forget differently paced season long arcs that don't require as much patience , nearly every show back then resolved itself in 42 minutes. Closest thing was probably Oz which for all its flaws was primer for the Sopranos.

The Wire was even more challenging because was pure story and didn't rest so much on a single compelling character.

Might be difficult today but whether they'd be a harder sell today than when they dropped is debatable. i suppose there was a novelty factor

i thought GoT's pace picked up because they show caught up with the source material. instead of telling a story they just started making things happen