LIFE WITHOUT GAME OF THRONES? NO WAY, JOSÉ!
IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE THE SWORD-BUCKLING, FANTASY EPIC GoT HIT OUR SCREENS. SO WHY AREN’T WE BORED YET?
It’s the show that has brought us evil, scheming, gratuitous violence and more door-holding than a Presidential campaign (or maybe not, in Donald Trump’s case), but what is it exactly that’s got the whole world watching Game of Thrones? Now, cue the gasps of horror. I have to confess: I’d never actually watched a single episode of GoT (the name donned by die-hard fans) until I got the call to write a feature on it.
So, in true journalistic style, I tapped into my investigative skills (aka spent eight hours one weekend binge-watching the show) to find out just what makes the audience tick. Yep, you heard right. Shockingly, despite the show’s massive popularity and it being in its sixth — soon to be seventh — season, I only jumped on the Westeros bandwagon in 2016. And, boy, if personalities are split, then it’s safe to say my Dr Jekyll is severely peeved with my Mr Hyde for not letting ‘us’ become a part of this GoT journey sooner (guess who’s sleeping on the couch tonight!).
Now, going back to that ‘true journalistic style’ comment, it would only be right of me to write this piece with no bias at all. But it’s going to be hard, as it’s safe to say I am a Westerosi at heart now. Not-so-nerdy after all Initially, this big-budget fantasy series may have alluded to the fact that ‘only nerds are allowed’ but, since hitting our screens in 2011, its demographic has gone far beyond that.
Its compelling hooks are what keep fans hooked. It’s a masculine show, with a feminine touch. The men are portrayed as brutes, but the women are just as brutish. From heavy-handed sword fights to passionate love scenes, the show keeps the viewer consumed from the get-go. And it’s that cunning manipulation that keeps us wanting more.
But for those who aren’t fans — and yes, these people do exist — I can sympathise. Even the most adult of us out there have to stay afoot in a bid to follow all the plotlines and innuendos in GoT. Its vast array of characters and storylines, spanning multiple threads, engages like no show before and, for some, that challenge is just too much to bear.
Like the film Donnie Darko, its complexity can be baffling, which leads some to love it and others to loathe it. From Joffrey Baratheon to Ramsay Bolton, the genius character selection awakens an emotion inside viewers that many of us never thought existed. And it’s safe to say Baratheon and Bolton have gone down as some of the most loathed in the show’s history to date. Some shows are simply entertaining, others gripping and some just plain weird. But the beauty of GoT is that it has all of these elements combined into one. And the cast aren’t bad to look at either.