Thoughts? Well, mixed. Overall a very good show, but with some decidedly silly story lines. That whole story of dragons belongs in the silly kids movie, and their "mother" two. I would name that line the weakest in the show.
The strongest? Everything with Dinklage and Dance in it. And if any of those guys was great, the two of them together is simply nuclear, their fighting dialogue scenes are decidedly superb.
Ditto for a couple of other memorable and poignant duos: Dance and Arya nearly stole the whole show, so good it was - albeit brief. And then Arya with The Hound also had me riveted.
From there... any scene with Jaime was a treat to watch. Good story in itself.
Lena Heady is simply outstanding, and should definitely change her real life hair color to blonde.
But from here you move down to mostly disappointing, gray mass, performances and stories. The whole Wall and Night Watch plot is boring, and so is the Red Woman... her character barks but doesn't bite. Ditto for all those skeleton warriors, and other such goofy stuff.
So the bottom line - those disappointingly weak areas do lower the show's overall standing, it is almost like reading War and Peace, where boys would skip the Peace scenes, and the girls do the exact opposite - I yawned through the dragon scenes, waiting for the real heroes to re-appear.
Yes, the BD quality is, indeed, outstanding - I watched it on a Samsung plasma, and it was a treat! The Season 5 is only available on a DVD, so it was a step down. I might buy the BD when it comes out.
All in all - a show deserving some respect and attention. I certainly would not give it 9.5 out of 10, but perhaps a solid 8.
And did I mentioned - I just LOVED Dinklage and Dance... once again... so there! :)
