We live in a world where the Lord of the Rings has been filmed well, there was a Watchmen movie that came from a major studio, and even the Walking Dead
has been made into an episodic television series. Lengthy, intense
dramas from science fiction and fantasy are now being made for both the
big and small screen, and it's a wonderful thing.
The problem is that these properties are hard to translate. The pilot for the Walking Dead
was amazing, but the rest of the season fizzled spectacularly. Many
fans of George R.R. Martin's books were afraid the same was going to
happen to the Game of Thrones series, and the books seemed
unfilmable. In a surprise twist, the first season of the show hasn't
been just good for a fantasy series, it's been an amazing piece of
storytelling, full stop. We're going to talk about why it has succeeded,
and why you need to be watching.
Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros.
Creators: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Stars: Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage and Maisie Williams
Finally, a period sword series comes to pay-tv and gets it absolutely right. It’s The Sopranos in animal skins with swords instead of guns. But even more than The Sopranos, you never know what might happen dramatically. Even though it always respects the rules of drama, it takes you on its journey, and like a great stand-up, surprises you delightfully over and over and over again.
I was scared, frankly, when HBO sent the discs for the first six of the ten episode first season of Game of Thrones. It came with a beautifully rendered, but complicated chart, explaining the family trees of the series. The problem at that moment is, if you need a chart, you aren’t enjoying a drama,
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