TV: "Game of Thrones" Premiere

I know, I know, I'm a little slow on the uptake here since it premiered last Sunday. I was watching "Human Planet" right before it. Here are my abbreviated thoughts.

• There is real casting genius at work here. Let me count the ways:
• Sean Bean as Eddard Stark - oh, Ned, knowing the path you are on and that regardless of the (many) opportunities to do the smart thing you insist on doing the right, honorable thing. It's part of the reason why I love your character and yet get so frustrated with you.
• Peter Dinklage as Tyrion - your dead-pan delivery is right on, and a dwarven alcoholic man-whore has never looked so good. Really looking forward to his interactions with Jon Snow, the clansmen, Bronn and Jaime.
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime - Jaime is one of the characters of this series that I find the most intriguing, and already I am well satisfied with how dead on this casting went. "The things I do for love..." Perfection. One of the characters that I hated initially and slowly warmed up to (which is crazy considering he threw Bran out a window, but bear with me).
• Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey - this kid didn't even open his damn mouth but he seethed impunity and I already want to punch him in the face.
• Harry Lloyd as Viserys - repulsive on a whole other level. Well done.
• I loved that we are introduced to the characters in a natural way. The cast uses names as they would in natural conversation, not something like "Oh hell fellow character! Let me introduce you to this character!"
• The costume design is stellar.
• I LOVE how they portray the wights - the blue eyed snow zombies. You really get the sense of "shit's about to get real!" I can't wait to see how they show us the Others.
• The environments are spectacular and really capture the sense of scale that this series requires.
• The title sequence was a great surprise. I really enjoyed it.
• There are a few things that didn't quite work for me. 
• One, Peter Dinklage is far too good-looking to be Tyrion and Sandor Clegane is supposed to be very scarred and scary-looking. His character revolves around his ugliness. I'm guessing they toned it down for financial reasons and to make them more appealing to mainstream audiences.
• The Drogo and Daenerys love scene was much more rape-y than I recall in the book. If I recall correctly, Daenerys makes him look at her and eventually says "yes" so he doesn't consider her as horsemeat, and he is more tender with her. It's a really important point in the book where we get a sense of who Drogo is as a man and not just as leader of the Dothraki. So I think this was a real missed opportunity for HBO. Hopefully in the next few episodes they show that Drogo can be a sympathetic character, so that we believe it when Daenerys falls in love with him (and ends up making some big sacrifices for him).
• Also with Daenerys and Drogo, the gift of the horse is a big deal to her but she just says the horse is beautiful and nothing more. For her that horse represents a lot, including a sense of belonging and freedom.
• Maybe it's just me but I imagined Winterfell to be in more forest, like across the Wall. Not a huge deal but threw me a bit.
• I totally missed Rickon! Apparently he was there though I didn't notice him.
• MOAR DIREWOLVES PLS.

Overall, I thought it was very true to the series. Don't get me wrong. There is a LOT of ground to cover. There is an immense cast of characters and they all have their flaws. Some are downright evil. GRRM loves to torture his characters and his readers (in a good way). I hope that the people who aren't familiar with the story will stick it out, because when things get into full swing they won't regret it. It had the gravitas that is its due. Can't wait to watch the next episode!