Wow.

I could end this article now and you’d know what I mean.

I didn’t want watch Game of Thrones. I have a serious case of Middle Earth fatigue. Game of Thrones smelled Lord of the Rings adjacent and I just wasn’t in the mood for it. Don’t get me wrong, I love LOTR. I gorged myself on it back in the day to the point of needing a long-term break. Giving myself a break did not include watching Game of Thrones.

Since all of the usual web suspects were squeeing over the release of the first fifteen minutes of the pilot, I decided to give it a shot. I was immediately blown away by the quality of the show. The first wide shot of the snow covered wall felt crisp and cinematic. It’s by far the best high-quality visuals that I’ve seen on TV in a very long time. While Winterfell was the standard fantasy fair, the costumes were highly textured and distressed in away that made them look really used and believable. What sold me in that first fifteen minutes of Game of Thrones were the White Walkers. I didn’t want to suffer through a tedious medieval soap-opera without some danger or a supernatural element. The White Walkers or snow zombies (?) were the driving force behind my enthusiasm for the show.

Fast-forward to the end of the season. I was disappointed that the White Walkers weren’t featured heavily in the season. I wanted zombie slashing every week. By the end of the season, we saw the White Walkers two times including the pilot along with whispers and rumors. I want to know all about these creatures. Are they indeed supernatural or is it just an virulent outbreak? (Please don’t spoil this for me)

The White Walkers aren’t the only gory thing about Game of Thrones. We get many decapitations, plenty of brutal sword fighting, wolves maiming people, wolves getting their necks snapped, bruises, cuts, gangrene and a whole host of other barf inducing traumas. Game of Thrones also wasn’t shy about crossing some lines that are taboo. We had to see a young girl raped a few times, tons of soft-core porn, whore houses are standard, incest, blood sacrifices and a mother still breast feeding a 10 year old boy. There were a few audience groans about some of these topics and some even threatened to stop watching.

The one thing that has a lot of fans up in arms is the killing off of Sean Bean’s character, Ned Stark. I’m not sure why but when I first saw him as the lead of a TV show, I just knew he was being used as bait to watch the show. He’s a movie actor, they’ll do TV for short periods of time but in most cases nothing for long periods of time. I made a joke to someone that he was too expensive to keep for the entire show and a reader of the books spoiled it for me right then with a simple, “Yep.” I was devastated early on so the season finale wasn’t a shocker for me.

I’m not really sure that I have a reason to watch next season now that Sean Bean AND Jason Momoa’s characters are dead. I guess I could look forward to seeing what winter is actually like. They’ve been moaning about winter coming all season and to be honest, it looked like it already arrived. The dragons are a nice touch. I wonder what they’ll mean for the realm. King Joffrey is a bastard and I will cheer the day he gets shanked. You know it’s coming. I guess I’ll adjust my expectations on the White Walkers because I think they are going to be Smoke Monster of Game of Thrones.

No. I will not be reading the books. I want to enjoy the show without taking on another project. Heck, I’m already watching all of the Classic Doctor Who episodes. Isn’t that enough?

Listen to Carl and I discuss Game of Thrones on Sci-Fi Party Line.

 

Game of Thrones will return next fall Sundays 9/8C on HBO.