk of the show's viewership are going to get very confused and very bored shortly. I think we all want to see this show to it's conclusion so I hope the rest of the season is a bit more fleshed out.

Obviously, book 1 was infinitely easier to adapt to screen than book 2 or the others will be, but they've cut so many things out. How did they end up with what they have?

Also, I don't know what it is, but the sex scenes so far have felt very gratuitous. In season 1 they seemed to have their place just like they do in the book. Even the gay scene, as uncomfortable as that was to watch, seemed to have it's place. The sex scenes in these first 2 episodes so far have felt awkward and made me just kind of roll my eyes. They seem tacked in and not relevant to the plot at all. For instance, Theon's salt-wife? You couldn't even hear the dialogue in that scene which I thought was important. That was a point in the book where you're kind of like "Oh shit, Theon really is a bastard." yet it just came off as sex for sex.

2 other non-related thoughts:

In the book, doesn't Catelyn specfically say not to send THEON to Greyjoy? She doesn't say forget the Iron Islands, does she? Why change that? To make Catelyn look sympathetic to Theon or to make it seem like Theon is going to get brainwashed by his family?

The character Shae, wow. I liked her in the one scene she was in last season, but now she seems so utterly miscast I feel like she's ruining scenes. She's nothing like Shae from the books and she just comes off as nothing BUT a whore. This makes Tyrion come off so much worse than it should.