UPDATED: The reviews keep on coming …

The reviews keep on pouring in, here are some of the latest:

Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly has posted his review and gives the show an A-.

You may find yourself beginning Game of Thrones and getting lost in its thicket of who’s related to whom and remembering what grudge one clan holds against another, but I implore you: Stick with it. Free your eyes to take in the spectacle, and your brain will magically start following the intricate storytelling. And there’s a magical realism to Game of Thrones.

Ethan Anderton of Collider reviews the first episode (although it sounds like he’s seen all 6).

However, as it stands, Game of Thrones is a compelling journey into fantasy that only HBO can deliver. There’s carnage, sex and some of the saltiest language I’ve ever heard in an epic series of this type. It’s strange seeing a character in a medieval like fantasy world dropping F-bombs amongst other choice words, but it makes the series that much more gritty and jarring. Complete with stellar writing, a phenomenal cast and stunning visuals, this is a series that delivers on an epic scale both literally and figuratively.

Charlie Jane Anders of io9 gives her take on the series.

In a nutshell: the series features a host of astonishingly powerful performances that bring a depth and maturity that you seldom see on television, in any genre. And it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Many more after the break…

Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News gives a review, of sorts, sprinkled with some quotes from David Benioff and George R. R. Martin.

Unlike HBO’s “True Blood,” in which creator Alan Ball took a not-particularly-distinguished series about a telepath who attracts vampires and massaged it into something people who wouldn’t be caught dead reading about the undead might be willing to watch, “Game of Thrones” is a show worth watching based on a book worth reading.

John Crook of Zap2It also has a quasi-review with some new quotes from Mark Addy and Sean Bean mixed in.

Epic fantasy can be a dicey prospect for television, but HBO hasn’t hedged its bets with “Game of Thrones.” It’s a stunner from top to bottom.

Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has some nice things to say about the show.

Viewers bored with predictable procedurals should welcome the opportunity to dig into this sprawling story, TV’s most challenging serialized drama since “Lost.” “Game of Thrones” may not have that show’s heart, but it does share a complexity in storytelling that’s unmatched in prime-time television today.

Brian Turner of TechWatch UK reviews the first episode (you know a TV series is popular when tech blogs are reviewing it). He also includes a first look at the series opening title sequence logo (naughty naughty!).

Now that I’ve watched it, that the level of expectation has been brought to the right level, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of it play out. The only hope is that heads will roll only on the screen, for daring to bring us this ambitious and promising project.

Daniel Walters of Inlander presents a review from a non-book reader perspective.

More importantly, most characters become distinct and vivid — more than vivid, iconic. Most series thrive with one or two truly great characters. But Game of Thrones — with its smirking and devious adviser, its rich and sarcastic dwarf, its bombastic and short-tempered king (I could go on) — has dozens.

And then they fight, seduce, deceive and destroy each other with glorious high-def melodrama. And without casting a single Magic Missile.

Carissa of TV Fanatic comes at it from a book readers perspective.

There will be those, like me, who are thankful for the faithful portrayal, as well as the liberties taken, as they seem native to the story and characters and only enhance the experience. Finally, there will be those who have no idea what the books are about and can be blown away by a world that once only existed in the imagination of a writer with mastery and skill such as Mr. Martin.

I hesitate to even link to this “review”, but just for completeness sake, here is Troy Patterson of Slate on Thrones.

The quest is to complete a six-hour marathon of Game of Thrones—to stay conscious through a clear majority of the first six parts of a 10-episode season. It does not help matters that the series—where the meaty head of a drunken king lies uneasy, where plotters are overplotting and courtiers go a-courting in mutters—proceeds in a style that bears all the most punishing hallmarks of close fidelity to its literary source.

Greg Evans at Bloomberg gives the show 3 1/2 stars out of 4.

“Game of Thrones” can be enjoyed as little more than a better written, more lavish version of the joust-fests popular on the Starz channel.

Jessica Johnson of Time Out Chicago gives it 4 out of 5 stars.

Like some of HBO’s most revered series, Game of Thrones is unforgiving, challenging the audience to slog through a lot of introduction and table-setting before it picks up some narrative momentum. After the hot mess that is Starz’s new series Camelot, it’s nice to see the granddaddy of cable programming class up the bloody, sexy fantasy epic.

Steve West of Cinema Blend, a fan of the books, has nothing but good things to say about the show.

Forget about trying to figure out the ins and outs of the rivalries as you watch the first episode. Accept that you’re thrust immediately into the story with no compass or suggestion of direction. All of the knowledge you need comes swiftly and naturally if you let it happen. Game of Thrones is worth your time, in fact it may be the best reason to be a TV watcher right now.

Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly gives Thrones 3 out of 5 stars.

At times Thrones feels like a Lord of the Rings movie with the fun taken out, but its sometimes tedious political machinations are balanced out with a number of fascinating characters and a penchant for attention-grabbing plot twists.

Andrew Dansby of My San Antonio has a good review from a unique perspective. He is intimately familiar with the source material as he was the assistant to George R. R. Martin’s editor at the time A Game of Thrones was first published. He knew then that this story was something special and he thinks the show does the book justice.

As told by the TV show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones should hold appeal to the viewer seeking something chewier than perceived flights of fancy.

Guy D’Astolfo of Youngstown News gives Thrones a glowing review.

Like “Rome,” that other great HBO series from ancient times, it also has a rich group of juicy characters and a complex story involving treachery from afar and within.

And its detailed authenticity — the glorious sets, the costumes, even the sound effects — will leave you giddy.

Matt Zoller Seitz of Salon gives the series a mostly positive review.

Still, this HBO show has a particular storytelling philosophy and creative process, and it’s uncompromising in how it lays things out, taking a full hour just to set its pieces on the chessboard and not making its first big move until the final seconds of the pilot.

SciFiPulse.net gives Thrones a positive review.

What we have here is a fantasy family drama on a epic scale. The characters are really well thought out. There were moments where I found myself shouting obscenities at the screen when I felt a character had overstepped the mark and was unjustified in his or her actions.

Kool TV blog gushes about the show.

Certainly never dull, GAME OF THRONES translation to the TV medium has been well worth the wait (at last, some grown up fantasy-MERLIN this certainly ain’t!), and, like its books, will quickly becomes engrossing MUST SEE TV for adult audiences worldwide-the first proper television event of the year- as well as surely becoming one of HBO’s finest and most memorable projects.

Mary McNamara of MultiChannel News loves the show.

HBO provided six episodes of the Game of Thrones for screening. It’s the most engrossing six hours of television I’ve seen in years. I made the mistake of popping the second episode into the DVD player around 9 at night, and was so mesmerized I just couldn’t stop watching, and stayed up until 2.am. I was an exhausted wreck the next day….

It was TOTALLY worth it.

Peter Hall of Hollywood.com seems to be a big fan of the books and the show.

Basically, if you’re the kind of person that thinks too many TV shows dumb down their material so its accessible to the lowest common denominator, then A Game of Thrones is for you. This is a dark and dense story that is expertly told. Having seen the first two episodes and having spoken at length with a good friend who has seen all of them (and who hadn’t read a single page of the books), I’m confident, and relieved, to report that it is an incredibly faithful adaptation.

Bill Harris of the Toronto Sun, despite not being a fan of the fantasy genre, still loved the show.

But we will say this for Game of Thrones: Notwithstanding our previously revealed “personal admissions,” the first 10 minutes totally sucked us in, due to both the breathtaking cinematography and the breath-stopping developments.

Hank Stuever compares the series favorably to Rome, but says it is not for him as he isn’t a fantasy fan.

It is possible to admire “Game of Thrones” for its sincerity and clarity of purpose — its utter devotion to form and detail — while the rest of your TV brain struggles to keep pace with what happens. Some cohesive magic does eventually take hold, and it gives the series a “Rome”-like layering and momentum.

Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times gives a glowing review.

Though some of the visual cues will be very familiar to fans of “Lord of the Rings” or even “The Tudors,” “Game of Thrones” quickly finds that rare alchemy of action, motivation and explanation, proving, once again, that the epic mythology remains the Holy Grail of almost any medium.

Jennifer Arrow of E! Online absolutely loves the show and does a fan Q&A as her review.

Going into it, I thought the producers might be blowhards, I thought the fandom and hype were absurd and annoying, and I thought I might be burned out on supernatural swords-and-sandals epics in general. Having seen the show, all those fears are allayed. It’s like looking at a diamond in sunshine. So many different facets flash, and it’s mesmerizing.

Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe says the show lives up to the hype.

“Game of Thrones’’ has been forthcoming from HBO it seems like forever. But the feverish buildup for this TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s best-selling fantasy series, “A Song of Ice and Fire,’’ still somehow manages to meet its soaring expectations. Indeed, “Game of Thrones’’ is worth every single line of effusive blog geekery and promotional buzz it has elicited in the past year.

Robert Bianco of USA Today gives the show a positive review.

It’s hard to imagine a better screen transfer than this HBO series from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, which starts its 10-episode run with a slightly extended opener (in case you’re setting a recording device). If you love quasi-medieval, sword-and-fantasy epics, this is pretty much what they should be, and what Starz’s Camelot might have been had it been done with more talent and a whole lot more money.

Ed Bark of Uncle Barky says the show is too slow for him and gives it a C+ grade.

But oh the machinations. And diversions. And overly long, leisurely scenes that keep sinking Game of Thrones into a quicksand of its own making. A full-blown battle of some sort would be welcome at any point. But through the first six hours, it can still be a chore to simply keep all of the characters straight. Let alone what kingdoms they inhabit and how many out-of-wedlock children they might have.

Sandie of Daemon’s TV says she didn’t know what to expect but ended up loving the show.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but within a few minutes it felt like I was transported into another world that was absolutely fascinating. The series was created with such care, it has so many intricate elements that brings this world alive. It’s like peeking into a microcosm! This world has very specific rules. It has different Houses, with each their own political agendas.

Matt Roush of TV Guide is a big fan of the books and now a big fan of the show.

Everyone keeps warning that “Winter is coming” in Game of Thrones, but I can’t remember the last series that packed this much heat.

Dylan Tweney of Wired gives it an okay review grading it as 7 out of 10.

It may be that Game of Thrones is simply too big for even the expansive canvas of HBO. A series like Deadwood succeeded by providing a small but very intensely focused window into a world of infinite detail, agonizing emotion and delightfully perverted language.

Game of Thrones attempts to do a similar thing, but it’s a wide-angle shot, comprising multiple continents and scores of major characters instead of a single town with a handful of principals. The result, inevitably, is more diffuse.

Tom Conroy of MediaLife says the series should appeal to fans and general audience alike.

But the main accomplishment of “Game of Thrones” is that, while it should keep the hard-core fans satisfied, even viewers who don’t care whether Theon is a Greyjoy or a Tully can play along and have a good time.

Michael Crider of ScreenRant reviews the first episode.

Game of Thrones is, unequivocally, unlike anything you’ve seen on television before. The sheer weight of the story is breathtaking, as is the drama and setting. Comparisons to The Lord of the Rings films are inevitable (especially with Sean Bean starring) but ultimately incorrect: Game of Thrones is very much a modern show with modern sensibilities.

Scott Stinson of Canadian National Post gives the show a positive review.

There are moments of dry wit (“Unless there are at least three deaths at a Dothraki wedding, it’s considered a rather dull affair”), but mostly it’s a story of honour and betrayal. And mystical violence. As I say: epic.

David Poland of Movie City News gives the series a glowing review.

Game of Thrones was a “book” that I couldn’t put down. (I haven’t read the actual book series.) I looked forward to every minute of every episode and wanted more. And want more. There are four episodes I haven’t seen. I will probably watch the series each week – in HD, which is not how HBO sends preview discs – and experience it all again.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times enjoyed the show.

Of all the sword-flinging series on TV right now, Game of Thrones is far and away the best – cloaking a clever commentary on modern day political conniving with a gray Medieval-age story which feels like Rings’ older, sexed-up brother.

Linda Stasi of the New York Post gives it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.

The art direction, acting and incredible sets are as breathtaking as the massive scope of the series. A bit slow at first, but it’s a grabber once you get into it.

John Lopez of Vanity Fair gives a positive preview/review of the series (with bonus exclusive concept art!).

The world of Game of Thrones is a lush, vast, and deliciously messed up Middle Earth. Just as The Sopranos brought human complexity to the world of mobsters, Game of Thrones offers a kind of anti-hero’s journey—one in which you worry less about evil dragons, more about the treacherous, fractured fellowship all around you.

The TV Addict liked the show despite not typically enjoying fantasy.

In fact, viewers who have been anxiously anticipating this adaptation (yes, we’re talking to you @ProgGrrl) will be happy to learn that GAME OF THRONES succeeds on virtually every level. Not only were we wowed by the extraordinary visuals and scenery beautifully shot in Northern Ireland and quickly engrossed in the politically charged fictional world of Westeros that sees various factions of the seven kingdoms do anything (and we mean anything) to reclaim the Throne, we’re thrilled to report that we were actually able to follow the story.

Adam Pasick of New York Magazine gives a review from the perspective of a book reader.

It’s clear that much time, money, and thought has been spent on casting and writing and production for the TV series, and writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are clearly determined to respect Martin’s plot. And it works: For anyone who has imagined these books in their mind’s eye, it is thrilling to see them brought to life.

Winter Is Coming: Whew. Is everyone keeping up?

• Published on 04/15/2011 at 12:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 04/15/2011 at 12:30 PM CDT