I just finished season 1. I don't understand the hype. I liked it and the cast is fantastic but so far I think that the plots, arcs, and dialog aren't anything special. Imdb says there are nine noble families. Nine? That a silly amount of stuff to keep track of. I feel like I'll need a conspiracy theory like board with red string so I can keep track of everything. But that's more of a commitment than I want to make.
And I was surprised that there's some formulaic stuff make reddit and reddit-like audience cheer. The fucking scenes seem almost funny to me. They are so fake and wooden. I assume the wolf dogs are in the books but in season 1 - they seem less scary and more like a cool plot device.
At Imdb it has a rating of 9.2/10 • 2.2m. I can't believe it has millions of ratings but it's still above 9. I think the series is has an effectively higher rating than The Sopranos which is 9.2/10 but it only has has 1/5th has many ratings.
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How can it be so highly rated?
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What would you rate the series as a whole?
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Why do people love this series so much?
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Is season 1 typical of the series? Worse? Better?
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How do you rank the seasons best to worst?
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Is there more dialog that needs subtitles? I don't like that at all. I don't want to read subtitles for a fantasy series.
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Is the finale even worse than The Sopranos'?
I’m a fan of both the books and the series but I don’t care if people dislike it (since I like to think that I’m not treat-brained even though I am) and I also think there are plenty of weird problems with it, namely that the grimdark subgenre basically serves to justify the shittiness of our own world (“things could be worse, just look at GoT!”). I won’t spoil the ending for you but it definitely comes out very strongly against the idea that anything can actually get better. I’ve also realized lately that ethnic minorities which were very much present in medieval Europe (Jews, Roma) just don’t exist in GoT. We have the Dothraki, who are basically Mongols, and then some occasional vague references to darker skin that GRRM makes in the books now and then. That’s pretty much it? There are references to diversity and different languages, but minority groups are rarely if ever mentioned to be living in a massive city like King’s Landing for instance. As a Marxist it also frustrates me that the economic base for Westeros is barely depicted. Peasants either don’t exist or are passive, weak, on the run, etcetera, even though that is also historically inaccurate. We get some slave liberation in the series but the slaves themselves are also extremely passive.(It’s easy to say that “it’s just fantasy” in response but w/e.) GRRM definitely has better politics than Tolkien but he’s obviously not a Marxist.
That being said, for all his faults and annoyances, as a writer I am generally very impressed with GRRM’s abilities. His wealth of detail and dedication to complex characters, neverending conflict, and somehow managing to keep things interesting for thousands of pages (“and then things got worse,” tightening the screws for chapter after chapter after chapter)—it’s all really unrivaled IMO. Just randomly mercing main characters is also kind of funny, I have to admit, and really keeps readers on their toes—I don’t think it upsets them as much as in other series, either (Star Wars Disneyverse for instance) since they get kind of used to it?