By now, I'm sure you've heard about Game of Thrones, the once beloved adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice And Fire", and the way it ended. If you haven't gotten started, you may wonder if you should even bother, but I say that yes, even after everything that happened, Game of Thrones is still worth a look.
If you've heard about the series, or the books that inspired it, you may know its story. It's a sprawling fantasy epic with plots ranging from various factions jockeying to take the throne, to a royal in exile trying to return home, to an order of soldiers that keeps barbarians and worse things away from the civilized lands. Most episodes alternate between multiple characters in various parts of Westeros and Essos, resulting in a very complex but also engaging story.
The characters are an interesting and complex lot. The series manages the improbable feat of showing that a man who tries to murder a ten year old boy out a window by pushing him out a window (crippling him for life) has redeeming features, and shows that even the more heroic characters have severe flaws that can result in their deaths. Because of the latter, you shouldn't get too attached to any one member of the cast, since the series, is not shy about killing off characters.
For the most part, the series does an excellent job of bringing the books to life. Large-scale battles are shown in all their brutal, chaotic glory, and the various locales are quite well-designed. Unfortunately, some of the insights gleaned from seeing things through a character's eyes are lost, but this is an unfortunate tradeoff of going from a text-based medium to a more visual one.
Unfortunately, while the show is quite entertaining and well-written in the best of times, it doesn't last forever. The first four seasons are solid and the three after that are flawed but enjoyable, but the last season can charitably be described as a trainwreck. Long-running threats are dealt with anticlimactically, characters' entire arcs (Jaime, Tyrion, Daenerys, to name a few) are derailed, and it leaves many fans with a bad taste in their mouths. It doesn't help that a lot of the problems started popping up when the show writers ran out of published material to work with.
Of course, while it is understandable that many people are bitter about what Game of Thrones has become, it's also important to remember what it was. As such, I wholeheartedly recommend the first half, but only proceed on to the second half if you can handle disappointment.
A dark and enjoyable series, albeit one that peters out (Spoiler Free Review)
By now, I'm sure you've heard about Game of Thrones, the once beloved adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice And Fire", and the way it ended. If you haven't gotten started, you may wonder if you should even bother, but I say that yes, even after everything that happened, Game of Thrones is still worth a look.
If you've heard about the series, or the books that inspired it, you may know its story. It's a sprawling fantasy epic with plots ranging from various factions jockeying to take the throne, to a royal in exile trying to return home, to an order of soldiers that keeps barbarians and worse things away from the civilized lands. Most episodes alternate between multiple characters in various parts of Westeros and Essos, resulting in a very complex but also engaging story.
The characters are an interesting and complex lot. The series manages the improbable feat of showing that a man who tries to murder a ten year old boy out a window by pushing him out a window (crippling him for life) has redeeming features, and shows that even the more heroic characters have severe flaws that can result in their deaths. Because of the latter, you shouldn't get too attached to any one member of the cast, since the series, is not shy about killing off characters.
For the most part, the series does an excellent job of bringing the books to life. Large-scale battles are shown in all their brutal, chaotic glory, and the various locales are quite well-designed. Unfortunately, some of the insights gleaned from seeing things through a character's eyes are lost, but this is an unfortunate tradeoff of going from a text-based medium to a more visual one.
Unfortunately, while the show is quite entertaining and well-written in the best of times, it doesn't last forever. The first four seasons are solid and the three after that are flawed but enjoyable, but the last season can charitably be described as a trainwreck. Long-running threats are dealt with anticlimactically, characters' entire arcs (Jaime, Tyrion, Daenerys, to name a few) are derailed, and it leaves many fans with a bad taste in their mouths. It doesn't help that a lot of the problems started popping up when the show writers ran out of published material to work with.
Of course, while it is understandable that many people are bitter about what Game of Thrones has become, it's also important to remember what it was. As such, I wholeheartedly recommend the first half, but only proceed on to the second half if you can handle disappointment.