As I mentioned in my article; A Lannisters Always Pays His Debts | One GREAT Thing Every Ghanaian Must Learn From ‘Game of Thrones’, “Game of Thrones” is an addictive cake which can steal a lot of your valuable time—without you even noticing it.
It is not shocking that the TV series is the most successful, most watched, most pirated and most downloaded TV series ever, as it has that cunning pull factor which no matter what, will catch your mind—unless you do the unlikely, by not starting to watch it.
The TV series is well structured with different characters which fit well into everyone’s fantasy and idea of a good person or life.
Ned Stark from Winterfell (mispronounced Winter Hell by Hot Pie, an orphan from King’s Landing) is the initial bait to get you into liking the story, as his honor is unquestionable. And just as you find love in Ned Stark, the writers take that big risk to chop off his head—leaving you with one necessary thing; to find out what happens to the ‘evil people’ who chopped Ned’s head.
The moment that feeling sets in, your conscience has been bought and your time is on the edge of being stolen. After Ned Stark, Tyrion Lannister and his right hand body guard-Bronn (later, Ser Bronn of the Blackwater) become interesting partners, who you can easily fall in love with—and then comes, Jon Snow, Robert Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister.
If the above people are not able to get you glued to watching one episode after the other; and one season to another, the slow but interesting character growth of Joffrey Baratheon, Arya Stark, Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, Peytr “Littlefinger” Baelish and Brienne of Tarth would definitely have the magic pull on you. Somehow, somewhere, you are deeply pulled into this TV series, without realizing how many hours you are pouring into it.
One of my friends who wanted to BINGE watch to be able to catch-up on “Game of Thrones” spent 2 days in bed with apple pie, hot dogs, 4 big bottles of coke and several packs of popcorn—that is over 40 valuable hours gone through the windows, just watching a TV series.
Today, there are several TV series out, with if not equal, close to equal magnetic strength like “Game of Thrones”, ranging from ‘House of Cards’ to ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ to ‘The Wire’, not forgetting ‘Scandal’ and ‘Suits’.
These series are extremely interesting and addictive and my worry revolves around the fact that, the many books I normally read and I am supposed to read over this summer are being half way read—pumping all the free hours I get into TV series, currently, ‘Breaking Bad’.
I try to only watch 3 hours a week of any of these TV series but that is 3 hours of my valuable time which I could have geared towards acquiring something lasting from the many equally interesting and mind awakening books I’ve pilled up.
I feel so guilty about this new age of TV series, not just because of the many hours I pour in, to the detriment of what I’ve always done with books, but because of how these TV series are making worse the state of our already dying theatre (cinema) lifestyle.
Imagine the number of full cinema movies I could have watched with the over 40 hours that went into just “Game of Thrones”. We are looking at an estimate of 18-20 full movies which would have gone a long way to support the dying industry—anywhere in the world.
Are you also hooked on any of these trending TV series and are you feeling guilty in relation to the valuable time being spent which you cannot seem to control? Which of these series are you currently watching and what or who has been your main attraction? Are we at the last life line of the days of theatre?
Maybe we should not really care about the time; after all, “winter is coming” for all us—and “Art is not a democracy. People don’t get to vote on how it ends.”