‘Game of Thrones’
Grade: A
The first four episodes of the new season of “Game of Thrones” leaked through different torrent websites April 11. In just a day, the installments had already amassed more than 800,000 views.
From the first season when a main character unexpectedly lost his head — quite literally — to the various deadly weddings which have scarred a generation from ever tying the knot, “Game of Thrones” is a cultural phenomenon that has never occurred before on television.
Following in the footsteps of artistic behemoths such as “Lord of the Rings” and even the Harry Potter series, “Game of Thrones” has managed to take the magic of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels and translate it onto the small screen.
Perhaps its greatest feat is to make the viewers forget they’re watching a TV show. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have managed to create a spectacle across the nation that can be watched on televisions instead of movie screens.
Each episode has an ebb and flow that is rare for television. Plot lines are not tied up into a neat bow at the end of an episode but instead continue into the next week’s show or even the next season. It grabs you by your lapels and refuses to let go.
Of course, one of the keys to creating this majestic experience is the cinematography and sets of the show. “Game of Thrones” films in Northern Ireland, Croatia, Iceland and Morocco, locations which give it a sense of enormity and magnitude which is otherwise nonexistent in its medium.
Even with this beauty, the show is nothing without its actors.
Usually, this is where I would cite the spearhead of the show, however this is an impossible task for a program like “Game of Thrones.” There is no Walter White, Tony Soprano or Don Draper the series is centered around.
Instead, there is a cavalcade of characters that allows for the countless storylines and creates a full and lively world. Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister is probably the fan favorite. But the same can be said for Lena Headey, Kit Harrington, Emilia Clarke and Maisie Williams who play Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark, respectively. Odds are that by the time you read this, one of these characters will be dead. Perhaps all of them.
This process is what makes “Game of Thrones” just so popular — its spontaneity and madness. No one is safe in the show’s universe. Just when you begin to like a character — bam — he or she is dead. “Game of Thrones” is an acting and directing tour de force, yet it is the writing that provides the biggest thrills.
For a show to maintain its greatness while achieving the utmost popularity is assuredly rare these days, but “Game of Thrones” takes it all in stride. Every season is a 10-hour movie, and a stellar one at that.
War, unexpected turns and dragons are coming.
Are you going to be along for the ride?
