Game Of Thrones Reception And achivement
General
Critical response of Game of Thrones
Season Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic
1 90% (41 reviews)[236] 80 (28 reviews)[237]
2 96% (37 reviews)[238] 90 (26 reviews)[239]
3 96% (45 reviews)[240] 91 (25 reviews)[241]
4 97% (45 reviews)[242] 94 (29 reviews)[243]
5 93% (52 reviews)[244] 91 (29 reviews)[245]
6 94% (35 reviews)[246] 73 (9 reviews)[247]
7 93% (51 reviews)[248] 77 (12 reviews)[249]
8 55% (20 reviews)[250] 75 (13 reviews)[251]
Game of Thrones, particularly the first seven seasons, received critical acclaim, although the series's frequent use of nudity and violence has been criticized. The series has an overall rating of 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.[240] Some critics and publications have called the show among the best HBO series of all time.[252][253] The series was highly anticipated by fans before its premiere.[254][255] James Poniewozik said the pilot episode set "a very large table",[256] while Ti Singh of Den of Geek said the show "is here to stay".[257]
First-season reviewers said the series had high production values, a fully realized world and compelling characters.[258] According to Variety, "There may be no show more profitable to its network than 'Game of Thrones' is to HBO. Fully produced by the pay cabler and already a global phenomenon after only one season, the fantasy skein was a gamble that has paid off handsomely."[259] The second season was also well received. Entertainment Weekly praised its "vivid, vital, and just plain fun" storytelling[260] and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the series made a "strong case for being one of TV's best series"; its seriousness made it the only drama comparable to Mad Men or Breaking Bad.[261]
The critical response for season three was also positive. Matt Fowler of IGN said the series was "still quite marvelous" praising the character development.[262] TV Guide named the season's penultimate episode "The Rains of Castamere" as number three on their 65 Best Episodes of the 21st Century.[263] The critical acclaim continued into season four, with Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly calling the season " the height of the show's icon-generating powers".[264] The Independent stated that the show deviated significantly from the novels however the "changes benefited the show and condensed the substantial source text admirably well".[265] The critical response to season five was again positive, however, some commentators criticized the sexual assault in the "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" episode.[266] Season six also received favorable reviews. Time criticized the repetitive story lines early in the season, however, its reviewer praised the "Battle of the Bastards" episode as "one of the show's very best".[267] One reviewer also noted the "more woman-friendly" themes throughout the season,[268] with another singling out Arya Stark's story arc.[269]
The show's final two seasons, especially season eight, received more criticism. Season seven was praised for its action sequences and focused central characters, but received criticism for its pace and plot developments that "defied logic".[249][248][270] Writing for Vox, Emily VanDerWerff cited the departure from the source material as a reason for the "circular storytelling".[271] Critical reception for season eight was mixed.[272] The Guardian noted the "rushed business" of the plot which "failed to do justice to its characters or its actors".[273] Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Maureen Ryan condemned the season's reductive treatment of women, and "decisions set up and executed with little or no foresight or thoughtfulness", declaring the penultimate episode as "Game of Thrones at its worst".[274] Fan reaction was mixed for the final season. A petition on Change.org started by some fans requested that the final season be remade with different writers.[275] Casey Bloys, HBO's president of programming, said at a Television Critics Association event "the petition shows a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the show but it wasn't something we seriously considered".[276] Despite the criticism of the writing, the music and visual effects were praised.[277][278]
The cast performances were praised throughout the show's run. Peter Dinklage's "charming, morally ambiguous, and self-aware"[279] portrayal of Tyrion, which earned him Emmy and Golden Globe awards, was acclaimed. "In many ways, Game of Thrones belongs to Dinklage", wrote Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times before Tyrion became the series's central figure in season two.[280][281] Several critics highlighted performances by actresses and children.[280][282] Lena Headey's portrayal of the "riveting" Cersei Lannister also received praise.[279][283] Maisie Williams was singled out as well and her season two work with veteran actor Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister).[284] Stephen Dillane received positive reviews for his performance as Stannis Baratheon, especially in the fifth season, with one critic noting "Whether you like Stannis or not, you have to admit that Stephen Dillane delivered a monumental performance this season."[285] The series was also praised for the portrayal of handicapped and disabled characters.[286] One commentator stated that Tyrion Lannister is a "departure from the archetypal dwarf" often found in other fantasy stories like The Lord of the Rings.[287]
Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a 'B' rating, saying that it was ultimately "okay". With both "transcendent moments" and "miserable phases", it was "beloved enough to be criticized by everyone for something". Franich described seasons three and four as "relentless", seasons six's ending having a "killer one-two punch", while seasons seven and eight were "indifferent".[288] The New York Times gave the series a mixed review after the season three finale, criticizing the number of characters, their lack of complexity and a meandering plot.[289] The show, however, appeared on many "best of" lists for the end of the 2010s. Alan Sepinwall, writing for Rolling Stone, placed the series on his "50 Best TV Shows of the 2010s" list, saying its "ability to most of the time keep all of its disparate threads feeling vital and tied to one another, remains a staggering achievement".[290]
Sex and violence
Despite its otherwise enthusiastic reception by critics, Game of Thrones has been criticized for the amount of female nudity, violence, and sexual violence it depicts, and for the manner in which it depicts these themes.[291] The series's broadcast in China on CCTV, began in 2014, but was heavily edited to remove scenes of sex and violence, in accordance with the Chinese practice of censoring Western television series to prevent what the People's Daily called "negative effects and hidden security dangers".[292] This resulted in viewer complaints about the incoherence of what remained.[293] George R. R. Martin responded that he felt obliged to be truthful about history and human nature, and that rape and sexual violence are common in war; and that omitting them from the narrative would have rung false and undermined one of his novels' themes, its historical realism.[294] HBO said that they "fully support the vision and artistry of Dan and David's exceptional work and we feel this work speaks for itself".[22]
The amount of sex and nudity in the series, especially in scenes incidental to the plot, was the focus of much of the criticism aimed at it in its first and second seasons. Stephen Dillane, who portrays Stannis Baratheon, likened the series's frequent explicit scenes to "German porn from the 1970s".[295] The series's use of "sexposition", plot delivery accompanied by sex or nudity, was criticized as distracting.[296] Saturday Night Live parodied this aspect of the adaptation in a sketch that portrayed a 13-year-old boy as a Game of Thrones consultant, whose main concern was showing as many breasts as possible.[297]
The episode "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" in the third season featured the lengthy torture and eventual emasculation of Theon Greyjoy, which prompted criticism.[298] New York magazine called the scene "torture porn".[299] According to one commentator, although the series' violence tended to serve a narrative purpose, Theon's torture in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" was excessive as well.[300] One commentator noted that Greyjoy's emasculation was one of the only sexual assault scenes where a male was the victim.[301] A scene in the fourth season's episode "Breaker of Chains", in which Jaime Lannister rapes his sister and lover Cersei, triggered a broad public discussion about the series' depiction of sexual violence against women. According to Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times, the scene caused outrage, in part because of comments by director Alex Graves that the scene became "consensual by the end".[22] Sonia Saraiya of The A.V. Club wrote that the series's choice to portray this sexual act, and a similar one between Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo in the first season—both described as consensual in the source novels—as a rape appeared to be an act of "exploitation for shock value".[302]
In the fifth season's episode "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", Sansa Stark is raped by Ramsay Bolton. Most reviewers and publications found the scene gratuitous and artistically unnecessary.[303][304][305] In response to the scene, pop culture website The Mary Sue announced that it would cease coverage of the series because of the repeated use of rape as a plot device,[306] and US Senator Claire McCaskill said that she would no longer watch it.[307] The episode was the lowest rated on Rotten Tomatoes until the season eight episode "The Bells".[308] As the later seasons saw Daenerys, Sansa, and Cersei assume ruling positions, Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post noted that the series could be seen as a "long-arc revenge fantasy about what happens when women who have been brutalized and raped gain power".[309] Much of the criticism after the series finale was centered around the handling of the female character storylines.[310] One commentator cited the male gaze as one of main sources of the "romanticized female rape" and general nudity throughout the series.[301] Another commentator stated the use of both sex and violence helps perpetuate misogyny within the Game of Thrones universe.[311]
Lighting
The lighting, or lack of light, in darker scenes has been a recurring point of criticism since season six of the series.[312][313][314][315] In 2016, Bustle's Caitlyn Callegari listed 31 examples of scenes where the lighting caused viewers problems ranging from not being able to tell a character's hair color to being unable to see what was going on.[316] Some reviewers have noted this is part of a wider trend[317] among shows that are made by people who have experience working primarily on films, suggesting they "haven't grasped the nuances (or lack thereof)" of television as a medium, especially the differences between watching a scene on a television screen versus watching it on the big screen in a movie theater.[318]
In a 2017 interview, Robert McLachlan, a cinematographer working on the show, explained the lack of lighting as an artistic choice saying "we're trying to be as naturalistic as possible".[319] The criticism reached a high point during "The Long Night", the third episode of season eight.[320][321] Barely minutes into the episode, viewers took to social media sites such as Twitter to express their discontent over the fact that they were having severe difficulties watching the battle and trying to figure out what was going on.[322][323]
Cultural influence
Although Game of Thrones was initially dismissed by some critics,[17] its success has been credited with an increase in the fantasy genre's popularity.[324] The series's popularity led to increased sales of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels (republished in tie-in editions), which remained at the top of bestseller lists for months.[325] On the eve of the second season's premiere, CNN said, "after this weekend, you may be hard pressed to find someone who isn't a fan of some form of epic fantasy" and cited Ian Bogost as saying that the series continues a trend of successful screen adaptations beginning with Peter Jackson's 2001 The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the Harry Potter films establishing fantasy as a mass-market genre; they are "gateway drugs to fantasy fan culture".[326] The success of the show led to the commissioning of several fantasy series for television, including a retelling of the Lord of the Rings by Amazon Studios.[327] According to Neil Gaiman, whose works Good Omens and American Gods were adapted for TV, Game of Thrones helped to change attitudes towards fantasy on television, but mainly it made big budgets for fantasy series more acceptable.[328]
The success of the genre has been attributed by writers to a longing for escapism in popular culture, frequent female nudity and a skill in balancing lighthearted and serious topics (dragons and politics, for example) which provided it with a prestige enjoyed by conventional, top-tier drama series.[17] According to The Daily Beast, Game of Thrones was a favorite of sitcom writers and the series has been referred to in other TV series.[329] With other fantasy series, it has been cited as a reason for an increase in the purchase (and abandonment) of huskies and other wolf-like dogs.[330]
Game of Thrones has added to the popular vocabulary. A first-season scene in which Petyr Baelish explains his motives (or background) while prostitutes have sex in the background gave rise to the word "sexposition" for providing exposition with sex and nudity.[331] Dothraki, the series's nomadic horsemen, was ranked fourth in a September 2012 Global Language Monitor list of words from television most used on the internet.[332] The series and its characters have also been referenced by politicians and academics to commentate on modern-day geopolitics, economic inequality, and climate change.[333][334][335]
In 2019, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift told Entertainment Weekly that several songs on her 2017 album Reputation were inspired by Game of Thrones characters and plots.[336] "Khaleesi" became more popular as a name for baby girls in the United States. In the novels and the TV series, "khaleesi" is not a name, but the title of the wife of a "khal" (warlord) in the Dothraki language, held by Daenerys Targaryen.[337]
Game of Thrones has also become a subject of both academic and scientific inquiry.[338][339] In 2016, researchers published a paper analyzing emotional sentiment in online public discourse associated with the unfolding storyline during the fourth season.[338] The Mathematical Association of America published a journal in 2016 that applied the multidisciplinary field of network science to create a social network for the show's characters and their relationships.[340] The analysis purported to be able to distinguish discussions about an episode's storyline from media critiques or assessments of a specific actor's performance. In 2018, Australian scientists conducted a survival analysis and examined the mortality among 330 important characters during the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones.[32] In 2019, the Australian Red Cross conducted a study using international humanitarian law to determine which of the Game of Thrones' characters had committed the most war crimes during the first seven seasons of the show.[341][342]
Fandom
Main article: A Song of Ice and Fire fandom
President Obama sits on a digitally-added Iron Throne in the Oval Office of the White House, surrounded by other people
In this manipulated image published by the White House in 2014, US president Barack Obama (a fan of the series) sits on the Iron Throne in the Oval Office with the king's crown on his lap.
A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones have a broad, active international fan base. In 2012 Vulture ranked the series's fans as the most devoted in popular culture, more so than those of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Harry Potter or Star Wars.[343] Fans include political leaders such as former US president Barack Obama,[344][345] former British prime minister David Cameron,[346] former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard[347] and Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, who framed European politics using quotes from Martin's novels in a 2013 speech.[348]
BBC News said in 2013 that "the passion and the extreme devotion of fans" had created a phenomenon, unlike anything related to other popular TV series, manifesting itself in fan fiction,[349] Game of Thrones-themed burlesque routines and parents naming their children after series characters; writers quoted attributed this success to the rich detail, moral ambiguity, sexual explicitness and epic scale of the series and novels.[350] The previous year, "Arya" was the fastest-rising girl's name in the US after it had jumped in popularity from 711th to 413th place.[351]
As of 2013, about 58 percent of series viewers were male and 42 percent female, and the average male viewer was 41 years old.[352][353] According to SBS Broadcasting Group marketing director Helen Kellie, Game of Thrones has a high fan-engagement rate; 5.5 percent of the series's 2.9 million Facebook fans talked online about the series in 2012, compared to 1.8 percent of the over ten million fans of True Blood (HBO's other fantasy series).[354] Vulture.com cited Westeros.org and WinterIsComing.net (news and discussion forums), ToweroftheHand.com (which organizes communal readings of the novels) and Podcastoficeandfire.com as fan sites dedicated to the TV and novel series;[343] and podcasts cover Game of Thrones.[355]
Awards
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones has won numerous awards throughout its run, including 59 Emmy Awards, eight Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Peabody Award. It holds the record for total Emmy Award wins for a scripted television series (surpassing the record of 37 wins held by Frasier since 2004) and for most Emmy nominations for a drama series, with 161.[146][356][357][358] In 2019, the show's final season established a new record for most Emmy nominations received in a year with 32, breaking the 25-year-long record of 26 nominations established by NYPD Blue in 1994.[359] In 2013 the Writers Guild of America listed Game of Thrones as the 40th best written series in television history.[360] In 2015 The Hollywood Reporter placed it at number four on their best TV shows ever list,[361] while in 2016 the series was placed seventh on Empire's "The 50 best TV shows ever".[362] The same year Rolling Stone named it the twelfth "greatest TV Show of all time".[363]
Viewership
Game of Thrones was considered a ratings success for HBO throughout all eight seasons.[364][365] The show premiere was watched by 2.2 million, and the first season averaged 2.5 million viewers per episode.[366] For its second season, the series had an average gross audience of 11.6 million viewers.[367] The third season was seen by 14.2 million viewers, making Game of Thrones the second-most-viewed HBO series (after The Sopranos).[368] HBO said that Game of Thrones' average gross audience of 18.4 million viewers (later adjusted to 18.6 million) had passed The Sopranos for the viewership record.[369][370] The season five episode "The House of Black and White" was simulcasted in 173 countries, becoming the "largest TV drama telecast" according to Guinness World Records.[371]
By the sixth season the average per-episode gross viewing figure had increased to over 25 million, with nearly 40 percent of viewers watching on HBO digital platforms.[372] In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook likes found that Game of Thrones was "much more popular in cities than in the countryside, probably the only show involving zombies that is".[373] By season seven, the average viewer numbers had grown to 32.8 million per episode across all platforms.[374][375] The series finale was viewed by 19.3 million people across HBO's platforms, becoming the network's most watched episode.[376][377] The lead-out show also benefited from the finale's record viewership.[378]
Game of Thrones also set viewership records outside the United States on pay-television channels in the United Kingdom (with a 2016 average audience of more than five million on all platforms)[379] and Australia (with a cumulative average audience of 1.2 million).[380] Video streaming research company Parrot Analytics stated that after the US, the season eight premiere demand was "particularly strong in the United Kingdom and France".[381] Nielsen Media Research noted the show was popular among 18 to 49 key demographic with strong female viewership for a fantasy series.[382][383] The show also benefited from time shifting viewership. Between season one and season seven, 7-day viewers, the number of both DVR and video on demand views during the week after the episode broadcast, grew from 3.3 million to 13.7 million.[384] Following the show finale, commentators said many viewers might cancel their premium television and streaming subscriptions.[385] HBO parent company WarnerMedia reported that subscription revenue declined only 0.9 percent between April and June 2019.[386]
Game of Thrones : U.S. viewers per episode (millions)
Season Episode number Average
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2.22 2.20 2.44 2.45 2.58 2.44 2.40 2.72 2.66 3.04 2.52
2 3.86 3.76 3.77 3.65 3.90 3.88 3.69 3.86 3.38 4.20 3.80
3 4.37 4.27 4.72 4.87 5.35 5.50 4.84 5.13 5.22 5.39 4.97
4 6.64 6.31 6.59 6.95 7.16 6.40 7.20 7.17 6.95 7.09 6.84
5 8.00 6.81 6.71 6.82 6.56 6.24 5.40 7.01 7.14 8.11 6.88
6 7.94 7.29 7.28 7.82 7.89 6.71 7.80 7.60 7.66 8.89 7.69
7 10.11 9.27 9.25 10.17 10.72 10.24 12.07 N/A 10.26
8 11.76 10.29 12.02 11.80 12.48 13.61 N/A 11.99
Audience measurement performed by Nielsen Media Research[387]