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Seasons(8) / Episodes(73)
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Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne continues. It stretches from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues, to the vast and savage eastern lands, where a young queen raises an army. All the while, in the frozen north, an 800-foot wall of ice precariously protects the war-ravaged kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men... all play the 'Game of Thrones.' (Home Box Office)
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Game of Thrones is filmed based on a cult book saga, which is currently considered a fundamental work of the historizing fantasy subgenre. Fans often fall into the trap of mechanical comparison between the two media, criticizing the missing motifs, characters, and plots, or the deviation of film characters from their novel counterparts. This kind of conflict passes me by. I am unfamiliar with the book series, nor do I intend to read it, so I am spared the trauma of comparing both versions. Game of Thrones represents a complex alternative functional world, modeled after the peak of medieval Europe with elaborate mythology. The series has no competition and probably won't have for a long time. Think about Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová with dozens of characters, which financially exhausted the entire studio and clearly showed the limits of regional cinema. The imitation of the Middle Ages is simply a precarious and expensive affair, which only a handful of producers can afford on this scale. Tolkien fans will probably be upset, but compared to Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings feels like a fairytale for older children with flat black-and-white characters. Game of Thrones reeks of blood, burnt human bodies, sweat, and urine. It offers a much wider range of emotions and is much dirtier. Its weakness lies in its excessive ambition and sprawl. Some storylines will simply seem less interesting to you and you won't be able to identify with certain characters. If the plot simultaneously follows several characters in different environments, you may have to wait a while for the one you feel closest to. In any case, it is interesting to watch the tangle of intrigues and power struggles, where the author often found inspiration in the real rivalries of powerful feudal families in medieval England and France. You won't find many supernatural motifs here, the movers of the plot are not magicians, but people with their down-to-earth desire for power, glory, and wealth. Personally, I could easily do without the dragons and ghouls, as well as other favorite genre props. Overall impression: 90%.
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It can’t quite compete with Lord of the Rings in terms of grandeur, but otherwise the Game is a good watch. Fine actors (powerhouse Sean Bean and taciturn Jason Momoa are the best in my mind), quality production design (HBO style) and the story is starting out promisingly, but a little slowly. Let’s see what it holds in store... A dragon hatching. A serial that is the real fantasy that all us fans were dreaming of. Intrigues, battles, dead bodies. It mainly relies on superbly written characters who luckily are also excellently cast. My favorites Bean and Momoa were awesome for the whole season, but not just them. Dwarfish Peter Dinklage grew on me, the way he steals every scene with supreme confidence. I also really liked Daenerys, and Emilia Clarke, who plays her, gives an impressive performance (ehem) and has absolutely no problem swapping roles (ehem, ehem). The final scene was totally chilling in her delivery. I look forward to what comes next. Season two: In terms of quality, this is going up and up. Too bad that some of the now main actors are rather dull (Stark’s son - the one with the army, Stark’s non-son, a fisherman or something) and their sub-stories slow down the action. Peter Dinklage easily dominates this season too, and grampa Lanister with Stark’s young daughter (I must try to remember their names) and Jaqen (the assassin) really spiced up this season. And then my sunshine in the night, Daenerys and her dragons. I found those three little guys (I call them Huey, Dewey and Louie) really entertaining, mainly at the end. So bring on another season... Season three: Better and better. One small problem is that some of my favorite characters are just running on the spot (Daenerys and the army of corpses in the second half look like they’re stuck in first gear with the handbrake on) and the storylines are very hard to follow, especially when you have to wait a week for each new episode. The wedding scene maybe is one of the high points, but honestly I considered something like that was unavoidable (nothing interesting could happen with that character anymore) and I think it was essential for the growth of the series for Martin to make his move. Also I relished in the torturing of Grey and I was really pleased about Daenerys buying the Unsullied and the red dragon’s tricks. I look forward to them growing up, those little tinkers. :) Season four: It starts with perhaps the most pleasant death of the entire series so far. The story moves on some. And despite countless surprising twists, it head for the most powerful finale yet. The dwarf’s fate is a central theme of the season and Peter Dinklage literally shines. The brotherly scenes are some of the best of the series. Jon Snow finally begins to show his real colors and Bran’s storyline begins to gain momentum. Arya sailing away made for a nice ending to the season, but damn, a year is too long.
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I caught up on my absolute biggest series and film rest and although I wasn't at all sure for the first two seasons whether the fame of Game of Thrones was warranted, the remaining three seasons have convinced me otherwise. Admittedly, I was expecting a lot more sex, blood, action and the characters more or less start to rapidly diminish only in season 4. There are some deaf passages, but in the end as a whole it works solidly. Khaleesi is the best and the storyline around her kept me interested the most, Tyrion is solid and John Snow is pretty much likeable even though his story has been ramping up for four series. Of the supporting characters, I also liked Margaery and Varys. The best season is 4 and 5, then 3, 2, 1.
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The War of the Roses and goings-on on the Apennine Peninsula under the Borgias in fantasy garb in the shape of a saga for which the label “fantasy" is too restrictive, even if it didn’t seem so to begin with. Nobody with spiky ears, no dwarves, orcs or similar critters. But we do get numerous living, non black-and-white characters (primarily Claudio... um Tyrion, who is head and shoulders above the rest) and politicians. Tons and tons of politics and tons and tons of intrigues, plotting and scheming and, somewhere in the background and sort of “by the way", epic battles that are more spoken about than taken part in; and it is no mistake that the best passages in the book are the “purges" à la Tyrion’s chapter four of “Clash of Kings". That applies to the book. Look for the bearer of the torch lit by Waltari and Graves rather than a variation on Lord of the Rings or the current unending list of generic sagas. That’s why it’s good that HBO took this under its wing, because this IS (and will be) like their Rome with a fantasy backdrop. Simply an adaptation in the form of a series which, despite not matching the image formed inside my head over many years (it isn’t made for fans of the books, but mainly for viewers without an opinion and so mainly it should be able to stand alone by itself as a series in itself; which HBO is managing so far), I find thrilling because the creators avoided following the books religiously and are not afraid of cutting to the quick, even though sometimes it’s a little too hurried and they don’t let some situations sink in properly. They often use theatrical approaches instead of regular cinema language (that only comes with the arrival of Alan Taylor and season two). Which certainly is not a criticism, just an observation. And this is a typical HBO series in the way that separate episodes don’t work too well alone, but only as part of a whole. A prime example is the finale of season one and the opening episode of season two. In each there are so many storylines that each gets their “minute under the spotlight", but there is so much of it that the result is disjointed, with a little bit of everything, which ends up being a little bit of nothing. But if you take them as part of the whole, everything suddenly seems right because, as we know, HBO simply doesn’t work in terms of seasons. For them, the start of a new season is “just" another chapter of one story; and you can tell apart separate seasons only on the basis of their constantly growing (and already high) production value. Although the creators like do it their way (from season two on I would describe it as loosely inspired by “Game of Thrones", rather than an adaptation of “Game of Thrones"), in spirit they remain faithful to the book. And what does being faithful to the book mean in the case of Game of Thrones? This doesn’t mean sticking at all costs to the wealth of stories and twists; these are not so important, can be changed, shortened, combined etc., but being faithful to the characters. The creators often follow different routes than the book’s author, but they follow them to the same destination. Which, in view of their exceptional qualities, characterization and development, I think speaks for itself. | S1: 5/5 | S2: 4/5 | S3: 4/5 | S4: 5/5 | S5: 4/5 | S6: 4/5 | S7: 4/5 | S8: 3/5 |
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So much fuss over of a single dwarf… No, Game of Thrones does not deserve such vitriol, though it’s true that it most convincingly triumphs in the most literary of disciplines – dialogue. The word rules, the images do not captivate. In my opinion, the actors aren’t suited to their respective roles (including the diminutive Tyrion), but I should blame that on my imagination, not on the people who adapted the book into a series. Game of Thrones is literature in film form, nothing more. Fortunately, it’s literature of extraordinary quality. 80%
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