Then slowly, episode by episode, the show overcame those preconceptions and prejudice. If you hadn’t liked “The Lord of the Rings” or couldn’t bring yourself to use words like “White Walker” in a sentence, this was probably not the show for you. Other critics, myself included, were more positive, even excited, but there was still the feeling that this was a good show for a certain audience. RELATED: Binge-watching early ‘Game of Thrones’? 10 things we learned from reliving Season 1 » Indeed, when “Game of Thrones” debuted, the New York Times dismissed it and the New Yorker didn’t even bother to review it.
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On the minus side, there was an audience of devoted Martin fans prepared to pick the show apart plus an increasingly intense scrutiny of any new television series and a lingering snobbery toward any show involving dark magic and armor. On the plus side, “Game of Thrones” had a built-in audience of devoted Martin fans to anticipate the show and a growing desire for stories that did not revolve around the inner darkness of some random white guy. There was graphic sex, graphic violence and a willingness to feature characters who did many terrible things.īut an epic fantasy? “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” may have proved that, contrary to conventional Hollywood wisdom, people really did like magical stories, but even with the success of “True Blood,” a “sword ’n’ sorcery” series seemed a bit intellectually downscale. Suddenly, every platform available, from the History Channel to Netflix, began producing “prestige” dramas. While many name “The Sopranos,” which premiered in 1999, as the beginning of the golden age of television, it wasn’t until AMC moved into scripted drama with “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” that things got cooking on a large scale. Martin had not finished the “Ice and Fire” series, and in a landscape still dominated by “American Idol” and reality shows, no one knew how much creative innovation television could bear. A big gambleĪnd yet, when “GoT” premiered in 2011, it was a big gamble, even for HBO. No matter how you feel about it personally or politically, “Game of Thrones” is a masterwork, the zenith of the 21st century big bang that remade television. “Great” is not synonymous with “perfect.” To gauge the power of the show all you have to do is look at the passion and deep obsessive intricacy of the criticism. Why we keep watching »īut the nudity, the rapes, the brutal bloody violence! The reliance on CG, the cost of all those locations, the shock-value killings! What about all that time wasted in Meereen or the fact that sometimes it takes months to get from King’s Landing to Winterfell and sometimes it takes days? RELATED: ‘Game of Thrones’ deals in sadistic audience manipulation. What about “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Breaking Bad,” “ER,” “Friday Night Lights” or “Grey’s Anatomy”? What about “M.A.S.H.,” “All in the Family,” “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory”? What about (insert your personal favorite show here)?Īll great, successful, significant shows, none of which even approaches the visual, thematic or difficulty level of “Game of Thrones.” In story and sweep, ambition and execution, heart and mind, “Game of Thrones” is, quite simply, the greatest show on earth.Ĭue the groans and spluttering of indignant opposition. No other series has better harnessed the industry’s wild unruly technological advances while never ceding the basic rules of storytelling and the deep human need for coherent mythology.Īnd don’t get me started on Ramin Djawadi’s haunting, exhilarating theme song, the ever-changing Steampunk gadgetry of the opening sequence or Khaleesi’s magnificent braid strategy. No other series has so organically grown and changed along with its characters and its audience.
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FULL COVERAGE: ‘Game of Thrones’ the final season »