The end of the year is almost upon us and that means… “best of” lists. Lots of them. And Game of Thrones seems to be on just about all of ‘em. Here are the ones I’ve found, in no particular order:
•TIME’s James Poniewozik has Game of Thrones as the 5th best TV series and ‘Baelor’ as the 10th best TV episode of 2011.
•Alan Sepinwall of Hitfix names Thrones the 2nd best new series of the year and the 7th best series overall.
•The Hollywood Reporter’s TV critic Tim Goodman has Thrones as the 2nd best drama of the year.
•Maureen Ryan of Huffington Post TV has Game of Thrones as one of her top 11 shows in 2011.
•The AV Club lists it as the 6th best show of the year.
•Matt Zoller Seitz of Salon has Thrones as the 7th best TV show of 2011.
•Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever somewhat grudgingly acknowledges Thrones as the 8th best show of 2011.
•Paste Magazine has Game of Thrones as the 13th best show of the year.
•The Atlantic lists Thrones one of the best series’ of the year and “Baelor” one of the best episodes.
•Rolling Stone lists Ned Stark’s execution one of 2011′s reasons “Why We Watched” TV.
•People Magazine pegs Game of Thrones as the 3rd best series of the year.
•Ology also has Thrones as the 3rd best TV show of the year.
•Matt Roush of TV Guide Magazine ranks Thrones as the 5th best series of 2011.
•The Daily Beast writers Jace Lacob and Maria Elena Fernandez both have Thrones in their list of the best TV shows of 2011.
•Yahoo! TV includes the show amongst its best TV shows of 2011 as well.
•Complex ranks Game of Thrones the 3rd best show of the year.
•Cinema Blend lists Viserys’ crowning as one of the 10 best TV moments, Ned’s death as one of the 10 best TV deaths, and the show itself as one of the 10 best TV shows of 2011.
•Digital Spy ranks Thrones as the 2nd best TV show of the year.
•Newsday has Game of Thrones as the top TV series of 2011!
•SpoilerTV rated Game of Thrones as the 4th Best TV show on the air.
•SpoilerTV rated Game of Thrones as the Best New TV show on the air.
Source: Winter-is-Coming
No surprise to me!
ReplyDeleteI think it was the best new series of 2011 and easily one of the top 5 series on TV....
Interesting to see how many critics placed it so highly!
YES!!!! <3
ReplyDeleteCool. Most of those outlets are quite reputable. That's a nice feather in the cap for all the people who work so hard on the show, in front and behind the camera.
ReplyDeleteThat was a no brainer. I am actually more eager to read the rest of the books in the series but knowing that this series could possibly be bringing life to the characters that I love long after the last page has been written is kind of comforting. I was so apprehensive about this show being done because of the whole Merlin fiasco stateside, live action fantasy (not sci-fi) just doesn't seem to do well on American TV, I guess we prefer it animated (shrugs). But HBO has done it justice and I just pray they never decide to do an Alan Ball and begin marching to the beat of their own drum. Even though it is/was a best seller not a lot of people who watched the show had read the book (as oppose to True Blood) and that's why they were so shocked when Ned Stark died and had critics applauding them in killing off two major characters in the first season. In my eyes, I don't think they could have done anything different. I had a sneaking suspicion that all of the critics only read the general plot and character profiles on a Wikipedia page. The production value is amazing. The choice of set locations are breath taking and unexpected (I mean Malta? Who would have thought?) I am so use to New Zealand, Hawaii and Vancouver as backdrops. They are thoughtful and I feel they really understand the source material and have respect for the books' fandom. There casting is so dead on that now when I re-read the books, I see the actors and hear their voices, which kind of makes me smile because with the Sookie Stackhouse saga, I still use the images of the people I made up when I first started reading the books (with the exception of Alcide, I thought that casting was dead on and Pam (Kristen Bauer), I love how she is the same character in pretty much every role (even on Secret Life as Jack's mom and OUaT).
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing. I 'm sure if we all surfed the net we could add twice as many mentions in top 10 lists in addition. IT seems it's on almost everyone's (critics) top 10 list for the year.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteAgreed on both Game of Thrones and True Blood!!
ReplyDeleteI don't picture the True Blood cast at all.. maybe Sookie off and on, but the rest are far different than I pictured them.
Game on the other hand, so many are EXACTLY how I pictured them. The one family I seem to have pictured differently is the Lannisters. Tyrion being more deformed in the bonks of course, and Jaime and Cersei are supposed to look like one another unlike the series. I guess I pictured both more androgynous in my mind. Not looking identical but both being more androgynous than they are now.. Then Tywin of the books being completely different from Charles Dance's portrayal from the neck up having huge sideburns and being shaven bald.
Dance is perfect in his performance and spirit of the character though! Same with Nikolaj as Jaime. I'm still not sold on Lena as Cersei, but since I have no choice..... hopefully I grow to like her performance in Season Two.
I thought Lena had that perfect overly ambitious tint in her general appearance (her voice is even a little grating, in a "good?" way) and demeanor. I guess I've never really seen different sex twins look that much alike in real life or on TV (I guess the closest thing I would imagine would be those "twins" from Hung) so that didn't really bother me. I find that Jamie is more pretty than Cersei and it kind of works in that particular dynamic, at least in my mind. But the whole point of Cersei, I think, is to be annoying and kind of the person you love to hate who has no redemptive qualities whatsoever. She is Catelyn Stark's foil. That's the filter I look at the character through. I'm not invested, so I guess it doesn't bother me.
ReplyDeleteI knew you would be excited about this! :)
ReplyDeleteSpoilerTV Podcast should be on this list also! :)
ReplyDeleteWe picked it as Best TV Show and Best NEW TV Show of 2011....!
I think you're right....
ReplyDeleteIn the books I enjoyed disliking Cersei, but in the TV series I just dislike her. It did improve over the course of the season somewhat.... So I am hopeful!
Her voice does seem like she is struggling to speak at times. The way she holds her mouth is almost like she just had teeth removed! XD
I shall amend this list tout de suite!
ReplyDeleteMuch deserving.... i cannot decide which one is the best new show... homeland or game of thrones, i love them both very much
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
ReplyDeleteyeah because the show is freaking awesome ^^
ReplyDeleteIt's becoming common sense that GoT is one of the best things that happpened this year on TV.
ReplyDelete