Alison Herman TV Critic Before a rushed ending soured the “Game of Thrones” fanbase on showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the duo had rightfully earned acclaim for wrangling a seemingly unadaptable series of books into a damn good adaptation.
Author and screenwriter George R.R. Martin had written “A Song of Ice and Fire” as a partial response to the strictures of TV, crafting a story with the sprawling ensemble, major battles, sex, violence and abrupt demises he couldn’t work into scripts for the likes of NBC and CBS.
The book series kicked off in 1996, just a few years before the rise of premium cable culture drivers would make television more friendly to artistic ambition and less subject to the FCC.
Aided by a stellar cast and strong support from HBO, Benioff and Weiss nonetheless did exceptional work translating Martin’s vision into a nuanced drama with a deep bench of antiheroes and competing points of view.
Read more on variety.com