6 Reasons Game Of Thrones Works So Well

Game of Thrones is back. After the long wait, and countless quips from fans about winter coming and the night being dark and full of terrors and oh my god how have you not read all one million pages of the books, the first episode of Season 3 finally premiered this past weekend, to big numbers. As expected, the season premiere was wholly satisfying, with reviews and reaction ranging from really good to really excellent.

Aside from Enlightened, and even though HBO foolishly cancelled their best show you should seek it out and watch it, Game of Thrones has been the best reviewed TV season of the year so far. It seems fairly easy to see why it would have a large and loyal fanbase with its fantasy elements and heavy promotion efforts by HBO, but it’s rare for a show like this to achieve such critical success.

Genre storytelling is often derided for its employment of cliché and tired tropes meant to satisfy an audience wanting a very specific itch scratched. One of the delights of this show, and the book series on which it’s based, is that it scratches every fantasy itch you could have, but also turns many of the genre’s clichés on their heads and introduces plenty of new and interesting takes on a style of storytelling that could have easily been stale.

I am constantly astonished at how well this show pulls off this adaptation. And a little baffled. Here are 6 qualities Game of Thrones possesses that make it one of TV’s best, and a show that’s only getting better.

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