Wuss - 7 seasons in a month? I've done 7 seasons in 7 days. Multiple times, lol!
24
I pretty much watched GoT from the start with a few moments of back-sliding that caused the need for a little binging. I was losing interest the first season when my sister-in-law told me, oh no, you haven’t gotten to the Dothraki yet—you need to get back to it—and yep, that helped! And of all things, I got too busy one year and had to binge the red wedding season before the next one started, and whoo, that was a very satisfying binge.
It’s fun to be able to claim you watched and were a fan of some phenomenon from the start. I always recorded Masterpiece on PBS and so, from the first episode, to no avail, I was bugging everyone to watch Downton Abbey. But my husband and I were late to both Mad Men and Breaking Bad and had to binge watch the first seasons then watch them episodically to the end. I’m not sure which we enjoyed more, the binging or the anticipation of the next episode. The best binge we ever did, however, was The Wire. No matter how good all these other shows were, to me the difference is, those are just entertainment—beautifully written and executed entertainment to be sure, but still just entertainment. The Wire was something else. I know people tease about the raves for The Wire, but it merits the raves. Parks and Recreation had a great episode where they went to a William Henry Harrison museum with a what if WHH had never died section, and there was a newspaper with the headline “The Wire Sweeps the Emmys.” Yep—binger or not, those who know get it.
10
These programs do not need to last forever. I watched 3 seasons of Breaking Bad recently, all but the last season of The Wire two years ago, and both shows were very good. I just don't have the time, I have a life. Maybe when I retire in between writing books and travel, I can squeeze in television/streaming shows. Life is short, shorter with tRump in office.
13
I cancelled HBO the minute HBO didn’t renew Carnivale after its second season ended.
This article really didn’t explain to me what I’ve been missing with GOT, so I still reckon I haven’t missed much.
But if you like it that’s all that matters.
10
Ugh! I realize I’m reading these comments, as I have this essay and other conversations about GoT recently, trying to be convinced it’s worth watching. With no judgment about others who do, I don’t think I can. I watched the very first episode two or three years ago and was not interested in continuing. I tried, again, last night. Same episode. Same result. (I had forgotten all of it except - the “wedding” and the “honeymoon”). I was a great fan of Breaking Bad, have watched Rob Roy and Braveheart each more than once. I’m not “squeamish.” But there’s a painful lack of complexity or moral ambiguity. I guess. Not sure. But something’s missing. Does it get better??
Signed - wanting to be a fan for some reason but about ready to give it up
10
When GOT premiered I tried to get into it and just couldn't. I was shocked that Sean Bean's character was executed. Without context I still had a "wait what? Isn't he like the hero?!"
Years rolled on and the behemoth of GOT left me behind, questioning, "what's the big deal?"
I would be questioned as to why I wasn't into it as its got everything I'd enjoy: Sex? Yep Blood soaked battles and murders? Sure thing Did I mention sex?
Dragons! Betrayals? Bounds of them. Still, I just couldn't get into it.
Then Season 8 Ep 1 premiered which I didn't see. Instead, the next day, I started Season 1 Ep 1.
Approx 6wks(?) later I'm two episodes away from Sunday's Season 8 Finale and I'm hooked. How'd I ever have issues with this show? I realized those who are truly bad/villian will 'pay the price', eventually. And when they do, buckle up. Those who seem to be 'the good guy', gets royally messed up. Doesn't pay to be good in GOT world. Yeesh. Best part of my binge-ing, was using the ultimate time capsule, the internet. Ned Stark loses his head. Hurt, annoyed, really hating on Joffery, I hit the time capsule and enjoyed the articles, reactions, etc. Same for Red Wedding and other major events.
I also enjoyed how the Night King never said a word. What other villian/foe did that?
I don't have years of being a fan but, I'm happy being an instant fan.
Can't wait to see what happens now, with only 3 episodes remaining...
5
My wife and I, like you, watched all seven seasons at once, but it took us six weeks as we generally limited ourselves to two episodes a night and occasionally ventured out of the house some evenings. No shame, no guilt.
8
ok, tv is not high intellectual fare. fine, we all know that. it's fun, it's a way to pass time. some people enjoy certain shows. different people enjoy other shows. i will never understand why every article on here about a tv show gets a lot of "my life is too amazing to waste it with television" comments. if you don't waste your time watching, why do you waste your time reading about it and commenting on it?
52
@middle american, Well said, though I should have read your post before I added "my life is too amazing for tv" comments. Oh well, back to work!
8
Bravo, sir. As a six year fan, I wonder how I would be accepting these last few seasons without so much emotional attachment. I've even sickened myself as of late. In the end, this show is such a great achievement & I'm sad to see it get so much negative attention.
6
Like many other comments here, I too binged. I watched the first 5 seasons at the insistence of my daughter and still don't really know everyone's name, but loved watching it.
I have to say that the deliberate pacing has devolved into a race to the end which has left an amazing amount of holes in the story. It's gone from the high intensity of the White Walkers to The Real Housewives of Westeros.
12
I've lived in New York City and the country in Kentucky. Urban life/rural life is not for everyone. But I can love both.
1
"Basically, this isn’t television freighted with complex psyches or ideas. “What’s it about?” “Power!” And yet it’s about power the way Italian cooking is about tomatoes."
ok, but anyone who understands the importance of salt to the tomatoes is morel likely to grasp the effect of its lack on the ragu
of "thrones."
1
The author is the perfect person to answer - what DID you think about Davy’s breaking bad. Were there enough clues about her narcissism and violence dropped along the way? Or did it come too much out of nowhere?
Someone who watched for the first time over a short period is in a better spot than the rest of us to answer this - because we all developed our personal views over the years as to what these characters mean to us. Dear author - you left us hanging - what do you think?
2
I did basically the same thing as the author, in around the same time, having just caught up with last week's episode last night. In my experience, the buildup to Danaerys' "mad queen" potential has been coming since the first season and her (imo justifiably) ruthless response to her brother's fate. Watching it all more quickly and knowing basic plot points that I've heard others talking about in advance, it's easier to see that for at least the last couple seasons Emilia Clarke has been playing her as increasingly isolated and prone to rash decisions. It made sense to me, not every character arc will be positive growth.
5
My daughter binged the entire series in anticipation of these final episodes. I didn't. I haven't been watching all of them, all the way through; I find excessive gore to be traumatic stress-inducing, and I know my limits. From what I can tell, pretty much everything that came before, in seasons 1 through 7, is moot. Everyone is completely different now. Anything they suffered or struggled through didn't change them or shape them in any way. Either that or they are all robots with a switch to be thrown that waited until the last few episodes. Bend the knee, don't, it's irrelevant. "Fear it is," indeed.
4
I actually watched all 7 season in 15 days. If I wasn't sleeping, I was watching. Even at work. I was hooked.
3
Five weeks? What took you so long. I did it in a week.
3
Oh, my goodness, but I'll miss Jon Snow.
4
Wish we had as much detail and honesty [and fun] in the Mueller report as this essay offered.
29
I have never watched any episode of GoT, never joined FB or instagram, and because i am very careful about what I let touch my mind, I have fantastic relationships with my children, my friends, and wonderful (and lucrative) social justice-focused work. Other people must decide for themselves, but I just don’t see why I should watch shows or movies that are saturated with scheming violent misogynists seeking to dominate land and people. (I see no intellectual or emotional reason to watch violent shows: the news is violent enough.) I read a lot of books, have a beautiful romance with my wife, travel widely and have never been more informed or happy. Social media is mostly a downer—I believe in science and love—and I feel non-judgmental sorrow for people who —to earn a dollar or satisfy their ego—spend their time writing or filming or selling violence & misogyny or helping millionaires grow richer by selling manipulative & dishonest social media advertising. Admittedly, I seek the high road and yes, there is a lot less traffic there, but the experience is more beautiful.
35
@San knoody
Thanks for writing this, and Amen!
11
@San knoody Interesting that you've been able to get at the heart of social media despite not participating in it: it's here to help us demonstrate to others how much better we are than them.
28
@San knoody
Please stay away from Shakespeare's tragedies, then.
21
James Corden did it first. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MqNT13ywnI8
1
I PERMANENTLY ignored this mind polluting drivel
5
I don’t like it, I don’t watch it.
You like it? You watch it.
Why all the judgement?
This is becoming the world’s worst haiku poem.
11
Never watched it, nor will I. Time is precious. So instead I read a bunch of good books (from Tolstoy to current), walked the beach (moved to Maine recently) with my Newfie and Berner, watched spectacular sunsets, painted, baked bread and homemade pizza, enjoyed Stephen Colbert, read the Mueller Report, wrote reflections on life, laughed and talked with my guitar-playing husband. And not one day did I say to myself "I'm missing what everyone else is obsessed by: Game of Thrones."
2
@Gwendolyn Caldwell And yet you find the time to write posts dripping with condescension for the poor sods who watch the drivel you don't miss. Is the pizza oven broken and the weather too stormy for a long walk on the beach?
46
I haven't had television for over ten years and the only thing I missed is paying another monthly bill.
2
@Richard M You don't need a television -- all you need is a laptop and one of your friend's HBO passwords to watch GoT the way most people do!
14
Bingeing as well. We are in our 70's so bingeing helps us not forget what happens in previous seasons. However, I don't think we'll finish in time for Sunday night finale... so we'll keep on bingeing 'til we finish: about 2 more weeks....
After all, we do have lives.....
7
When season 7 ended I turned to my husband and told him that we have to stay healthy so we can see the final season. We laughed and shook hands! Well, last July he passed away from a stroke. So I don’t complain or criticize about the dark episode or the way episode 5 played out, or cameos, or coffee cups. My dear husband isn’t here to see the ending! So I’ll watch for him and be grateful I can.
63
@Robin
Your husband sounds like a joy and a dear friend. I am so sorry you have had to say goodbye.
23
@Robin S My sympathies to you. I lost mine two years ago, so I truly understand. I had read all the books, so always knew what was going to happen, much to his chagrin. Now that he's gone, I have the double loss of him and the plot-guiding hand of GRRM. I so hope he finishes his version so I can find out how it was "supposed" to end.
19
This is probably not something to really brag about but it took my husband and I to binge the first 6 season in a 1 week and a half. I needed to see what the hype was about and MADE my husband watch with me. The had our attention at after episode 1 then hooked after 3. We had to watch fast because season 7 was around the corner and we didn't want the spoilers to ruin it for us. Every night was a late night and had to go to work, which was pure madness, but guess what I would do it all over again. Great series, storyline epic, characters amazing. I may have to re-watch it once it comes to an end.
8
I've binged watched this show over the last 4 weeks. I have 2 episodes to go to get caught up for the finale on Sunday. My brain has been crammed full of GOT and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to enjoy it.
10
Actually for many episodes now I have been fast forwarding to find the plot lines that interest me. (I record the episodes to watch later). The whole thing is ridiculous except for the dragons of course.
4
My partner and I were planning to start watching the show from season 1, we have never watched a single episode before. I asked my daughter’s friend about it, he has watched it from the beginning, even read the book and also plays video games. He’s a devoted fan. I asked him one thing, is the series violent and if so is it as violent as the movies Brave heart or Gladiator, he said it’s much worse you better not watch it, although there are cute puppies in seasons 1 and 2. Then my daughter wailed...but they die!!! That was it. That settled it for me, I am never going to watch it, I will spare myself fantasy violence that could penetrate my consciousnesses and mess with peace serenity and tranquility of the otherwise less violent real world we inhabit (not!).
6
Trends... internet... algorithms. A NYTimes article based and aimed to the new and "empowered"/"risen" new generation of internet users who "binge" watch Netflix and spend 4-15+ hours on the internet.
Such interesting and necessary article to make... to "kill time" and distract us from the way of the world - where it is going and headed.
Figures of power love the distraction, specially at these times with the whole anti-abortion deal.
They keep having arguments on the internet when they don't stop to think if they can actually change their opinion. A world opinion... a very hard thing to do. All of that effort instead of joining all-together and protesting at the gates of every political institution and establishment.
Blinded out by internet algorithms and hate. Just like the targeted ad and constant "news" bombardment with this show.
Things will change...
3
Most people with even a modicum of intelligence will have a hard time sitting through eight years of this show, just getting through a season is difficult enough I would imagine.
It's almost as if the New York Times has a financial part in it is much as we hear about it, I'm glad it's over and hopefully it will go away like so many other mediocre series built up into something it's not
4
I'd ignored GoT completely until the recent weekend when HBO was free. I tuned in several times for a total of ~20 minutes, but found the dialogue pretentious, tedious, and heavy with gratuitous cursing and vulgarity. I've since seen clips focusing on battles and dragons that also left me uninterested. A fan in my family scolded me for drawing a conclusion without going back to watch from the beginning, but I said "No, thanks."
Recently I've devoted my TV time to "My Brilliant Friend," "A French Village," and rewatching "The Americans" on DVD because I like to compare the English dialogue with subtitles. In the three years since I first watched any of these ("The Americans"), I've had two friends who watched any of them and with whom I discussed the show occasionally for a few minutes. The obsession with GoT is absolutely stunning. I jumped into "Downton Abbey" halfway through its first season and felt it was as good as the hype. Later I realized how hard it is to maintain that level of quality, but by then, I noticed friends had become obsessed. As much as I've enjoyed following the dramas and dilemmas of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the residents of the postwar Neapolitan rione and the Nazi-occupied French village, the Crawleys, or Thomas Cromwell negotiating his way through the court of Henry VIII in "Wolf Hall," at some point I have to stop and say, "It's just a TV show."
2
After hearing my coworkers and family talk about GOT I decided I needed to watch it before the finally. I watch in one day the full first season. I could not bring myself to continue for the next seasons. I found that after viewing season 1 I went immediately to watching the season finally. I actually feel I was introduced to all the characters and know enough about the story. I have enjoyed this season and now understand the hoopla. I also am glad I did not use 70:hours of my life catching up. Honor to those that are fans, I would say I am an acquaintance of GOT.
5
I'm slightly disappointed by the comments likening a television show to the misanthropic and amoral degradation of western culture. It's a TV SHOW! It's not real.
I have followed the show and books for many years and the truly best aspect of the STORY is not the violence at all, but rather the subterfuge and scheming that leads to violence. I miss the earlier seasons when dialogue and characters made the show exemplary in the annals of television history.
Ultimately, I do find fault in the writing in later seasons. Initially the divergence from the books was thrilling as it was new story. They could have, and in my mind probably should have, cut back on the quasi-apocalyptic battles that lasted nearly an entire episode. Frankly, I do find the uproar over the writing in the final season to be warranted. Too much of how we got here was simply tossed out or disregarded. Shame, shame.
5
Reading is my primary source of entertainment, so when the hype about "Game of Thrones" began I got the books from the library and dug in, only to find that the books were plodding and not very well written. Still, I got enough out of them and the seemingly endless recaps on the internet to be able to follow the show without having to actually watch it. I took it up last season, figuring that the action would pick up as the end drew closer, which has proved to be the case. For sheer spectacle, "Game of Thrones" is brilliant. Of course it's not realistic; nothing with dragons and zombies is. War is violent and rape is another aspect of that violence, so realism is found there. The acting can be dodgy and the writing can be inexplicable, but even when an episode frustrates me, I can't deny that watching it was immensely fun. I'll miss getting out the ice cream and putting my brain in park on Sunday nights.
4
I suppose that reasoning it's good because a lot of people watch it one could also conclude that McDonald's must be serving gourmet food because they sell so much of it.
7
Same as Wesley, I hadn't seen one episode until my watch began in February this year. Blitzed the full seven series by mid-March. Loved it. Huge amount of fun, superbly produced and great characters brought to life by a splendid cast.
It's a TV show, it's fantasy escapism (God know, we need it) and I don't think it needs to stand up to any great analysis or allegorical scrutiny, although some of the YouTube analysts are entertaining. I'd agree series 6/7/8 are slicker and more "blockbustery", due to better budget and deviation from source material, but I don't care as I've never read the books.
The Bells episode (and the battle of Winterfell) were spectacular pieces of entertainment and I'm sure I'll be satisfied with the final episode. After all, it's up to the producers how they want it to end.
I've loved the (condensed) journey through the entire saga and I shall miss when it once my watch has ended.
6
Now, go back and re-watch season 1. It will be a totally different experience. So much exposition would have sailed over your head, as it did mine, on the first viewing. ;)
10
I tried getting into this show but I thought the story was unfocused and constantly undermining itself for something new. And I asked myself who are the protagonists? Who are the antagonists? And I couldn't answer that question. These past few years I've seen more and more criticism of the show from the fans which leads me to believe that people love the hype and conversation about the show more than they love the show itself.
4
@Elliott, I think the show's strength is in the fact that there are no clear cut protagonists or antagonists, no black and white, no good guy vs. bad guy. Like real life, we are all a mixture of both, we stand with one foot in both worlds, and we can switch from being one or the other fairly quickly.
4
what a sad nation we have become...
5
I heard that there are dragons in GOT. I have difficulty taking dragons seriously. Aliens could exist, but believing in dragons is hard for this grown man with a rock solid public education who has taken his science classes seriously.
But the author has persuaded me to binge watch this show despite my dragon-skepticism. Maybe the carnal imagery will make up for it. I'm in.
2
@Chris You do realize it's not a documentary, right?
5
Ah yes, a high-concept soap opera set in another era with expensive costumes, extras, period weaponry and endless violence and hyperbolic drama, all to entertain the masses with a tale of hubris and the futility of war. And it's developed a cult following with redundant suffering, vanity and lustful urges. Shakespeare on steroids, TMZ with a bit more depth. To the hopelessly addicted and obsessed, I have only this to say: get a life.
5
There's value in fiction. There's value in catharsis.
14
@Matthew Sure, there's value in complex stories (what you designate as fiction) and in catharsis. I alluded to Shakespeare for that very reason. And I would grant that, from little I saw of the series, this is a higher level of story-telling than we would find in so much superficial, cliched TV programming. My objections took that into account. I still think the series is wallowing in excess of various kinds and likewise the audience is giving far too much time and adulation to a series when we could really use more creative and educational programming these days.
2
The strangest aspect of Game of Thrones fandom is the number who believe this fantasy world is real. As in history, not fiction. Ask around and you, too, will be shocked as I was.
I asked one such fan if she believed there dragons and she answered, "well, there were animals back then that do not exist now." She is a member of the California Bar and she is not alone.
2
You don’t even mention Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. Were you watching with the sound off? This character and Dinklage’s performance are clearly the best thing about the show.
14
Bravo New York Times.
Such a good read. I throughly enjoyed reading Wesley Morris’s entertaining, humorous, intelligent and witty article titled, “I Ignored ‘Game of Thrones’ for 8 Years. Then Inhaled It in 5 Weeks.” Dated May 16, 2019!
My own binge viewing of HBO’s, Game of Thrones mirrored Mr. Morris’s with the exception of being sick. It’s great to read that finally there is an upside to staying at home sick. His view of himself as a fan, parallels my perception of my own place on the sofa amongst Game of Thrones fans.
Thank you again for such a delightful read!
Jana Henningsen
3
I tried, I really tried to binge watch it but I gave up. The reason? Gratuitous violence!
Violence, like vulgarity or explicit sex, has a place in story telling; it serves a scope, it drives home a point, it defines a character. Violence for the sake of violence, with no meaning, just to show gore, just to indulge in blood and a display of immense pain is what turned me off. The show could have been much better and I don't mean "softer" I mean more clever.
6
I swear to ... whatever, I cannot get past the first eight minutes of of the few episode I’ve tried. It’s just another boring soap, with that genre’s intellectually insulting long emotional takes, and its “clever” retorts that land in a guffawing cliché. I swear I’ve tried. So I’m sorry that you wasted your life on bingeing this dreck just because it was successful at getting so many people addicted, like the most banal of soaps is equally capable of doing. Its luck has been that it has ridden the cosplay fad, an equally reprehensible pop-culture degeneracy.
6
Exactly like all these cars i see driving about with their lights on in the daytime. If i ever drive a car about in the daytime with the lights on then yes, i'll know how it feels, but no, i shouldn't be doing it.
3
I waited too, until season 6 was over, then blazed through it.
It was amazing. I can’t believe I denied myself that wonderful indulgence for so long.
The violence seemed to get lower , and less graphic over time, or I got used to it. Small but well worth it price to pay for a great show.
2
Thanks for your wonderful and subtle report about an outlandish experience.
Have fun and enjoy the final episode!
1
I spent two months viewing Game of Thrones straight through, one or two episodes a day, in the run-up to season 8. Not having viewed it for the first several years, I had caught maybe 50% of it on and off, here and there since 2015, courtesy of HBO reruns. I found it a disturbing show in its sadism and violence. I mean disturbing in that it could disturb my sleep after watching it.
Then I started watching it straight through early in season 6. The relative optimism of season 7 and the sense that all the ugly violence and near-nihilism might turn around and lead to something resembling a good-ish outcome led me to do the two-month, straight-through viewing. I could finally take Ned Stark's beheading and all the other misery. It seemed like there might be a positive arc to the Stark children's survival -- Jon leaving green youth behind, Arya finding power in the art of killing, Sansa finding strength in losing her illusions, all of it done with the memory of what Ned Stark had taught them, what he meant to them. More than anyone, Ned Stark hangs over and informs Game of Thrones. That, and Tyrion's resilient humanity, made much of the show's gruesome cynicism bearable. Still, there were certain episodes that I made sure to watch during daylight, well before bedtime.
5
Did similar binge about the same time. I wasn't sick, just retired. I do have this take away: often the parts are greater than the sum. Some wonderful lines to try and remember. Does seems to have diminished with writers on their own. Sputtering towards a new Babylon and all.
3
Dear Wesley Morris, fans are born, not made. We are born with no twinge of guilt for enjoying 'popular culture', because somewhere in our ancestral memory we remember that Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, Shakespeare and Mozart, jazz and blues, cartoons and detective stories, etc... began as popular culture. We now know, thanks to the deep research of a group of academics, led by the great Ray B. Browne, who formed the Popular Culture Association and who study this area from every possible angle, from linguistics to neurology, from criminology to philosophy, from social studies to philology, that the culture of 'the masses' is truly 'of the people'. And the people do, eventually, acquire the awareness to see what is going on, and to rise up against it. Winter is indeed coming.
6
I love this piece! I laughed out loud a couple of times.
Glad you joined us, Wesley. The show has a way of bringing people together. Our tech department organized an after-hours viewing of season 8, episode 1 -- for the faculty, in the school auditorium -- and I live in Istanbul! That's the reach of Game of Thrones....
I never thought I would get into this show. I hated the sexually exploitative feel of it at the beginning. But as time went by, the strategy and the writing -- not to mention the excellent acting -- drew me in, and I watched the show change, I think, to encompass a more intelligent and aware give-and-take with the audience. Which is why season 8 has been disappointing... but it doesn't erase seven years of excellent entertainment, and all the great work everyone put into it. The show changed T.V. and it changed our culture, even for those who didn't partake. It's been a superb and thoughtful run.
3
I've never seen Game of Thrones.
I even have HBO. I got it last year when I separated from the abusive ex who spent years not allowing me to watch TV to the point where it became pointless to HAVE TV. So we didn't have TV. Having caught up on mostly everything, I guess I should watch GoT. But I haven't. Somehow, it seems a badge of honor to NOT see something EVERYONE ELSE has seen and seems to think is some kind of pop culture touchstone. There is so much to watch on HBO. You can spend plenty of time watching stuff and never have time to watch GoT.
I know. I know. I live under a rock.
5
I'm sorry to hear about your previous experience and well done for making an important life change. I'd suggest you don't watch GoT given your experience. it's violent and women are routinely abused and exploited. The whole thing is ridiculously gory. my husband and I actually stopped watching it in series 4 or 5 because it seemed so negative and horrific.
3
A couple of years ago our daughter gave us the first two seasons of GoT on DVD. We got into it but 3/4 of the way through season two we watched Hacksaw Ridge. Those WW2 battle scenes had all the gore of 1.75 seasons packed into 30 minutes. After that overdose of killing, we just couldn’t face more.
3
My husband has been watching GoT since it started, often re-watching episodes. I have friends who have been loyal and faithful fans of the show. I've seen a couple of episodes. It's not my thing but I would never think because a person binge-watches a show such as this that he or she cannot be a true fan. I scoffed at "Downton Abbey" for three seasons before I, home sick from work, binged on those very seasons and became a loyal fan of that program. I enjoyed the column and for those of you who are eagerly awaiting the final episode, I hope things turn out well for you!
4
I feel you, Wesley. I did the same thing for The Sopranos — I caught up “just in time” to watch the final season as it was released. It was like I was spying from the other room on a show my parents were watching. But as someone with “I read the (available) books before the show” experience, I’ll tell you: you are a true fan. There’s no penalty for new comers. The truth is that the world we actually live in today is so very different from the one we lived in when the last season aired. In the last 2 years, much has changed, so what the show has meant to me has changed. It’s for that which I envy you.
8
One of the best stories ever written has been destroyed not only by HBO, but by the author George Martin in leaving the series and giving input only to the writers hired by HBO. The last two episodes are not only terrible , but terrible in the writing and the outcome of the story. The final episode will not help any recovery, even if John Snow becomes King and Arya becomes his Queen of the Iron Throne. George Martin needs to correct this in releasing the real story in two books after Sunday's final. If he has not finished these books than do not publish them later on....you'll have zero sales. You have ruined what was a wonderful piece of fictional literature and this article continues down the same path as to the real heir of the Iron Throne.
6
A beautifully realised climax to an epic that takes its inspiration from classic literature and the bloody carnage of world history. The narrative arc rings true to classic tragedies where virtuous characters like Macbeth, Othello and Medea are brought to inexplicable ruin. It is easy to be the hero when everybody loves you. But a nudge or two in the right direction can turn any one of us into a monster. Further, focusing on the experiences of the victims summoned eloquently the horrors of Dresden, Guernica and Hiroshima. We are a brutal, violent species.
Binge (re)watching from start to finish in 5 weeks sounds like a mighty fine summer.
6
I watched one episode - it wasn't for me. I don't mind sex and violence, but there was too much reveling in showing the degradation and pain.
But that's not saying anything against people liking it. This is a TV show, and art. It's all about what is to your personal taste, and what speaks to the issues in your life, what you enjoy. I've seen too many good shows torn to shreds by people who seem to have some personal offense that others might like what they do not.
Every show is about real people - it's about the emotion and progression of a person - whether they are in a bland drama about housewives, or a fantasy land with dragons. The location doesn't change that.
4
It’s nice you’re open, Susan. I hate watched most of the first season for something to do on the treadmill (and because my 73-year old very kind and warm mother promised me it would be worth it). Things definitely got much better for the female characters by season 2. After that point I was hooked.
2
Doing the same thing! A few weeks ago, we said, "Hm, wonder what the fuss is all about?", watched an episode, and said, "Boy, we can't wait to find out all the great things that King Robert and his friend Ned get up to!"
We watched ten episodes THAT DAY.
Starting Season Eight tonight.
13
I also am binge watching GOT right now. Violence? Japanese samurai movies (Lone Wolf anyone?) had that under their belt years ago...and which world epic does not have visceral violence?
I love “fantasy movies” and GOT with its settings, castles, fabulous armor, dragons etc is a smorgasbord of all magical ingredients...I also love Tolkien, Potter, Star Trek (original), Star Wars...all superhero movies...and I also can appreciate a wide range of world cinema...isn’t cinema about magic? GOT, LOTR, SWARS - all have a lot of violence - even saintly Yoda waged a goodly war when he had to...
3
I watched the first few episodes, then got bored and stopped. What I saw never came close to the quality of THIS IS US, a far superior series about REAL people.
2
I’m loving all the comments from people who appear to feel morally superior to the people who enjoy watching Game of Thrones, which (spoiler alert) is basically a TV show about people who feel justified when they do bad things to other people because they feel superior to everyone else. In other words, this show is not fantasy, it is a biography of people who have a superiority complex, just like many of you.
23
I also started watching the program from Season 1, Episode 1, just a few weeks back. Obviously, my schedule is relaxed.
The thing that I was not prepared for was the excessive nudity (especially among women) and hand touching of naked female bodies that was not simulated and in fact looked pretty pornographic to me. My assessment is that the series is too obsessed with graphic sex and gore.
8
Great article. I wish A.O. Scott and Marhola Dargis had approached the Marvel Universe with a similar analytical bent instead of their repeatedly and mindlessly bashing the biggest evolution in cinema in the past decade and a once in a lifetime cinematic event.
1
The tragedy, for me, isn't within a single episode of GOT. There are so many things that the show got right in the early episodes. It was indeed 'Shakespearean' in many ways with both the dialogue, the characters and even the fantasy of dragons and the dragon queen. I could easily find Shakespeare's Prospero standing ghosting behind the early episodes.
But later when the producers outran the work of Martin's novels, things began to thin out and the episodes lapse into fan fiction...particularly when one of the dragons is killed by the Night King and then raised from the dead after the his white walker minions found, somehow, a set of enormous chains to drag the dragon out of the lake.
That scene was too entirely ludicrous considering that the Night King was raising people from the dead by simply raising his arms. Why would he go to the trouble of 'chains' when all he had to do was strike a pose and raise his arms, palm upwards? Why couldn't he do the same with a dragon?
The producers had run out of the author's books and subsequent episodes were far weaker for it. But that's what happens with multi-storied books. Imagine that Tolstoy's War and Peace had, in rush for an ending, ended with a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The great sweep and scope of the beginning would have been spoiled by the end. I can't imagine that the final episode will live up to the promise of GOT beginnings.
6
@James Tynes Just a guess - the dead can't swim, so the dragon had to be out of the water before being re-animated?
1
I have you beat! I just finished watching all 8 seasons in 10 days!!!! We must think alike because I did the same thing with “Breaking Bad” too. With both shows I binged so I finished a few days prior to the last episode so I could watch the finale with the rest of the world.
I don’t like suspense. I read the last chapter of the book way ahead of time so I’m not stressed about what will happen. Then I go back and finish the book.
So for me, binging is the best way to watch shows like this. I would have been a wreck during the season’s break when Jon Snow was killed. This way I only had to wait less than an hour to know he was okay.
I prefer the binge!
2
I watched the first episode only. At the end of this episode, a young boy is pushed off the top of a mountain and plunges to the ground--dead I assume. I was done.
Harming or killing a child in a television show or movie should never be considered entertainment.
10
@KH Uh, huh. Clearly you invest a little too much agency in a work of fiction. "Bad things happening to innocent people" is a theme in many shows -- that's not merely spectacle or entertainment, but plot-driven -- and if you'd kept watching rather than making a snap moral judgment, you might have seen how that incident played out across the subsequent seasons.
9
Tragedy is part and parcel of the arts.
13
In September of 2017 I was on sick leave from work. I had been badly bullied by my superior and I was forced out of my job.
While I was home, I spent a month watching seasons 1 through 7.
To me, GoT was empowering.
I enjoyed the show immensely, savoring every little nuance of evil and reveling in the outrageous acts of betrayal and the various runs for the throne.
For that month, I had a purpose and something to look forward to each day.
Ultimately, GoT helped me to see that I could fight back against the bullies in my life, and plot my way back to my job, which I did several months later.
And exactly one year to the day after I was forced to go on sick leave, the bullying boss and her cohorts left the organization I worked for under a cloud of suspicious behaviour towards staff and rumours of incompetency.
605
@Dana Scully That is a great story. That, and how satisfying it is when things work out exactly right.
30
Your story warms my heart Dana. Happy to hear you were empowered and got away from toxic coworkers.
31
@E Are we sure Kathy was really around a bunch of bullies and toxic coworkers? I mean, she did say that "her boss left due to suspicious behaviour and rumours of incompetency." Guess we'll never really know for sure.
8
Always fascinated by those who gladly, loudly, spectacularly make the point they've never seen the show or watched one episode and dismissed it. They can't understand the devotion to something they've decided isn't worthy of their time. One truly doth protest too much.
GOT is a morality play, the perfect antidote for the powerlessness many of us feel as democracy around the world is undermined by social media, blue smoke and mirrors, the foes of freedom trying to grab the Iron Throne.
The stuff of legendary television. Reality and fantasy all mixed into one big family drama. To miss it is to miss superb storytelling. Can't wait for Sunday's finale.
344
@Alan Gary
"Why won't the world revolve around me such that everyone is interested in the same things I am?"
So many commenters here saying the same thing.
28
@Alan Gary Are you saying that you don't find it of intense and consuming interest to learn that some random person on the web has never watched GOT !?
14
@Nick what I see is commenters commenting on something they never watched, or watched 10 minutes of it. That is really, honestly, a big waste of time for them and for those of us trying to read interesting comments. These can only come from people who are ignorant on the subject.
Kind of if you read an article on space exploration, you'd love to read comments on the space mission, instead of people saying they have no idea what space is and they aren't interested anyway.
40
I too have avoided it until now. relatively easy for me, because I struggle to finish watching any television series. I'm only at s01 e04 though 😂
4
If you make a point of avoiding something like GoT and ultimately -as it is about to end - give in and try to join the crowd you will still be looking vindication that your first thought was right. It's pretty hard to feel part of the crowd that way.
4
I'll have wine as well, how can you not!
2
What a ride, Game of Thrones.
Bravo! Thank you.
6
How do you know if a person has never watched game of thrones?
Don't worry, they'll tell you.
46
Sad to say, this is equally true of those who watch it. Added to that, of course, is their reflexive defensiveness.
13
I binge rewatched all of game of thrones with my girlfriend who was interested and hadn't seen the show. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable for me as waiting for each episode and season as they were released. There's a big difference in wonder you feel between having to wait a better part of a year to see how Arya's adventure continues across the narrow sea in Bravos vesus clicking play next episode and watching it one minute later.
5
I guess I decided to get HBO and binge GOT when I read about a woman in a hospice, dying, whose last wish was to see the Battle of Winterfell. She saw it, and died the next day. Members of the cast contacted her before she died to give their best wishes. What a compliment for an actor, to know that a person's dying wish was to see a production you were taking part of!
She didn't even get to see the last episode. I can. I am binging now, and I will see episode 6 on Sunday. Actually, I love the dwarf, Tyrion, glad I got a chance to "meet" him.
25
A friend invited me over to watch the first episode on a Friday. I then spent the weekend watching all 7 seasons. It was glorious.
12
@SK
This is a serious question. How did you get past the first episode? I tried and it was awful (the dialogue mostly). How long does it take to get better?
8
@Deborah I also bailed on episode one the first time around. I would say, watch three or four episodes and see how you feel then.
4
@NorCal Girl I bailed after two. Now I just watch it for the dragons. Dragon?
1
Note to Mr Morris: Italian-AMERICAN cooking is [very often] about tomatoes. But there's no such thing as "Italian" cooking—it's •all• regional (e.g. Bolognese, Milanese, Fiorentino, alla Romana, &c. &c.), and tomatoes play a role a lot less than you'd think. Hence, an imperfect analogy…but I take your point.
13
why?
8 years you knew what appealed to you, and what did not.
all of a sudden .... you want to be "in"? Pathetic!
(full disclosure: I have never seen GoT, I never will - I know I will not be happy at all watching people being slaughtered. The violence in the promos alone turn me off even before I watch 1 scene of the actual show).
13
That’s what I thought- but I
was wrong.
15
@Betsey Weare Isn't it great? When I heard dragons, I was not interested. Fantasy isn't my genre. Then I watched the first episode and was hooked.
10
Great Article! I just finished Episode 5 Season 8 after approx 8 weeks of watching.... I never had an interest, went on a vaca in March and chatted with a couple girls at the resort over cocktail for a few days and was convinced to give it a try. No regrets. Never read or heard much about it as weird as that sounds. Just never payed attention to the GOT world. Didn’t know Hodor or even about the mother of dragons. glad I caught up to watch the finale in real time.
14
I have watched all eight seasons of the show, I will watch the final episode, but I am not a fan. I am a victim of the fallacy of sunken costs.
My criticism is not that the show has rape, gore, and a superabundance of all the deadly sins, but what an absolutely trashy piece of story telling it is. Any idiot can make a story and keep adding character after character, with made up mumbo jumbo connections between incidents, especially if they involve magic like dragons and zombies. The old rule hasn't changed -- a story has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This show spun out of control somewhere around the fourth season, when it just kept going on and on, and didn't look like it had any kind of climax following the rising action. Now the peddlers of this trash have decided that they bit off too much and are hurriedly trying to come up with a denouement while leaving many story lines either unresolved or resolved by some arbitrary deus ex machina. That it's in high def (when it is not totally black) with computer gimmickry doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
And its not as if the show has shed some great new insight into human nature that we did not have before. You really want to plumb the depths of depravity humanity is capable of? Go read the classical epics -- Odyssey, the Mahabharata, Beowulf, or Dostoevsky, or a dozen+ other writers.
OK, maybe that's too highbrow. But lowbrow can be great too. Breaking Bad? Anytime! GoT, on the other hand, is a total goose egg.
17
Hype, hype, hype....
8
I have been mesmerized by the show ever since it started.
All I can say is “You know nothing, John Snow”.
6
What a bunch of silly comments. It is a wonderfully produced tv show. That’s it. Don’t like it- go for a walk. People like to talk about it because it is complicated. All you high minded individuals - go do YOUR thing and leave us who are having fun do OUR thing. What a bunch of loony “high minded” individuals. I read Shakespeare and war and peace and do crossword puzzles and play tennis and take on line courses - everything has its place including GOT. It is good television.
95
Bravo. Some of the commentators are so keen to sound superior that it makes me wonder if any of them ever just want to have fun. I will stipulate that it’s not Chekhov. When I want Chechov...I read Chekhov. Get over yourselves.
29
@bobbiethis is incredibly well written for T. V. Show and I doubt most of the critics have any talent. What looks easy - isn’t. The writers captured the imagination of millions of people from many different cultures around the world. Maybe we could come together over GOT and give peace a chance!
10
I am not really sure after all that what your point is. I would have been more interested in you elaborating on how you could see the series devolve when the show runners ran out of books to guide their scripts. You spent about one paragraph commenting on that.
7
Morally bankrupt and misogynistic - with more restraint, it could have had much more statue.
6
I watched the first five seasons. Then life intervened and I haven't been back. Don't care how it ends, either. The things I liked least are the writing and gratuitous nudity.
4
My husband and I avoided Game of Thrones, but you have convinced me to try it,
12
Westeros is not a country, and Daenerys has never been crowned “protector of the realm” (at least, not yet). This article is a good illustration of why one shouldn’t binge a series like GoT, where taking time to think about what you watched, learning about the characters’ world and paying attention to details significantly improves the drama. I tell all my friends new to it: “do not exceed two episodes a week!”
4
My coworker thought this was me. My wife and I caught up in 2.5 weeks, it was like another full time job. We had to hide from social media to avoid spoilers. We finally caught up in time for season 8 episode 4 and now we can't wait for the end game.
13
Much as this last season has seemed rushed, banal, and nowhere near the literary level of the seasons based on Martin's books, I would find one thing satisfying: the final shot shows a couple of baby dragons crawling out of the King's Landing ashes.
8
Like GOT or not, fine. But I am mystified by those who think that violence and sex are only cheap manipulations in adult dramas. The great literatures of the world are replete with terrible tragedies, sex and violence in service of exploring the human condition (and in service of a good story). You can watch Planet Earth too.
35
I thoroughly enjoyed your article, I loved the self deprecating wit and the shy shared guilty pleasure of binge watching GOT. We also binge watched, although before the start of this season. We have enjoyed every moment albeit with creative in show travel jumps, frequent non sequiturs and magic moments that are somewhat reminiscent of Bobby coming out of the shower on Dallas
3
Ordinary people really don’t care much about a viral show they aren’t interested in, for many varied and legitimate reasons, but arts critics can’t afford this tactical distance, they need to be inside looking out. They also need to approve, unless mightily secure in their intellectual disdain. This is why we’re inundated with these kind of articles as the juggernaut judders to an abrupt halt this weekend.
Farewell GoT. You were indeed Shakespearean in your examination of power and motivation, and gloried in the freedom to create and not pander, a freedom denied to every misbegotten network show under the thumb of corporate advertisers. You made TV cinematic for a while. And then you were buried under the weight of your ambition and a tangle of plot threads that refused to resolve into coherence. We will cherish the highs and reluctantly forgive the lows.
12
I've got a friend at work who's doing this same thing, watching all of GoT within even less time, at a pace of four episodes per day. It's a fascinating way to take it all in, and I think it's a lesser way than plugging along through the years of it, as most did. We always had at least a week to absorb things, rewatch episodes at some point to pick up on things we might have missed, consider what might be coming, and so on. If I watched it all at once, I'd think a lot of it would blur together, and seem to happen too quickly.
However, it's still better to have watched in some way than not, because for everyone in America who was between high school and retirement around this time, this is a cultural touchstone, and it always will be. Just saying "Hodor" at the right moment will crack people up, years from now, and only people who watched this will really understand the joke.
Also I don't think it's fair to complain about the companies milking the devotion of the fans. That's how they make money, they produce something people like to watch, then charge people to watch it, and also sell merchandise and licenses to use the copyrighted creation. They ran with it as long as it could make a profit, because that's the entertainment industry.
What's going to be hilarious is watching all the grief from people who won't like the ending. I plan to accept whatever might happen, even Sansa on the throne, because after all this is just entertainment.
9
My wife and I have done the same as the Mr. Morris, we are all caught up, and are now watching from the beginning again. Things are now making sense and it is equally interesting the second time around.
It also helps to put the closed captioning on.
5
The author's comparison with Breaking Bad makes me glad that I've never watched Game of Thrones. BB was arguably the best television I've ever seen.
8
@Donald Champagne This always surprises me. BB did one thing better than any show I have seen, but its still barely breaks into my Top 5.
Without context, and in no particular order due to easily being able debate each one's unique merits, my 3 undisputed for a long time have been Sopranos, The Wire, and GoT (S01-05).
3
Once upon a time (as I am old enough to remember) there was a “Game of Thrones” with a budget so limited that they skipped the battle scenes and instead filmed the conversations that took place before and after each skirmish instead.
It took everyone forever to get from place to place, thus ever-long teasing out plot development in slow-paced strolls.
And it was brilliant.
Now we have fantastic battle scenes with lifelike dragons, zombies, CGI, and unparalleled cinematic swordplay. It is stunning to watch, a true technical achievement. (Plus, there must be magic time machines able to teleport entire armies and fleets.)
I miss the old approach.
29
I grew up with family violence and dysfunction. I did check out an episode of GOT, and I could not imagine why this is entertaining to people; but to each his own....
Peace!
17
All great art is about conflict.
6
This contemplation was longer than a GOT season; lost me in the word soup.
11
No shame in binge-watching. I've binge-watched many shows. Didn't see Sopranos until years later. No it's not quite the same as living the ups and downs in real time, but it's a great experience in its own way.
3
I'm sick of hearing about this show. Media, just stop already! A non watcher. Never watcher?
18
Rather hear everybody talking about this show then have to hear about 45, 24/7!
41
@Ilonka Van Der Putten
They both can't exit the stage fast enough.
4
Nope. None of it.
4
I read this review thinking I might learn something about a television show I have never bothered to watch but have been hearing about a lot.
I learned that being a television critic for the New York Times requires the ability to write lengthy pieces that sound insightful but mean nothing and that too many people need to spend more time outdoors in the real world.
57
@Nelson
Exactly!
7
@Nelson I read the article to see if a writer from the NYT, and new to the show, would agree with my opinions that the quality has dropped since the source material ran out (mainstram online outrage only started this season). I learned people with intelligence do pick this up easily enough.
I also learned some people have superiority complexes and likely miss out on many experiences that can rival the best literary works of the past.
13
Started first season when it came out...found it to be misogynistic nonsense! Very exploitative of the females for male titillation. And viscerally violent.
23
@Sharon Please don't judge the whole show as misogynistic based on the first season. The first season simply introduces the medieval patriarchal setting. As the show progresses, the women in the show make up the majority of the main characters. Depicting their individual struggles for power and freedom in a male-dominated feudal world. That being said, there is a definitely a lot of unnecessary sex and violence that as you say is for male titillation.
11
@J A All that. Will add, its HBO, and that (lets call it Hollywood 'glitz') sells. While much of it is referenced and depicted in the books, most of what the show adds in the sex and violence dept is gratuitous.
Sometimes, it actually serves artistic purposes though. The TV version of the Red Wedding, for instance, was like a 9/11 or JFK experience almost. Absolutely horrifying and will never forget where I was and who I was with as it happened.
5
@J A I’m female and I greatly enjoyed the sex! Women do, you know.
6
I’ve watched bits and pieces thru the years to know the major players sometimes not by name. The “Red” wedding I happened to stumble upon while channel surfing just seconds before the blood started flowing. I agree I couldn’t talk after watching it because I couldn’t breathe. I’ve been texting during these last episodes with my daughter who knows much more of the storyline than I do. She said she might want to publish my texts because she thinks they’re hysterical. I can’t wait for all of this death and destruction to be over with and go back to listening to the MSM talk about Trump. Oh wait what am I thinking, Trump’s ruining of this country and our government is real life!
9
I binge watched in December 2018, out of curiosity mostly due to the positive press and fan enthusiasm. I read four of the books in order of recommendation from fans. The first four seasons were glorious.
This final season, however, holds up a mirror to society’s attitudes to “coherent storytelling” in entertainment. I’ve said this elsewhere, but the devolution of this show vindicates me in my assessment of many people who have claimed to be fans of GoT.
I became really annoyed when someone (who loudly disputed evidence from NASA that Antarctica is a desert) boasted about being like, really clever because they were super into HBO’s Game of Thrones. Lies!
Even before that, I suspected that the show was facilitating intellectual dishonesty. After seeing “reaction videos” for the Red Wedding, I wondered how everyone knew to turn on their cameras.
During season 8, it gets worse. YouTube creators publish rants to get views but are too lazy to learn the names of the main characters. “What’s that guy’s name again? I can’t pronounce it.” Sure, hun.
Fine. It’s a TV show. But this is my point - why not say you can’t be bothered watching? All of this multilayer fakery is why D&D decided to throw random garbage at our eyeballs. Most of us aren’t looking anyway.
1
Have to quibble, Antarctica is a polar desert. Nothing at all like the Sahara, in terms of average temperature, types of lifeforms, and so on.
2
@Celine Agree with your assessment of GoT (I give it praise through S05 though) and agree with the oddity of mainstream praise that overlooking the flaws since the end of the source material. I have been critical since however, and disappointed. Warned friends super excited the last year or two (whom I made get into it), that I thought it was heading to a bad place. All the while, their excitement overshadowed my own - a book reader.
This season has the same flaws as the last two. Its just worse, compacted, more obvious, and Eps 04 was inexcusable by anyones standard for insulting our intelligence as an audience. It was the epitome of all the flaws that people were overlooking. That's the only reason we are finally seeing mainstream outrage.
2
That was very well written. Thank you. I'm not sure why so many people must chime in about not watching GoT...most of watching don't care. Just like we don't care about your dietary restrictions...unless I'm cooking for you, best kept to yourself. I can't eat beef jerky because it gives me the wind, something terrible. Does anyone really care to know that?
21
I don't care if anyone reacts negatively to this comment, but I find it appalling that so many people in this country, in this year, will spend so much time and effort watching a show that seems to feature little but horrendous violence. Oh yes, and great fur coats.
18
Dear Akamai,
There's a lot of violence in most entertainment down through history (eg: Oedipus, Romeo and Juliet, the Odyssey, and the vast majority of all literature and theatre until recently). This is part of the human condition, humans are violent, and always have been. Violence also begets drama and tragedy.
Fur coats, on the other hand, are an abomination and should be done away with. But so long as violence by humans is just enacted on humans, it's not a big deal.
5
@akamai I think about this a lot. Violence is rampant, whether in 'innocent' forms of shooter videogames, action movies, or to the extreme realistic brutality that can be depicted in GoT or horror films. Sometimes I actually try to think back to the last form of (fictional) entertainment I saw where even the more innocent forms of violence did not exist and it is difficult.
Eventually I realized, technology and our ability to depict this stuff so easily and rampantly, isn't the problem. Humans got off on it in much worse ways in the past with Rome and the Colosseum and a dozen other examples. In the end, I accepted its some odd human fascination that we enjoy, and try not to analyze that one too much.
1
@akamai I think about this a lot. Violence is rampant, whether in 'innocent' forms of shooter videogames, action movies, or to the extreme realistic brutality that can be depicted in GoT or horror films. Sometimes I actually try to think back to the last form of (fictional) entertainment I saw where even the more innocent forms of violence did not exist and it is difficult.
Eventually I realized, technology and our ability to depict this stuff so easily and rampantly, isn't the problem. Humans got off on it in much worse ways in the past with Rome and the Colosseum and a dozen other examples. In the end, I accepted its some odd human fascination that we enjoy, and try not to analyze that one too much.
Also, for what its worth, GoT used to have merits that gave the violence an artistic point, and most was not simply gratuitous.
1
I can't watch it. Anything medieval turns me off. i can do the Tudors and Dante and then the Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Chinese, Mongols, Muslims, etc. Not Europe in between. Except Chaucer. I just wanted to note this so people could know that there's someone someone out there who did not watch this show. Not that judge, condemn, or condemn it. Not my cup of tea, or blood. Just something personal.
6
Dear John Mack,
Fine, but why stop by to mention it? But since you have, allow me to point out this is every bit as odd as if I claimed I loved all of history but could not stand the Boxer Rebellion period in China, specifically. Or that I enjoyed every comedy I've seen except anything with Will Ferrell in it. It's an interesting idiosyncracy, and I feel bad for you in that after another couple of weeks, you won't be able to barge into blogs and state that you don't like Game of Thrones or other medieval European flavored entertainment.
11
@John Mack
add me to your list of 1
we are now 2 not watching medieval stuff
3
I'm having a really hard time understanding anyone who thinks GoT is about gratuitous violence and sex. Have a single one of you read a history book? Humanity by nature is gratuitously violent and sexual. There was nothing, I mean NOTHING in GoT that wasn't commonplace in the Middle Ages (aside from all the dragons, mysticism, and magic that is). This is a story about the brutality of power struggles and the futility of vengeance. What did you expect?
I understand that such scenes may be too upsetting for some viewers, and that those people most likely have very good reasons for avoiding such scenes. But the rest of us could do without the moral judgment. Being adverse to seeing fake depictions of violence doesn't make you a better or more moral person. Some of us have the ability to watch it, feel all the emotions that entails, and take something meaningful out of the story itself. For most of us who watched GoT that meaning is that vengeance is futile, foolish, and can turn otherwise good people into monsters
62
@Zach I think it's about the tone or style. For example, both Tarantino and Haneke have produced extremely violent films. However, only one of them is frequently called out for glorifying violence. Whether or not the accusation sticks, the distinction is valid.
2
@Zach GoT is nothing like the Middle Ages - unless one's knowledge of the Middle Ages is based on Hollywood.
8
Hmmm... I came to this article expecting a new insight about Game of Thrones and instead got a long, long insight into the writer. Maybe the piece needs a warning: "Writer Is Coming."
I do agree that things changed when the series ran out of books, but it also true that the same thing happens in the fantasy genre a lot, without a shift from print to TV. The first two thirds of a book is gangbusters, then it all gets weird as it tries to end. A good example is Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age," but the issue may also explain why Patrick Rothfuss can't seem to finish the books he began with "The Name of the Wind." He clearly has very high standards for storytelling, as his amazing work shows.
Tolkien managed it better both with "there and back again," and with the departure into the West. GoT could have stolen those. It would have been interesting, in Winterfell, to have seen the original Starks get together and reflect on what a long, strange trip it's been. Or maybe the characters could just turn their back on the coming winter and go summer in Meereen, sort of like seeing your folks head for Florida.
The idea of leaving the Iron Throne empty has considerable appeal. Let the people, those perpetual victims, rule themselves. What a concept.
11
Oh the Iron Throne won't wind up empty, nor will democracy miraculously spawn, like it was supposed to when we freed Iraq from Iraq, or Afghanistan from Afghanistan. One thing that Game of Thrones has always been clear on is that the peasants are far too ignorant to rule themselves, just as the 2016 election proved.
4
I binge watched all 7 seasons in a week, a season per day.
Here's my impressions as I was doing it:
1) You watch the children grow up, go thru puberty, become adults, in 7 days, and you feel you are getting really old really fast.
2) You watch all (most) of the lead female characters go full frontal, one per season/day, and none (two) of the lead male characters doing the same, and you realize how sexist the show really is.
3) You realize that by season/day 7, winter is still coming, but it never arrives, that the entire series IS really just about winter coming, like one long preparation for a snow storm that the weather forecaster and the mayor keep warning you.
4) There are no surprises in the show (Red Wedding, Joffrey's poisoning, Jon Snow's resurrection, etc), because all those moments have long become iconic and, throughout the years, filtered through via other cultural media -- SNL skits, late night monologs, political and cultural references, office talk. And you are really sad because you missed out on the shock when those scenes first aired.
5) You watch Robb Stark get stabbed through the heart and you think, oh he'll be fine, he gets his own show and becomes a Bodyguard.
6) You keep thinking: the British really have a monopoly on these fantasy series, why is that?
7) You realize in all these British fantasy shows, there are no Asians. Where are the Asians? No Asian Hobbits, no Asians in Narnia, none emigrated to Westeros. It's an Englishman's fantasy.
20
As to point 6 and 7, the fantasy Americans consume comes largely from British/Celtic mythology, which is pretty rich in dragons, faeries, basilisks, and all manner of interesting critters. The Asians are mostly in Asian fantasy films, which are of tremendous variety and mainly seen by Asians in Asia. To each their own, basically, and one thing America certainly is, is an ex-British colony.
2
Does it make me a bad person that I don't particularly care whether random people on the web who I don't know have ever watched Game of Thrones? Do these same people comment on a gumbo recipe, saying "I don't like shrimp, so I've never tried gumbo?" Do they dutifully check in, responding to a travel article about, say, Senegal: "I've never been to Senegal." Thanks for sharing. Dracarys.
84
@Melmoth Dracarys indeed!
4
Started this article at "Five weeks is enough time to achieve familiarity but probably not enough to become a true fan. " Ended there too.
3
Before season 7 began last year I finally decided to subscribe to HBO to watch GoT before season 8 started. As a child who devoured every fairy tale I could read, I was in heaven. I gave myself four weeks to watch and by the time season 8 started I was asking myself why I waited so long.
Before this season started I watched every season once again and after everynew episode I watch a second time to catch things I missed (and sometimes a third time with my daughter when she missed an episode). I wish this show could go on forever.
24
That's exactly how I watched it too. What was it like? Fine I really enjoyed it that way, there was good continuity that way.
5
I read GoT books and really love the story- I’ve tried to watch the series but just could not feel the same about it. George RR Martin is a very good writer- sadly he decided to invest his time more in the shows instead of finishing the books 😢 I still have hope though, that I will live my life knowing the ending of the books and not being pushed to accept the ending from the show.
2
Hopefully there will actually be an ending to the books. GRRM isn't getting any healthier...
3
I came late to game of thrones, but have watched most of it now, including all the shows of this the last season. It is complex in plot and characters, and I have to note its brutal realism, pessimism about human nature matches the drift of The Walking Dead, Black Sails, Breaking Bad, and Outlander.
It emerged amidst deep signs of institutional breakdown in America, gridlock, and this reaching back to the Middle Ages when we really need to grapple with the complexities of our era. After all, it took the NY Times a long time to realize that free market capitalism, Neoliberalism had raised up its chief Rival, China, right out of its own philosophy, although China has not ever played by the "ground rules." I suppose that's a variation on Red Wedding.
How about an audience that thrills to the plot complexity and characters, but doesn't want to face up to Modern Monetary Theory? Why the Middle Ages, and not the English Revolution, the American or French, the Russian, Chinese or Cuban...all of which would offer equally compelling characters, plots and lots of gore, and the sex could be worked in as well, I'm sure?
Wouldn't that be conveying, in a more relevant and realistic way, the stark fact that all the great superpowers of the last 400 years - Spain, Holland, England (and Tsarist Russia) were unable to salvage their greatness, to "make themselves great again" - MTGA, and now we spurn the Green New Deal as too much, too fast.
1
I too clambered up the "great wall" at one go hoping I won't feel left out during office conversations. Did flaunt my knowledge of the show a few times which went largely unnoticed. Yeah, I agree I find it too odd to say Dany. Must say it wasn't bad crunching 67 episodes into 6 weeks. Inexplicably, I liked the character Ygritte
1
" It would take as long as a month to read Martin’s novels (yes, people have read them in less)"
Albeit I was on vacation in a snowy cabin, I did the 5 books in 9 days. They are long but its not War and Peace - the writing is easy to digest and you don't need extensive historical footnotes to grasp whats happening. The first one only took a day.
Also - the books are infinitely better than the show. The first season is the only season of the show I liked to be honest.
3
I did the same! I agree that although I wouldn’t miss the finale I’m not the die hard fan who starting watching in 2011. I do think season 8 is lacking and should have been longer to appropriately wrap up everyone’s stories.
1
So far, season 8 has been awful. One adjective says it all. A major step down.
4
I didn’t take much notice of GOT initially. Then my partner read the books and couldn’t put them down. We bought the first 7 seasons and watched them through twice. I love it and will be sorry to see it end.
4
GoT is not a show to be binged. That was your first mistake (other than thinking that, somehow, because Obama was president you wouldn’t watch - ?). The yearly build up of interest and intrigue was a gift - not a curse or a weakness. Rarely has television offered such complex, flawed, and nuanced characters. The arc of Jaime Lannister’s story alone is worth the price of admission. Or watching Gwendolyn Christie act in almost any scene - a lesson in what can be accomplished with just a facial expression. The strength of GoT was the creation of a world of characters abiding by their own moral compasses, a world both removed from our own and mirroring our own. A world where Death is a constant presence, a silent character who finds a spokesperson in Arya and her eerie metamorphosis into a girl with a name. The direwolves and dragons only made it richer. I think most of us will miss that happy challenge to suspend our disbelief. It was worth it.
This season has betrayed everything Emilia Clarke has invested in her character and that’s a shame. Sans the rich source materials, the show runners are lost in spectacle and FX.
26
Thank you, Mr. Morris, and your essay on GOT has left this reader slightly breathless in the telling (my favorite Tolkien hobbit called earlier from the post office to let me know that a fairy tale has now been sent to an elegant swan in Paris. My hobbit and I are having an exchange on whether we should read 'Lord of The Rings', and I may give it a third try, now in maturity.
Between the snacks and 'bingeing' described in the above, I lost the thread of whether this much debated T.V. series is going to weather well. But before feeling that you are being addressed by an ungrateful cuss, I want to thank you for mentioning that it's based on the first five novels in George R.R. Martin’s series - “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
More important, keep up your writing, and looking forward to reading your next endeavor.
3
Why bother? He has nothing to say except, “I missed the bus.”
4
@Robert Goodell,
Because it is not a bother at all for this reader, and Wesley Morris is recognized as a fine author. Having just ordered the first book of 'Game of Thrones', thanks to his mention of George R.R. Martin, it is most unkind of you to place a pin in this new order which I am looking forward to receiving.
It sounds more entertaining than 'The Last Word on Medieval Ages' by Regine Pernoud, an era filled with misconceptions and much berated for its so-called ignorance.
1
Me too, well sort of. I didn’t know any of the actors so they “owned” their rolls. I watched up until Jonathan Pryce appeared. Great actor but, he kinda ruined it for me, he never owned the character in my mind and was a distraction, he was just was JP. So I watched 30 minute long season recaps until Pryce was killed off and then went back to the episodes. I saved a lot of time and I’m all set for the finale and don’t have to worry about accidentally seeing the resolution in a NYT headline.
2
I read Martin’s the Sand Kings years (30 or 40?)ago, loved it, and then watched the TV version destroy it (although, in the short story, one could guess what was coming from the description of the pet store owner). From the comments it seems TV has repeated itself. Haven't watched any of it myself. Too busy looking for a pet that will worship me. To quote the movie Groundhog Day, "I am a god. Not the God". I got you, babe.
1
@Mark Shyres:
Hi Mark, I am a big fan of Martin's books too. But I can tell you this: The TV adaptation of the Game of Thrones is spectacularly good. Do yourself a favor and watch it, this time you won't be disappointed.
2
@S
Ok, S. you, and Marlene Benoit (from Canada) convinced me. I will make the effort this evening. I may take along a single malt just in case (or a case just in case). Same brand favored by Ron Swanson.
2
I started reading the books in 2012 and bought book 5 in hardcover. I only saw clips and the occasional episode on HBO when I was traveling. My husband started on the books in 2017 and wanted the Blu-rays for Christmas that year. He watched all of the episodes and read the books since then. I watched two seasons, but knowing what happens and how dark much of what was to come, I left him to finish the set. I'm now watching the final episodes. Two impressions: the production values of the first season are surprising low but the story telling is great. The final season, the production is clearly expensive and impressive (if you can see it. we rewatched episode 3) but the storytelling is weak. I wish they had spent 10 more minutes of each episode on storytelling instead of special effects. It's disappointing.
9
Short of ideas for a story line? Simple, just insert some female nudity, graphic violence, a dragon or two and place it in a kingdom either long ago or far into the future where reality doesn’t exist.
You’ve got a built in audience of people that live boring lives, usually self inflicted, that have intellectually stopped growing at 12 years old. Does this show have unicorns in it too?
With the multitude of comic books movies that make big bucks, it’s obvious that Hollywood ran out of ideas long ago. Never mind the reboots, I just saw The Thing remake of a remake, what was the point? The original was campy, the Kurt Russel version was almost a completely different movie and the last one was just a cynical attempt to appeal to women by having a female lead. In all the years between the last two, the CGI effects were no better that the Kurt Russel version.
The Day The Earth Stood Still was a complete disappointment, it is a poor copy of the original with Patricia Neal, not surprising considering who was cast in the lead as the alien.
8
@Paulie Yeah, I always thought the scholars who study Beowulf stopped growing at 12 years old. I mean, it's got a dragon, for gawd's sake (not to mention monsters).
5
@Paulie Yup, nothing good has come out of Western civilization since the Iliad (which, let’s admit, was rather derivative).
4
This article made me laugh and smile!
I am a big Tolkein fan - since the books came out (yes, I was in fact reading books that many years ago). And I am a big fan of GOT. The worlds in both cases are so "thick". And yes, we love heroes. Yes - sex and violence. But I don't think gratuitously so. To all those who missed it - stick with it. It is marvelously done. (By the way we did War and Peace for our book club. For the first 300 pages I thought what the heck am I doing. Then I couldn't put it down and wanted to start all over when it ended. You will feel the same way about this series. Stick with it. Masterful).
4
How can anybody find fault with Dany for using a dragon to burn down Kings Landing when we burned down German and Japanese cities and nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing an untold number of innocent civilians? Nobody claimed Harry Truman was mad because he nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Because the Germans had bombed civilians during the Blitz, the Brits carpet bombed German cities because what goes around comes around.
It is sexist to criticize Dany for doing what males have always done during war. The goal in total war is to kill civilians. Remember that after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, that megalomaniac General Curtis LeMay wanted to bomb North Vietnam back to the Stone Age. LeMay said after WWII was over that if we had lost, he would have been tried as a war criminal.
8
@William Boernke Well, Dany leveled Kings Landing first. And I have it on good authority that Truman referred to this precedent before giving the order to drop the big one.
2
@William Boernke Correct me if my history is off. But to my understanding the Japanese didn't surrender before the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They surrendered after.
In contrast, King's Landing surrendered before Dany leveled the city. She knew full well they had surrendered but decided to burn them all anyways.
I hope this answer's your question
5
@William Boernke...It seems you are saying it is wrong that we did not hold males accountable for certain crimes. Therefore we cannot hold a female accountable for the same crimes.... That's not logical.
1
No offense, but this is unbelievably pretentious. You didn't want to watch a fantasy TV show because Obama was president? Like you had to put your life on hold for years because of some guy you've never met got elected?
I also binge-watched the whole show a few weeks ago. I was struck how the quality started to slowly go downhill in season 5, for a myriad of reasons, as the writers lost their sense for subtlety and pacing.
I would have loved to have read a thoughtful analysis of the progression of the series in this article, from the point of view of a previously unfamiliar observer. As-is, what a waste of 3 pages!
9
Hmmm. The current administration feels like a watered down version of Game of Thrones. That's already way too much despair, power games, conniving, incest, world destroying for me.
4
Never seen it. What’d I miss?
10
@Paul McGlasson I haven't seen it either. Ignorance is bliss.
4
@Paul McGlasson: Oh, please - don’t get the ThroneHeads started ...
3
This is not a "take" on binged GoT.
It is a take on binging GoT.
Diff thang.
(yeah, it says "bing". I like that mobetta than "binge". try it aloud.)
2
I too began viewing Game of Thrones a few weeks ago (6 to be exact); now I'm all caught up and await the series finale!
What struck me is how contemporary the show is (i.e. the adverse effects of power structures predicated on entitlement).
And of course incest. One only assumes Alabama lawmakers were inspired to remove the incest exemption - in their new abortion bill - owing to their fondness of GoT.
I wonder....which one of them will fly the dragon over the only state which matters!?? California remembers!!!
7
The Sopranos. Mad Men. The Hunger Games. Now it's Game of Thrones.
Many Americans really need to get a life.
18
What they should do for entertainment is, what, jousting? Reading by candlelight? What oh-so-superior form of relaxing entertainment do you insist is far more valid than a TV program?
3
It’s satisfying to read a binge critic write what others said I was imagining: that the story went down the toilet once there were no more books left to adapt. Shame, shame, shame.
3
I got hooked on Game of Thrones toward some the end of Season 3. A colleague who read the books told me that before Season 4, HBO will
replay the previous seasons; heaven to my ears.
Even now, I rewatch the episodes as there are things I certainly have missed. I LOVE it and don’t listen to those who complain about this final season, can’t please everyone.
PS-Did Dany know Varys was trying to poison her and who was he sending those letters to?
Enjoyed little finger getting his throat slashed as he was evil. He was the one who “gave”
Ross to Joffrey so he could use her for target practice.
3
Good reason to watch GOT and large part of its immense popularity lies in it being utterly devoid of PC politics and its preachy need to ruin anything and everything that could be described as great fun.
Sure enough, NYT 8 years late review starts with Obama and ends with brown people casting comments. Nowhere to hide.
3
I've been watching every week since season 3. I went back and caught up over several months, and have enjoyed GoT a lot ever since. After watching last week's episode, "The Bells", I had a weird dream about the upcoming last episode:
Everybody who's left lives happily ever after. Dany sits on the Iron Throne amidst the rubble but nobody else cares. Jon and Arya head back North to hang out with Sansa and Bran. Dany lets them be. Davos goes fishing. Tormund gets a date with Brienne. Etc.
I know, it's never gonna happen that way. This is why I am not a TV writer. Thanks to the creators for a fun decade!
4
Did anyone count how many times the writer used the word "I"?
"I" seriously wasted five minutes of my life speed reading this.
Offer something up worth reading rather than some kind of selfish clever recount of the experience.
12
Disappointed in the comments to this article. Come on people, GoT is great television. Get with the program. Tremendously entertaining, well written and well acted. And beautifully filmed. The violence and the sex all make sense. Not gratuitous in my humble opinion. I stopped watching West World (or whatever it's called -- the one with the robots) because there the violence is completely gratuitous -- a snuff movie with pretensions.
13
Murder, rape, and baby killing for entertainment. Typical American fare. And a dragon, zombies, occultism. How inventive.
14
I watched 2 or 3 episodes when it first came out and did not like all the violence. Inundated with media about the end of the show I started watching it again. Made it through about 9 episodes. I loved the costuming and scenery. But the violence!
I just do not want to be exposed to such graphic violence. It affects my psyche.
Also, too many reminders of the nightmare of the Republicans and the tyrant in the White House.
And this:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-i-cant-watch-game-of-thrones_b_5120281
8
Wesley: I did the same thing... private as it was, maybe we watched the same episodes at the same time! I wanted to watch the finale in the same time frame as the rest of my family, so I felt that urgency to get caught up. And I did! Let me know when you're ready for "The Sopranos." I never watched a single episode, but I hear the ending is disappointing......
I did the same: started it a few months ago. Glad I did. I'm sure I'll re-watch the whole series too, like I have done with The Wire, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad.
"...bottomless expertise..", more like bottomless delusion. The nitpicking I've seen take place amongst watchers of this show is endless. Yet no one questions how a dragon can apparently hover motionless, or why not a single flaming Dothroki sword was ever swung at the Night King's army.
And oh, the whining about how things are ending up!
1
I get it. You watched it in 8 weeks. I really, really get it. So WHAT do you have to say, as the NYT TV critic, about the show!? God that was awful.
9
GOT is more about vengeance than power in my opinion, but I have only watched three seasons. I'm taking a little break for my soul to scab over after the Red Wedding (Vengeance). This show is so violent, that is why I think it would be easier to handle once week, and then take a break for a few months. Does anyone care to explain the distinction between violence and gore? I'm seeing the word "gore"a lot in the article and comments.
1
You couldn't wait for a few more episodes to play out before watching the entire show? What a dumb idea. I'll watch the show when it is over and however fast or slow I want too, but I won't be beholden to any season finales as that is so archaic to be a slave to your TV.
1
“'Everywhere in the world they hurt little girls,” I seriously considered jotting it down and taking it to a tattoo parlor.'"
I took “surfeit” to the parlor man. A friend, he wrote on his sheet, held it up and laughed, “Did you mean “surf it?”
First of all, I don’t know if “bingeing” is even a word.
If it is, don’t you drop the “e” before adding “ing”?
4
been there done that
1
I get it. And I basically wrote the same thing today: https://medium.com/@abbeserphos/was-it-worth-it-c46f588a60e8
1
You wrote: “the civilized rush of acquired conversancy.” Aren’t you glad you can now join the conversations of your family and friends? I don’t think any of us need to make excuses for liking A Game of Thrones. If Shakespeare were alive today he would write, produce and direct the show. If the show ends with Daenerys Targaryan the Mad Queen on the Iron Throne then art imitates life, because we have a crazy man in the Oval Office. Except that the president wreaks havoc on our real lives. North Korean ICBMs can fall from the sky like fire breathing dragons.
1
I did a few exact same thing with GOT andBreaking Bad!!!! And now I’m doing it with orange is the new black. What can I say I’m super late to the party!!!!
Never seen, Thrones. From your writing, I believe reading a history book is more lurid and may cause you to feel twice as sick.
3
I wonder which is greater, the number of episodes or the number of times the personal pronoun "I" is used in this article.
What of bunch of self aggrandized nonsense.
3
Why are so many folks reading, and commenting, on an article about a show they haven't watched? Condescending much?
7
@Concerned Citizen nobody is forcing you to read a single article.
So glad I gave up fantasy after childhood. There must be something missing in people's lives today. Sad.
8
its really too bad you didnt just read the books.
Now read the first three books of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Even better than GRRM's GOT books
2
Great show, except for the relationship of incest between the princess and her brother was not necessary and did not have to be portrayed graphically.
3
@Isle Wrong. This show comes across as an introduction to the brutal european medieval history*. You can replace Ironborn with Iceland, Dorne with Spain, Lannister with Germany, Stark with Scotland and you get the gist.
[*] I'm pretty sure other continents have similar if not worse brutality but alas, it wasn't as carefully recorded.
2
I did it in one.... What does that make me?
1
Beyond the gratuitous violence, nudity and sex, the contrived soap opera like predictability gets old. Most of HBO's series have that same "recipe." Like opiods, they've perfected the art of repeatedly tapping into shallow emotional hooks. This is audio-visual junk food targeted to the psyche of a 15 year old male. This and Westworld would make OK 3 hour movies: Run through all the cliches once and end it. That also goes for all the endless Hollywood sequels. Apes, dinosaurs, aliens, predators, avengers. C'mon Hollywood, you're making the same movie over and over with a different title. I guess it will only stop when the big bucks stop rolling in.
6
I might now be the last white person on the planet to never see a single episode of GOT. Though I posed with the big Sword Throne erected in Rockefeller Center little over a month ago. I actually had no idea what it was or why it replaced the iconic Christmas Tree this Spring. Talk about exile from modern life, should have worn my Last of the Luddites Tshirt. Now I'm hoping someone just sends me the Cliff Notes. Watch these ten episodes and be done with it.
3
I don’t get people who feel the need to share their disregard for the show based on at best an episode or, more often (at least judging from their posts), hearsay or half-formed preconceptions of what fantasy is. We get it, GAme of Thrones is tripe, you read books (I mean BOOKS with words and everything), you are the last bastion of culture in a dying civilization, but why the need to waste time sharing your contempt? I really dislike cucumbers and romance novels but it never occurred me to vent on discussion boards about Greek salad or Danielle Steele. Don’t you have anything better to do, like re-reading the complete works of Hegel in the original German?
46
@Luca
haha just what I was thinking, well put.
7
@Luca You win the internet today, good sir.
2
Is "Westeros" a cold cereal like umm ... "Cheerios"?
I missed the transition in this article from "Thrones" to "Bad", did Bryan Cranston do an episode of Thrones? He was good in Bad but I couldn't stay with it long, maybe 2 episodes, because of the creepy other guy who really did dope. Anyway, Thrones hasn't yet grabbed me and dragged me into it's vortex of weird dressed up alternate universe people, like armored Knights Templar but without real steel armor, just leather-looking garb from an old Madonna video. Oh well, it will probably get me hooked eventually. Maybe when it has all died down and I come across it like old Twilight Zone episodes. Sigh.
3
I, too, did this as a Christmas gift for my Game of Thrones fan significant other who I’ve been with for as long as the series has been on. I have the live reaction vids if ya want em.
2
Haven’t seen one episode.
2
The 8 years the tv show has been spread over is nothing even close to the 20 years that still have not seen a completed book series. Unghhhhhh.
1
Nice article...8 years is very exhausting.
You miss a lot of stuff the first time through. Now you need to watch it all a second time before Sunday at 9.
1
I read enough about this show to know I will steer clear. I can’t tolerate watching bloody, violent imagery, no matter how thrilling or supposedly meaningful the plot.
And I can’t help but wonder what this country would be like if all the money, energy and brain power that goes into creating and watching sensational television like GoT was instead invested into solving urgent societal problems in the present day...and into getting people out to vote.
4
Never watched it and never will. I just don't care to see over 5000 (or whatever) deaths. It sounds to me like the most violent show ever produced.
4
GOT is historical fiction. You learn an enormous amount of history watching it. Yes, the way they dressed and fought. The weapons they used. How they chose Kings and transferred power. How the King relied on the Houses and their loyalty to survive. The myths they believed. How books were guarded and oral traditions passed on.
The killings and gore, debasement of women, power of religion, power of the kings and houses, disregard for life...unfortunately somewhat accurate for the timeframe.
In addition, the characters demonstrate all the strengths and flaws of humans in all their glory and treachery.
For all those who didn't watch it. It is your loss.
Next up, binge watch the Vikings.
8
I was at an Easter dinner last month where someone asked: “Anyone want to talk about ‘Game of Thrones’?” The responses from everyone else at the table varied from indifferent silence to a vociferous “NO!!!”
I understand it will soon be over; I can only hope this will be the end of the endless, breathless coverage in publications such as this that insist on conflating television with reality (isn’t that how our country ended up with the most venal and inept president in our history?)
5
catching up on 3 seasons of "The Good Fight" and no intention to catch up on GoT.
Re: Who cares?! I am so glad to say I have only watched one (early) episode and disliked it immensely. With all the horrible events in the world, all the people killing other people with guns, all the people starving in the world, with Democracy taking terrible hits, if not dying, in the US and in European countries, who would give so much time and energy to any commercial television series, let alone this one? As Has been said about other seri, other “ entertainments” and past events in history, and certainly can be about this one: “An opiate for the masses.”
8
Never watched it, never will, nor will I view Star Wars, Harry Potter or any comic book movie. I enjoy a story that isn’t based on contrived “magical kingdoms”. I grew out of fantasy fairy tales at about 8 years old. I’d rather watch a good story instead of a bunch of CGI effects.
4
hahaha I did exactly the same thing, and joined the rest of the world with Episode 3 of this final season.
I think it's better in many ways. Everything is fresh in my memory.
On the other hand, I really noticed teleporting horses and the like ;-)
I"m mildly depressed about how vacuous and meaningless this article is, and mildly depressed that I stopped to read it, and felt that it would stick with me longer than my perusals "Trump says he doesn't want war with Iran," Or the article on Xi's Last-Minute Switch On Trade.
We crave the familiar, a piece of information that can be digested like a snack. The latest article about Trump's latest atrocity can't really be digested at all. It stays in your throat. But yet another reference to Hodar's kindly, blue and dying face and Missandei's injunction to burn The Red Keep to the ground feels like a manageable, somehow satisfying bit of sadness.
Tried to watch Game of Thrones, just like I tried to watch The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad. Honestly, these all just leave me kind of... meh. The characters are often unnecessarily venal in their machinations, and the way they torment "innocent" characters leaves me more disgusted than enthralled. A story need not be EXTREME to be good, but that seems to be all HBO ever has in the tank. Next.
4
For years, we had discouraged our Mom from watching GOT. The sex, lies, and violence we feared would be too dark for the taste of a wholesome Catholic mom. After hearing us talk about it for far too much, she started. We waited with bated breath for first reactions and to our surprise, she loved. She crushed the whole series in 3 weeks, just before Mother’s Day. We got her a “Mother of Dragons” which she proudly brings to work. It’s iconic behavior.
6
I stopped watching after Ned Stark was killed—the violence was so visceral, I just couldn’t continue to subject myself to it. Stopped watching Dexter for the same reason.... Sigh.
3
I too binged the series over the course of two months, pretty recently. So glad I did! I remember years ago hearing my coworkers talking about it and setting up GoT watching parties after work in the office, not really understanding the buzz and not really wanting to subscribe to HBO just to watch the show. I remember an administrative assistant calling GoT the show of HR violations. Thought that was the funniest thing. Now that I’ve watched GoT I can’t imagine watching this show with my coworkers since there’s so much female nudity and rape, especially given the thought of watching it with a bunch of male immature programmers in their mid twenties. I’ve watched the show with my boyfriend and his German Shepherd, but that’s the extent of comfortable companionship I can handle watching this show. Anyway, I plan on reading the books next.
1
I never could get get past the patently CG "trained" dragons ("The Neverending Story" on steroids?), completely out-of-whack, mish-mash of costume eras (Star Trek met The Flintstones met Queen Elizabeth I), gratuitous violence/gore and nearly exclusively female nudity for no particular plot point. Gazillions of millennials and teenage boys love GOT -- but for the wrong reasons, IMO. (Will now sit back and wait for the obligatory outraged blowback....)
7
I’m doing this, right now. Binge watching GOT. I’d best describe it as pure ecstasy booked ended by watching paint dry. I’ll stick it out, though. Because nothing is on during the summer, anyway. I’ll be done by back-to-school.
1
To be a good sport with the roommates, I had enough after "binging" a couple seasons.
No wonder humanity is systematically exterminating itself.
4
This was a fun read. I binged How I Met Your Mother and I am one of the few that believe the ending was actually great. Probably because I binged. What I'm saying is, I relate.
As with The Sopranos, my wife loves this show so I rode along as what one my call a passenger/viewer. I have to say it contains some of the most beautiful sets and costumes I've ever seen. Also some of the most amateurish acting and silly, uninspired writing.
God bless my wife's tolerance of my facetious running commentary.
2
I have not seen one episode of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones or the Sopranos for that matter. Never been a big fan of serialized television...too much work and I don't think I missed anything.
2
I haven't seen a single episode. My golfing buddy, a fan, said, "Your so lucky." I asked why. He said "Because you get to watch it new from the very beginning". After reading this column I'm starting to get it a little.
3
I did it in 2 and a half weeks. Nice try, peasant.
3
Why be ashamed of binging? I set a record of two weeks w/this show and don't regret it. Resisted it because "everybody else" seemed to talk about it. Then I decided to watch it because I wanted to see it, and haven't been disappointed. In fact, I've been hooked. The violence and sex won't appeal to everyone but this show isn't for everyone (and many times I covered my eyes to not watch some of the goriest bits). However, the one thing different is that I had no problem with the White Queen not just destroying the Red Queen, but the whole city with her. Longtime fans, however, seem to be really upset by a rather obvious conclusion.
62
I liked Game if Thrones. I enjoyed the breadth of the story. I could have done without: the prolonged cruelty to Theon and Sansa at the hands of Ramsey Bolton; the burning of Stannis’ daughter; and the extended boredom of the High Sparrow arc. I enjoy Broon, Tyrion and most of the other characters and story lines. “Winter is Coming”.
2
I watched G.O.T. for one episode and determined that i wasn't half-wit enough to enjoy it. It is no more than a badly made soap opera.
6
I also binge watched Game of Thrones. I had not watched the first few seasons for a number of reasons, in part because I misinterpreted the title (Game of Thorns did not capture my imagination) but mainly because I was not an HBO subscriber. However once I realized that I had jumbled the letters up in head, that the show actually starred Peter Dinklage, and I needed to get HBO to watch John Oliver, I decided I should give it a go. I watched the first two episode one right after the other. Then I stopped. It was a story of sad people living in a dreary country killing each other. Even Peter Dinklage could not save it for me. I have on occasion, over the years, when surfing by, to stop for a few minutes to check in on the show. I saw the "Walk of Shame" by chance and was looking at the TV when the "Destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor" occurred but could not maintain my attention for more than five or ten minutes. I could not binge more than that.
2
I too inhaled all 8 seasons over the past few weeks. Late to the GOT party but all in now. Great article!
3
We started slowly, back in the day. We watched the first one, twice, and still weren’t sure what was going on. Finally I found a tutorial on the internet, and then the rest was history. My husband and I love it. That being said, all of this drama swirling about who will be left and people furious and demanding a redo...get over it! Just relax, enjoy and possibly be surprised next Sunday!
7
I watched the the whole 7 seasons and two episodes of season 8 in just two weeks. I was able to catch up with the rest of the world for episode 3. It helped that we had a long weekend in April and one day holiday in May. Yet, in those two weeks, I was still working, still had time to go the gym, watch movies in theater on Sundays, go to church, and did some malling.
I’m glad I finally joined in the fandom. Totally absorbed in it. I love the series and it makes me sad that it will end this Sunday, or Monday morning for us here in the Philippines.
6
I cannot fathom someone feeling cheated by having read the books before seeing the show, no matter what the subject.
The enormous potential of our minds in interpreting the words, if skillfully set down, beats any movie or TV adaptation of any concept.
Unless the books were so poorly written that the movie adaptation had to beef up some flimsy plot lines.
4
The books are amazing. I read them years before the show came out.
1
I could accept some of the plot choices if they had only taken more time by adding more episodes and seasons. I suspect this was a cost issue, but unfortunately, quality suffered. Perhaps they should have waited for Martin to actually finish his books. Probably would have meant hiring replacement actors, but anything is better than the dumpster fire of the last few seasons.
3
Oh what a luxury. I wish I had done the same. I started the series toward the end of 2016 and could not stop, but couldn’t. Then when I finally caught up, the gaps in seasons were often overwhelming since I was so used to continuing on with the next episode or season.
You are a wonderful writer. Thanks for this.
7
I love binging, but my idea of binging is just a few episodes at a time. (not a true binger you say?) Did it with Halt and Catch Fire, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Bloodline, The Deuce and The Sopranos, all on my little trusty kindle, all curled up into an intense ball of binge. I find that I can do this with drama more than comedy, although the one and only season of Happyish I gulped in no time. However, I didn't continue with Mad Men, The Wire, Game of Thrones, or Ozark. I plan on trying The Wire again soon, but I don't think I will go near GoT or Ozark again. I've watched some shows with my husband, like Twin Peaks the Return and Escape at Dannemora, but sleep patterns break up the mutual continuity too much, so I end up re-watching it on my kindle anyway, and I can revisit all the muttering dialogue with headphones to get a better idea of the narrative. We are older people. I know people who love GoT, but all I liked were the horse hoof sounds and that wasn't enough to keep me. I would rather binge than watch the shows when they are on, especially the ones with commercials. I'd rather wait a million years for them to be on Netflix. I am currently at an impasse as what to watch next. I gotta like the characters for them to join me in my binge lair, no matter how icky they can be.
1
@prokedsorchucks
I have watched the first GoT episode and decided against progressing, and in my opinion, the statement "all I liked were the horse hoof sounds and that wasn't enough to keep me" is the best I have ever read about the series.
Some tips in re, what to watch next:
Counterpart
Catch 22 -- they turned it into a series, starting tomorrow I think, produced by George Clooney who also is supporting character
1
I envy you, in a way. I read the books. I was spoiled for the early - and best - seasons of the show. I've carried these characters with me for more years than I can count, invested in them emotionally, and seen my favorites betrayed by the sloppy writing and rushed storytelling of the final season. Had I not loved Westeros and some among its people for so long, I might hurt much less now to see the story not only end but end so disappointingly, with so little attention paid to characterization and consistency.
I realize the final two books are still being written and may provide a palate cleanser of sorts, even if they're only a much better telling of what we've already seen. But, realistically, I'm not sure we'll even see #6, much less #7. This may well be the only ending we get, and given the very real emotional pain that goes with it, I'm not sure I wouldn't have been better off facing it with far less investment in the entire show.
4
I also binge-watched the series over five weeks. I was home sick and then took a staycation for a week. Several friends have recommended the show through the years. So, I started to watch it and by Episode 2, I was absolutely hooked. It is not an easy show to watch, but Peter Dinklage is brilliant and watching Charles Dance and Diana Rigg has been a joy. The entire cast is just brilliant. I will be home Sunday to watch the finale and at some point, I will rewatch the whole series.
148
At the other end of the spectrum, imagine you’re, say, 80-years-old in 2011 and you have to ask yourself if an eight-year commitment is really the best plan.
3
exactly why I have been fighting the urge to watch final season past few weeks :) I am waiting to take it all in over a weekend!
2
I watched the first six seasons in one week, a season a day, with one day in the middle to reluctantly go to the beach. Phenomenal television, the scope of which we’ve never seen before.
2
We watched seasons 1-7 while on vacation last year, as the resort we were at had HBO (we didn’t at the time) and aired a season a day between Christmas and New Years!
1
Me and my husband watched religiously this show from season 1 to 4 until our little baby was born, our lack of sleeping was stronger than our GoT "devotion". But this year, since everybody talks about the finale season, we decided to catch up from season 5 to 8, sometimes two, sometimes three episode per night after our daughter fall asleep. I feel like this season lacks of a greater development of the reasons and motivations of their characters, i.e. the process where Danaerys and Jon Snow fall in love I think was so fast given the importance of both in the story.
6
I think it’s premature to have a final opinion about Game of Thrones. Let’s see the last episode before we decide. After all, there aren’t many movies that can be fairly evaluated 15 minutes before the end. But it was fun to read the article and think back to the earlier seasons. Game of Thrones has developed quite a fan base, for many reasons, I’m sure. But one guilty pleasure for me has been trying to anticipate which likable characters were going to be eliminated as the episodes progressed. Lots of movies and shows wipe out disagreeable characters, but starting with Ned Stark, Game of Thrones has removed characters that we liked and pulled for, all in service to the plot in the long term.
7
I, too, failed to watch the first seven seasons, having started the books many years ago and giving up in frustration as all my favorite characters got killed off unexpectedly and with little warning or ceremony. I’m older now, though, so I got the old DVDs from Netflix and went through them all— with subtitles on so I could understand when characters whispered in British accents. I believe it may have been a better experience when I could remember from one episode to the next who all the characters were. After all, it’s shot in very little light. As for the finale — well, a friend is giving a recital that night, so I’ll watch Monday night on my computer (the roofers are coming that morning). You have to keep your priorities straight.
2
I binge watched the first seven seasons over a two week period and glad I did.
Keeping the characters and clues fresh in my mind was the only way to prepare for the final season.
I’m sure everyone could relate to most of the cast. But I never thought the Hound would wind up my favorite. Love the independent streak!
1
Yup. I did the same thing and covered 8 years in about 6 weeks. I’m glad I did it this way, makes the whole narrative easier to follow. I think it’s mostly very good and occasionally great.
I have been waiting for the ending since the first book, A Song of Ice and Fire.
That was published in 1996.
I am now 23 years older, and I am getting to be good and old.
No whining about 8 years waiting.
Also, I'm pretty sure that the dragons will have the last word; remember, they were the first to be injured when they were held captive under the Mad King.
What goes around comes around, at least in George R R Martin's world.
88
@C.L.S. Me too. Eight years? World’s tiniest violin playing here. I was a young woman when I started, and now I’m well into middle age. Almost a quarter century is a long time.
12
My husband and I watched the entirety of this series in one week. It was a thoroughly exhilarating way to kill time. What I find most interesting about the popularity of this series is that every single character has such conviction. People need heroes.
111
@dragonflayer That's my problem with GOT, a way to "kill time". Makes me glad that I never watched any of it.
10
I watched S01 E01-E07 and never looked back or remotely wondered about the storyline or characters. Perhaps someone can devine why I never went beyond the first "Lord of the Rings"?
Of course I was addicted to "Breaking Bad";but not so addicted I couldn't wait for a season ending fix. Downloading the complete season at the end I found to be more gratifying then enduring weekly anxiety.
And now I treat all my favorites series in the same manner. Binge watching various seasons at my leisure.
1
I binged the first four seasons, after discovering Arya and looking at everything about her on YouTube. I don't know what I am going to do after Sunday. I have loved this show.
2
I’ve never actually binged a show before but I’m starting to come around that it may be the ideal way to watch a long running show. The main reason being it doesn’t allow time to ruminate and predict plot points during the weeks between episodes and months (or years) between seasons.
What I’m noticing is that most of the hate online from the recent episodes stems from the writing deviating from people’s fan made theories. Without time to even formulate a theory, you can just sit back and watch the show and judge it for what it is, not what you want it to be.
8
I love miniseries and HBO in particular. My wife and I have watched excellent shows, for some reason Justified is our favorite. Breaking Bad and Mad Men are in a league of their own. I find it interesting that I often use the phrase “ you gotta watch ....” yet no one has asked me to watch GOT. The shock effect seems to overcome the narrative so people probably can’t recommend sex and gore without a story.
3
@Daniel B I love Justified! Brilliant show.
GOT? Eh, I’ve tried several times, but I just can’t get into it. Stuck on season 4 and will probably give it up. I find it dull, overly violent and I am tense the whole time I am watching it. I don’t need more of that in my life - reality is filled with vile and misogynistic despots who will do anything to be king.
3
I am one episode away from being caught up; I started 3 weeks ago. I have absolutely relished this experience. Living in Ireland last year with my children certainly added to the experience. When the show first aired, we had just relocated to CA from Manhattan; our first child was only months old. Though my husband read the books and pleaded with me to share the experience, exhaustion outweighed magical, historical, fantasy fiction on an epic scale. And that we moved 4 more times in the 8 years since and had a second child, well, it is a testament to childhood developmemt that I have found the hours to bathe in this experience now. I will watch the last episode with all the fans who know from the tops of their heads to the tips of their toes that we are watching the greatest television show that ever was and probably ever will be.
8
Nope.
Not gonna watch it until George R.R. Martin finishes the books. I got burned when Jordan died before finishing the Wheel of Time series, and don't want the disappointment of another close-but-not-quite-right interpretation of the author's intention.
3
Hate to burst your bubble, but the video production NEVER and I mean NEVER match up with the book. I have read many books that were made into shows or movies and the two mediums are always different. So just dive in and enjoy.
2
Stopped reading The Wheel when he died. I know he wrote the outlines but it wasn’t the same.
@JMK To be sure; the films NEVER match up with the book, in any interpretation. It's my understanding that the Television production team has an outline from GRRM, but they've admitted they've strayed quite far from it.
If the author has plans that don't match the teleplay, I think the author/creator's vision should be the defining story.
1
Agree with the comment that the series got worse when they outran the books. Went from shocking for a purpose, to merely shocking
9
I did the same thing, I decided to start at the end of my spring break, went through the first 4 seasons in 4 days and finished the rest over the next few weeks so I could watch season 8. I regret nothing.
3
Still haven't seen an episode either but I am looking forward to watching it when the hype dies down and the show, much like True Blood, vanishes into obscurity.
4
Oh thank you so much for writing my story! I'm in full binge right now, and maybe now I'll string it out longer than 5 weeks. I didn't watch from the beginning because we can't afford cable. But Amazon has delivered it, so here we are.
Anyway. Great review. Thanks.
2
I must be the only person in the world that still hasn't watched a single episode of this show.
98
@Parker Green
I thought I was. Nothing about it ever appealed to me and every clip I saw pushed me farther away.
24
@John
Haven't watched a minute of the show. That makes 3.
16
@Parker Green I just can't make myself watch it though my sister pressed dvds of season 1 upon me.
4
I binged on Game of Thrones also. My wife and college son have been watching it faithfully but I never did. When everyone started talking about it I started watching it 10 weeks ago, 3 episodes a week at first. After Kit Harington (Jon Snow) hosted SNL in April I doubled the pace. I was on an emotional roller coaster when favorite characters died and more so when some returned. I was only 1 episode behind and my catchup episode was the Battle of Winterfell. Wow. It was a family viewing, my 1st and their 2nd viewing.
This is a timeless show and I plan on watching it again at a normal weekly pace. Maybe 2 per week vs 6-8. Good thing there are only reruns in the summer.
8
My mom used to binge on "I, Claudius" way back when it was on VHS tapes. It's a good epic saga, perfect for serial-watching. The production value is outdated for today's standards, but the dialogue and acting is so great. And the Julio-Claudian dynasty is like GOT, only true.
101
@Veronica Yes, I loved that. It even features Patrick Stewart as a villain.
7
@Veronica
And Sian Phillips in that series makes Cersei (sp?) look like a rank amateur at villainy.
6
I tried to watch show, but couldn't get into it whatsoever. I even read a couple of the books to see if I was missing out somehow, but they read like a cheaply worn down version of Tolkien. And for that matter, even Tolkien, while I appreciate his immense talent, I still feel like his target audience was mostly teenage boys.
While I devoured Breaking Bad, and consider that perhaps the best (drama) series to ever grace TV, I wouldn't even put GOT in the same league.
9
I tried watching Breaking Bad last fall (first time) but had to stop after two seasons. I could appreciate the cleverness of the writing, and the solid acting, but it was so dark that I felt tainted by it. I will try again at some point, but not in big doses.
Don’t have HBO (never had cable) so I will only watch GOT when it finally makes its way to Netflix or Amazon Prime. I waited for Mad Men and The Wire, I can wait for this one, too. But my deep thanks to all of you HBO subscribers, for making John Oliver’s show possible.
6
@Tim
Breaking Bad is my gold standard. I would say GOT is in the same league, but it's a completely different type of show that isn't going to appeal to everyone. In terms of writing, acting, and cinematography--it's up there with BB. I'm not sure I'd re-watch BB, but I will GOT, for what that's worth. There's something enduring about it where BB felt more of the moment.
1
I was the same way w BB. My husband finished it on his own, I never got past the season ending plane crash...
This is fun, but to everyone who has not yet done so: please binge on the ecological crisis and climate crisis, the solutions, the politics holding back action in the USA. I'm not a GOT watcher- I don't like the violence - but I do understand the charms of getting passionately involved in a show that many others are watching. But we need many, many more people to understand and act on the devastation we face and build political. Don't know what to do? Google it, research. Imagine how much we could accomplish If everyone who watched GOT spent an equivalent amount of time understanding the climate crisis and how to take action!
77
I fully agree. There are things we need to be concerned about and that's where most of my attention goes. except that I keep a couple of dozen Seinfeld on DVR and maybe watch one every couple of weeks. They never get old they're mostly pretty clean.
7
I did it too. I read all the GOT books and had no ambition to watch the series...and then I spent 4 weeks prior to the new season binging the entire series. I get it. It seems like an inane indulgence in a time of Constitutional crisis. Yet at the same time I binged, I protested ICE in a sanctuary city in KY opposite a Clan rally. Good narrative has many purposes. I would recommend “The Handmaid’s Tale” since women are currently on the precipice of the same fate.
8
@Floho
Oh my god. My eyes are rolling so far back in my head, I'm worried they'll stay that way. Your post is a tad preachy and condescending, don't ya think? Ever ask yourself why people watch these shows? Because we need a BREAK from politics and climate change and reality. I think it's a bit presumptuous of you to come on a board to discuss a show you've never seen and preach to people about better ways to spend their time. And yes, most of do know how to use Google to do research.
17
Still don't know from Hodor, but I have tried out a few compilations on youtube this week, and I found myself laughing out loud at the abysmal writing and acting. Cartoons have nearly completely taken over popular culture.
4
I had a somewhat similar experience but for different reasons.
When the scene of Jaime and Cersei having sex comes along in season 1, and Jaime casually pushes Bran off the window ledge, I was left breathless and I could not watch again for another seven seasons.
By then the world could not stop talking about it and I decided to start watching again after I found out that Bran had not died. I watched all the episodes between seasons 6 & 7.
To me the show has played more like a symphony that gets louder as it progresses. Something akin to Beethoven's 1812 Overture. I suspect that this Sunday will be the finale with bells and cannons culminating in a gentle melody.
7
@Truth Is True. Tchaikovsky, but I like your point.
8
Not trying to be a nerd here but the 1812 Ouverture is by Tchaikovsky, not Beethoven.
1
Same for me. I watched Ep1 2 or 3 times and could not get past it. One weekend I had nothing to do and had just finished bingeing Luther and needed another show to watch so I started GOT again. Skimmed through Ep 1 then really watched Ep 2. I was hooked.
1
I feel like I'm the rare person who watches all of GOT but is not either passionately against it or for it. It's a pretty good show, but for me the problem is that there are so many characters that we don't get really in-depth with any them, as you would in a movie. Maybe if you binge watched them, though, you would get that effect?
2
this headline is my life for the past 6 weeks. i work full time, run a household, deal with the dogs, my parents, spouse and offspring, take classes, and work out. yet i'm squeezing episodes when ever, where ever i can. i'll hold off reading your article as i'm nearing the end of season 6 (my least favorite). i'm so glad i'm not alone on this. once i finish, i'm watching it all again, at calmer pace. then maybe i'll remember a name, other than hodor.
8
I did the same and I am glad I caught up. Peter Dinklage made it a tall tale !
11
Big fan of Peter Dinklage but no interest at all in the Game of Thrones. the game of the Oval Office is a much greater concern and more frightening than any movie I've ever seen
18
Loved this! I started it 2 weeks ago and just hit season 3. One show a night! It has been an incredible way to watch it, I don’t have weeks or months to try to remember things.
7
Wesley,
You're a bit misguided on this.
Bingeing is the absolute best way to see this or any other good series.
The analogy to reading a novel holds up.
While it's fun to read for 5 minutes before sleeping, spending hours with a book is the best way to enjoy it.
As much as its inventory, the success of Netflix can, I maintain, be ascribed to the ability to binge.
Showtime, HBO, and the other networks will always suffer because of this, though things like HBO-GO are designed to help them face the challenge.
Still, if a middling thriller like YOU on Netflix can land 40 million viewers, a number twice as large as the best ratings for a GOT episode, the writing is on the wall.
Bingeing is the visual medium's equivalent of an unputdownable book.
Lose the guilt.
23
My wife and I tried it. I think it was the first episode where a child was murdered and there was nudity that was irrelevant to the plot and unnecessary except to appeal to people who like soft porn.
Who needs that in their lives?
69
I felt the same way.
I naturally resist doing what everyone else is doing. And the writing was so bad, I couldn’t justify finishing the first chapter of the first book. Then I realized, great storytelling can overcome less than literary authorship. And I am so glad I got over myself!
The thrilling storytelling and incredible scenery sucked me in, even without most of the violence. I fast forwarded through all the violence. (I have no idea what Ramsey Bolton did for fun, but I figured I could just assume it was monstrous and not miss the thread.)
Don’t deny yourself this rollicking saga!
So much fun*!
* Even though I still feel a deep sense of betrayal (!!!) given one of the character’s redemptive arcs turned out to be a head fake. ::sob::
And! It seems they abandoned all character development and potential political commentary, et cetera, for sheer spectacle by S8E5...
8
@Dan People who like a good story and want to be immersed in the world they are viewing. Also no child was murdered in season one. The one you are referring to is still alive in season 8 (I have no qualms in telling you this since it seems improbable that you will overcome your prudishness as a result of this message). In my view nudity is natural, there's only a reason to be offended or upset by it if you make one
14
Don’t ever visit the Louvre.
22
Dear Wesley,
I binge watch almost everything (GOT included) -- and feel no shame. So, lighten up on yourself. :-). Also, I was late to the game (no pun intended), and started watching about five years ago. Did not understand what all the hubbub was about until I watched.
Noting this, I have broken this pattern for Season 8 of GOT. Could not wait.
Bottom line: Excellent television.
Cheers,
John
10
I have purposely not watched a single episode because of the violent content. But I like to see the reactions from people, when they ask : "have you been watching" ? and I say nope, never seen it!
21
I watched a few minutes of GoT during which women were raped and exploited. Then I watched the news yesterday and women who have been raped continue to be exploited and mistreated. I truly don't understand why anyone who cares about the rights of women embraces abuse when it's on the screen.
77
You do know that the show does not condone those actions right? It's more than "cheap entertainment", it's a story about the horrors of conquests for power. The main protagonist of the entire show has turned down power every single time he could and only took it up when he had absolutely no choice (usually to protect innocent people).
P.S.One of those women who were mistreated fed her attacker to her own dogs. Not the most progressive of punishments, but cathartic nonetheless.
23
@Zach It's "cheap entertainment." It could get the point across without being so graphic. They justify it by allowing revenge by the victim at some point, down the line. However, by then, the damage was done.
7
Women are among the strongest characters in this series. A woman saved mankind in this series.... there’s Female Power all over the place...
10
So many people patting themselves on the back for being above murder porn, gore, whatever.
I can't speak for everyone who watches, but my friends and I love it, and we never highlight the gore or nudity. Yeah, there's a lot of it, but to focus on that at the expense of the first-rate storytelling, world-building, and characterization is myopic.
And although the actual depiction of the violence is graphic, I think the show condemns rather than glorifies violence and the quest for power. The show has gone to great lengths to comment on how fights between squabbling lords usually brings the greatest cost to average people for whom it makes no practical difference who is in power. And the show has demonstrated repeatedly (both subtly and directly) that the pursuit of power corrupts people and forces them to justify horrific acts. The last episode was the clearest depiction of all (it was a little ham-handed, in my opinion).
The hero of the show is the character who has repeatedly resisted offers for power, and who always does the right thing, even when it costs him his political (and, in one case, literal) life.
It's cool if you don't like it. It's cool if it's too violent for you. But don't watch ten minutes of the show and tell us why we like it. You're wrong.
357
@Kevin
Very well said kevin, thanks for your comment. I love the show, my husband, my adult children, we all love. It is all about story telling and it may whisper different to each of us . Yes, last episode was ham-handed, but was more than a little! I actually think that the whole episodes in the 8th are quick cut and development of the characters left their own paths which create some sort of alienation for the long term viewers like me.
16
@Kevin I watched 12 minutes of it (maybe 30 I don’t remember) and could only conclude it wasn’t for me. It’s appeal seems pretty obvious and it looks very well-executed. No surprise it has a mass audience.
8
@Kevin And please don't tell the rest of us who've decided we dislike it for those very reasons that we are wrong.... Wait, you just did.
15
I had little use for GOT until arrival of Missandei of the enslaved and Grey Worm of the Unsullied.
Great TV full of double entendre casting past fantasy into present reality.
Not ' The Wire" nor ' The Sopranos' nor ' Treme'.
I never got into ' Breaking Bad'
3
I hope you saw the illustration of the horse showing how GoT has progressed (or rather deteriorated) across the seasons. A picture is worth a thousand words indeed.
3
Imagine if this many people became this passionate about Shakespeare, or Tolstoy?
28
@T SB Not in Trump's America. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were portions of this country that wouldn't like to see the sordid intrigue in Washington devolve into a game of thrones - or for that matter, Titus Andronicus.
7
@JDStebley I'm not sure why being passionate about GoT, or even simply liking it, would rule out a person's ability to be passionate about another thing, such as Shakespeare or Tolstoy. Of course there's an extreme level of devotion that becomes caricature (the world of Comicon embraces this) but for those of us who watch the show once a week when it airs, that leaves six other days (really, seven, minus the one to two hours to watch GoT) to accomplish many other things and nurse other pleasures, like reading the NYT and keeping abreast of the news.
24
@Susanne True enough, touché. And GoT has genuinely Shakespearean proportions - though I'm exhausted by medieval fantasies. And I'm off the mark concerning those of whom are actually rewarded by watching the series and still have abiding interests along other lines. It was a cultural judgment call as is my nagging doubt that the legislators who voted for the abortion ban in Alabama spend their evenings watching GoT. But violence and the swing towards authoritarianism in America have their sources somewhere. Or is it just a fantasy.
1
I tried hard to be interested by GOT, but couldn't. Same with this article. Despite the pomp, the expressed deep emotions, neither engaged me.
Meh.
20
@Know/Comment Was about to post the same...author lost me after a paragraph or two.
And what does Obama have to do with GOT?
3
@Know/Comment
So TV's best show since Breaking Bad, and the NYT's best contemporary writer, leave you cold.
Hmmm.
1
@DD, last time I checked, it is free country.
2
I'm an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction, and I quit halfway through reading the first book, finding it endlessly bombastic and self-important. Many respects of it reminded me of the equally overrated Frank Herbert's Dune, and Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, but at least LotR was based on a literary tradition.
14
@left coast geek - So then there is no "literary tradition" in science fiction? Within which Herbert's novel might be situated?
2
I finally gave in and binged this show and I believe I was better for it. Better, because I let what played out on screen and my thoughts that came from it be mine and not biased to a character my friends or co-workers prepped me for. Because of this I was shocked to find out almost everyone hated Cersei when she was maybe my favorite character. I applauded her political tactician mindset and always being two steps ahead. Due to binging and not being apart of the daily conversation of watching in real time I learned that some characters who I considered minor or who occupied sub-plots were held more dearly to the popular audience which confused me and put me in a different space to the popular audience when I finally caught up. Those were just my observations of GOT, I thought I should share since I did binge almost the same timeline as the writer. Amazing show overall and can't wait for the finale this Sunday.
11
I couldn't get past the first episode. La di da.
20
You totally didn't get the Game of Thrones experience. Of taking years to see character development. Of hearing the prehistory taken as fact when it was a lie. Of seeing characters you grew to love or hate possibly being killed in any episode.
In my opinion, this last season his been by far the worst. Without the guidance of GRR Martin they have thrown away all the character development it took so long to create. I am so completely disappointed. It was great when it was about politics and power, the Game of Thrones. This season it's been about battles and special effects. Even the show runners explanations of what happened don't make any sense
9
I watched a few episodes in the beginning and was disgusted. But years later, under pressure, I watched more. And more. And now I’m so glad I did. It wasn’t just a show. It was a trip to a foreign and beautiful and terrible country. Completely absorbing. I’m going to need grief counseling when it’s over. Wherever will I go now to escape from my own beautiful and terrible country?
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@Rebecca I recommend the books.
4
The series did run out of steam and at times became almost cartoonish after the five novels were used up. But, we should note that George R.R. Martin also seemed to run out of steam and stopped well before completing his own series. Did he become too distracted by success, or just turn a corner in his life and find his old hungry self bored his new-found satisfied self?
13
You made my morning! Thanks for the wit and reminders of what I’ve loved about GoT. Gotta Binge!
7
If you must binge on anything, try something that will make you feel better and more hopeful. Try Beatles music. I will be so glad when Game of Thrones is no longer a daily conversational topic.
29
Me too! Didn't watch 'til this year and binged, binged, BINGED! :) Decadent! A great show, and (rare thing) it surpasses the hype. I feel resentful and petulant having to wait a week between episodes, now...
50
His feeling at the end was "ambivalent" and he took more than half of the article winding up to actually watching the show. What a waste of newsprint, or rather cyberspace.
I started watching GoT in the forth season because the first episode didn't draw me it, but a season three marathon watched simply because I had nothing better to do drew me in and then I was stuck. Maybe not the best TV series I've seen but compelling enough and throwing constant curveballs at the fantasy genre to keep me dedicated to the end.
Apparently Chekov had a principle of unity, where if there was a gun on the wall in the first scene, someone got shot in the second.
GOT is the antithesis of this. As soon as plotlines get moving, they get chopped off (along with a head or ten). Well almost all plots and almost all heads. Boring. If someone can't write themselves out of their own plot, what can they do?
BTW same criticism of Lord of Rings. "One ring to rule them all" ... well did it? But "no man of woman born" did hurt MacBeth.
1
@psi - A writer who fails to heed this apparently inviolable "principle of unity" lacks ability? So then we can safely dismiss much of the literary output of the twentieth century, no? Realism isn't what it used to be.
2
Two weeks ago I finished all seven seasons of The West Wing . . . brilliant, compelling, and astonishingly current.
If it weren't for the older computers and phones, it could have been written yesterday.
Sorkin's political saga is pure genius.
27
Is it ok to not care at all about Game of Thrones? I'm much more into Downton Abbey!
16
@Kevin different strokes for different folks. Personally I find even the concept of Downton Abbey sleep inducing, but you are welcome to have at it.
9
Second that. Also, the Dowager Countess’ burns destroy better and more precisely than dragon fire ever could.
6
@Kevin
I like both, and both suffer from rushed and unsatisfying last seasons with increasingly soapy plots.
7
You didn't say whether you liked it or not. Maybe that's not important? It is something to be able to discuss a show with other people and be up to date on the latest. I get that.
I haven't watched GoT either and don't plan to watch. I'm not an "I only watch PBS" person or an "I don't own a television" person, I just can't get into extreme violence. I still watch Law and Order (original) and I really liked Borgen too. It's a struggle finding good shows and disappointing when you want to like shows but can't (I'm looking at you Queen Sugar).
8
@Lynn in DC Totally with you on this. My sentiments -- and TV practices -- exactly.
3
This is, in part, a meditation on our binge-watching antibodies now that we know better (or, this series does not lend itself to that like other series mentioned).
The newer phenomenon supplanting the binge is reading the recaps and the comments to the recaps and the intricacy of diving down this rabbit hole given that you are colliding with a host of level-involvement. That has been the most entertaining part of all of this!
I started by reading the wiki recaps of each episode years ago, and then, recaps with comments in papers started evolving.
Interestingly, those who knew more because they read the book were sidelined a couple of seasons ago - I greatly appreciate the subsequent democratization of the viewing experience as much as I also appreciate the intricacies the books and book-readers furnished.
Plus - dragons! Sci-fi/fantasy is even more boring to me than professional sports - and yet, here I am.
Enjoy the wine - I hope you bring with you your best Cersei-like goblet, too - just for the fun of it.
13
I read “The Lord of the Rings” in high school, first edition, with the maps. Great reading experience!
Another epic with dragons and treachery? No thanks (but I’m sure it’s wonderful).
Wish I still had that first edition, boxed.
6
@Robert I hate to say it - I have tried reading the Lord of the Rings series multiple times. I have never finished because I just find it so boring. I loved the movies though. I couldn't put the Game of Thrones series down... while the show is not as good as it used to be. But still a very good experience.
1
saw the first 20 minutes of episode 1, season 1. waste of time. no regrets.
40
Having done nearly the same thing, I totally relate. Last April I had rotator cuff surgery. From the relative comfort of our temporary recliner (it's still there, much to my wife's chagrin, though I seem to find her in it all the time) I binged the whole thing and loved it...even after I weaned myself off the low dosage of pain meds.
26
I began watching the first episode up to the point where a person had their head chopped off (just a few minutes in, as I recall). I turned it off. Not for me. People talk about it like it is a drug addiction: the build up of anticipation for a violent climax, the rush of violent immersion, the after-rush let down, and then repeating it again. Violence porn is not for me.
106
@Scott It's not violence porn. People got their heads chopped off then. That particular scene was not gratuitous at all, and along with the rest of that beautiful episode, it begins to take us into their world, to understand the characters. You really couldn't appreciate anything else, because of a scene where a man is beheaded off-screen? When the head is removed, you don't see blood gushing...it cuts to the reaction on the face of the noble-born child whose older brother informs him, "you can't look away...father will notice if you look away". It was a different time, with different things expected of children. I really don't think that much of the violence in this show is overplayed. Dozens of civilians being mowed down by a rogue gunship in Olympus Has Fallen? That's violence porn. Not Game of Thrones.
Anyways, to each their own, but I'm not sure you understand what it is about this show that we enjoy. It's not the violence.
41
@Scott
The series is some of the finest Tee Vee ever made. Lots of gore and sex, so if that’s not your thing try reading the books.
1
@Jerry,
"It was a different time, with different things expected of children. "
No, it wasn't. It's fiction; there is no actual time or place to reference.
I wish folks would drop the argument that GOT is simply telling it like it was.
11
FOMO (fear of missing out) ends in two ways - you acquiesce, like the author has and get on the bandwagon. The other option is shown in these comments: smug, self-congratulatory quips by folks trying to rationalize their decision to get left at the station by a key 2010s pop culture phenomenon. Sorry you missed out guys, but the world isn't wrong about Game of Thrones.
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@Tim Spot-on, Tim! Thanks for putting this so succinctly.
16
@Tim
Well said, Tim. Thanks for that.
4
@Tim
There is actually a third option. To leave it and don't even feel compelled to weigh in or "defend it". No, I have watched GoT from the start. But I've used this third option frequently with other shows and global phenomena where "everybody" was seemingly in, like LOST (apparently, with that whatever-ending, many peope wished *they* never got into it ..) or even HARRY POTTER (my girlfriend read it in the 90s, all her friends read it, magical apprentice, seriously? ... but I finally got to it like twenty years later, reading it to my own kid at her demand; it's good). I also did not watch the GANGNAM STYLE video when everyone did (until my kid made me..) and wasn't cross about it. I did watch the more recent THIS IS AMERICA video, though, and cannot understand people who don't.
Let's agree that smug people who judge about things they have only the faintest grasp of ("French cooking is gay!") have always been a nuisance. In the old days this was locally contained, but now they are all on social media.
6
Still ignoring it.
20
Meh. I'll take My Brilliant Friend, Veep, The Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm any day.
12
I have only watched bits and pieces of Games of Thrones. I found it juvenile. I don't do fantasy movies very well. To me it is all bad science fiction. So I would like to thank the reviewer whose long essay was entertaining but ultimately not worth reading again. I like watching the American Experience or Frontline. Sorry. I suppose I am a fossilized relic.
66
Binge watching is shameful?
5
Still haven't watched a single episode.
Starting to feel guilty, via societal peer pressure.
I have half a mind to force a binge watch before the final episode, so I can partake in what seems to be a cultural phenomenon.
But then, I probably should also watch "Roots" for the first time.
9
I too have steadfastly ignored this series for 8 years. I recently attempted to dip my toe in the water by watching a highly compressed video synopsis of the major plot points. With disbelief I saw more mutilations, marauding violence, gratuitous female nudity cloaked as empowerment and overall unsurpassed ugliness than I would ever care to see in my lifetime let alone 15 minutes. This is where the culture has migrated. God help us all.
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@Lisa B. Unfortunately GoT plot points are a romp compared to the world we're living in. So rue the culture if you must but most of us find it still a fun break from everyday horrors. Also: one space after a period.
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@Lisa B. The whole point of the book series was to bring reality into the world of high fantasy. If you can't handle the visual medium - perhaps the books would be more to your liking. Though the violence and brutality is unchanged.
15
@Ian Entertaining yourself by escaping a violent, malicious reality by replacing with a violent, malicious fiction? Seems a little warped to me.
And I still use two spaces, so call me warped as well.
39
That was great Wesley. Now we have two things in common; your appreciation for for GOT despite the "flaws", it is better to bring wine and watch than rail at the whomever to condemn the hard, often brilliant work of many people just because it defied your expectations (an earmark of the show to be sure), and...
an undying love for "Fools Gold".
3
I watched at the beginning, excited that Sean Bean appeared to be the central character. Cool! He doesn’t get killed and....oh.
25
@Eugene Debs
I remember turning to my husband at that point, mouth open, finger pointing at the screen, shouting an expletive.
He looked at me, busy with something else, and rolled his eyes.
Four years after that he somehow ended up binging on the first few seasons and pretty much hasn’t shut up about it since. He and “Dany” are best buds now. Well, maybe not NOW
14
I never watched it - everything that I saw and heard made it not seem like the sort of thing I’d enjoy. I’m never influenced by “everybody loves it”. Thank you for writing this. I’m convinced that I was right - I never would have enjoyed it. Just not my style.
40
I watched an episode. I decided I'd save my brain cells and my spirit for other uses. People also loved the movie Braveheart. I thought it was just a brutal mind-numbing bloodbath. Save us from HBO's dive into the worst of us, like The Sopranos.
I'd love to improve the world we live in, not relish the ugliness of ruthless people.
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@Joe Sabin Maybe you could do both: See how the world is - through the glasses of art -, and then go and change it?
3
@Joe Sabin, saving brain cells and spirit is the only sane way for humanity to stop inflicting violent fantasy in the name of entertainment. People just need to travel to the poorest parts of the world, in Africa Asia Latin America to see how people live in subhuman conditions, struggling daily for food clothing shelter water, fighting diseases like leprosy malaria AIDS parasites....Or travel to middle east to see refugees, homeless unemployed left for dead.
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@Stefan Finke I'm quite aware.
Funny, I'm doing exactly the same right now :)
7
I just wish in hindsight that somebody had told me that that it would be possible to get a job where I could binge watch Game of Thrones and get paid for it.
13
A moment of silence for all the parents who named their daughters “Daenerys.” #notmyline
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@Bird lover
Here in NYC there are Deneris' everywhere (note the spelling) and have have been since long before GoT.
@A. Jubatus Sure! I’ve known a 30-something Daneris. Hence the quote marks for the very specific GoT spelling.
@Concerned Citizen There’s a sounds-like name predating “khaleesi” (which is a feminine “khal,” which is clearly derived from “khan”), too.
Regardless of previous versions, the number of children with these names has greatly increased since the show began, hence the joke. I picked the name version because I think the name is tarnished, not necessarily the title. (People dislike the name “Joffrey,” not the title “king.”) Also, as I said, it’s #notmyline.
1
My hopes for the final episode are that Arya has been dead since Braavos (replaced by "The Waif" after their ambiguously-concluded off-screen battle), and that Bran was responsible for burning King's Landing by warging into Drogon (which is why we didn't see Daenerys's face - she was desparately trying to stop it).
Think about it; Bran had the vision of the dragon's shadow over King's Landing because **he would be in the dragon** looking down at his own shadow. Arya came out of that encounter a stone-cold killer, where previously she had never been quite ruthless enough for the Faceless Men.
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@Patrick
I like the Bran theory but the second is a hard no. We have her explicitly labeled POV in the books, and she's a stone cold killer to the core. Her father was slaughtered, her sister was kidnapped, brothers dead, the soldiers came for her and her fencing instructor. The motivation is pretty unambiguous in the books, and in fact her first kill is pretty early on in the House of Black and White, iirc.
9
@Patrick There is a 0% chance any of that happens.
2
@Patrick I had the same theory re. Bran and Drogon. I was so struck by how we never saw Khaleesi's face after her initial, supposed melt down. What led me to this theory was really Arya's interaction with the bizarrely clean and uninjured horse at the end of the episode. The filming of that scene directly mirrored the filming of Arya's encounter with the direwolves while she was traveling back to Winterfell in season 7--the way she reaches out to nose of the largest wolf, who she thinks might be Nymeria. Her "way with animals" is peculiar, which made me wonder if Bran has been protecting her for some time by tracking her progress and warging animals. And WHAT IF that protection were in the service of positioning the North to take the Iron Throne, culminating with framing Dany for laying waste to King's Landing?
Clearly I went down a rabbit hole Sunday after the show was over...
7
Bingeing is like speed-reading.
As Woody Allen once joked, he sped-read War and Peace in an hour. "It's about Russia, I think."
26
I did the same thing in March - 3 episodes a day. At the end though, I’m unmoved. It’s a man’s vision of a world where an intelligent woman gets so upset when he dumps her that she loses her mind. And another woman gets talked out of fulfilling her entire life’s purpose by another man because her purpose is not so nice. And a Queen is so incompetent and unbalanced, it’s a wonder her own guards didn’t discretely drown her in her bathtub three seasons ago. And a woman warrior just has to lose her virginity to someone totally undeserving because she can’t be complete or interesting otherwise. Lyanna Mormont was the most interesting female in the show, the little hero.
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@Patricia Sears
This mystifies me! My sexism/misogyny radar is on high all the time ;) and I'm delighted by the egalitarian nature of strong character development, female and male, on GOT. Arya's the baddest, toughest character on the show and it was (for me) completely in character and believable, her doin' it w/ Gendry the way she did.
I like that they show all characters to be flawed, selfish, power-hungry, stupid, mistaken, self-absorbed, true, loyal, heroic, warm, cold, human. There's certainly no dearth of unflattering story arcs for male characters (where they appear "incompetent and unbalanced" too). And plenty--countless!--examples of shrewd, smart, intelligent, strong, funny, interesting intrepid women.
With you Lyanna. :) I'm glad they gave her that particular end.
4
@ Rachel
While earning the title of Giantsbane in death, I was really upset at the loss of Lyanna Mormont. I was expecting a spin-off sequel of her post-apocalyptic life and adventures. That would have been a treat!
2
I am so glad my wife and I pulled the plug on our TV years ago. I have no clue what the show is about, but I know that in the interim, I have read tons of great books that have enhanced my life!
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@Jeffrey Waxman There's this amazing book series called Game of Thrones. I highly recommend.
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@Jeffrey Waxman The whole series is based on the books which have been around for decades... I hope you get your news from a more current source!
13
@Jeffrey Waxman I've crushed hundreds of books since this show has come out, what does that have to do with enjoying a TV show?
The better question is why are you reading about a TV show you have no interest in?
100
I've just started watching Game of Thrones and I certainly won't be bingeing. I'm wondering how many seasons I'll make it through. I could still be surprised, but right now, not overly impressed. I'm not feeling that compulsion of, I need to know what happens next.
4
We watched a couple GOT episodes in the beginning. The violence turned my husband off so I figured I’d wait for a time to binge on my own. Then last fall one of my book club members raved about the books so I picked up the first one at the library. I quickly went through all the books in less than a month. Then found the extra chapters on the internet. I put aside my book snobbery (somewhat) to watch the show to catch up with where the books left off. Still hoping Mr. Martin gives us the final books, which I will also inhale.
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@NancyS I'm with you. I've had some professorial friends comment on my reading choices re: GoT, and, well -- I do try to keep up with the award-winners in fiction and non-fiction from year to year, I enjoyed The Decameron, and I looked something up in The Canterbury Tales yesterday, and I teach Shakespeare. But as I read somewhere, there are good books, and there are good reads, and GoT is a good read for me -- I ripped through them! I don't have to be an intellectual snob every hour of the day. Before I turn out the lamp at night, I enjoy a little scheming, adventure, sex, murder, funny dialogue, whatever. To each their own!
3
Just be glad you haven't read the books. They are more sprawling out-of-control than the HBO series.
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@RRI
I like the books better, but I've given up on them.
7
@RRI The books are vastly superior. You can notice the drop in quality after the showrunners ran out of material to adapt.
6
@Kevin Well, I admit I've read them. While I'm generally very much of the "books are superior" party, not in this case, though I concur that the series quality declined when the screenwriters ran out of material to adapt. But, then again, series often decline even where there is material to further adapt and, in this case, the author left the poor screenwriters, desperate for plot sense and any kind of closure, in a fairly impossible spot.
9
Did the same with 'Sons of Anarchy.' Never watched until the Summer before the final season. Just didn't seem like something I'd like... Then my husband and I watched a few episodes and got hooked- with only a month or so before the final season was to begin. So we binged the first 6 seasons and 'caught up.' For some reason, I really wanted to watch the last season 'live' with everyone else, however painful to watch one week at a time!
2
What started as a wonderful adaptation of the books lost it's nuance and gravitas the last few seasons.
Big events occur like gun shots, without the quiet rationalizations in between.
I wish HBO had waited for the books to be done - the writers needed more source material than their imagination provided.
The silver lining is this wonderful, introspective, article - the NY Times can thank Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris (Still Processing) for my subscription.
4
@David Griffiths
Agree on both the decline of GoT these last two seasons and on the excellence of Wesley Morris.
1
George Martin, like Frank Herbert with his Dune series, reportedly has several tens of thousands of note pages that will go into the final two novels, which may be written posthumously, at this rate. He made these notes available to the show runners, Benioff and Weiss, who needed SOMETHING to write scripts from.
1
@David Griffiths
The reason that the books weren't finished was that George was cashing in by writing the screenplays!
2
Game of Thrones and Downtown Abbey were my favourites shows of the past few years. Looking for the next couple of shows...
15
I watched my first episode ever two weeks ago.
I kept up on the next week by reading the account in the NYT. And that's how I shall find out how it ends.
I think I have the gist of it.
It's like how I watch sports -- the last 1/4 of a football games (if that much), the last 2 mins of a b'ball game, the last round of the Masters ..... serves perfectly well.
4
@Penn Towers Ah, but football, baseball and the Masters are broadcast live with real people who have real skills and real (well, mostly) personalities. As such, sporting competition is much more compelling to watch from start to finish that 8 years of manufactured personal battles and battles.
I mean, did you watch the gold medal round of women's curling in the Winter Olympics? OMG, that was nerve-wracking, enthralling, and wildly entertaining!
I am a reader before I am a TV watcher...but TV might be catching up on some fronts. I have been an unreliable fan of GOT but now that we are done but one, I am faithful. I am waiting for the series to be done, and fade a little from my memory so I can watch it again from the start in a steady (if not binge-y) streaming. It will be like re-reading a book you enjoyed but read too fast because the plot gobbled you up. I want to go back for the stuff I missed and to see if the impact is still there. BTW, I did read the books. The TV series is better. A rare admidion for me.
10
I heard so much about Game of Thrones for its first three or four years that I thought I must be missing something significant so I purchased all four years and watched three before concluding that I had been conned and gave up. But the clamor about it hasn’t subsided so I’m thinking I Jumped to conclusions without giving it enough of a chance. Should I order another year or two?
2
@Richard W. King Eh, I got bored and stopped watching somewhere in the fourth season too. Way overhyped I think but I never finished Breaking Bad either for the same reason.
6
@PJ Same here. I gave up on Breaking Bad after one year. Maybe we are both too impatient.
3
@Richard W. King You should just subscribe to HBO if you're unsure, it's the much cheaper option at $15 a month.
Diana Rigg was my absolute favorite on the show. I actually rewatched her death scene several times - it was great.
115
She sure got all the best lines. I rewatched her scenes with Charles Dance a half dozen times or more.
1
A couple of years ago I did the same with Mad Men as a salve for my grief stupor over my mom’s recent death. It had an extra surreal layer as I realized the show took place as she was coming of age as an adult. I feel like I owe so much to the fierce women of the 60s.
109
@Ellsea Mad Men= greatest show ever. only show I have rewatched. superb directing, acting, historical references! love it
9
@liz While I like Mad Men, I wouldn't call it the greatest show. With that said "The Suitcase" is one the best episodes of television of any series.
8
I've gone through a similar journey. The water cooler discussions this season have been a fun bonding experience with like.... society at large. My sister is still wrapping up just in time to make it to the final season. It's a trip.
2
Fan here since 2011.
My one beef, good writing died 2 episodes ago.
The White Walker battle and little Lyana’s sacrifice, plus Arya the hero and Jorah the unrequited love, that was the true end of the series for me.
Since then, oh my. Nothing but blunders, no more House of Cards in Medieval Times, just bad leadership and facepalming.
I’ll watch to the end of course as like an addict I can’t wait for my next fix.
But by now is just a craving, no more pleasure derived.
The one question my family and I have – what is the next super series to fall for?
16
@AutumnLeaf very few of these series have good endings. GoT is another “Lost.”
4
I felt this way about The Wire. Hadn’t seen it, said that if Barack could watch this, I would. I lasted about four episodes. I was furious because it was so artificial. If purported to be about how Baltimore really was. Instead it was a compendium of how criminals, journalists and police share fantasies.
Like Mafia movies where the myths which animate real lives are presented as entertainment, there was nothing I could see but conformity to stereotypes which turn out to be romantic.
I watched soap operas for years and years, fascinated by the plot turns and the acting, and I still watch Perry Mason. These took themselves seriously enough to stay on the air. But they don’t feel to me that they think they’ve found a higher truth, when they have just seen themselves in the mirror.
5
@Bro
Fist season of The Wire was the most unsuccessful; they get progressively better. Worth a second try.
I wonder how noticeable the change in quality is when watching the episodes that quickly.
I watched an episode of an earlier season a few months ago. Wow.. the quality of writing is vastly superior compared to seasons 7 and 8.
41
@Drew As someone who, like Mr. Morris, caught up with the entirety of GoT over the past two months, I say that that drop in quality is glaring between seasons 5 and 6 - unsurprisingly, when the series stopped being based on the books and began charting its own course. It's still been massively entertaining, even up to and including these last several episodes.
But I have a feeling that if I'm ever inclined to rewatch, I'll probably start at the beginning at stop after the Season 5 finale. For me, these last three seasons have been more about sticking around to see what happens rather than the nuanced plot and character development of the first five.
78
@Drew I still think the 1st season is the best. It is the most faithful adaptation with a lot of the dialogue being the same as the books.
12
Oh you notice it immediately. I binged also but started in February. And clearly remember that halfway in season 6 I felt like the characters sounded like they had spent some time in LA
10
GOT appears to me to be a derivative of the 14th century English War of the Roses. Even the names of the houses Lannister (Lancaster) and Stark (York) suggest this is the basis of the story.
How can a contrived fantasy of special effects and anachronisms be more impactful than a TV drama of what actually happened?
You can taste the reality, irony and historical importance of this history - while GOT is good for the occasional smirk.
For this reason my vote for bingeworthiness goes to Phillipa Greogory's TV adaptations 'The White Queen' and 'White Princess', vastly more believable with the added bonus - you actually learn something.
15
@David Gunter
not at all.
The Starks never claim and/or vie for the throne, although they do at one point try to become independent kings of the North.
The Lannisters are in power only because a Lannister woman married the King, who is a Baratheon. What we the audience know however is the king's kids are actually not his, but the product of an incestuous relationship between the queen and her brother. The other major claimants to the throne are Talgaryans. So it's really Lannister vs. Barathean vs. Talgaryan with the Starks as allies to various factions at different times but always against Lannisters.
Also I think the Wars of the Roses were in the 15th century.
11
@David Gunter My husband and I have been watching "The Spanish Princess" and are really enjoying it. I'll have to check out the others.
I have never had any interest in GOT and am really tired of hearing about it. However, now I know how all the Downton Abbey haters must have felt with the endless coverage of that show. (I was a fan, so I loved it.)
6
@David Gunter
uhhhh, dragons?
But in all seriousness, using historical events as a jumping off point has nothing to do with the quality of writing, performance, evolution of themes, character developments, etc. A good story is not just "what happened" but how you tell it. There's room enough for both the historical but heavily embroidered Gregory adaptations, Shakespeare's plays, and Game of Thrones.
25
I started watching in mid April and am aiming to catchp up before the final episode!
10
You aren't alone. I did this with Mad Men, the Sopranos, and Breaking Bad. There's an obsessive intensity in this that's very satisfying, albeit a little sick (like the sickness of eating too much popcorn). Like reading War and Peace quickly, straight through -- immersion in the narrative, characters and themes; not having to read the wiki entry before the start of the next season to remember who's who and what happened. It does require the luxury of time.
32
@DogHouse49
I encourage you to also binge watch HBO's The Wire, for the grittiest, best acted and most moving series of all.
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@Steve Yes. The Wire. Others come close, but The Wire is the pinnacle of storytelling.
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@Steve Don't do it without closed captioning, though.
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I’ve been thinking about watching as I have never seen a second of it outside of some advertisements for TV sets or cellphones. This makes it sound like a lot of work.
I gather that the show has nothing to do with my favorite one hit wonder band of the 80s The Flying Lizards.
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I watched all seasons and all episodes in reverse order over the course of 4 weeks.
Loved it.
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