I hate Game of Thrones and once you hear my reasons, you’d hate it too
Some years ago, around this time, I was in London, at a french fine dine restaurant which served small lobsters at about 7Pounds (~$10) a piece. I ordered 5, ate 2 and passed on the rest. I remember walking out of the restaurant, arguing with my friend(an ex-chef) that Peri-Peri chicken at Nandos would have been a much better choice. An arguement ensued during which the friend argued that years of fast-food has destroyed our palette!
“We are so used to eating high salt, high oil, industrially processed crap that our pallete can no longer understand the subtle refinements of a fresh, juicy, succulunt lobster”.
The argument seemed a little artsy-fartsy to me. I remember looking at the diners thinking “Pretentious as**s or genuine foodies?” (aR**s not aS**s — We are in England). I dismissed the “excess-salt-and-sugar-has-flattened-my-pallete-idea” thinking its not my problem. I am who I am and I like Nandos better. The next day, I went to Nandos and devoured my favorite chicken, drowning it in the delicious Peri Peri sauce. I ate the fries that way too. Everything tasted awesome because everything tasted like the tangy Peri Peri sauce. As I walked back to the Baker Street underground station, the-over-sensitized-palette thought came back.
I kept thinking about how and when did I graduate from salted-fries, to salted-fries-with-ketchup to salted-fries-with-peri-peri-sauce.
The Problem of Desensitized senses
Unfortunately, Nandos and McDonalds are not the only ones facing the problem of desensitization. Infact it is even more pronounced in the television industry. How do I capture the audience’s attention, especially when there are 30 other channels trying to do the same. And how do I capture it in amidst a 24x7 non-stop stream of information, with an audience that has been desensitized.
Every once in a while came people who decided to game the system. Because its so difficult to make a great comedy, they just added applause and canned-laughter. Somebody invented Breaking News and then everything became breaking news until nobody gave a sh*t about it. They created Reality Television and now even Simon Cowell looks bored by the 3rd season. What new can we give the audience that can capture their attention.
Game Of Thrones is designed with one and only one intent — to shock and stun the audience to capture their attention. It is by far the poorest form of story telling that I have ever experienced. The gory visuals, the explicit sex and nudity, the rape and murder, the beheadings, the incestuous relationships, the psychos — everything made 3 times more brutal and explicit just so that you’ll sit up and take notice. It simply takes all your emotions and maxes them out, keeping them onto full throttle.
Its like somebody decided to enter food business and when they couldn’t compete on burgers or pancakes or tacos or quesadillas, they said screw it, we’ll just serve drugs.
To each his own — Don’t like it, Don’t watch it but why stop me
I don’t watch Game of Thrones! I left it in the beginning of the second season. Subsequently if I would sometime come across GOT conversations, I would go to wikia and read what happened. It seemed safer because I wanted to avoid the visuals. It went on until I couldn’t even read what was going on. Now I actively avoid anything and everything to do with it.
And I am not trying to convert anyone either. This one time I had a conversation with a GOT fan, he argued that while he understands my reasons he’ll probably continue to watch it. Simply because he liked it. Fair enough — your free will, your choices. However it does concern me.
In a world where we are seeing a mass-shooting every other week; where impressionable kids are joining terrorist organizations and blowing themselves and others up, it scares me that we are exposing ourselves to this kind of mindf**king bullsh*t
Unfortunately, its on prime time TV and it does have an enormous influence. And because it wins emmy’s, it finds itself being mentioned in newspapers and media, which further compounds the influence. I have been part of conversations where GOT is casually referenced. And it’s shaping the wrong stories in our mind. “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die” is just the kind of narrative that’ll prevent you from having a meaningful relationship with anyone. Game of Thrones unfortunately exploited our most beloved possessions — our relationships. Its a corrupted narrative where fathers kill daughters (Stannis), people behead children(Theon Greyjoy) and psychos castrate and eat penises (Ramsay Snow)
In this Ted talk, Daniel Kahneman, the nobel winning pyschologist explains how our life is essentially a set of stories that our mind remembers. It is these stories that help us achieve happiness and stay happy. And most of these stories revolve around our relationships.
Surround yourself with better stories. And no, it doesn’t have to be romantic comedies either. Into the Wild is probably a quick top-of-mind example of an engaging movie that left me with an everlasting thought. One that continues to shape my life. Happiness is real only when shared
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Even a simple agree or disagree in the comments would be greatly appreciated. And do recommend it if you like it.
