Is game of thrones low fantasy series#
Is game of thrones low fantasy tv#

He seems to hold an innate contempt for genre. This advanced world-building has only been matched in recent years by another HBO series, The Wire.Ĭoincidentally, The Wire is the other show that Rushdie singles out in his interview with Haaretz as being overrated, calling it “just a police series.” To refute that statement would take another thousand words, but in a sense, this quote gets to the heart of Rushdie’s argument.

Is game of thrones low fantasy series#

The series surveys a diverse set of characters, from gluttonous kings to peasant soldiers to exiled princesses, and manages to tie them all together into one single system. Indeed, Thrones’ greatest achievement might be its grand interconnectivity. It’s a pleasure gleaning each character’s motivation, then watching everyone butt heads like cogs in a machine far greater than the sum of its parts. Standouts include the traditionally noble Ned Stark ( Sean Bean) and the conniving yet endearing Tyrion Lannister ( Peter Dinklage, fully deserving of his recent Emmy win).

On a purely aesthetic level, Thrones is a colossal achievement for TV.Įven more important though is the fact that the show’s world is populated by engaging, intriguing characters.

Is game of thrones low fantasy tv#

Easily the most expensive TV show ever produced, Thrones brings to life a world nearly as sweeping, diverse, and stunning as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. It almost goes without saying, but Game of Thrones looks amazing. Let’s explore some of the things that the show does well. So is Rushdie correct? Is Game of Thrones trash? The below scene, in which the show paused the action to let a minor character wax philosophic on the nature of a strong leader, was the low-point in an otherwise gripping season finale: When the show slows things down to focus solely on the thematic, it feels forced. And again, Rushdie is not wrong that Game of Thrones falls short in this category. He’s coming from a very literary perspective, deeming “good art” something that probes beyond the aesthetic, beyond the pulpy, and gets to some deeply earned thematic truths. But you’ll end up with nothing gained except a few extra pounds.Ĭonversely, when Rushdie speaks of “good TV” he’s speaking about something that might taste good, but more importantly, something that is good for you as well. You’ll waste an entire weekend marathoning through the entire first season. It tastes great, it’s easy to swallow, but it has no enriching qualities. īut do these facts render the show meritless? To answer this, we need a better explanation of what exactly Rushdie means by “trash.” What he’s really speaking about, it seems, is in essence the difference between health food and junk food. And the nudity does feel quite gratuitous. The violence is often quite shocking, oftentimes excessively so. But on further thought, Rushdie, who is in development on a TV show of his own for Showtime, is not wrong on several of his points. Martin, I never found time to pause and consider if what I was watching was indeed, as Rushdie puts it, “trash.” The production values are too high, and the pacing is too lightening-quick to invite such initial conclusions. Watching the first season of Thrones, a show adapted from the best-selling fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. It was garbage, yet very addictive garbage – because there’s lots of violence, all the women take their clothes off all the time, and it’s kind of fun. There was a series called Game of Thrones which was very popular here in the United States, a post-Tolkien kind of thing. Nineteen times out of 20 you fall asleep. “Most novels published are bad novels, most plays put on are bad plays, most movies that come out are bad movies and that is also true of TV. In a recent interview with Haaretz, he said: This installment’s focus is HBO’s wildly ambitious and equally expensive fantasy series, Game of Thrones.īooker Prize winning author Salmon Rushdie recently had some not so flattering words for Thrones. Welcome to part two in a series highlighting some of the most innovative, groundbreaking TV of 2011.