Game of Thrones. Now officially HBO’s most successful show. So much blood, food, and sex that it’s watched even by non-nerds who would never touch the 1000+ page books with a 39.5 foot pole. This season of Game of Thrones has been the best yet. We cheered when Joffrey died, teared up when Ygritte died in Jon’s arms, and felt satisfied as Arya left the Hound to suffer a long and painful death. Season four spans events from many of the books, but primarily A Feast for Crows. However, since the writers are combining materials from three different books, they are running out of source material rather quickly—which leaves us with the problem, to watch or not to watch?
While most television shows build toward the season finale, almost every episode delivered another major change. Remarkably true to the source material, the show rarely missteps—unlike shows like True Blood, which started failing in my opinion as soon as it really deviated from the original books. While the invented rapes and Craster’s Keep felt unnecessary, the show still has a great pace. Obviously we all know that stories lose much of their complexity when they are translated from the page to the screen, so it is not surprising to cut much of the Kings Landing manipulation, Bran’s boring march north, or chapters of Daenerys contemplating freeing yet another city. But what will we do after next season if HBO keeps up its rapid pace?
While I usually do not mind watching a tv show or movie first, A Song of Fire and Ice is filled with so many surprising (yet so realistic) plot twists that I couldn’t honestly tell you who will claim the Iron Throne. The series is satisfying because it feels like a real war played out rather than a stereotypical good versus evil narrative. So watching would mean the loss of inspiration to make it through giant books of heavy description. We all read through the boring chapters to get to the battles and murders. And this is coming from someone who tends to enjoy the tedium.
But what do I win by watching? No Dumbledore-type spoilers. Social media will no doubt spoil the show no matter what you do unless you plan on locking yourself up for the next 20 years while George R.R. Martin finally finishes writing. Plus Game of Thrones gives us something to do while our normal shows are on hiatus. Otherwise we’d be relegated to Netflix.
Hopefully Martin will provide more material and soon, or those of us who prefer to read before we watch will be stuck in a difficult position. Everyone who remembers flipping through pages wondering if the Red Wedding was actually happening would appreciate the love.