Superb, well written series, strong acting, has something for everyone

Heard about this HBO series through some friends, they knew I would like this genre, and similar to Lord of the Rings, except not as much fantasy, and more history. Well, I watched one episode, then another. The main characters are SOLID and excellent actors. I had to buy the DVD series, since I did not have HBO, and could not keep bugging my friends to watch their TV much more. This series has many intriguing characters, I think it has 15 primary characters, interwoven motives for seeking power, fame, and fortune to ascend to the throne. Characters one can not assume, they are what they seem, their lives and ambitions change thru the series. Alliances form, integrity is challenged, evil threatens. This is a dark, in your face, bruttaly honest portrayal of life during this period. Lust, sex, incest, rape, brutality, murder, violence.....were prevalent in those times. Hollywood up to now, tended to suppress this, and window dress movies of this period to nothing more than action movies, with violence, maybe a few love stories, and great video landscapes with some computer generated imagery....which BTW, is the genre we enjoy, no kidding each other. Just Game of Thrones takes it beyond the cimenamatography, and famous actors.....goes into the family struture, marriages, families, and normal challenges they face, and then beyond, how the throne impacts their daily decisions, overriding family trust, friendships, to the primary alliances formed, and dedication necessary to protect the throne. Siblings are raised, marriages are formed, families are merged....all for the power of the throne....lives either embrace this need willingly or begrudgingly, or they reject it partially or completely.....and not always do characters STAY with their initial perception or vision of what they want to do...they tend to morph or adapt to situations, based on brutal deaths of friends and family, betrayals, resentment, anger, jealousy....and often the YOUNGER characters start to mature. Their lives adapt to their surroundings....bastards and dwarves in time, develop galvanized personnas....strength is gained through survival, and insight gained by trauma, both psychologically, and physically over time. There are many plots, and characters developing.....it is not easy to always comprehend the subtle actions, tasks, and situations that mean nothing at first, but become the foundations later for their beliefs, and form who they are and how they change in time. The DVD series allows you to go back and re-watch these episodes to reidentify these subtleties, that may have been overlooked and missed if just watching the single HBO episode. Bonus disk gives insight to each of the characters, I think this is a vital asset to understanding the series better, and probably necessary to watch BEFORE watching the series, and maybe AGAIN about 4 episodes in, to strengthen your understanding of motives, relationships, families and just name recognition of the characters. Acting is top notch. That alone, makes this a must see DVD set.

A "Too good to be true" price on a series worth searching for. See it now!

I had seen bits and pieces of this series on HBO and liked what I saw. I purchased it on e-bay and from the time I found it in my mail box, to the time I went to bed that night I had already watched all of disc one and part of disc two (and gotten my girlfriend hooked in the process). Now I can hardly wait for us to find time to watch more.

As for the series itself:

First, this is an HBO series and does contain some nudity and simulated sex and thus, IS NOT FOR CHILDREN!!! It also contains scenes with violence and blood.

This is a fantasy world that is most defenately medevil. It has a similar look to the Hobbit movies only much grittier. It also lacks their fantasy aspect though it does have a supernatural element.

The main story line revolves around a king, his wife and family, his advisors and the relms that are under his controle as well as his enemies that seek to change all that. There is much division between and within the ruling families. Each of the relms has it's own feel, chalenges and history. Following who belongs to which family and other relationships are made much easier by the map of the relms and the family trees included with this box set.

Honor, dis-honor, love, hate, trust and betrail, political intreague and all under a cloud of uncertanty. It's well acted (some better than others) and written (for a TV show) and the characters... did I mention the charactors? The Queen's brother "The Imp" is worth watching the show for all by himself.

In case you hadn't guessed by now, I highly recomend this series. Season two is either on now or comming very soon. I think to fully understand the relationships and underlieing sub-plots, you need to see this (season one) first. I think that you could probably understand season two just fine without seeing season one first, it just wouldn't be as rich or enjoyable.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

A Great Value for fans without ridiculous standards.

I'm a huge fan of the Game of Thrones series, as well as the books that correspond with the show to the degree of using the books as a bible to the show's content. Needless to say when I noticed the first season on dvd I had to purchase it, it was not a want..but a requirement.
The show comes in a 5 disc set, each disc has 2 40+minute episodes on the dvd and the 5th disc has bonus features. There's the emblem of each house represented thus far in the series on each disc. The discs themselves are very attractive as well as the start menu of each episode.
There is a gripe with the casing of the show, however. While the Dvds are in a foldout case the printing of the characters on each side of the case is rather grainy. While I understand this is stylized I personally find it unattractive and the sleeve the actual case is in is also thin and cheap in quality, but for such a low price this is a great collection of the first season.

Game of Thrones: Perfect recapture.

I picked up the books of Ice and Fire recently, since I'd seen them so often in stores and wanted to know what the big deal was. After I started, I just couldn't put the books down. Once I heard there was a series based off the books, I just had to watch it.
Game of Thrones the DVD has accurately captured the books, and follows the writing perfectly. Certain lines I remembered them saying in the book were spoken on the screen word for word.
I wouldn't suggest children watching the show, because of a lot of sexual situations, language, and violence; but if you're truly interested in political conspiracies, medieval warriors, and seductive maidens, this is the perfect show for you.

Awesome Product. Entertaining, Great Value!!!

I bought Game of Thrones Season One on DVD because I heard a lot about it. I heard all of the hype around school people constantly talking about it and how awesome it was. I really wasn't all that interested in it but I was convinced to buying the first season. I bought this one because it was cheap and I wasn't sure if I would like it. BOY WAS I MISTAKEN!!! This series had me from opening scene and now I have just finished Season two about a week ago. I had no dislikes about this product. Cheap, Brand New, and 10 hours of solid entertainment. I am not one to invest a lot of time into a television series, but this is just a Can't Miss show. Can't wait for Season 3!