Game of Thrones: Season Four

Game of Thrones: Season Four, 2014. Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, based on books by George R. R. Martin. Directed by Alex Graves (4 episodes), Michelle MacLaren (2), Alik Sakharov (2), Weiss (1), & Neil Marshall (1). Written by Benioff (7 episodes), Weiss (7), Bryan Cogman (2), & Martin (1). Starring Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, & Kit Harington.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: Dinklage is great this season. B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Easily the best season of the show so far. It adapts the end of a book, so the biggest problems I had with seasons two and three - seeming to just start and stop at arbitrary points in the story - are avoided. (I kind of wish we had waited a few years to start watching the show; these first four seasons probably need to be watched in one go to be at their best.) A

GPA: 3.1/4

Game of Thrones: Season Three

Game of Thrones: Season Three, 2013. Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, based on books by George R. R. Martin. Directed by Daniel Minahan (2 episodes), Alex Graves (2), Michelle MacLaren (2), David Nutter (2), Benioff (1), & Alik Sakharov (1). Written by Benioff (7 episodes), Weiss (7), Vanessa Taylor (1), Bryan Cogman (1), & Martin (1). Starring Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, & Richard Madden.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: Hey, Jon Snow, maybe you should brood some more. Or maybe sulk a little. Your part of the show is just too much fun. B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: I just don't seem to get as excited about Game of Thrones as I should. It's the kind of epic chess game that I like. There are a lot of great characters. (Although there are also some extremely boring ones. I'd never known it was possible to be dour while scaling a cliff.) I think the problem might be the wait between seasons. It's one big story, and watching one season at a time is kind of like watching one scene of a movie at a time. Just when I start to get drawn in, it's over for a year and I'm out of it again. B

GPA: 2.8/4

Game of Thrones: Season Two

Game of Thrones: Season Two, 2012. Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, based on books by George R. R. Martin. Directed by Alan Taylor (4 episodes), David Petrarca (2), David Nutter (2), Alik Sakharov (1) & Neil Marshall (1). Written by Benioff (6 episodes), Weiss (6), Vanessa Taylor (2), Bryan Cogman (1) & Martin (1). Starring Peter Dinklage & Lena Headey.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great). It took several episodes of being frustrated by the flatness of characters (especially Robb Stark) before it became clear that the people in the center of the action are not in fact the main characters.
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I don't know if I'm the only person watching this show that hasn't read the books, but I find it to be impossible to always know what's going on with every sub-plot. Often when I ask my wife (who has read the books up to this point) why something is happening, or who someone is, the answer is something that wasn't even in the show. But apart from that, it's very engrossing, albeit in a sometimes (deliberately) uncomfortable way.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)

Game of Thrones: Season One

From my Best TV Shows We've Never Seen marathon - part 4 of 5.



Game of Thrones: Season One, 2011. Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, based on books by George R. R. Martin. Directed by Brian Kirk (3 episodes), Daniel Minahan (3), Tim Van Patten (2) & Alan Taylor (2). Written by Benioff (8 episodes), Weiss (8), Bryan Cogman (1), Jane Espenson (1) & Martin (1). Starring Sean Bean.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 3/4 (Good)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 3/4 (Good). It could have been an hour or two shorter without losing anything. That didn't bother me while I was watching it (except when that damn raven dream kept repeating), but I expect it would seriously mar the show's rewatchability.
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good). Crazy good for a TV show.
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 1/4 (Bad)
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great, 4/4). I'm reluctantly giving it an 8 instead of a 9. I loved watching it, but there are a few major problems. Some key plot points are unexplained. Martin's obsession with incest is off-putting. Some of the villains are senselessly evil just for the sake of being villains (huge pet peeve of mine). Oddly, the biggest problem is that there is a ridiculous amount of gratuitous sex and nudity, to the point where it becomes funny. The general rule seems to be that if there's no good reason for characters to not be having sex during their scene, then what are their clothes still on for goddamnit? HBO viewers demand titties! Fantasy is always treading a fine line between immersing and silly, so a show like this that takes itself Very Seriously couldn't do much worse than give you a reason to laugh at it.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 (Good)