The One Rule for Nick’s FINAL Ol’ Game of Thrones Reviews — Plus A Few Thoughts
Another year, another Game of Thrones. WAIT, it’s the last year!? NO, I’M NOT CRYING.
I’ve been reviewing Game of Thrones since it started back in 2011. You can find my reviews with some googling, but they’re scattered throughout the furthest reaches of the internet. Every year, I’ve done a quick rules for my Game of Thrones reviews so people reading understand how to behave when discussing the show — you can read that below — but I also wanted to take the time out to get a bit nostalgic of the cultural impact that Game of Thrones delivered.
Generally, the episodic discussion finds itself taking place on Facebook page and not here on Medium, so for those of you reading this: don’t be a penis to one another discussing things and avoid spoilers where you can. I actively find myself deleting comments that are nasty and pointed and ones that aren’t contributing to discussion or debate. So, the one and only rule is: don’t be massive jerks and enjoy this, because it finishes in May and that’s that. BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
I want you to hang with me for a moment, because I just wanted to share some thoughts on Game of Thrones coming to an end (I’ll probably echo this in the review of the series finale) and when the show ends that will be curtains closing on “the golden age of television.”
I can recall every single season, every moment I’ve shared with people over the course of the last 8 years. I might add some more once the show ends, but I’m going to list some of my favourite memories below:
- Season 1, I was living with my best friends in a bachelor pad just after we all graduated uni and eating pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and we were all stunned by Ned losing his head.
- Season 3, I’d moved to Sydney and was being laughed at by one of my best friends, Emma, for dropping my pepperoni pizza when the Rains of Castamere played — she knew exactly what was coming all along.
- Season 4, I remember one of my oldest friends, Hugh, repeatedly messaging me “kof kof” up until Joffrey’s purple demise.
- Season 5, I remember being utterly stunned by myself in my cavernous, dark room when Jon defended Hardhome. I rewatched that episode more times than any other.
- Season 6, I remember being in a room full of 10 people and the silence that fell upon everyone once that wildfire explosion decimated half the cast in the Great Sept of Baelor. John, in particular, did not handle Margaery’s death well — he still hasn’t gotten over it.
- Season 7, I remember the hype levels of everyone on my friend’s list being dialed to maximum as the houses of the realm coalesced on the dragon pits in the season finale.
Game of Thrones is a show I’ve grown with personally and creatively and, sure, it’s had its hyper highs and its low lows but the one thing that sticks with me is the community it developed, the discussions that took and and still currently take place. Hell, I got invited to friend’s houses for THEMED dinners (shout out to House Collins for providing amazing roasts and desserts — I miss ya’ll) various parties, and I even ventured out to a spoiler heavy trivia night in the early days of the show. People would chat me constantly to discuss theories, we started podcasts in the middle of season 4 as the show started to gain momentum and still continue to do it as we run into the final season.
So why am I telling you all this shite? Why do you care? Because I’m sure the lot of you have similar viewing parties and theorising sessions with your fellow fans. Because with the show ending, we’ll be getting one of the last great water cooler shows. Game of Thrones is a cultural phenomenon that we’ve not seen in years; it’s something that lasts beyond the one or two days after it airs. Like The Simpsons, Friends and Seinfeld, there are nights solely dedicate to Game of Thrones trivia (invite me to one, I’ll come along and do poorly!)
Nowadays, we all watch our Netflix documentaries and series from the comfort of our homes, and we might discuss them for a few days, but we’re not venturing here and there like we do for Game of Thrones. “We’ll get to it later,” we say, and then forget about it or watch it weeks after the fact. The point is, we’re not actively posting and discussing the Netflix, Stan or Amazon Prime shows a week after the fact or a week before the next showing.
Game of Thrones signifies the end of the golden age of television. So is it responsible? I’d argue, to some extent, yes, but I’d also say streaming services and original content out the wazoo have been widely responsible for it. I don’t think I’ll touch on the streaming services issue here, because this is just me faffing on about Game of Thrones after watching the season 7 finale a few days ago. The show has almost desensitised us to shocks and twists yet is still consistently able to do it by the end of its run — this is a show that was able to deliver its best episode at the end of its SIXTH season. That’s unheard of. When you recall a twist that shocked you, Game of Thrones stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Now, that’s not to say all TV must have a twist or a shock, because there are some incredible pieces of TV that contain no twists or shocking moments and, instead, focuses on tension and character building. It’s just Game of Thrones, for the most part, has done all of that. Like I said earlier, the show has its massive highs and massive lows and while it hasn’t been as consistent as some of the greats have been previously, the show 100% must be considered part of the pantheon of TV greats purely based on its cultural impact over the last 8 years.
April and May will present important moments in television history when Game of Thrones premieres and ends, not just because we’re saying goodbye to these characters for the final time, but we, as a collective, are kinda saying goodbye to each other for the final time. It’s exciting, but also makes me incredibly sad, because we might discuss the latest Netflix drop over the weekend, but we’ll never really get anything quite like Game of Thrones again.
I’ll see you here in a few weeks!
