|
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
159
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
|
Watch Now
| Buy on |
|
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
Apr 3, 2014
Season 4 Review:
Due to all this ambitious sprawl, Game of Thrones only occasionally puts together a satisfying standalone episode. There is too much going on, the one-hour limit too arbitrary.... It’s the particular power of Game of Thrones that as these characters descend further into the muck and the grime, the besmirching totality of violence, we’re still pulling for so many of them.
Read full review
Apr 14, 2019
Season 8 Review:
[The season premiere] does a lot of work in a short amount of time, but unlike some previous episodes that engaged in significant table setting, it never feels too rushed or like characters are being given short shrift in the effort to hurry to the next beat. It plays as elegant, for the most part.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
The GuardianDec 3, 2019
Season 8 Review:
The premiere pulled everyone and everything together; it was, for the most part, an almost nostalgic hour. ... It is the competing loyalties, the loves and enmities that enmesh the Lannisters, Starks, Targaryens and the rest, after all, and the questions Game of Thrones poses about conscience and corruption and the manifestations of power, that will propel us through to the end.
Read full review
Jul 17, 2017
Season 7 Review:
There are very few shows that can deliver as much action and excitement as the season six Game of Thrones finale and there are perhaps even fewer shows that can make a table-setting episode this much fun, so it's all the more bittersweet that not only is winter here, but the end is in sight.
Read full review
Apr 25, 2016
Season 6 Review:
Ultimately, even if not every element satisfied, the sixth-season premiere of Game of Thrones did what it needed to for me, putting this mammoth locomotive back on the track and showing again that even with less and less of Martin's published material to rely on, Weiss and Benioff know how to move it forward.
Read full review
Apr 8, 2015
Season 5 Review:
There are so many characters and storylines in this complex series that to keep their arcs moving dramatically forward, writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, creators of the series and custodians of novelist George R.R. Martin’s world, have to parse out so many bits of dialogue and scenes to so many different actors that large chunks of a season often feel like they bounce around frantically, spending little fragments of time with one character and racing across Westeros to service another ad infinitum.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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).
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Apr 13, 2011
Season 1 Review:
While the first episode is a solid and visually rich scene-setter for the tale to come, there's a lot of dry, sometimes clunky exposition to get through before the story really gets going in the fifth episode, which is far and away the best hour of Game of Thrones I've seen.
Read full review
Apr 9, 2015
Season 5 Review:
Quibbles aside, Game of Thrones is still remarkable for both the scrupulousness and the lavishness of its production, beautiful to look at and mostly engaging to follow, though there is something of the accountant’s method in Mr. Martin’s fantasy--progress through constant addition--that transfers into the television show.
Read full review
Apr 4, 2014
Season 4 Review:
This narrative pokiness is redeemed, as usual, by the machine-tooled professionalism of the production, the lavish attention to the mock-medieval costumes and setting, and the mostly crisp, understated acting by the international cast.... More than ever, though, you may find yourself impatient for the plot to wind around to the more engaging story lines.
Read full review
Mar 28, 2013
Season 3 Review:
[Peter Dinklage, Ciaran Hinds, Paul Kaye, and Dianna Rigg are] all fun to watch, even when their characters don’t have anything in particular to do besides relay information that we need to keep up with the story or keep straight the seven (so we’re told) warring families.
Read full review
Mar 29, 2012
Season 2 Review:
The new season of this dense medieval fantasy set in a land called Westeros serves up a whole bunch of wartime posturing, a seemingly endless number of would-be rulers and the usual sex and (sometimes in the same scene) violence. But it sure doesn't give viewers much to latch onto.
Read full review
Jul 17, 2017
Season 7 Review:
The crisp editing of the Arya sequence, exploiting dramatic irony right up to the breaking point, was one among numerous scenes that seemed to indicate Thrones isn't just keeping up to its old standards but actually learning new tricks. Another was the introduction of Samwell Tarly's life in Old Town--who knew this show, which has mastered wartime action but had never produced a quickfire sequence quite like this one, with its repetitive chamber pots to be emptied, could be quite this sharp?
Read full review
Apr 26, 2016
Season 6 Review:
In short, it was an episode of Game of Thrones, a show with little interest in or aptitude for self-editing. The aspects that worked were no better-written or more artfully shot than those that fell slightly flat; they simply had a sense of urgency that was, even by the standards of a show whose premieres are slow going, was absent elsewhere.
Read full review
TV 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]
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.
Read full review
Uncle BarkyMar 28, 2013
Jul 17, 2017
Season 7 Review:
The episode played out like the slow-moving and exposition-heavy premieres of seasons past. ... But still, Thrones has often found as much greatness in its smaller moments as it has in wildfire explosions and murderous weddings. Sam highlighted this best. His bedpan-heavy montage was perhaps unnecessary, but added some levity and was an excellently edited bit of filmmaking.
Read full review
Apr 14, 2019
Season 8 Review:
“Thrones” is doing absolutely stellar work within the bounds set around its current era: Highly burnished entertainment that lingers on no story point a beat more than strictly necessary to communicate the idea. Dwelling on the shows it once was and no longer is seems perhaps beyond the point.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Mar 28, 2013
Season 3 Review:
The tapestry of characters in George R.R. Martin's fantasy kingdom has grown so huge now that only the most avid fan can hope to identify them all, let alone keep track of the family ties, alliances and enmities which make this quasimedieval world so dangerous to nearly everyone in it.
Read full review
Apr 8, 2011
Season 1 Review:
The production has a satisfyingly brooding, ominous look and it's possible to see the basic appeal for role-players and other fans of a realm that provides a limitless playing field for their own imaginations. Thrones also has wolf pups, which is always cool. But then we're back to the familiar favorites of the infantile.
Read full review
Apr 14, 2011
Season 1 Review:
All of which is to say that even for the most open minds, Game of Thrones can be a big stein of groggy slog. On the plus side, the first six episodes are impressively free of sorcery and special effects, and instead rely on the stuff of any deeply dark HBO epic: corruption, deceit, illicit sex (incest in this case), unflinchingly gory violence, and a willingness to kill off a prominent character or two in the service of plot.
Read full review
Apr 25, 2016
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score