GAME OF THRONES
We kneel in homage before the show that changed TV for the better… and bloodier. Go Westeros with this massive celebration of the Seven Kingdoms.
Can you remember a time before Westeros? We’re struggling too. from groundbreaking ratings to twitter meltdowns, headline-making Controversy and beyond, Game Of Thrones blasted television into a New era. Joshua Winning investigates...
In 2011, Game Of Thrones was set to crash and burn. “I had this yellow legal pad, and I just remembered writing in all caps, ‘Massive Problem,’” said co-creator David Benioff, recalling the moment he watched the show’s original pilot episode with HBO bosses. In short, it was a mess. actors were wrong for their roles, the white walkers were “a guy in a green [mo-cap] suit”, Jon arryn’s death was laughably melodramatic and (perhaps worst of all) tyrion was blond. “we just made a lot of mistakes!” Benioff admitted. “we’re the showrunners, and if the show’s not working, it’s our fault.”
after the screening, Benioff and his Thrones co-creator DB weiss tinkered with and refined their vision, determined to prove that George RR Martin’s self-branded “unfilmable” novels could work on-screen. they recast, rewrote, redesigned, and brought in director timothy Van Patten to reshoot 90 per cent of what original helmer tom McCarthy had filmed. the rest, as they say, is flame-grilled history.
now, it’s difficult to imagine the TV landscape before Game Of Thrones. First crowned the king of cable TV after it debuted to rapturous ratings and reviews, then crowned king of all TV after it ushered in a new age of blockbuster television, it has smashed records across the board. seven seasons and 67 episodes in, it has won 38 Primetime emmy awards, turned its leads into movie stars and delivered devastating viewing figures (season six finale “the winds of winter”, garnered 8.9 million real-time viewers stateside).
CRIMSON PEAK
almost overnight, a phenomenon was born. “the series casts a shadow over the television landscape at least as large as one of its fire-breathing dragons,” wrote The Guardian in 2016, and that’s no overstatement. since its premiere in april 2011, Game Of Thrones has become the yardstick against which every new tV series is measured. Westworld. american
Gods. stranger Things. all have been scrutinised by people asking, could this be the new Game Of Thrones? But while many have strived to capture the same wildfire in a bottle, few – arguably, any – have successfully attained the same levels of acclaim.
Just how Game Of Thrones did it boils down to a small number of key factors. Clearly, fortuitous timing was at play. Coming at a time
when so-called fantasy television was either the domain of the teen (supernatural, Buffy The Vampire
slayer) or the more discerning cult-y viewer (Lost, True Blood), its bold vision of a medieval-ish land populated by rogues and romance was like nothing else on tV. Its grown-up tone, complete with shocking violence and no-blushes-spared nudity, gave it an edge, while HBo’s willingness to foot the bill on a first season that cost $50-60m ensured the show had a CGI-boosted look to rival even the biggest movie.
the show’s cleverest gambit, though, was that it delivered its fantasy by stealth. “You couldn’t let your kids see this,” noted nikolaj Coster-waldau (aka Jaime Lannister) of the show’s raven-black tone. Because, sure, while we now know all about the show’s dragons, giants, shadow monsters and resurrection of the dead, when Games Of Thrones premiered, there was no mistaking it for harry Potter. Its focus was almost entirely on family feuds, gritty political machinations, the potency of myth and legend, and very real dangers that, as we quickly discovered, could tear apart families like the starks.
“It is important to say that it is really just inspired by the wars of the Roses,” noted historian Dan Jones in conversation with