Mr. Robot, USA Network’s drama about hacker culture, has competed for critical plaudits with Game of Thrones, but that hasn’t stopped creator Sam Esmail from singing the praises of HBO’s hit. Esmail recently appeared on The Watch podcast (no relation to the Night’s Watch) at The Ringer, and could barely contain himself when discussing Game of Thrones Season 6.
"The music — everything was on point. And you know, the one thing that I will say, because this is the thing about Game of Thrones that’s amazing to me … is it’s one story that they’re telling over these several different chapters, or however you want to describe them. So for example … [Season] 5 got a lot of shit, right? … [It was] too slow, what the hell is going on, blah blah blah. But then it all pays off in this season. You couldn’t have gotten away with Cersei [taking] down the Sparrows and the “Battle of the Bastards” [without Season 5]. That emotional impact wouldn’t have worked without Season 5. You need that season of buildup to get to this season."
He has a valid point. (I still hate the Sand Snakes, though.)
Esmail, who’s known for pushing the envelope with Mr. Robot, also praises HBO for its willingness to continue to try new things despite already having a built-in audience. In particular, he singled out Ramin Djawadi’s epic score during “The Winds of Winter” as worthy of praise.
"The weird thing about Game of Thrones is that they don’t have to experiment with filmmaking. They don’t have to come up with that crazy musical score in the season finale when they blow up that building. They’ve got me [hooked] already and then they do that on top of it. Then they have crazy filmmaking. [Miguel Sapochnik], who I think did “Battle of the Bastards” and the finale, [was great]. And that one great long take in the middle of “Battle of the Bastards,” I mean, that shit’s better than anything I watch in the movie theater."
That long take did indeed have many of us holding our breath.
It’s good to hear one of David Benioff and Dan Weiss’ industry peers praise the show, on top of the acclaim it gets from fans and critics. You can hear the full podcast below.