Game of Thrones: Season 1

Game of Thrones takes on a genre that seems rather difficult to pull off right, that being fantasy, and it's an even greater challenge given that this one takes itself in a dead serious fashion. The first season really is the set up and perhaps a few kinks had to be worked, with any show really, but there are too many. The main kink here is the use of nudity which in this case goes past that border of being needed for the story, then right across the next border to being more than a little ridiculous. This element of the series, though it obviously sticks out, actually does not make up as much screentime as popular sentiment would suggest, and the series toned it down further in the succeeding seasons. Past that though the show pretty much found its mark from the first season. Now this season is technically even more intertwined than later seasons in that the connections are given more physical distance in the later seasons, therefore far more separated by when they do appear on screen. This season there is far less of the set locations/set of characters found in the later seasons. Now on to the actually show which is excellent. Now purely on the technical side of things the show is phenomenal in terms of production and costume design, makeup, music, one can't fault it there. The same goes for the acting which only has a few minor weak links most everyone is good and so many are great. Now as for the story itself, which has strong source material, the show does a great job in terms of its adaptation. It keeps pretty much all of the strength, while limiting exposition a bit, yet still creates the complex and captivating world it does which is always defined by character. In some regards the show even trumps the novel, mostly in the realization of certain characters. The show succeeds in not only making a fantasy world seem real, but finds the emotional elements of it all in heartbreaking detail. The story is truly moving and the season as a whole almost flawlessly sets up what is to come while being wholly compelling on its own as well.
5/5