Breathtaking television: why Game of Thrones leaves the rest behind
Power, passion, intrigue and teenage assassins. In this cross-posting from The Conversation Jason Jacobs looks at why HBO drama Game of Thrones is such compelling TV and the lessons for content makers.
When Game of Thrones returns to screens for its fifth season on Sunday night, US time, it will no doubt continue to attract the critical and popular praise that it richly deserves.
DB Weiss and David Benioff’s HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s string of fantasy novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, has achieved its cultural prominence not because of the vast amount of cash invested in the production and not on the back of the passionate fan base for the books. It’s not even the lucky coincidence of industrial changes in Hollywood television organisation over the past 20 years that have made it more hospitable to signature television, that is, television with strong authorial identity, style and attitude.
a plot makes for good story telling.
who would have thought?
The plethora of tis and arse also helps
In my opinion, the missing piece here is that Game of Thrones, Deadwood, Mad Men and True Detective (and House of Cards) simply LOOK better than any other TV due to the detail and depth of the sets, costumes, production design and cinematography. They create whole other worlds with amazing richness and seem authentic.
Shows like The Wire and Breaking Bad are the best ever because they rise above not really having all that, the writing and the performances are just of such a high calibre. (Although The Wire certainly creates a world foreign to most viewers and Breaking Bad did some great things with the camera).
Just my opinion though – thanks for the read!
A good sprinkling of tits and arse on screen always helps too
So why do network heads think we want a 17th season (whatever) of Master chef?
@hodor, tis and arse, how very medieval of thee
i find it most unfair that i got beat up in high school for reading a song of ice and fire and now the same jackasses who did it are enthralled by this stupid tv show called, erroneously, game of thrones!
Didn’t Shakespeare cover this ground already?
The title of this piece is a massive sweeping statement.
Vikings is ten times better than GOT hands down.
The staging is smaller and better for it. There are less characters to follow but we get to know them better and to identify with them or not.
The lead characters are neither good nor bad but have tough codes to follow that lead to questionable acts.
None of the actors were stars or acting veterans before this show, so it does not have leg up that many such projects benefit from.
The men and women are portrayed as equally strong and capable. A necessary fact when the very survival of a group depends on everyone pitching in on everything.
The storylines are very well constructed and the dialogue is well written.
Vikings is the show to watch.
“complex tv”
enuff said.
GOT is TV for those mourning MKR.
GOT is tv for the unthinking masses.
You’re both knobs and it is nowhere in the league of your sarcastic reply…. Its fantastic television. Go back to the ‘thinking man’s’ SBS – e.g – late night euro softcore.
You both sound like disgruntled dad’s!
Agree with @Einar One Eye – Vikings is amazing! Better than GoT though, I’m not so sure..
I’ve always found it interesting that even though “Game of Thrones” gets a lot of attention, for a long time “Duck Dynasty” was a more watched show on US cable. The most recent figures (that I found) show “GoT” in top position, but numbers 2, 3 and 4 are WWE Wrestling.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.c.....15/388485/
It’s just something I keep in mind when people say things like, “It’s popular because it’s good!”, which is something that appears in a form within the article.