Game of Thrones

George R.R. Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire is the kind of book series that begs for cinematic rendering. It‘s a sprawling fantasy epic where dozens of characters exist as small pieces of an incredibly elaborate puzzle. The television adaptation, Game of Thrones, maintains the power and wonder of the original work, in many ways transcending it, with the help of stellar turns from Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and others as major players within the seven kingdoms of Westeros. Each setting within Westeros—the capital city of King‘s Landing, the castle of Winterfell, led by Bean‘s ever-honorable Ned Stark, and especially The Wall, the boundary between civility and a mysterious wilderness—is impeccably constructed, creating the perfect landscape to explore the series – themes of power, lineage, nobility, and nature (human and otherwise). Game of Thrones goes far beyond typical fantasy fare, provoking questions about the essence of both power and powerlessness, the drive to rule, and the very act of ruling. And in Westeros, more often than not, politicking is conducted by swordpoint. The series is equally concerned with those moments when all control is lost, using a series of supernatural phenomena, and the threat of a coming Winter which could last for years, to further illustrate that power is never absolute. Game of Thrones receives a Peabody Award for interrogating the very notion of authority within the context of a fun and thematically rich adventure.