We Meet Again, Game of Thrones…

Game of Thrones just dropped one of the first teasers for the new season. When it returns in about a month I, for one, am dreading its return.

For about three months of the year a fraction of social media are damned to repeatedly bear witness to the fans on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr gush about the latest episode of Game of Thrones.

Its author, George R.R Martin, seems like a very nice, intelligent man but he’s unleashed an evil on the world.

I’ve never seen such a fervor for a series whenever a new episode airs. The shows air on Sunday and then by the end of the week, I’ve seen every headline that’s spoiled any every major plot point from the show.

And this happens for thirteen weeks.

And it’s as annoying as hell.

I don’t know why Jon Snow is special or the purpose he serves, but I know was an inert, dead popsicle at the end of one season and he was revived a couple of episodes later.

I know there was a character named Hodor who died literally holding the door.

Cute-as-a-button Maisie Williams’ Arya Stark (whose father Ned Stark was decapitated) was blind for awhile but assassins trained her but now her sight’s restored and she kicks a lot of ass.

Last season essentially ended with this big battle called the ‘Battle of the Bastards,’ which Jon Snow actively participated in (or led). There’s a lot of extras and stuntmen on horses and a bunch of CGI people got either stabbed, decapitated. It was probably a lot of fun to shoot.

And Sansa Stark finally got revenge on that asshole Ramsay Bolton, when she sicked a bunch of dogs on him. Oh and Cercei was crowned on the Throne, I guess…

I shouldn’t know this much for a show I only watched the pilot for about four years ago.

One of the principles joys I take from long-form television is the prospect of where the stories will unfold and how they will affect characters that we know, and hopefully love.

I watch shows for the characters and the actors portraying these people, as pretentious as that sounds. Television series are a constantly evolving machine, with the pilot both serving as Mission Statement of the stories its creators what to tell, as well as an indicator to the audience what’s to follow.

Game of Thrones’ fans repeatedly betray the spirit of that principle by never shutting up about the show. And it’s subsequently muted any desire to eventually catch up with this show and essentially any show like it.

For a couple of years, I’ve repeated invited people with the query for them to pitch ‘Game of Thrones’ to me, why I should watch, and every one who I talked to never gave me more than a succinct, “Just watch it, dude! You won’t regret it!”

With the show’s enormous big budget, it’s turned me off these kind of big, event shows, despite if they have artistic merit of not. I haven’t watched The Crown, The Walking Dead and House of Cards based of these hipster principles and standards. They are noisy and not in the good, technical way.

I’m not ruling out the possibility that I pick up watching Game of Thrones in five years, when everyone’s moved on to other zeitgeists, but with the prospect that HBO wants to keep the gravy train running with spinoffs for the foreseeable future, it might be even longer than that.

There are better more smaller struggling shows that can use my attention and devotion.

It’s loud and crowded in the other fandom boat.