Tits & Dragons

Disclaimer: I'd like to apologize for the somewhat rambling nature of this post. I just really needed to vent and get this off my chest. Thank you for your understanding.

There is a show, dear reader. A very popular show that airs on an esteemed TV network. Since it premiered way back in 2011, this show has garnered multiple awards as well as popular and critical acclaim. Like The Simpsons, its not just a show, its veritable god-damn phenomenon. Being the astute person that you are, you have no doubt already guessed which show I'm referring to. That's right; I'm talking about Game of Thrones.

Dear reader, I have a confession to make: I do not like Game of Thrones, and since the show is ending soon (no, I have no interest in watching the final season, thank you very much) I decided to make a brief post as to why I don't like it.
Before that though, I'm going to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the aspects of Game of Thrones that I actually do admire. For one thing, the soundtrack is very good, with the opening theme in particular being appropriately grandiose and, of course, the show's take on the Rains of Castamere deserves a mention as well. I still find myself humming both on occasion.

Second, this is a very well-cast show and the majority of the actors fit their roles like a hand in a glove, whether its seasoned veterans like Charles Dance or young talent like Jack Gleason. That's it for positive opinions regarding this show, as far as I'm concerned.

So, what's my problem with this show exactly? Why do I dislike it? Well, it mostly has to do with its relationship vis-a-vis the original A Song of Ice and Fire; a series of books which I happen to be quite fond of, at one point, it was actually my favorite book-series.  Now, before anyone start writing angry comments, accusing me of being a purist or something similar, I want to make one thing clear: I do not expect an adaptation to be one-hundred percent faithful to the source material, that would be ridiculous. I understand that what may work in a book may not necessarily work on-screen; scenes are going to be altered, characters  will get cut out. I get that, I'm not one of those fans who complained that Peter Jackson left out Tom Bombadill when he filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Case in point, I Claudius excises the entire subplot concerning the life of Herod Agrippa, which took up a huge part of the second novel and that is one of my favorite TV-shows ever.

No, the problem with Game of Thrones is that the changes come off as completely arbitrary and without much thought put behind them. I can't think of a single change made to the story that was for the better and the further the show strayed from the novels, the worse it became with characters being turned into caricatures, nonsensical plot-developments and terrible dialogue, until eventually, I couldn't stand it anymore.

Game of Thrones is not the worst show that I've seen, far from it, but it is a strong candidate for being the most disappointing as well as my least favorite out of the HBO drama shows that I have seen. If you like it, that's fine. To be perfectly honest, part of me wish that I could like it, but there's too much dragging it down for me and very little about it that I find appealing. I'll stick to the books, thank you very much.
Oh, and in case you are wondering about the title: It comes from a quote by the great Ian McShane who in interview coinciding with his appearance on GoT referred to the show as "its only tits and dragons".