But one disappointment isn't going to change my faith in the show. Back to my first point, minor changes and one disappointment aside it's been faithful to good source material. Good source material that could have been treated much worse. For example Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books that are quite similar in tone to GRRM's were also adapted for TV as Legend of the Seeker and those got turned into a family friendly show that seemed to go out of its way to do the exact opposite to established canon. Can you imagine what Game of Thrones would be like done like that? I read a lot of fantasy books so I know they aren't all like Tolkien's stuff. Most are for the mature reader and anyone whose seen even one episode of Game of Thrones knows that the show is very strictly for a mature audience. I can't name one other fantasy show that's really captured the way the bulk of the genre's literacy is. Game of Thrones does though. 

I've also seen other fantasy films aside from Hobbit/LotR ones are all of them were either quite terrible or decidedly average. I guess one of the better ones I watched was In the Name of the King (considering this is Uwe Boll film that's probably saying something) but like with the Goodkind adaptation it went out of its way to ignore canon, though this one was based on a game rather than a novel and I guess game adaptations are never that great. Still major miscast for the protagonist. I mean this is what the protagonist of Dungeon Siege is supposed to look like:

And here's who they cast:

Now Jason Statham is a great actor and all, but we can all see the glaring problem here can't we. Game of Thrones would be very different if they decided to change the genders of certain characters.

Bottom line is Game of Thrones fills a niche on TV that in my experience has never been done well before and it does it faithfully to it's source. Therefore as a fantasy fan it is most definitely not overrated and fully deserves the recognition it's received.

ps: And yeah, Adam, I was expecting season 4 to end with a certain Tyrion scene. I was actually a bit disappointed with how they handled his scenes in that episode altogether, but obviously that's just a minor thing in what was otherwise still an excellent season: The end of episode 8 in particular, couldn't have possibly been filmed any better. 

This

I'm disappointed that they didn't do the epilogue because it's seemed like they laid all the groundwork for it in season 3. Sure she's not a major character in books 4 and 5 but she's involved in at least two POV characters stories and her absence (and it does look like they're completely cutting her out full stop, unless they're simply trying to not spoil the next season) means those plots are going to need changes. Well one's plot was changed already I guess. 

You know I'm going to admit it, I do have some concerns over season 5. The producers might be deliberately misleading us by leaving certain major casting for two storylines out (Dorne and Greyjoy Family) but the lack of such announcements is kinda worrying. Even with the changes and omissions they did the first three books well across the first four seasons. It would be a shame if it started to fall part now. 

Hell yes!!! 

Love me some nudity and you know.. 

This. I'll read them all first and then complain about the differences.

Oh man, I sound like a prick.

However, being overrated does not make something bad. I've given the show fair chances, but I just don't seem to like it. I think it's sort of bad to put "I Despise It" in a poll discussion something being overrated, not bad. 

No offense to the fans whatsoever. 

I need to start reading the Wheel of Time, I actually own a Wheel of Time video game. Have you ever played it? 

It's more like an Action adventure-RPG hybrid with puzzle elements. It's pretty unique, and I find it fun 

My opinion on the show itself still stands, but this is going to be the season where we will really know if Benioff and Weiss (the two showrunners) are worthy of finishing the series, since they're now just about caught up with Martin, and apparently because of how slow books 4 and 5 are, they're going to be making huge changes, and so now we'll really get to see if they're up to the task. So far, most original material they've included throughout the series has been great, but this season for sure is going to be the toughest for them. The season premiere was solid, but not one of the show's better moments, though the last sequence was great.

Also torture and OCCASIONAL castration. And dwarf. Lots of dwarf.

 

There's lots of gay wiener too. Haven't you seen the South Park episodes "Black Friday","A Song Of Ass And Fire", and "Titties And Dragons"? Cartman makes Butters watch GoT, and butters is most disturbed by the amount of wiener in it, and George RR Martin makes a speech all about wiener too.

My favourite all time TV show. It has stuck reasonably closely to the books at times, and there's still half a book which hasn't made it to screen yet. I love that it has such high production values, and the way it looks. Each city or keep is definitely a new location and not just a re-dressed set. Some of the characters are a bit cardboard-cut-out-ish, but that's down to Martin's awful writing, and Lena Heady's hopeless acting. Otherwise, TV doesn't get much better.

I am going to sound bitter and maybe you're not going to like it, but I really hate the way western/english/american fantasy and sci-fi has dominated the market to the point where much better writers from, say, eastern Europe () struggle to even get noticed despite being cherished by their fanbases for decades. They often get critically acclaimed and all - for instance Stanisław Lem is considered one of the greatest philosophers and sci-fi writers of the last century but he somehow remains unknown to western audience. And well, the communism is mostly to be blamed for that, but I still find it sad.

But back to topic. Was the 5th season any good? 

EDIT: By saying "much better writers", I didn't mean they're better than all western writers, just better than some that got huge recognition despite not being so good. Most of my favourite authors are French-speaking or English-speaking, so don't get me wrong there ;d

Not really sure what makes a writer really great style wise but I never had a problem with GRRM regarding the ASoIaF books. Might be an interesting debate to have sometime. 

And sorry Bartosz, I can't say I've heard of Stanisław Lem.  I will say though that Andrzej Sapkowski's (translated, of course) work has been some of the best page turners I've read in a long time. 

As for the 5th season, I enjoyed it, but the deviations from the source happen more and more as characters get cut (including POV characters!), merged, or the story advances beyond the novels. It's still recognisable though, which is the main thing,

Solaris is an absolutely amazing book. I know I only know it from English translations (erm, I'm figuring it was originally written in Polish?), but it has some of the most incredible, vivid and beautiful descriptive passages I've ever come across. He seems to give human emotions and feelings a physical presence in his descriptions of the surface of Solaris. George Clooney should be shot for that turd of a movie he made out of it.

In general I avoid fantasy like the plague, unless it's Terry Pratchett. I had bad experiences with DragonLance about 30 years ago, and only just recently read The Hobbit, which has put me off fantasy yet again.

I thought the 5th series was great. To me, GoT seems to be getting better as it goes. A lot of people were unhappy at some of the deaths, and are looking for unlikely resurrections in the next series. They need to get over it! I knew what was coming cos I've read the books, but they were still somewhat shocking. I'm looking forward to series six because there's very little left from the books to cover.

Wow, you made my day, sir :)

Also, good to know that the translation is not bad, after all.

I thought it was great up to the last season and then it sucked.

Some dude on YouTube narrated an alternative final season and i wish he wouldl've finished the series because they pretty much bungled the entire woven plot system that worked very well for the most part.

The BBC Merlin series was cool