No matter how good something is (and no matter how terrible)
you always have a small group of people who will disagree with the majority. Even when a show like Game of Thrones comes along there are still people who will inexplicably give it one star reviews. That's just nuts. Myself, I hate generic brainless TV shows like CSI but, being fair I think I would rate CSI Miami five out of ten. It's ridiculous tosh, but it's still has some positive elements to it. One of the fundamental problems with IMDb is people vote in an almost political way by unfairly giving a movie or TV show one star or for that matter ten stars, in an attempt to lower or raise the overall score. I thought of giving Game of thrones a nine because I very rarely ever give anything a ten. But then, despite not being perfect, it is one of the best and possibly most important TV series ever made.
For me the Sopranos is currently the most important TV show of my generation. Not just because it was great, but because every episode had the production values of a high budget movie. It made people realise that TV can not only be as good as a movie, but it can actually be better due the fact that you only spend ninety minutes with the characters of most movies as opposed to perhaps ten hours to the average HBO series. Then there's also the unscrupulous nature of Hollywood and it's grab the cash and run policies. A TV series gives you the time needed for a complex plot to unravel and to actually care about three dimensional and detailed characters as in a book. How many movies have failed to live up to the greatness of a book? I would argue most of them. Cloud Atlas being a recent example of a novel failing to have the same impact on the big screen. Even the Lord of the Rings saga (which I still think are great) look suddenly dated and thin when put side by side with Game of Thrones. Even with the extended editions, Peter Jackson and his team struggled to fit everything in. Despite plenty of positive changes, Lord of the Rings contained plenty of silly Hollywood 'additions'. I'm talking of things like Legolas doing some shield surfing in the battle of Helm's Deep. There's no shield surfing in Game of thrones. If anybody tried to mount a shield and surf it down some steps in battle there would be someone like Sandor Clegane to grimly cut his head off and stick it on a spike for trying to be a smart arse.
So Game of Thrones is important
really important. It obviously has a large budget, that whilst not as high as Hollywood blockbuster, is still sufficient to make every episode look movie quality and to bring in an accomplished ensemble cast. You may never have heard of plenty of them. But they can certainly show some of those overpaid Hollywood A-listers a thing or two.
So what's so good? - Well we have a great cast from Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Liam Cunnigham, Michelle Fairley, Aiden Gillen, James Cosmo to name but a few. These may not be household names but you will recognise many faces and perhaps all the better for not being pampered A-listers. Sean Bean seems like he was born to play Ned Stark. I said that of him when he played Sharpe. But hey, he plays a grim northerner really well.
- We have great costumes, sets and backdrops which bring the world of Westeros to life in ways I wouldn't have thought possible. One minute we are the miserable frozen north, the next we are in beautiful sunny climes of Kings Landing. - The series sticks close to the books and doesn't deviate for 'a larger audience' or try to simply the complex and deviating plot. There's some simplifying here and there as the plot is so complex and often confusing it requires is when being condensed from such huge novels. - There are no good guys and bad guys, everyone is a shade of grey (Except for queen Cersei
She's a wench!) But the story is not the same old generic nonsense that Hollywood, and TV companies around the world churn out again and again and again. This is actually trying to be, you know, different. Further, allies and friends on all sides or unreliable depending which way they the wind is blowing. - Characters develop throughout the story dramatically. It's hard not to go into detail and give away spoilers. But for better or worse all of the characters go through a lot and we feel like we've been through it with them. Just look at Jaime Lanister from series one and then at the end of series three. It looks like a different actor is playing him. - It can have a massive emotional impact of you life! Again, not to reveal any spoilers but there are some dramatic moments. I'm not the kind of person to usually let it bother me. But after some episodes I have felt greatly affected by the events on screen to the characters I have come to like so much. Season three has just ended a couple of weeks ago and I still feel a little emotional looking back at recent events. - There are some legendary characters, quotes, places... the list goes on. The word's of Game of Thrones have officially blasted their way into popular culture. - The soundtrack is brilliant. Ramin Djawadi has produced some of the finest classical music in years.
So, if you've made it all the way here, well done and thanks for reading. Now, Seven Hells, go and watch Game of Thrones for the night is dark and full of terrors.
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