Well, there are legit gripes. There is gratuitous violence and nudity, even beyond the source material. Half of the first season seemed like it was filmed in the dark.
But there’s also some excellent writing and acting. Overall, I rate it “I like it a lot, but I have minor gripes”.
I think I’m with you on this. I tried the first ep and it bored me. Medieval fantasy stuff isn’t really my thing and violence and brutality and sex sex sex doesn’t really do it for me either. GoT has been on my list of TV show chores I need to sit through x number of eps to get into, but maybe now it’s time to cross it off the list. Mad Men is another chore show I’m probably going to drop after four or five eps. Never got into Deadwood either. Next up is Breaking Bad but if the first couple eps don’t grab me that one’s out too. There’s plenty of good TV I can get into quicker.
I liked Rome from the first ep. Maybe TV show writers need to work a little harder making their first episodes better.
Maybe it is because history is chock full of gratuitous violence and nudity. The REd Wedding, for example, is based on true historical events.
A side note to Levdrakon - hope you enjoy “Breaking Bad”. I loved it.
Yes. The casting directors overwhelmingly succeed in finding people who know how to put across a ridiculous line with panache; the production values are good (excepting that darkness you mention); music, art direction, costumes—all are outstanding.
I’m far less impressed than many with the “anyone can die” and “not much magic” elements cited in the thread as being praiseworthy. Like the OP and others, I find much of the violence and nudity to be gratuitous. Many scenes remind me of the old Siskel-and-Ebert piece about the camera-as-stalker…there’s an unpleasant sense that the filmmakers expect us to enjoy the pain and suffering on display.
Also, I’m not a fan of neo-medievalism in general. I don’t see fantasies of being The High King or The Unconquerable Warrior or, more generally, the one that others bow down to, as being particularly worthy of spending my time on. All these faux-medieval worlds are mainly about the Common People getting all swoony about the character-we-identify-with…oooooo, Noble Blood! It’s so important!
But, grumblings aside: I watch this show. I watch it because it’s popular. Popularity tells us something useful.
Maybe. The present is full of gratuitous violence and nudity too and I imagine future historians will make it look like that’s all life is, but it’s not really. Or at least, it’s not all about that.
well he’s back, I’ll try to give it an honest shot. I like the main actor well enough.
It was just a turn if phrase. I didn’t literally think I was the only one. (however at one of my workplaces I am the only one not into GOT). I do get tired of being in the minority in some of my opinions, but it’s all ok.
I’ve got to confess I’m a bit envious of someone who works at a place where everyone watches Game of Thrones. The only television people talk about at my work is The Big Bang Theory, sports (but never mma, which is the only sport I watch anymore) and reality shows like Duck Dynasty or the Real Housewives of wherever.
At least 1/3 of the people I know who are into Game of Thrones only started watching it because I gave it a glowing recommendation.
What I don’t understand about Game of Thrones is how it has such crossover appeal. Regular people aren’t supposed to like fantasy stories, but we real fantasy fans are probably outnumbered by the normal folks who like the series.
I predict that as the show becomes less “medieval political thriller” and more “dungeons and dragons,” the viewership will decline. Ratings will decline inversely to the amount of screen time given to the white walkers and dragons.
I love the serie (the books, less so). And the appeal definitely isn’t softcore and sadism. I wish they would remove many of those tedious and unecessary scenes. I guess they think they have to to keep their audience or something, but I’m just seeing that we’re losing 10 minutes of story telling every episode to tits that I could see much more conveniently visiting porn sites.
Contrarily to you, I like fantasy. However almost all fantasy is generic crap “good guy wins the day against all odds”. To the point that I just gave up reading this genre long ago.
Precisely, Game of thrones is different. The characters are quite complex and realistic, the many protagonists are equally important to the plot, and being “the good guy” doesn’t get you a free “get out of jail” card. If anything, rather the contrary. When you think “he had it coming”, it’s not because he was so evil he deserved retribution, but because his actions were likely to result in whatever bad outcome.
Finally, I have a fantasy story that I can read/watch without knowing in advance what the outcome will be. That’s probably the main appeal to me. Also, well written (the show), well acted, etc…
Really? We got yet another (long) brothel scene 10 minutes into the fourth season.
I’ve read the books – almost finished with the fifth and latest one now – and the series is remarkably faithful to the books. But since I already know the story, it’s been difficult for me to gauge how good it works as a show. But the wife has not read the books and likes the show just fine. We’ve just started the second season.
Precisely, no there isn’t. And I tried hard for many years, to find fantasy books worth their salt. And as I said, I don’t even think that GRR Martin is a great writer. But he’s willing to esape the conventions of the genre, story-wise. His characters are unlike other fantasy characters. His plots are unlike other fantasy plots. I precisely lamented the unability/unwillingness of other authors to do what Martin is doing for years, or rather, decades.
If you think there are shelf upon shelf of it at Barnes and Noble, you haven’t been paying attention (which, in fact, you haven’t, not being interested in the genre).
If you don’t like knights and dragons, that’s one thing. But stating that this story is just another generic fantasy story with some sex and violence added to the mix is utterly wrong.
I liked it at first, but it didn’t grab me until it opened up and introduced more characters. The dialogue is some of the best I’ve seen. There’s at least 2-3 “oh snap” lines per episode. Only more quotable show might be The Wire. And I can never predict what’s going to happen. I didn’t see the end of season 1 coming at all.
Someone said it wasn’t funny. I completely disagree. It’s hilarious! Just in the S4 premiere the trash talking over chickens had me rolling. The funniest things happen in dramas because their impact is so stark when compared to the baseline. Compare it to a sitcom’s pacing: beat, beat, punchline, beat, beat…yeah, that gets old after awhile. When something funny comes along in a show like this it knocks you on your ass.
I can think of criticisms for GoT, but they don’t have anything in common with the OP’s.
Too gray. Not a problem for me as long as the characters are interesting, but I know some people are turned off if they don’t have someone to root for. Most of the “good” people either die horribly or are too naive/powerless to do anything. Tyrion is the closest.
Everyone’s cute little political squabbles will be rendered pointless when the walkers/dragons come. Which might be the entire point and a heavy handed allegory, but still.
Too many characters, not enough focus. I like most of them, so it’s more of a wanting more feeling. It sucks when a scene is done and you know you won’t see them again for awhile.
You could say there’s some convoluted plot lines. At some points there’s 6-7 plot threads going simultaneously. Might need to make a flowchart.
Yep. For me, much of the premise of the wall and what lies beyond is flawed, so for me the allegory is that the parts of the story that make the least sense could break through and overwhelm everything else (that’s not a spoiler; I haven’t read the books and don’t know if that will happen).
Otherwise, I’m a massive fan of the show. I don’t know how someone could have seen even the first two episodes and think it looks like established fare. The end of the first episode told me we are not in Kansas any more.
But I guess the difference it makes hearing hype about something cannot be overstated. When a series/film gets this popular it does seem to affect some people’s objectivity and they are not only disappointed but they can’t even see why it is popular.
For me, I knew the series was hella popular, but didn’t get around to seeing it until I was living in China and hadn’t heard anything about it for months. No preconceptions or high expectations.
I quite like all the sex and violence in Game of Thrones, and none of it has seemed to be gratuitous to me. What sex and violence there is (I don’t really think there’s all that much of it) helps build the feeling that this is a hard, barbaric world where life is short, brutal and nasty for most folks, and not all that peachy keen for the aristocracy. Combined with the strong characterizations and the twisty plot filled with conniving characters, and MOST OF ALL, the sense that anything could happen to any of the characters at any time … that Martin is willing to break any damn convention of medieval fantasy there is … it’s the BEST medieval fantasy EVAH … and that includes Lord of the Rings, which, for all its rich world building, was kinda in tune with medieval fantasy conventions … didn’t break a lot of them.
I do anticipate a drop in interest on my part if the White Walkers and the dragons become major themes of the story instead of just themes. Magic is best used sparingly.
I… wot ? Are we watching the same show, here ?
We mostly see the world of GoT through the eyes and in the presence of the noblemen, so of course they squabble for the throne like it matters ; and of course they think nobility, lineage and the whole feudal system is important. Parasites think parasitic relationships are fine, news at 11.
But the Common People ? Well, let’s see. There was “the butcher’s boy” who played with Arya like she was just another girl. And got killed for it, which probably didn’t induce much swooning from the butcher.
There’s Gendry, who upon learning that Arya was a Lady immediately started poking fun at her by affecting sarcastic deference.
There’s the folks of Fleabottom/King’s Landing who *dismembered *a priest and were about to rape and kill innocent little Sansa for being the face of oppression.
There’s the various social climbing whores (Shae, Roz…) who know exactly which parts of these valorous, important men does their thinking and have no illusions whatsoever about their society.
There’s the guys on the Wall, some of which used to be noble but most of which aren’t, who behave and talk like the squabbles of the noblemen are a pissant distraction and the noblemen themselves are soft and don’t know a proper fight.
There’s Bronn, who evidently derives a lot of pleasure from putting self-important nobles in their place because he’s good enough at murder that it apparently trumps his blood. Same for the Hound.
And of course there’s Littlefinger, who comes from so low and piddling nobility as might as well rake muck, and *hates *every last one of these noble fucks with a consuming passion. Varys too, after a fashion, although his spite for the nobles is counterbalanced by his sympathy for the plight of the little people.
Who the hell swoons ? Well, OK, there’s Ygritte, but it’s not because Jon Snow is a noooble laaaawd from a high caaastle that touches the clawds. He does this thing with his tongue, you see, and… :p.
Yeah, but I think it was the “right kind”. Oberyn’s character is a pansexual crazy-guy killer who wants revenge. The pansexuality is shown by him being in a whorehouse. Sure it would have been possible to do a similar thing with no nudity. But there’s a world of difference between that and scenes from earlier seasons where Littlefinger is monologuing about his motivations while simultaneously explicitly teaching two whores to fake lesbian sex better.
I’ve never seen the show, but I read the firts two books, and found them tedious. Especially the second one, which I thought was bad enough that I actually stopped reading it before the end, and that’s really, really rare for me. Having seen how long he’s taken to come out with the following books, and having heard that he’s become *even more * rambly in his storytelling, I’m glad I stopped reading him. My vote for gritty fantasy goes to Joe Abercrombie.
I agree. That scene also gave us a minor character moment with Tyrion. He’s offered a whore and declines. First-season Tyrion would not have declined.