Game changer: How Game of Thrones mixed storytelling with spectacle to transform TV

Jaws, Star Wars ...and Game of Thrones.

HBO's sweeping fantasy epic, which kicks off its eighth and finalseasonSunday night, has been a television juggernaut that deserves to sit alongside those landmark movie blockbusters, according toTV critic and writer Maureen Ryan.

"I call it tent pole TV," she said.

"It really changed the game for TV in terms of going for a much bigger pop culture and commercial phenomenon."

When Game of Thrones debuted in 2011, many would have scoffed at the notion that a swords-and-shields fantasy saga complete with dragons, giants andevil ice creatures who raise armies of the undead could be considered prestige TV.

However, by its fourth season, Game of Throneshadsurpassed HBO's critically acclaimed and much-beloved crime dramaThe Sopranos asthe network's most-watched show. In its seventh season in 2017, its numbershad ballooned to an average of 31 million viewers (across all platforms) per episode.

Factoring in its global fan base HBO's global subscribers grew by nearly 50 million since 2011 as well as the dubious honour of beingthe world's most pirated television showfor six consecutive years, Game of Thronesis easily among the most-watched series of the past decade.

Co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss managed to successfully execute "different kinds of scale," Ryan explained,mixing intimate performances with complicated set pieces and expansive shoots on multiple continents.

"What Game of Thrones does incredibly well is that you can havean epic battle,with the individuals within that battleyou have come to care about deeplybecause the performances and characters are so memorable," she said.

Not only has HBO invested heavily inGame of Thrones a $6-million-per-episode budget reportedly rocketed to upwardof $15 million for each of the final six instalmentsbut from the beginningshow creators Benioff and Weiss had the time and freedom to rework and improvethe series.

After years of pre-production development, for instance, "HBO shot a whole pilot that it then threw in the trash most of it got thrown in the trash. They recast the role of Daenerys. They recast other roles," Ryan said.

"They went through a ton of trouble to get this right."

Then, as the series continued, the creators also boldly (and regularly) carriedout one of Thrones author George R.R. Martin's fondest literary deviceskilling his darlings "at the drop of a hat" and in the process struck down a long-standing taboo of TV storytelling.

Programs typically don't take the risk of doing something "unredeemably terrible to a protagonist," Ryan said, but Game of Thrones is willing to "put the characters through their paces."

However, the practice of endangering beloved characters has also sparked controversy for the multiple Emmy-winner.One major criticismhasbeen the show'suse of sexual violence toward female characters.

The showrunners weren'tcareful with their treatment of sexual violence in earlier seasons, Ryan said, though she acknowledged the show did change in response to the public's reaction.

"Game of Thrones only has itself to blame fo the very deserved criticism of how it's dealt with female characters, because when it's on its A game, it's able to offer these incredibly complex, nuanced storylines for female characters," she said.

Cinematic ambitions

The aspirations of the show's creators have grown episode by episode, year by year, according to Shawn Walsh, general manager and visual effects executive producer at Vancouver's Image Engine.

The West Coast shop noted for work in films such asDistrict 9, Jurassic World andThe Revenant has delivered increasingly complexGame of Thrones sequences to match the growing appetiteof the creators, who wanted to raise the barby bringing eye-popping,feature film-style visualeffects to the small screen.

The show'sbold approach to the use of visual effectsand the showrunners' risk-taking, innovation-seeking mentality has rippled out across the industry, Walsh said.

"There absolutely has been a Game of Throneseffect with respect tohow ambitious people are being for television," he said.

"There is a completely different echelon of television worknow. The term episodic really is referring to what people have known as television in the past. We now refer to things like event series or event TV, which is really a higher order of television."

Walsh shares insight on creating Drogon and the 'loot train' sequence

'An eagle that's the size of a 747:' creating Drogon for Game of Thrones

5 years ago

Duration 1:52

Shawn Walsh of Vancouver's Image Engine discusses the Canadian shop's contributions to Game of Thrones.

And though Imagine Engine's contributions toGame of Throneshave increasedacrossthe show's latter four seasons (work for the final episodes began back in October 2017), staffers have yet to becomeblas about creating, for instance, those mesmerizing battle sequences of soaring dragons.

When the team gathers to review what's happening in the studio each month, some staffwillshield their eyes during the Game of Thrones session so that they don't see any spoilers, Walsh said.

'Just took it all and slam-dunked it'

Kris Holden-Ried seesGame of Thrones as part of the wider television tradition of lavish, sprawling series that chroniclea specific time period or explorea particular world similar toRomeor The Tudors (in which he played a courtier to a young Henry VIII).

However, the actor-producer (a familiar face from cult TV favouriteLost Girl and the Norse legend-inspired Vikings) feelsGame of Thrones has set a new benchmark for the genre.

With its boundary-pushing approach to TV production and visceral storytelling, "Game of Thrones was the one that just took it all and slam-dunked it," he said.

"The industry has realized, 'Holy crap, we actually can spend $13 million on an episode and still make our money back.'"

Kris Holden-Riedon how Game of Thrones has inspired more ambitious television.

How Game of Thrones has inspired Kris Holden-Ried to make ambitious fantasy TV

5 years ago

Duration 1:35

The Canadian actor-producer, known for The Tudors and Lost Girl, shares how Game of Thrones has encouraged ambitious TV-making, including his own goal of adapting The Fionavar Tapestry novels.

Holden-Ried has long been a lover of fantasy. His childhood devotion to Dungeons and Dragons novels grew into a taste forstories such as Martin's ASong of Ice and Firebooks.

So while he acknowledges the crowded field of shows angling to fill the upcoming void left by Game of Thrones, he's channelling the show's ambition for his own fantasy venture. He's adapting The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay, the international bestselling Canadian author who helped edit J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published The Silmarillion.

"Game of Thrones is a multinational co-pro shot on four different continents ... That's what we're trying to do now with Fionavar," Holden-Ried said.

"Putting those pieces of the puzzle together is very difficult, but when it all does come together, the rewards are fantastic."

In the meantime, he'll join millions of other fanseagerly tuninginto the final season ofGame of Thronesbut won't quite be ready to bid farewell just yet.

"I'm looking forward to, at some point, having the entire [series on Blu-Ray], sitting my teenage son in front of it and then exploring it all over again."