I don't know about that but I thought it did what it needed to do. I'll argue that Game of Thrones did not become the 'must watch' cultural sensation that it was until the Red Wedding episode but it really started to build momentum at the beginning of Season 2...or, more precisely, the moment Ned Stark's head hit the ground at the end of Season 1.
All that is to say, I'll give HoD a long runway to make it's case before passing too much judgement.
We enjoyed the first episode though. I thought the opening w/ the dragon flying over Kings Landing was brilliant --- the last time we saw that, a dragon laid it to waste!