Game of Thrones renewed for Second Season after 1st episode

On the tail of the announcement that the first episode received 4.2 million viewers, HBO announced that they have renewed the series for a second season.

HBO has not yet announced where or when they will begin production on Season 2 but the Belfast Telegram reports that Northern Ireland Screen is campaigning diligently to get HBO to return to Northern Ireland for production of Season 2.  Reports indicate that filming of Season 1 injected over 20 million pounds into the local economy and created more than 800 local jobs.

Reviews of the series have been mixed - with the vast majority of geekdom absolutely loving it, a slightly smaller set absolutely loving it but a bit disturbed by the harsh sex, multiple beheadings, and overall massive amounts of violence and nudity in the first episode alone.  Those few reviewers (the NYT) that posted negative feelings about the first episode were harshly trounced on Twitter and the blogosphere shortly thereafter.