Whiskey or Wine: Game of Thrones, guys!

It’s been briefly mentioned here, but no one has really talked about it. I guess I’ll bite the bullet and bring it up myself: Game of Thrones is back!

For those of you who don’t know what it is, get out from under your rock and find an internet connection. Or get HBO for the next ten weeks, I’m sure they have some sort of deal going on. They always do. Or just come hang out with me. I have the DVDs.

Because, guys, Game of Thrones!!

It’s about these people who are fighting to be the rulers of a distant land in like, the Middle Ages, and they’re all British, and there are wolves and dragons and war and a throne made of swords. And there’s intrigue and mystery and royalness (it’s a word) and love and hate and death and did I mention dragons?

I’ll admit that I’ve never read the books, which I think kind of makes me a hypocrite, given that I will endlessly mock someone who watches the Harry Potter movies without having read the books. But I am okay with being a hypocrite, because I actually want to go into this blind. I want to have no idea who is going to die next, when the dragons are going to burn people or when the White Walkers are going to strike. I love having no clue about the plot.

I don’t even understand what’s happening the first time I watch an episode. I usually have to rewatch it and catch everything that I’ve missed. But it’s worth it because it’s just so awesome.

It’s somewhat hard to discuss how amazing this show is without spoiling the plot, which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, so I’ll just throw in a segue to a similar topic.

Cable TV is proving to be much better at making quality television. I will always have a place in my heart for network television, which has brought so many wonderful shows to life, but nowadays it’s just like ughh. Yes, I will return to Fox to watch Bones because I love David Boreanaz, and I’ll stick with The Office even though it’s not that good anymore because it used to be. But given the choice, I will watch HBO, Showtime, USA, AMC, and even FX far more than I will any other channel.

Is it just because of the issue of “the censors”? I really doubt it. We’ve been pushing boundaries ever since TV was created and the censors do their job, but eventually things become so commonplace that the censorship doesn’t even matter.

Is it because of the budgets? Given that ABC is owned by Disney, which pretty much runs the world at this point, and other networks are not as wealthy but certainly not poor, I doubt that the budgets are what’s making network television fizzle.

Personally, I think it’s more of a chicken and egg situation. Did cable TV start making good shows because the network shows were bad, or did network shows lose credibility when all the best actors and writers starting working for cable TV? Or maybe it’s all a giant conspiracy, I don’t know. I’m sure some of it has to do with Nielson ratings, which I won’t even pretend to understand, but I guess they’re important and the drivers of the networks. Maybe cable TV doesn’t have to swear fealty to the Nielson’s like Ned has to swear fealty to Joffrey (Game of Thrones!!). But there is some determining factor, and if I studied anything even somewhat related to this field, I would immediately apply for a grant to get out there and discover what’s going on. For now, all I can do is guess.

It’s a shame, really, what’s happening to the networks. House used to be fantastic. NBC had Friends and Seinfeld. All the various CSI‘s weren’t necessarily punch lines. And ABC used to have have TGIF, home to the greatest show of all time, Boy Meets World. It’s unfortunate that people now have to search outside the box, and spend more money to get better shows that they can’t just get from an antenna.

But it’s not too sad. Because Game of Thrones!

The Nielsens are a terrible, terrible way to track television trends, says Laura Myers.