Brief thoughts on the first episode of the HBO adaptation of A Game of Thrones

I happened to catch the first episode of HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones tonight thanks to DirecTV's free weekend.  Here are a few thoughts that I had while I watched the opening episode:

• The scenery was appropriate (minus the snow on the ground for the direwolf scene), yet it felt so typical.  Not that this was anything bad, mind you, but it just felt a bit drab and too reminiscent of other faux-medieval dramas.

• The characterization was OK, but few sparks flew in this episode.  Tyrion was decent, but until the end, none of the others had that je ne sais quoi panache to their characters that would make me curious to know more (provided that I could forget the entire plot).  The end part with Drogo and Daenerys was well done, though, as the actors' body languages told much.

• So far, the series seems to be following the book very faithfully, with even the dialogue being so close to that of the original medium.

• Not surprised with the scene chosen to end the episode, but I wonder if there will be similar closers, as without it, I would have found most of the opening episode to be rather prosaic.  I suspect this may become a complaint for several of the early episodes.

All in all, it is something that I might want for a Christmas gift as a DVD box set, but I am uncertain if I would download individual episodes each week (presuming they are available on iTunes soon after initial broadcast) to keep up with matters.