Ok Ok...grand vizier, chief advisor, chief cook and bottle washer...whatever.  Was just trying to simplify things to those that had not seen the series ore read the books.  Let's call it the guy who does all the crap that the King doens't want to be bothered with and have done with it!

I'm finally watching the first season as it's being repeated on HBO in building up to the premiere of the second season.  I'm 4 episodes in and I'm really enjoying it.  It's a bit difficult keeping up with all the faces and motivations for each character, but it's extremely well done.  Definitely living up to the hype and I'm going to pick up this set as well. 

 If you're an HBO subscriber you can skip buying the set since the episodes are all available for free on HBO Go.

Oh and HBO Go is coming to Xbox in April.  Booyah!

Yeah - I know - Hanso - but I got it anyway. Not for the extras because I usually don't watch them but...I don't know why exactly. It was that good.

I don't have HBO so 34.99 is a good deal for me plus I don't have to rely on an internet connection to watch it..  The bonus is it's in blu-ray but for those who don't have blu ray it's only 29.99.

My mistake Wise, thought you were talking ratings....which leads to an interesting question.  If it did cost 5.7 mil per ep to make Deadwood, you have wonder what the ratings actually were that they ended up giving it the pink slip.  I was reading last year that boardwalk empire was over 6 while Games was in the 2's.  My personal opinion is that it needs to grow by at least another mil if this is going to see it all the way through.

 Actually, Hobbs, Game of Thrones has gotten better ratings than Boardwalk Empire when the totals were analysed earlier this year. Boardwalk Empire's average audience numbers is now around 8.4 million, whereas Thrones' average is standing at around 9.3 million. Couple this with the soon-to-be-released home video sets, and I think Thrones is going to be in for a killer second season. Certainly increasing this average, if anything. This may well be HBO's most watched show before long.

Yeah -  I bet there are tons of fans of the books that don't have HBO that were waiting for this instead of getting HBO. Though I'm sure there are some that got HBO just for this. There are also people that are waiting for it by word of mouth. I think it's going to be a huge seller.

Ryodin, where did you get that data?  HBO still says Boardwalk is much higher than Games.

Game of Thrones

■Episode 1.01: 2.22 million
■Episode 1.02: 2.20 million
■Episode 1.03: 2.44 million
■Episode 1.04: 2.45 million
■Episode 1.05: 2.58 million
■Episode 1.06: 2.44 million
■Episode 1.07: 2.40 million
■Episode 1.08: 2.72 million
■Episode 1.09: 2.66 million
■Episode 1.10: 3.04 million
 

I've seen some fan wishful thinking that it was doing better but I still haven't seen anything to support it.  I don't see how these numbers could be 6 mil off.  Plus I don't think HBO counts DVD sales into their viewer ratings as there is no way to figure out those numbers vs. eps watched at time of release.

Again I don't think HBO worries too much about the ratings, at least not primarily for 1 they do not sell ads which is what the ratings are really for, 2 unlike the networks they repeat the show throughout the week so the ratings can be low on sunday night but some folk'll catch it during the week in repeats not to mention tivo and such. 3 subscribers can catch it on HBOGO as I recently did with the Wire

I think hbo mostly worries about their subscription base, either maintaining or better increasing it as a result of these highly acclaimed shows, I think
 

And of course the dvd sales add to the bottomline for these shows

Just one note, I did read Boardwalk wasn't holding the same audience as first season.  It was down about 30 percent or so.