I Am DB

Today is the first day of Spring. But the cold winds are rising.

Many of you know that I was one of countless people around the globe who was deeply invested in the show Lost. You need only glide your cursor over to the categories dropdown to see that this very site includes 59 archived posts dedicated to the series. That’s three seasons worth of commentary. And ever since Lost ended in May 2010, people have been asking me if I’ve found a show to replace it. The answer is no, not exactly. Lost was unique in the way it invited, for me at least, ongoing speculation and commentary. It was a multifaceted puzzle that demanded obsessive analysis. I haven’t come across anything since that has inspired the like. Which is sort of okay with me, as it was a bitch to write those things every week. A fun bitch, but a bitch nonetheless. Besides, it’s been less than two years since the show ended. Maybe something will come along eventually that occupies the same terrain.

However, none of this is to say that I haven’t found new shows to love in the last couple of years. The Walking Dead just wrapped up its second season on Sunday night, and goddamn if they didn’t hit a hell of stride in the final few installments. I’ve been enjoying that show immensely, and look forward to season three this fall. Homeland had a superb first season last year, centered around a truly outstanding performance by Claire Danes that won her a Golden Globe in January and will probably win her an Emmy later this year, just in time for the second season to begin. I have no idea how they’re going to move forward with the two main characters from this point, and I can’t wait to see.

But the best new show I’ve taken up in the last couple of years, and the one which most closely matches Lost in terms of how much time I spend thinking about it and how eager I am for it to start up again, is Game of Thrones. When the show debuted on HBO last spring, I had never heard of the book series it was based on – A Song of Ice and Fire – or its author, George R.R. Martin, though I quickly learned that both Martin and his series were quite well known and popular. The fifth book was released last summer, and I think two more are planned. Season one of the show just hit DVD last week. Season two premieres on April 1, and the hype machine is in full swing with a number of commercials and behind the scenes material available online and running on HBO. It’s also currently on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, as seen above.

I started watching the show in a vacuum, but slowly began to discover that other friends were caught up as well. Some were longtime readers of Martin’s books, others were initiated by the series as I was, and then ran for the books and began plowing through them. I’m attempting a more disciplined approach. Having been so wrapped up in the show and stunned by some of its plot developments, I decided not to read ahead, but rather to continue letting the show be my first exposure to the developing story. But I wanted to dive deeper into Martin’s world, so I started reading the first book last month, figuring it would be a good way to quench my thirst when the marketing campaign for season two was forging ahead and my excitement would be hitting fever pitch. I’m about 150 pages from the end, and have found the books to be a great way of helping me gain a better foothold of the dense world Martin created. While there are of course differences between the book and the show, I’ve been surprised and impressed at how closely the series has held to the written word. Season one of the show covers the first book, also called Game of Thrones (or to be precise, A Game of Thrones – 807 pages). From what I understand, season two will follow suit, covering the second book, A Clash of Kings (969 pages). I will try to stick with my process as well, waiting until early 2013 to read that book. The show creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have suggested that the third book, A Storm of Swords (1,128 pages), might prove too much to handle in a single season of ten episodes, requiring them to adapt it over the course of two seasons. My reading the books at such a measured pace is already testing my fortitude. I don’t know how I’ll handle having to divide reading A Storm of Swords over a two year span…or just waiting two years until the full adaptation has aired to even begin the book. And then there will still be more to go. What’s a devoted fan to do?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Friends who don’t have cable or watch current TV but instead catch up with series via Netflix sometimes ask me to recommend a new show worth watching. Right now, my advice is easily Game of Thrones. Provided, of course, that you have the stomach for a little violence. Nothing too graphic…the occasional decapitation (usually of men, but even a horse gets the broadsword),  or one character slicing another’s throat and then ripping out his tongue through the wound….you know…mild stuff like that. You can’t be a prude about sex either, cause there’s lots of that. One notable scene in season one finds a key supporting character – who is, among other things, the proprietor of a whorehouse – explaining his backstory to a pair of new prostitutes while watching them show off their skills by going down on each other. Someone, somewhere at some point coined the term “sexposition” to describe this tactic. I don’t mean to imply that Game of Thrones is a constant orgy of sex and violence, but be prepared for full frontal (men and women) and the occasional slicing off of a head or spike to the throat. It’s all in the service of great storytelling.

For the uninitiated, I should probably give a brief description, though this is not a series that lends itself to succinct summarization. It’s fantasy, but realistic, gritty fantasy. Magic exists, but on the periphery, at least in the first season and book. It starts to show itself more toward the end, and given the final image of season one, I imagine we’ll be seeing more of it moving forward. The setting is a land known as Westeros, comprised of Seven Kingdoms but united under one ruler. As the series begins, that ruler is Robert Baratheon, who led a rebellion against the previous king, Aerys Targaryen. There is a rich backstory that gets parsed out as the series progresses, but to keep things simple: Robert’s second-in-command dies mysteriously, and so the king seeks out his old friend and dear comrade Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark….yeah, okay, this isn’t gonna work. Way too much explanation required to set the scene adequately. But don’t be intimidated by that. It’s fun to keep all the pieces straight, and there are plenty of resources online – some on HBO.com – to help you familiarize yourself with the many characters and the history of Westeros. Just trust me when I say, the show kicks ass. Kings, knights, lords, warrior princesses, bastards, wolves, zombies (sort of), lust, incest, power plays, betrayal, secrets, lies, battles, assassination attempts, honor, brotherhood. The plotting is richly detailed and imaginative, full of intrigue and excitement. And there’s a fantastic ensemble of actors embodying characters you love to love and others that you love to hate. Sean Bean as Ned Stark, honorable to a fault. Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont, a disgraced knight living in exile and protecting the daughter of the murdered Targaryen king. Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey Baratheon, heir to the Iron Throne, and an unimaginable little asshole. Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister, the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms. Kit Harrington as Jon Snow, Ned’s bastard son seeking a life of honor as a brother of the Night’s Watch, which protects the realm from their base along a massive, towering wall of ice. Conleth Hill as Lord Varys, a member of the king’s council who has spies everywhere and trades in secrets. And so many more, though probably none as enjoyable to watch as Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister, Tywin’s dwarf son, brother of the queen, ever reliant on his intelligence and good humor to keep him alive in a tall man’s world. Dinklage has already won an Emmy and Golden Globe for the role. You don’t need more than the first two episodes to see why.

Since the show defies easy encapsulation, here’s one of the first season’s trailers to give you a taste.

(Oh, and if you watch The Simpsons but didn’t get this couch gag a few weeks ago, see the opening credits for Game of Thrones.)

What really elevated the show for me, by the end of season one, was the creative risks it took with its characters: namely the fact that it wasn’t afraid to kill them. Before the first season ends, characters I expected to be following for quite some time had been eliminated. This follows what Martin does in his books, of course, which is risky enough, but it seems even more of a danger in a TV show, where viewers identify not just with characters but also with the actors playing them. The end of season one left all the players extremely well positioned heading into the next set of episodes, and the several commercials promoting this impending season show that the story only stands to get better.

So why am I writing this? I’m not sure. I think I just wanted another outlet for my anticipation. Or I felt the post title was too good to go to waste. Or simply because it gives me the opportunity to recommend the show to those not already hooked. If you’re looking to begin a new series, my advice is to make it Game of Thrones. You’ll probably have no luck getting it on Netflix at the moment, but find another way. Buy it, or subscribe to HBO, or find a friend with HBO to watch with, or steal a friend’s HBO GO password, or get an illegal cable hook up or do something else. Just get yourself to Westeros. You’ll never be so grateful for a long winter.