I've just seen the first episode so I can't be the judge. A couple of my friends heavily recommend it and one has read the books. The episode wasn't so slow that I had to stop watching, but with a show like this they really have to build up the background and then it brings the story. It probably takes a few episodes for you to be completely hooked.

that might not be entirely accurate but you cant deny the horror of martin having cersei go on and on about eating cum and licking all the "princes" off her fingers.  martin is a sick, sick, bastard.

Didn't you find the the changes they did bring in felt pretty natural.

I've read the whole books series, or at least what's been published so far. I'm a big fan of the books and I think they did a very good job with the adaptation.

The popular derogatory term for some of the sex scenes (especially with a certain whore who never has a scene in which you don't get a least a flash of her snatch and who doesn't exist in the books, and who has divided us book nerds as to whether she improves or worsens the series) is sexposition. I.e. if you try to ignore the sex that's going on the dialogue is important exposition for the character doing all the talking.

Interestingly there's both more and less nudity in the series compared to the books. That is some scenes where there's meant tobe nudity there isn't and other scenes created only fo rhte series there is nudity. Overall the sexual content o fht e seires is about the same as the books.

Actually I like the dialogue style of Spartacus better than GoT, because of the unique way it uses the language. But the story, intrigue and complexity in GoT is better.

Eventually I find the sex and nudity becomes background noise.

In terms of what "they" say all I can go on is the impressions friends and family who have never read the books think of the series. They all universally love it, none has said they think the series is a PoS. TV critics tend to like it, but some don't, as is always the case. I think if the softcore porn element was too over the top more TV critics would be at least criticising it for that.

Some people did say things like they don't like stories in their porn and they don't like porn in their stories. I did kinda feel that way for one particular episode where I thought the sex was a bit overdone (a certain brothel scene) but in general I was OK with what there was and thought it was not too distracting.

If you went into it not knowing there was planty of sex and nudity then you will have got a bit of a shock.

Here's a good TV forum thread for people who never read the book but got into the show. It's very long but quite fun to read as a lurker who knows exactly what's coming next. http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?showtopic=3204374&pid=14807011&st=2250entry14807011 The first post has a really good synopsis of who's who BUT IT WILL SPOIL YOU big time because the character list is as things stand at the end of the season.

Hmmm well the books do require a fair bit of reading to catch all of the subtext. There's a lot that's missing. The series hit's the main points, but that's very far from word for word. In some cases the signficiance of some things in GoT aren't really able to be understood until later in the series. Also One big disappointment from is the lack of the Tower of Joy scene. Ask your wife if she recalls that scene in the book, it's in a Ned chapter and it's actually quite a significant memory.

There's actually one wee change from the book, in Danaerys story arc, that is insignificant in the context of GoT, but it actually significantly affects an element of Dany's story in book 5. So there are changes aplenty, and it will mean the series diverges more from the books as the TV series moves forward. Hopefully not in a bad way.

 Best show ever? Hmm, maybe that's a little far fetched. What was better?  Let me think... ... ... ...

OK, best fantasy-show ever.

Danke.

Waaghh. Don't destroy my hopes. But as far as the first episodes are going, GoT stays pretty close to the books. Some changes are in it, but TV is a different medium, without some changes the result would probably suck.