I’ve recently started watching Game of Thrones and every night, and as I watch another episode I ponder what it is that I like about it. I really like it. In fact, I love it. So I’ve been trying to work out why. It’s not my usual TV passion. After all, I like The Gilmore Girls and The West Wing, these are not happy bedfellows for Game of Thrones.
This is why I find Game of Thrones appealing.
- It reminds me of epic pieces of literature such as War and Peace. I love War and Peace. What makes War and Peace so great is how confusing it all is with too many characters and lots of intrigue and incestuous activities. Game of Thrones has this in common with War and Peace. There are also too many people to remember and plenty of incestuous activity, and I spend a lot of the time when watching it trying to work out who the hell is who and whether they should be doing this with that person or not.
- It reminds me of Dallas. I used to love Dallas as a child. Dallas was all about families and power. So is Game of Thrones. Families fall out. Oh it is so exciting.
- It is set in a fantasy historic past. I think anyone who remembers the imaginative adventures of their childhood will have a soft spot for fantasy historic pasts where princesses were princesses, everyone rode on horses, men were blindingly handsome yet able to rip a wild boar steak with their teeth with finesse and everyone had scraggly hair and grubby faces.
- It is cosy. It is a winter programme. They sleep under furry blankets in Game of Thrones and they sleep next to roaring fires. It makes me feel cosy. I used to love cosy TV as a child so I love this also as an adult.
- They sometimes refer to their bowel movements. This is bound to win me over after my weird thoughts on why people in science fiction don’t go to the toilet or at least talk about it. This alone makes Game of Thrones more quirky than it might be otherwise.
- One of the main characters is a feisty girl. I’ve always been attracted to literature (or film) which includes a feisty female character. It reminds me of the best books of my childhood: Little Women, The Famous Five and Anne of Green Gables. I wanted to be all of the feisty females in those books.
- Every conversation (except those about going to the toilet) is intense and dark. It is a very sexy TV programme. I don’t usually like unrealistic conversations when they never ask anyone if they fancy a cup of tea or whether they saw last night’s EastEnders but in this case, it seems so appropriate.
- In common with some of the best science fiction of the last century, Game of Thrones has symbolic meaning for all the power struggles that have happened throughout history. It speaks about the political and social struggles that we continue to have time and time again. I love that about it. It is a thinking programme.
- It is unpredictable. Just when you think things are going along swimmingly, along comes a gory beheading or the ghastly yet sudden death of one of the main characters.
- The characters are likeable, even the baddies. I love the baddies. My favourite was white-haired brother (see point 11) until he came to a sudden (see point 9) end.
- Finally, I like the fact that I have no idea what the real names of the characters are and I doubt I ever will. I have my own pet names for them: little quick-witted chap; white-haired, grey-eyebrowed straggly girl who is married to GRRRRR man who speaks Klingon (or not after the end of Season One); drippy girl who fancies the boy who looks like Malfoy; big, fat, dead drunk king; the rumpy pumpy twins; Sean Bean; Sean Bean’s wife; feisty girl; and the chancellor of the exchequer who owns a brothel (to name but a few (there are so many)).
I’m only on Season Two but I am going to keep watching almost every night. They call me Mother of Cats.
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