Zhukov said:
That said, I'm not sure I like the steady increase of supernatural elements over the course of the series. I find it all gets just a little bit less interesting each time more magic is added. I preferred it when all the dragons were dead and it was just about a people and their troubles rather than an impending struggle of epic forces etc etc. To put it in a pithy sort of way, I find the game of thrones much more interesting than the song of ice and fire.
Anyway, I wanted to ask about the TV show. How does it compare to the books? Is it one of those things where everyone who's read them says, "Yeah, but the book is better"? Does it follow the plot closely or go and do its own thing? Did they have to neuter it to get it onto TV screens? Basically, is it worth watching for someone who's already read the books?
There's been quite a lot of conjecture that Martin will attempt to subvert the apparently inevitable and seemingly very rote supernatural apocalypse as well, although of course that's simply conjecture. It would be a little odd for him to write the series as he has, and abruptly end on "forces of Good vs Darkness" note, but George is nothing if not an odd little fellow. Who apparently dreams of being a Tugboat Captain.
Is the show worth watching for someone who likes the books...
I *love* the books, and have read the series many times over. I also *love* experiencing things I enjoy vicariously through others. Showing my girlfriend a movie I adore that she's never seen, for instance, is almost as good as seeing it again for the first time myself. I get great enjoyment out of imagining or reading the reactions of unspoiled viewers whenever the show trips across a particularly memorable sequence from the book, and manages to present it well. So I've been enjoying the show a lot. In spite of myself.
Because the show has a lot of problems. The good stuff first...the casting is really strong with very few missteps, the budget was high and got higher (although is often strained to the point where the show seems micro-budgeted...crowds are small and big set pieces are often diminished greatly or lost altogether. Prepare thyself for a Khalasar of 40 men, or a Battle of Blackwater Bay with 10 guys milling around at the bottom of a darkly lit wall), and the writing...when it's lifted from the books...is crackling.
The bad...
The show is trying to cram door stopper novels into 10 episode seasons. They'd have been rushed and forced to discard content at twice the length. While they do an admirable job with books I've previously considered completely unfilmable, the show has SERIOUS pacing problems. Watch a show like Mad Men or The Wire, and you'll scenes that are allowed to "breathe". In GoT, it's 20 seconds with this guy, 30 seconds with that guy, now we need 35 seconds at the Wall...go! Go! Not only is the show cutting and slashing the source material with gusto to make it fit, it's not even functioning well as a TV Show at that point. Always lurching from one place to the next, with scenes that often feel thematically disconnected. As to the cutting and slashing, MUCH if not MOST of the elaborate world building is out the window. There's simply no time for it. As a book reader, you can backfill a lot of it inside your head, but show watchers cannot. The show is still pretty complex as shows go, with lots of characters to track, but it has lost a lot in the translation.
Most damning is the propensity of the show runners to re-write characters and sequences to either "make it better television" or "make it more interesting for book readers". While some of Martin's later novels in the series could've used a stern editorial hand, the show writers are VASTLY inferior, and many of the "made for TV" sequences are cringe-inducing. There's the odd good one that maintains both the character and tone of the novels, and I applaud those. Others are just really, really bad. Season 2 in particular is seriously hobbled by off-book sequences, almost all of which are poorly written and agonizing to sit through.
Furthermore, the re-written, re-named or abandoned character roster is growing large, and some of it has fairly significant ramifications for later events. Some are forgivable...characters compressed or combined for the sake of expediency and keeping the audience less confused. Others seem to have been changed for absolutely no reason beyond the fact the show runners enjoy fucking around with the source material. The question to ask is always "Was this a necessary change for the medium?" and/or "Did making this change result in a better *show*?". The answer is almost invariably "no". The best sequences are unerringly the ones lifted almost word for word from the book. Often unspoiled (unsullied) readers will be complaining about how X, Y or Z doesn't make sense, or how character X, Y or Z is showing inconsistent or weird motivations, and they'll chalk it up to "bad writing" on Martin's part, and I have to sit there grinding my teeth because the show either dropped essential context or re-wrote something or someone to the point where it no longer made any particular sense.
All that said, it's a strong enough show. Is it comparable to the best fare on television? Not really. But it's better than average. In some ways its very worth it. To see Dinklage's Tyrion, or Coster-Waldau's Jaime, or Maisie Williams Arya.
Especially to see Charles Dance's Tywin. To hear some of the TRULY excellent music they've composed (their title sequence is phenomenal, and their "Rains of Castamere" as well). The show does an admirable job bringing extraordinarily difficult books to a different format, even if it stumbles frequently. If you have a high tolerance for seeing books arrive on screen in a highly mutilated state, you'll probably enjoy GoT. If not, you can still give it a cursory look, just be prepared.
PS - Also keep in mind the current plan is 7 seasons, which will make the last stretch of the show comically and disastrously rushed unless they simply abandon the source material entirely.
