Once Game of Thrones went off the air, we always knew that networks and streaming services would be competing to see who could produce a worthy successor, something that can captivate audiences in the same fervent way that HBO’s megahit did. There are already a ton of contenders in the mix, from Amazon’s Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time shows to Netflix’s The Witcher and Sandman to Disney+’s The Mandalorian to HBO’s own Fire and Blood. A few of these shows have already made it to air, so we can finally ask: how is the first wave of post-GoT programming doing?
Well, it depends what you’re talking about. Some shows, particularly the ones that aren’t based on any preexisting source material, have quite impressed me. On HBO, Watchmen is doing wonders putting an iconoclastic spin on Alan Moore’s classic 1986 graphic novel, and The Mandalorian has found a groove by telling a simple story in a complex, very expensive-looking way.
On the other hand, HBO’s His Dark Materials came out of the gate with some bumbling moves that made me think it didn’t have much trust in its source material, the novels by Philip Pullman. To make a long story short, Pullman’s books — at least the first one — follow lead character Lyra Belacqua pretty closely, without many deviations. The show, on the other hand, chooses to also follow the stories of a few side characters, which slows down the pace and occasionally gives away huge plot points well before their time. When watching these fumbles, I couldn’t help but wonder if the producers were making these choices because…well…because Game of Thrones was really popular and it had multiple threads so I guess this show should, too, even though it doesn’t make sense for this sort of story.
So that was unfortunate, but I hoped it was just a fluke. Theeeeeennn…well, I can’t speak openly about this in detail yet because there’s an embargo, but let’s just say that I recently received screeners for a certain upcoming show. The first season of this show is based on some books that, like the first novel in the His Dark Materials trilogy, follow one character. So I tuned into the new episodes of this mystery show expecting to see that reflected onscreen, only to find that the series had adopted a very Game of Thrones-like narrative structure. As with His Dark Materials, the format doesn’t fit this unnamed show, only here the problem is much worse.
I’m not in the writer’s rooms for these series, but the influence of Game of Thrones seems pretty obvious. I just can’t think of another reason for making these poor writing choices — or at least that’s how I see them — except that they think that imitating what Thrones did well will improve their own shows, which it definitely hasn’t, at least so far.
This makes me worried for the future of genre TV. Is this going to happen with the Wheel of Time show, too? Will the pilot have us visiting characters in far-flung locations not introduced until later books all because there’s an idea that multiple storylines running parallel to each other is a good idea?
What kills me is that if these shows just waited, they would eventually get to adapt parallel storylines naturally. The first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy —The Northern Lights — sticks close to Lyra, but future books are more diffuse. And I know it’s far too early to worry about this, but the cast of Wheel of Time splits up pretty early on, so there’d be no reason to jump the gun there.
I’ve just been disturbed about these shows’ seeming inability to adapt the text more or less as written. I mean, why did they choose to adapt this stuff if they didn’t think it worthy of adaptation? The first season of Game of Thrones stuck the closest to the books and it’s still the best one. (In my opinion. Screams of dissension are welcome.)
The thing is, Hollywood has a long history of looking at what was successful recently and just kind of copying the basics without looking at the deeper reasons for why the original struck a chord with people in the first place. Remember when Twilight hit it big and suddenly young adult supernatural fiction was all the rage? Remember when The Hunger Games movies blew up and suddenly there were teenage dystopian stories like Divergent around everywhere? Remember when Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies exploded and there was a gold rush to have a big-budget fantasy story in theaters? The Chronicles of Narnia movies got made because of LOTR, as did The Golden Compass, the first wrong-headed adaptation of His Dark Materials.
(Holy crap, I hadn’t watched this trailer before writing this article. They weren’t even trying to hide the Lord of the Rings connection! There’s a giant-ass ring in the first shot, for heaven’s sake! I’ve never felt so vindicated.)
It’s easy to see this latest wave fitting into a pattern. Remember when Game of Thrones was huge and then a bunch of fantasy TV shows with sprawling stories came out only that structure didn’t really work for them and soon they were forgotten? That’s my fear. I’m afraid some under-thought copycat shows might kill the genre TV boom before it has a chance to get started.
But again, it’s not all bad. I admire the people behind Watchmen and The Mandalorian for going their own way with their stories, for finding a format that works for them. If this genre revolution is going to have legs, I’d like more of that kind of original thinking and less narrative cowardice.