I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but having now watched the first two episodes, I'm basically impressed.
Sure, it's melodrama. That's built into the genre. Complaining about this aspect would be like complaining about car chases and explosions in an action movie.
Anyway, plot driven melodramatic confrontations makes for rollicking good TV, all in all.
I think non-readers (my wife and my friends wife) are having a hard time figuring out where things are happening and the relationships between it all.
Critical reviews I had read warned of this, but thankfully I, personally, haven't had any problem at all.
I was really fearing cast complexity on the order of a long Russian novel, which can truly be daunting and confusing. So far, this doesn't even come close.
Yes; though I would argue that the fantasy genre in general has this problem. I was expecting more from a highly acclaimed novel. Still, that was one tiny part of the overall picture of the writing style that didn't do it for me.
Yeah, sex scenes. There's a true art to writing them that not all authors have mastered, to say the least. Sometimes an author's attempts make you laugh out loud, they're so lame.
However, as pertains the show, none of the sex scenes have seemed gratuitous or out of the flow of the story to me at all. Nor have they been poorly staged, say I.
Back (in the Dark Ages) when I was 11-12 I got into Science Fiction. I rather quickly went through all the offerings in both my school library and my local public library, and thirsted for more.
So I asked for and got a sub to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a several hundred page thick pulp (in that the paper was literally pulp paper, which is where the term "pulp fiction" derives its meaning) monthly.
Each month they published 7-12 complete short(er) original works. Each month, some were quite good, but they were almost always outnumbered by the turgid, really terribly written "Fantasy" pieces, most of which were such low grade soft porn that they didn't even appeal to the horny pre-teen that I was.
So, yeah, poorly written sex scenes are an enduring infestation of the Fantasy fiction market, I guess.
Anyway, back to the show. I was full prepared to dislike it from my haughty and imperial perch, but instead I have become a fan. I thought the way they wrapped up the second episode was stellar. :thumbsup: