2013 Year in Review: Game of Thrones and HBO

Before this year, it was probably still open to debate what the biggest show on TV was.  Mad Men had a lot of capital built on recognition, Breaking Bad had the awards, Game of Thrones had the cult-like fan-base.  Game of Thrones may not have been able to snatch the crown from Walter White, but with Breaking Bad belonging to the ages, any other show would simply be a pretender.

The King is dead, long live the king.

Ever since the second season and the battle of Blackwater no one could dispute Game of Thrones title for being the most ambitious spectacle of a show on television.  With beautiful locations, incredible sets, and beyond dense story, there truly is no other show on television that exists in a world like Game of Thrones.  In season three, the show took the next step when storylines began to payoff and one of the most shocking scenes ever in a television show happened (for those who hadn’t read the books) and nearly broke social media.

SPOILERS (sort of)

Thrones isn’t perfect.  The sprawling story makes it difficult to follow at times.  The numerous characters and storylines in the source material force the show runners to pick and choose which stories to flesh out and which to gloss over.  Sometimes they choose poorly.  But even with these flaws, Thrones is still one of the most enjoyable and rewarding dramas on television.

The supposed word floating around these days is that Game of Thrones will begin to deviate from the books more and more now that the story is three seasons in.  While most of the more drastic changes thus far have been met with disappointing results by fans (swapping out Jeyne Westerling for some boring nurse and the inclusion of Theon’s torture at the hands of the Boltons to name a few) Thrones has built up enough good will that the worst case scenario should have it enjoying TV relevance for at least two more seasons.

The rest of HBO’s programming is not in quite as comfortable a situation.

Long gone are the days of The Sopranos ruling television and award shows with an iron fist.  Would be flagship, Boardwalk Empire, was promising at the start.  But four years later, the show seems much less inspiring with viewership as low as 1.87 million in its most recent season (compared to 4.81 million for its series premiere).

Is this a villain you could learn to love?

Former crowd pleaser True Blood finally announced it was going away after one more season, two seasons after Alan Ball left and five seasons after the show was still any good.

Shows like Girls and Newsroom go on with most viewers and critics either loving them or hating them, while Treme dutifully trudges along for its final shortened season after enduring three years of horrifically bad ratings.

Even shows that have been roundly praised by both viewers and critics like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep only garner moderate ratings and attention.

HBO’s new series have faired even worse. 

Comedies like Hello Ladies and Family Tree are pleasant enough but far too forgettable.  Enlightened was able to get the critics but couldn’t find the ratings.  Would be tent-pole, Luck, couldn’t manage either and got a hefty lashing from animal rights groups for their troubles.

 

HBO doesn’t need to panic yet.  They still attract the best of the best and in January a new show, True Detective, is coming starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.  But with AMC breathing down its neck and the near misses beginning to pile up, HBO needs to get a big hit and soon.

Dragons may be enough to conquer a realm, but singlehandedly conquering all of cable TV may prove a more challenging feat.