Game of Thrones

General

Game of Thrones, particularly the first seven seasons, received critical acclaim, although the series' frequent use of nudity and violence has been criticized. Its seasons have appeared on annual "best of" lists published by (2011), (2011 and 2012) and The Hollywood Reporter (2012).

The performances of the cast were praised. Peter Dinklage's "charming, morally ambiguous, and self-aware" and awards, was particularly noted. "In many ways, Game of Thrones belongs to Dinklage", wrote Mary McNamara of the before Tyrion became the series' central figure in season two. Several critics highlighted performances by actresses Fourteen-year-old Maisie Williams, noted in the first season for her debut as Arya Stark, was singled out for her season-two work with veteran actor Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister).

First-season reviewers said the series had high production values, a fully realized world and compelling characters., "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". praised its "vivid, vital, and just plain fun" storytelling, the series made a "strong case for being one of TV's best series"; its seriousness made it the only drama comparable to or . gave the series a mixed review, criticizing its number of characters, their lack of complexity and a meandering plot.[246]

The third season was extremely well received by critics, with Metacritic giving it a score of 91 out of 100 (indicating "universal acclaim"). The fourth season was similarly praised; Metacritic gave it a score of 94 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, again indicating "universal acclaim". The fifth season was also well received by critics and has a score of 91 out of 100 (based on 29 reviews) on Metacritic. The sixth season was praised by critics, though not as highly as its predecessors. It has a score of 73 on Metacritic (based on nine reviews), indicating "generally favorable reviews". The seventh season scored 77 out of 100 (based on twelve reviews) and was praised for its action sequences and focused central characters, but received criticism for its breakneck pace and plot developments that "defied logic."

Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a 'B' rating, stating 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 3 and 4 as "relentless", seasons 6's ending having a "killer one-two punch", while seasons 7 and 8 were "indifferent".[248]

Sex and violence

Despite its otherwise enthusiastic reception by critics, some have criticized the show for the amount of female nudity, violence, and sexual violence it depicts, and for the manner in which it depicts these themes. called the series' "tendency to ramp up the sex, violence, and—especially—sexual violence" of the source material "the defining weakness" of the adaptation., its historical realism.

The amount of sex and nudity in the series, especially in scenes that are incidental to the plot, was the focus of much of the criticism aimed at the series in its and second seasons. Stephen Dillane, who portrays Stannis Baratheon, likened the series' frequent explicit scenes to "German porn from the 1970s". wrote in that while the first season was replete with light-hearted "sexposition", the second season appeared to focus on distasteful, exploitative, and dehumanizing sex with little informational content.[251]

According to The Washington Post's Anna Holmes, the nude scenes appeared to be aimed mainly at titillating heterosexual men, right down to the Brazilian waxes sported by the women in the series' faux-medieval setting, which made these scenes alienating to other viewers.'s Maureen Ryan likewise noted that Game of Thrones mostly presented women naked, rather than men, and that the excess of "random boobage" undercut any aspirations the series might have to address the oppression of women in a feudal society. parodied this aspect of the adaptation in a sketch that portrayed the series as retaining a 13-year-old boy as a consultant whose main concern was showing as many breasts as possible.

In the , which saw Theon Greyjoy lengthily tortured and eventually , the series was also criticized for its use of torture. called the scene "." agreed, saying, "it's not uncommon that Game of Thrones gets accused of being torture porn—senseless, violence combined with senseless, objectifying sexual imagery." According to Davies, although the series' violence tended to serve a narrative purpose, Theon's torture in "" was excessive.[257]

in the fourth season's episode "", 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". Itzkoff also wrote that critics fear that "rape has become so pervasive in the drama that it is almost background noise: a routine and unshocking occurrence". wrote that the series' 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".[258]

In the fifth season's episode "", Sansa Stark is raped by Ramsay Bolton. Most reviewers, including those from Vanity Fair, Salon, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast, found the scene gratuitous and artistically unnecessary. For example, Joanna Robinson, writing for , said that the scene "undercuts all the agency that's been growing in Sansa since the end of last season." In response to the scene, pop culture website announced that it would cease coverage of the series because of the repeated use of rape as a plot device, said that she would no longer watch it.[265]

As the sixth and seventh 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"—namely, that their past leaves them too broken to do anything but commit brutal acts in their own turn, and that their personal liberation does not effect the social change needed to protect others from suffering. reported before the seventh season that "Even if Benioff and Weiss don't always admit it, the show has changed. Scenes in which exposition is delivered in one brothel or another, for example, have been pared back".[267]

Lighting issues

The lighting, or lack of light, in darker scenes has been a recurring point of criticism since season 6 of the series. In 2016, '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 not being able to see what was going on. 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.[274]

In a 2017 interview, , a cinematographer working on the show, explained the lack of lighting as an artistic choice: "we're trying to be as naturalistic as possible". The criticism reached a high point during "", the third episode of . Barely minutes into the episode, viewers took to social media sites such as Twitter to express their discontent about the fact that they were having severe difficulties watching the battle and trying to figure out what was going on.

Fandom

A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones have a broad, active international . In 2012 ranked the series' fans as the most devoted in popular culture, more so than 's, 's, 's or '., former British prime minister , and Dutch foreign minister , who framed European politics in quotes from Martin's novels in a 2013 speech.[289]

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 , 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." was the fastest-rising girl's name in the US after it jumped in popularity from 711th to 413th place.[292]