You gotta love the way aging works in this series. If you were an adult in episode one, you never age a day in over 20 years. UNLESS you're the king, who looks more and more like an extra pulled from a Walking Dead set every episode. Dude was on death's door for years! (Leeching has yet to fix holes in the head) If you were a teen, you become a totally different person arbitrarily between episodes and your chemistry with others is now altered completely.

In a vacuum, this show is not bad, it's even fairly good. Unfortunately, it's using the GOT name, and fair or not, comparisons will be made. This is just a smaller show. In every way. The world, the acting and actors, the brilliant dialogue, the plans within plans within plans, the memorable quotes (that become a part of pop culture) and even the twists are just smaller. Less than the original. It lacks the magical feeling of excitement each episode inspired, waiting in anticipation for a week to find out what happens next.

I would say this has more of a Shakespeare Hamlet vibe than the first GOT. That's not a bad thing. It's just not great. And when you catch lighting in a bottle the way the original did, rarely (if ever) is it caught again.