Game of Thrones Episode 1 "Winter is Coming"

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        Unfortunately he runs to Winterfell, ancestral home of the Stark family, whose most notable trait is a dour acceptance that they must do the morally right thing, even if that's not always easy. The Starks consist of: Eddard aka Ned, played with just the right amount of northern steel by Sean Bean; his wife Catelyn, who, on the evidence of the first episode, seems to be something of a worrier; and their children Robb (straight-forward, doesn't do much this episode), Sansa (a bit spoilt, wants to be a princess), Arya (tomboy, hates sewing), Bran (wide-eyed, enjoys climbing) Rickon (who we have yet to meet). Also hanging out at Winterfell are Ned's ward Theon, played by a wonderfully snide Alfie Allen, and his illegitimate son, Jon (cue an army of fans crying L+ R = J. Don't worry this will make sense later, maybe).

        Ned learns of the deserter's arrest and promptly takes his sons, legitimate and otherwise, off on a rather bleak family outing to a beheading. After a brief lecture about why it's important for the man who passes the sentence to swing the sword, the family trudge back towards home only to discover first a dead stag, then a dying direwolf (essentially a giant wolf) and her six pups. The significance of the wolf dying with a stag's antler wedged in its throat will become clearer later, but for now the Starks adopt the pups – stopping only for Ned to give another lecture; this time about the importance of pet care. His children must not just feed and look after the wolves, but also bury them themselves if all goes wrong. It's a hard life being a Stark.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 2 "Kings Road"

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        Few characters in Game of Thrones are utterly irredeemable but Prince Joffrey, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, might be one of them. As portrayed by Jack Gleeson, Joffrey pulls off the rare trick of being imminently punchable before he has even uttered a word. And once he does start to speak, things don't exactly improve. Prince Charmless's more notable moments this episode include refusing to offer his support to the Starks as they wait to hear whether Bran will survive his fall, threatening the defenceless Micah while sneering "I am your Prince and you are only a butcher's boy", swearing at an 11-year-old girl, and then making up a pack of lies about what really happened by the Trident. No wonder his uncle Tyrion looks as though he can barely stand to breathe the same air.

        'I just want to stand on the top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world' Speaking of Tyrion, the shortest member of the Lannister family was in fine fettle, whether letting his twincestuous siblings realise that he suspects something isn't right about Bran's fall, or gently puncturing Jon Snow's dreams of chivalry. There has been some dissention about Peter Dinklage's accent, but although it's notably more precise than the rest of the cast I don't find it particularly grating and it certainly doesn't detract from a nuanced performance.

        Speaking of Littlefinger, Aidan Gillen was on fine slippery form. Few actors do weaselly as well as Gillen - and his Baelish, all surface charm and furiously conniving brain, was a pleasure to watch. It's hard to know just what game Littlefinger is playing here. It's possible that he's telling the truth - and that the knife sent to kill Bran belonged to Tyrion - although contradicting that is both what we know of Tyrion so far, and the brief scene last week when he told Jaime he'd like to know what really happened to Bran - but it's just as possible that he's lying for his own ends. What those ends might be is anyone's guess. He claims to be driven only by a desire to help Catelyn, the woman he apparently adores, but there were more questions raised than answered in his brief scenes. Would a man who bears a scar from neck to navel because of Ned's older brother really be so forgiving? Can someone as sharp as Littlefinger truly not bristle at Catelyn's condescending dismissal of their relationship? The slight wince as she said that he was a "good friend" suggests that there's a lot going on behind the smarm.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 3 "Lord Snow"

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        We got our first real view of the Seven Kingdom's capital city, King's Landing, this week (and my apologies to commenter Bezerker because weirdly it does look a bit like Tuscany). But it certainly isn't as nice a place to holiday however, as Ned Stark swiftly found out. Whether trying to cope with the machinations of the King's small council or attempting to work out what game Peter Baelish, aka Littlefinger, is really playing, Ned wore the harried look of a man increasingly out of his depth. Nor did he fare much better when he (somewhat insensitively) tried to replace Sansa's dead wolf with a wooden doll. Still at least Arya's happy with her new "dancing" lessons.

        Speaking of Littlefinger, Aidan Gillen was on fine slippery form. Few actors do weaselly as well as Gillen - and his Baelish, all surface charm and furiously conniving brain, was a pleasure to watch. It's hard to know just what game Littlefinger is playing here. It's possible that he's telling the truth - and that the knife sent to kill Bran belonged to Tyrion - although contradicting that is both what we know of Tyrion so far, and the brief scene last week when he told Jaime he'd like to know what really happened to Bran - but it's just as possible that he's lying for his own ends. What those ends might be is anyone's guess. He claims to be driven only by a desire to help Catelyn, the woman he apparently adores, but there were more questions raised than answered in his brief scenes. Would a man who bears a scar from neck to navel because of Ned's older brother really be so forgiving? Can someone as sharp as Littlefinger truly not bristle at Catelyn's condescending dismissal of their relationship? The slight wince as she said that he was a "good friend" suggests that there's a lot going on behind the smarm.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 4 "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"

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        There are some men who when given a crash course by Littlefinger in the delicate art of staying one step ahead of the game would listen. Ned Stark, for better or worse, is not one of them. Instead our hero, played this week with the Bean Gruff-o-Meter turned right up to 11, preferred to tramp through the back streets of King's Landing, unearthing the king's bastard son, Gendry, Jon Arryn's former squire Hugh, and a "ponderous" history of the Seven Kingdoms in the process. Unfortunately while his forthright manner won results it also attracted the attention of the queen, who promptly issued a barely veiled "quit while you're ahead" warning. One, which, despite the suspiciously convenient death of Arryn's squire, he is clearly (and probably unwisely) going to ignore.

        If Littlefinger hides his true feelings behind an amiable mask, the Night's Watch's newest recruit wears his on his (capacious) sleeve. The sensitive Samwell Tarly, offered the choice of exile or death by his father, was probably the least duplicitous character we've encountered so far. Not only did he admit he was a coward to his stunned companions, he also willingly confessed to having a fear of heights and being a virgin. In a world where everyone appears to be hiding secrets or nursing grudges, his honesty ("Because I'm fat you don't think I'm attracted to women") was refreshing. However, it was hard not to feel that the perennially grumpy Alliser Thorne might have a point when he harshly told Jon and Sam that "you're boys and when the winter comes you will die like flies."

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 5 "The Wolf and The Lion"

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        Since the day Ned Stark agreed to be the King's Hand we've been taking bets as to how long he would last. Five episodes later and the last honourable man in King's Landing finally had enough, resigning after failing to convince Robert that murdering the pregnant Daenerys Targaryen would make him as bad as the man he deposed. Given that Jaime Lannister subsequently slaughtered all Ned's most loyal men and Robert doesn't yet know about Catelyn taking Tyrion Lannister prisoner, we can only assume that things are about to get a great deal worse.

We already know that this show is populated by a number of people who lost acquaintance with sanity some time ago but Lysa Arryn might top the lot. The former Hand's widow, played with epic levels of queasy craziness by the wonderful Kate Dickie (best known for Andrea Arnold's brilliant, creepy Red Road) was starved down to the sharpest of angles and gave off a neurotic, unbalanced energy before she'd even uttered a word. By the time you realised that she was greeting her visitors with her seven-year-old son suckling her breast the only question still up for debate was who is the more insane: Lysa or Harry Lloyd's mad-eyed Viserys?

Eunuch spymaster Varys stepped memorably out of the shadows this week. Conleth Hill is a great stage actor and he brings just the right amount of creepy solicitude to this role, whether informing Ned that Jon Arryn was poisoned or having a schoolyard bragging contest about levels of deception with Littlefinger. The mock wounded look on his face when Littlefinger asked him whether he kept his balls in a box was a small moment, but beautifully done.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 6 "A Golden Crown"

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        This was an episode all about brotherly relations, actual or platonic. We saw Ned and Robert desperately try to reclaim their former closeness in the light of the former's resignation, it became clear how fractured Robert's relationship with Renly actually is, we watched Tyrion form a bond with brother-under-the-skin Bronn, and learned that, while Robb and Theon have grown up together, their friendship might be more fragile than either realises.

The most powerful scene, however, belonged to the Targaryen siblings. The trembling moment when Viserys realised that his sister would not come to his rescue was all the better because it was so deserved. Viserys, as we had repeatedly been shown, was weak, abusive, cowardly and half-mad – yet when he met his brutal end, literally crowned by the man he had dismissed as a savage as he called piteously to his stone-faced sister, it was difficult not to feel for him. He might not have been much of a man but surely he deserved a better end then this?

That Viserys could rouse such feelings after six weeks of pretty despicable behaviour is testament to Harry Lloyd who has taken a fairly one-note character and given him depth; even in his most vile moments, Viserys was understandable. Emilia Clarke also deserves credit: her final line showing the moment a frightened girl became a queen – and suggesting that power will come a lessening of humanity. To gain a level of control Dany had no choice but to cut herself off from the one person she has known all her life. In doing so she condemned him to death.

Game of Thrones Season 1 Episode 7 "You Win or You Die"

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        It's not much of an epitaph but at least it's an honest one. King Robert Baratheon expired much as he'd lived, not entirely sober and with one last earthy quip ("murdered by a pig"). It was a sad yet strangely fitting end and a compelling performance from Mark Addy. There was always something in Robert of the fading middle-aged former athlete run to fat and seeking solace in drink. In the real world he would probably have ended up in midlife crisis and divorce, but this is Westeros and thus, despite his belated attempts to make amends, Robert's untimely demise looks set to plunge the realm into chaos.

If Robert's death was inevitable, so too was Ned's downfall. By the end of the episode the situation was as follows: stubbornly adhering to his moral code in the face of all survival instincts Ned has sent word to Stannis, Robert's oldest brother, to come and claim the throne. Meanwhile, Renly has headed south with Loras Tyrell presumably to use the Tyrell gold to back his claim, the Lannisters are hanging around with an army that they will use to back Joffrey ("Anyone who isn't us is our enemy") and Dany has convinced Khal Drogo to get on a boat which means we have four possible claimants to the throne and one isolated former Hand of the King. It couldn't really get much worse.