More than one billion viewers around the world are expected to tune in to..Game of [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | April 7, 2019 | James Gant

[C19fan]

It has gripped an ever-growing army of fans across the world with its epic battle scenes, racy plots and, of course, dragons since first gracing our screens in 2011.

And as the final season of Game Of Thrones premieres next week, more viewers than ever are set to tune in, eager to find out the latest twists and turns in the fight for the coveted Iron Throne.

More than one billion viewers in 170 different countries are expected to watch each episode in the final season - which kicks off on April 15.

[C19fan]

Really??? Consider last season's finale had 9 MM viewers in the US. Are they counting the hundreds of millions who will pirate the show?

[rllngrk33]

I still haven’t watched a single episode.

[Yardstick]

Me neither. I did get quite a laugh from the BLR parody though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Krz-dyD-UQ

[dainbramaged]

I still haven’t watched a single episode
Are you bragging or complaining? It's a very entertaining series IMHO.

[RayChuang88]

Good thing I have the HBO Go app (accessed through my Xfinity login credentials). I'm fully caught up with all seven seasons and waiting for the 9 pm (Eastern) premiere on the HBO East feed on my cable system. :-)

[Buckeye McFrog]

1 Billion global viewers.

800 Million of which are pirating the HBO.

[MrEdd]

Me neither.

Game of thrones is based on Les Rois Maudits, the novel series by Maurice Druon about the fourteenth century French monarchy.

I started to read the English translation of Druon’s novels, but historically based accounts of Philip The Fair have (to be accurate) took much sexual violence for my taste.

I assume that with Martin's fantasy elements thrown in all of that would still be there.

Not my cup of tea.

[warsaw44]

Agreed.

Quite an amazingly told story. The special effects are spectacular. Could do without the sex scenes but for me that’s every damned TV show out there. No patience for it.

Still, no way will I miss this last season.

[ClearCase_guy]

I'm not trying to persuade anyone to watch it, but the evolution of the show over the years is really quite interesting. In the first couple years, there was a lot of nudity. The show wanted to attract viewers and cheap tricks like naked ladies seemed like a good way to get people to watch.
Over time, as viewers increased and the quality of the writing became obvious, the nudity became much less. They didn't need it. Lesson: Nudity is a cheat. Shows use it when they don't have confidence in their core material. It's like swearing in an argument. It doesn't strengthen your argument. Rather, it showcases your inability to build a strong case on the merits.

Also, early on, the show would stage "battles" by having a small group of people scream while an off-screen army "attacked" them. And the next scene would be a small group of victorious people riding out of the woods to announce their glorious victory. It was low budget stuff. But the show worked. It told a story that people liked. In later seasons, they have had the money to use every special effects trick in the book. This is actually another trick. Movies and TV shows often use CGI because they have no faith in their core material. I think this is very apparent in the Marvel movies -- the plots are very thin. But, hey, we have explosions and flying guys, so it's all good, right?

Once upon a time, we told good stories without nudity and without CGI. Now, having said that, I think GoT is worthwhile and generally well-written. But they have on occasion "stacked the deck" to attract as many eyeballs as possible.

[babble-on]

The dragons are clearly CGI. They should have used REAL dragons.

[circlecity]

Great. But I will wait until it’s finished its HBO run and buy the whole season at once and power watch the whole season. Just like I did with all the other seasons. And I’ll avoid any internet article with the words “game” and “thrones” in the title to prevent spoilers. I think the show has been an epic landmark in video storytelling. It’s essentially a 90 hour movie cut into 1 hour segments.

[Terry L Smith]

Im using the dvr for that, filtering all the ads.

[righttackle44]

Your loss. Though filled with non-American cast members, this is an American product--a successful American product.

I've never understood the patronizing self-pride that many who don't want to participate in something as simple as watching TV programs, reading certain books, or seeing certain movies seem to possess.

[SamAdams76]

I still haven’t watched a single episode.

Neither have I. However, I would like to check it out. I do not have cable but have Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, but not sure if it's the free or paid version of that (the wife handles all these type bills). Does anybody know how to stream Game of Thrones legally? I would like to check it out but I'm not going to go back to the cable TV (which includes HBO).

Some older HBO shows do stream on Amazon Prime but I have not seen Game of Thrones.

[Will88]

I'm so behind the times. I don't know a single thing about The Game of Thrones or The Zombie Apocalypse.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

The show has been going downhill for at least two seasons. Its last season is going to be an exercise in hysterical media hype.

[sheana]

Streaming anything is not illegal. Downloading is.

[MrEdd]

The nudity didn’t come from “wanting to attract” anything.
Read the original source material that Martin drew from.
The nudity comes from using novels about the fourteenth century French monarchy as inspiration, and the fourteenth century French monarchy was that way.

I am glad to hear they eventually toned it down for the screenplay.

[napscoordinator]

I never got into it. I watched 7 episodes of season 1 and never went back.

[SamAdams76]

Thanks. It’s been a while since I downloaded anything in the ways of audio or video files. I prefer streaming from the cloud so that I don’t have to worry about archiving or backing up anything. I know, it’s a major leap of faith. I do have a storage area of compact discs and DVDs if I am ever forced to go back to them.