Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticWith the benefit of a decade of retrospect, what “Game of Thrones” was able to accomplish in its eight seasons looks even more surprising.The HBO fantasy drama series, which debuted April 17, 2011, was the beneficiary of good timing in at least two ways.
For one thing, it slotted neatly within a span of time defined, in our offscreen lives, by the world sinking into chaotic authoritarianism. “Thrones” may have come from source material dating back to the 1990s, but its concerns felt current.
What’s more, its run straddled a period of splintering across the media landscape, with the dominance of media players like HBO threatened by streaming upstarts.
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