I watched the premiere last night and enjoyed it, especially with the aid of the very helpful viewer guide that gave me just enough backstory on who is who. A lot of exposition but that's fine for the introductory episodes. I was put off a little by the 'savage brown dude and his civilized white virgin' trope but hopefully Drogo's character will have more than one dimension as the series goes on.

I haven't read the books but will pick up the first one after this season completely airs; from what I've read HBO is trying to map one book/season.

Not yet.. I'm going to wait until three or so are queued up and give it a shot.

I don't like watching episode to episode very much for serial type shows. One drawback, for example, is that I just watched Mad Men season 4 on Netflix and and don't really have anyone to talk to about it.

Holy cow, I hadn't heard that, jamaro. That's a lot of plot / storylines to fit in each season. George RR Martin was pretty heavily involved though so hopefully that will work.

I'm surprised at how well they've nailed it so far! The only character who is different than I've pictured him is Jaime. But I think Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is doing a great job.

What what? I missed this somehow! I don't have HBO. I'm just hanging out waiting and waiting for A Dance with Dragons. And now I guess for the DVDs of this to hit Netflix.

Yeah, I'm not into fantasy stuff at all, either, but I watched it and enjoyed it. I just kept telling myself that it was telling a piece of history that I know very little about, sort of like Rome did. Sometimes having slept through world history class pays off.

I pushed for HBO just for this show (bonus: Treme) because I'm the fantasy nerd. My husband enjoyed it too, though.

Anyway, I was really pleased with the adaptation. On the whole I like the casting. Most of the grumbling I have seen online is how Catelyn is too old. I think that decision works, though.

Husband described Jaime as the Roger Sterling of the story, which cracked me up and is also kind of perceptive.

I'm interested to see how the whole first book fits into one season. That's a lot of plot!

I haven't read the books or seen the show, but last week's New Yorker had a really interesting story about the author and his community and particularly the subsector of his reader base that's angry and near-violent over the slowness with which he's writing.

near-violent over the slowness with which he's writing

I like this because it makes it sound like he's writing.

I've read the books a few times and also keen to see how they compress it.

I am so seriously into this "book I," which I've been listening to, that I signed us up for HBO just to catch this series. We DVR'd the first episode and I watched it last night. Really, really well done. The casting is great. I was put off by Catelyn's casting at first too, but decided pretty quickly it made sense. I'm a little more put off by the change in her dialogue . . . she is much more political in the book than in the HBO episode so far -- but the changes do play up her devotion to her family, which was a bit more conflicted in the book.

Looking forward to seeing more of the other dire wolves, not just Bran's. A couple should play critical roles in the next episode.

I liked it so much I left the episode up on the DVR as I play with the idea of figuring out if it is possible to transfer it to a storage medium.

fleacircus, hahahaha.

While they were making the HBO series, I was hearing howls of protest from friends who were really mad he was involved with the filming, which is exactly the opposite normal reaction (and I kinda agreed with them, but the show looks good so maybe it paid off?).

Oh who am I kidding? I broke down and watched it tonight. I liked it. They needed to distinguish Rob/Theon/Jon from each other a little better though, in terms of how the actors look. And I'm not sure if the books need even more gratuitous boobage.