Fantasy shows vie to be the next Game of Thrones
AFTER SUCH A DISAPPOINTING CONCLUSION, IT’S EASY TO forget how good Game of Thrones once was. In the first episode, we were introduced to the stoic but just and loving Stark clan. By the end, we’d met the swaggering Lannisters, the anxious king, the exiled Targaryens plotting revolution. We’d witnessed Daenerys’ orgiastic wedding and watched the incestuous twins Cersei and Jaime throw Bran out a window. There were White Walkers, direwolves, a virtuosic girl archer.
Like many episodes in ’ early seasons, that first episode is a study in good fantasy storytelling: It builds an expansive, enthralling alternate world while quickly establishing conflicts absorbing enough to hold our attention. It’s relevant and the bar has been set high for two much-anticipated fantasy series that will debut on Aug. 30: Amazon’s and Netflix’s Neither show clears it.
