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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
159
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Apr 14, 2019
Apr 9, 2015
Season 5 Review:
It has been top-notch from the start--but in the new episodes available for review, the storytelling is more focused and straightforward, less aggressively confusing for casual viewers.... All you need to like to enjoy this unique series is exceptional and ambitious TV storytelling.
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Apr 9, 2015
Season 5 Review:
This isn't the best four-episode stretch the series has ever had--as with most cable dramas, the ends of GoT seasons tend to be stronger than the starts--but there's a sense of real forward momentum to the proceedings that hasn't always been there in the past. Again and again, my pulse quickened as I watched these four hours.
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Apr 8, 2015
Season 5 Review:
We have fifth-season banquet of delights spread before us.... With each season, that load is spread out more and more, with young players coming into their own and crafty veterans added to the cast. The storytelling also gets stronger and more assured, pushing Game of Thrones to greater and grander heights.
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Apr 8, 2015
Season 5 Review:
There are so many fine performances here it’s difficult to single out just a few.... Benioff and Weiss have become inordinately adept at juggling an almost dizzying assortment of plots, but the manner in which those narratives intersect this time around has only enriched the show.
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Apr 4, 2014
Season 4 Review:
The storytelling seems to have hit a new peak of relaxed confidence. In every scene you get a sense of steady forward motion. New characters are introduced and old characters deepened, and devious new plots are laid out so deftly that it's not until midway through episode three that you look back over everything that came before and laugh at yourself for not having seen a particular surprise coming
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Apr 4, 2014
Season 4 Review:
Game of Thrones continues to tease out the most meaningful stories from George R.R. Martin's still unfinished fantasy series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," straying where necessary to highlight a possibly neglected character or perhaps just to produce something slightly less depressing.
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TV Guide MagazineApr 4, 2014
Season 4 Review:
It's sexy, violent, witty, emotionally devastating and visually spectacular--those dragons are bigger and more unruly than ever--delivering an experience not unlike how the glorious Diana Rigg (as Lady Olenna, Queen of Thorns) responds when she first lays eyes on the Amazonian warrior Lady Brienne (Gwendoline Christie): "Aren't you just marvelous, absolutely singular!" Yes, she is, and so's the show.
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Mar 31, 2014
Season 4 Review:
Martin’s fantasy world, with its ruthless lust for power, is surely not for the faint of heart, and the sheer number of subplots invariably means that one or two start to sag. Such criticisms, however, amount to nitpicking on a show that operates at such a consistently high level, from the spectacular cast to the sweeping and diverse backdrops, consistently conjuring a summer-tentpole feel.
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Mar 28, 2014
Season 4 Review:
A sprawl of engrossing setup. [4 Apr 2014, p.61]
Mar 27, 2014
Season 4 Review:
The first three episodes of season 4 grab the wide-flung stories of this epic and assemble them into a crackling narrative. [7 Apr 2014, p.41]
Mar 28, 2013
Season 3 Review:
There's event television, and there's Game of Thrones. [8 Apr 2013, p.41]
Mar 30, 2012
Season 2 Review:
Game is a genuinely mind-boggling piece of adaptation, cast more or less perfectly (except for Kit Harington's Jon Snow, who relies too much on the soap opera actors handbook of serious faces), with expert control of the story lines, gorgeous and diverse settings, and such seriousness of purpose and consistent internal logic that I find the least realistic thing about it to be that the men of [N]ights Watch don't wear hats.
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Mar 30, 2012
Season 2 Review:
Can. Not. Wait. [9 Apr 2012, p.39]
Apr 14, 2011
Season 1 Review:
Though some of the visual cues will be very familiar to fans of "Lord of the Rings" or even "The Tudors," Game of Thrones quickly finds that rare alchemy of action, motivation and explanation, proving, once again, that the epic mythology remains the Holy Grail of almost any medium.
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Apr 14, 2011
Season 1 Review:
What's amazing is how quickly it all falls into place--the show goes like a shot. [25 Apr 2011, p.43]
Apr 4, 2011
Season 1 Review:
There's a real allure to costume-dramas that pair dense mythology with all of the crowd-pleasing elements of war, honor, pride, lust, power and, yes, even humor. Thrones has all of those in spades and supports them with exceptional storytelling, strong writing, superb acting and some stunning visual effects.
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IndieWireApr 25, 2016
Season 6 Review:
The bodies still pile up in a sprawling episode full of ongoing storylines, but there's a definite sense that there's hope for some of these hopeless sorts. ... [Arya's] journey, as a young woman in a severely patriarchal society, has always been extremely compelling, but with every season, she gets more agency and strength, and becomes even more captivating.
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Apr 3, 2014
Season 4 Review:
Game Of Thrones has not moved away from “sexposition,” prostitution, and casual rape as titillating plot points, and that will always tarnish what is otherwise a groundbreaking show. But the good outweighs the bad. Game Of Thrones was and is an astonishing achievement.
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Apr 14, 2019Apr 14, 2019TV Guide MagazineApr 16, 2015
Season 5 Review:
It's a lot to digest but well worth the effort. [20 Apr - 3 May 2015, p.13]
Apr 13, 2015
Season 5 Review:
Everything that was always good about Game of Thrones is still good. The ensemble cast remains one of TV's richest, from top to bottom, and even actors who seemed weak in the past (like Sophie Turner, who plays increasingly embittered Sansa Stark) continue to rise to the level of much better material.
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Apr 13, 2015
Season 5 Review:
The level of craft and intelligence is so high here that Thrones earns the right to think of itself as doing for sword and sorcery what Coppola's Godfather trilogy did for the gangster picture: taking it seriously as modern myth without sapping it of old-fashioned entertainment value.
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Apr 10, 2015
Season 5 Review:
Beyond noting that occasional tic of too-self-conscious nudity, though, it's hard to overpraise a show that's tamed Martin's tale just enough to make it filmable and matched extraordinary characters with extraordinary actors while finding things to say about justice, religion, governance and the power--and limits--of compassion.
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Mar 28, 2013
Season 3 Review:
I just want my favorite shows to be able to break my heart, and the more broadly Game of Thrones ranges and the longer its cast list grows, the tougher it will be for the drama to do that. It's impossible not to be drawn into the saga, however (aside from one or two strands that are filler and/or confusingly laid out).
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Mar 28, 2012
Season 2 Review:
The storytelling by executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and their writing staff is increasingly assured and judicious; the first-rate cast continues to mine the full depth of the material; and the show itself is visually commanding, especially in the hands of Alan Taylor, who directed the first two episodes of the season.
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Apr 13, 2011
Season 1 Review:
The characters are so richly-drawn, and so wonderfully-played, that the exposition ultimately isn't that great a stumbling block. I wanted to know more about these characters, and within an episode or so was eager for any bit of backstory that helped better clarify all the relationships.
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Apr 11, 2011
Season 1 Review:
Game of Thrones excels on multiple levels--with its splendid ensemble cast (able to sell even the clunkier fantasy dialogue), intricate palace machinations, sly humor and growing sense of inevitable conflict. The production's look is a wonder, showcasing a variety of environments (lensing was in Northern Ireland and Malta) and ornate sets and costumes that approximate the feel of a theatrical blockbuster.
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Apr 7, 2015
Season 5 Review:
The unforeseeable effects and ostensible curse of murdering have always proved key to the show's tension, and as the story continues to build a kinetic rhythm and streamline the drama, the thunderous chaos stirred up by each life taken resonates all the more loudly.
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Apr 18, 2011
Season 1 Review:
The kingdoms are gorgeous to look at, down to the last loving detail - you could be entertained just by watching for the inventive suits of armor. The violence is spectacular; the sex is twisted. The producers even had a language invented for the Dothraki, which should please the Dungeons and Dragons crowd.
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