watched up to the middle of season 6 and lost interest. also this was maybe half a year ago so my thoughts on the show will be hazy and half-remembered. i was sucked into the show in a way that hadn't happened in years (my tv and film viewing cratered over the past decade or so) and that was a very enjoyable feeling

the best thing about this show is that it never stops moving since you're following like 4 storylines in any given episode. there are always new characters to meet and old ones to revisit. it is a fantatically paced show. it also looks amazing. the production value is off the charts. this seems academic but it matters to me beceause my suspension of disbelief with TV and film is kind of weak; i often end up thinking about the logistics of making the scene (where the cameras and mics are, where the actors are keeping their sides, how the people being filmed are the actors vs them being the characters, etc.) rather just going with it. due to the presentation and brisk pacing i was unusually immersed in GoT and remembered how engaging a well-made film or tv series can be. great stuff!

there is simply too much to get into with the breadth of charcters and storylines in the show. i can't even get my head around it as i type this. i liked the lannisters, i found the starks to be overly earnest, and it took me a long time to buy into the stannis story arc. jon snow eventually won me over. it was easy to root for arya. the show's portrayal of evil as something both high concept (joffery, the boltons) and very grounded (random acts of malice) was interesting. the violence was often jarring and the results gruesome. i thought the show presented a pragmatic view of life. if you want something enough you just make an effort to get it and do whatever you need to make it happen. i also enjoyed that there were lot of times throughout the seasons where women were at least as powerful, important, and pivotal as the men in the show and historically that has not been the case with TV and film


some random thoughts about the show that have stuck with me over the months:

• my favorite bits in the show were the two-handers between jaime and brienne and arya and the hound. sometimes nothing is better than two characters getting to know each other

• emilia clarke is not a great actor or daenerys was underwritten. i thought daenerys was a cool character who did a lot really amazing things and wanted to enjoy her scenes more than i did

• lena headey is unbelievable. her motions and line deliveries as cersei are so subtle, practiced, and convincing. masterful stuff

• the red wedding legitimately surprised me even though i had awareness of it due to its impact on the social media and media criticism cycles. i didn't know what was going to happen — or when — but i knew *something* was going to happen. it was a genuinely shocking scene and i'm glad i got to experience something similar to what the makers of the show intended despite "knowing" about it beforehand

• tommy carcetti's haircut in that era always killed me every time i saw it. i never got over it and i think it affected how i viewed littlefinger and aidan gillen's portrayal of him. i think gillen is not the best actor and is just a super charismatic person whom the camera loves

• peter dinklage's acting was great. his accent was not. i'm not sure how carcetti was able to away with a misplaced accent but dinklage couldn't

• i started skipping the torture porn scenes pretty quickly into that story thread. it became masturbatory at a point and no longer served the story. i didn't particularly care for theon but they didn't have to do him like that

• jonathan price is such a good actor. i knew his ass was jonathan price the actor when he first appeared and i still bought into his weird passive-aggressive cult leader. however the church/cult storyline is one of the reasons i started to lose interest in the show


there is way more but i might be too far removed to recall it fully. i did genuinely enjoy most of what i watched and enjoyed enjoying a TV series for the first time in ages. at some point i might revisit and finish it. i do feel like i got a lot from it even with my incomplete viewing. most series tend to peter out no matter how good they are and the ending is generally disppointing because it's impossible for it to live up to the highs that the series achieved. closure generally doesn't interest me so getting back in might be a challenge