Top 10 Shows Like Game of Thrones. There are some medieval show that remind me of Game of Thrones, and there are some other great shows that I like very much. It’s so similar to “Game of Thrones. Most Popular TV Series/TV Mini-Series. Game of Thrones (2011. HBO Shows That Paved The Way For . Weiss, the show picked up stellar reviews and proved to be a hit right out of the gate. But that was just the beginning. Viewing figures have skyrocketed with every season, and it’s now not just HBO’s biggest ever original series (recently overtaking “The Sopranos”), but one of the biggest dramas on TV, something that would have been unthinkable in the days of network TV dominance. With this coming Sunday’s season finale, we’re probably approaching the halfway point of the show, and as such, it seemed like a good point to sit down and take a look back at the road to “Game Of Thrones.” HBO had already established themselves as a brand name for quality TV, and so we’ve picked out ten of their shows that directly or indirectly proved to be forerunners to their biggest ever blockbuster. Take a look below, and let us know your favorites in the comments section.“Tales From The Crypt” (7 Seasons, 1. Not the very first original HBO drama (it followed British co- production “Philip Marlowe, Private Eye” and Jim Henson and Anthony Minghella. The show doesn’t have much of an impact on pop culture these days, but was a big hit at the time, being recut for primetime showings on Fox, spawning theatrical features (1. Demon Knight” and 1. Bordello of Blood“), a Saturday morning cartoon, a game show, a short- lived sci- fi spin- off called “Perversions Of Science” and three soundtrack albums. While the anthology structure doesn’t share much DNA with “Game Of Thrones,” there were other crucial ways in which it served as a forerunner. Firstly, the way in which it married genre material with unrepentant, only- on- pay- cable nudity and gore, something that the network would try only sparingly over the next twenty years. Secondly, it was the first ongoing show to borrow big movie names for the network: A- list directors and producers Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver, Walter Hill and Richard Donner were executive producers on the show (and all directed episodes), while helmers including William Friedkin, Tobe Hooper, Peter Medak, Brian Helgeland, Tom Hanks (!), Michael J. Fox (!!) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (!!!) stepped behind the camera for episodes. There was a who’s who in front of the camera, too, with faces like Kirk Douglas, Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro, Demi Moore, Donald O’Connor, Christopher Reeve, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Isabella Rosselini and Ewan Mc. Gregor all popping up (some pre- fame, some after it). These days, it’s a little ropey in places, particularly when the Crypt Keeper is involved, but can be a lot of fun too. With the success of the EC- indebted “American Horror Story,” maybe it’s time for a reboot? Indeed, Cinemaxwere said to be interested a few years back. Without it, shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Sons Of Anarchy” on rival networks, and yes, “Game Of Thrones,” might not have existed at all. Created by Tom Fontana, best known for his work on “Homicide: Life On The Street,” and who had a writing credit on every one of the show’s episodes, it’s set in the Oswald State Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in which an idealistic manager has set up a unit called Emerald City, a controlled, experimental place with glass walls intended to show that even the most dangerous prisoners can be rehabilitated. It’s safe to say that the experiment doesn’t work. More than fifteen years since it started to air, it remains something of a high watermark for brutality on television, with rape, racism, death- by- fire and worse all on the cards from the off, and things only getting more grotesque from there. The pioneer of the kind of expansive cast that would come down the line, with early roles from notable TV figures like Christopher Meloni, Harold Perrineau, Adewale Akinnuoye- Agbaje, Dean Winters and Edie Falco, there is still a strange humanism to the show. No matter how monstrous the characters get (and they are particularly monstrous, given that a large number of them are Aryan Brotherhood members, and the most obviously sympathetic character is Lee Tergesen. Given what’s come since, it doesn’t quite stand up as the finest example of the genre. The realistic docu- drama style borrowed from “Homicide” jars awkwardly with the absurd Grand Guignol melodrama of the plotting, and the semi- poetic narration by Perrineau’s wheelchair- bound inmate often grates. But there’s still an enormous amount of compelling drama to be found here, and if nothing else, the way it pioneered making sympathetic figures out of those who’d be villains elsewhere can be reflected all the way through to “Game Of Thrones.”“Sex And The City” (6 Seasons, 1. Oz” was the show that got its foot in the door, but “Sex & The City” was the one that kicked it wide open. It was the first HBO show to really take over pop culture in the way that was restricted to network shows before that point (“The Larry Sanders Show,” which SATC essentially succeeded, came closest, but was always more of a critics’ favorite, its highest ratings a full seven million lower than its successor). Darren Star and Michael Patrick King. It’s harder to remember having been tarnished by the two increasingly awful movies, but the show itself, which revolved around narrator Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), the sexually confident Samantha (Kim Cattrall), uptight, preppy Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and careerist Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), was also very good for the most part; sharp and funny and, most importantly of all, sexually frank. Here, though, as you might have imagined from the title, was a show that had sex at its very center, and in a more explicit and honest sense than had ever really been shown on TV, and particularly bold in making its older character, Samantha, the most unabashed and upfront about her sexuality. Obviously, Lena Dunham. Sometimes—often, even—it’s gratuitous and titillating, not least with the “sexposition” it pioneered (livening up lengthy backstory monologues by having an orgy in the background), but it also uses fucking to tell a story or reveal character in a refreshingly adult way, and that’s something that Carrie and her gang led the way towards.“The Sopranos” (6 Seasons, 1. Together with “Sex And The City,” “The Sopranos” put HBO on the map as a home for original television as one of the most acclaimed and lauded shows in the history of the medium, and until a couple of weeks ago, the most popular series in the pay- cable network’s history (the average audience for “Game Of Thrones” is now over 1. Top 10 Movies And TV Shows That Are Like Game Of Thrones. Top 10 Movies And TV Shows That Are Like Game Of. Best books like A Game of Thrones . Books like A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1). Similar books. 10 Books to Read While You Wait for . Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series from. Beyond the Wall: 23 entertainments to keep you sated. Happy reading, as you'll surely be waiting forever until The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in Martin's series. It debuted from creator, David Chase, whose previous credits included the beloved “Northern Exposure,” but whose sole previously created series, “Almost Grown,” had lasted only ten episodes a decade earlier. It featured a cast, led by James Gandolfini and also included Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli and Lorraine Bracco, who would mostly only be familiar to those with an encyclopedic knowledge of character actors in crime movies. And it’s central premise—of a mobster who goes into therapy—was shared by a big studio comedy, the Robert De Niro/Billy Crystal vehicle “Analyze This,” that landed at almost exactly the same time, and threatened to overshadow it. Instead, it was the other way around, the plaudits for the series, and its eventual huge commercial success, stealing the admittedly successful film’s thunder, and paving the way for the endless and idiotic “is TV better than the movies” debate that pops up every so often these days, and which “Game Of Thrones” adds further fuel to the fire of. Ironically, Chase comes down firmly on the side of the movies, admitting that he basically doesn’t watch TV, and originally conceiving of “The Sopranos” as a film. We’re grateful it was stretched out, though as the deceptively tight plotting melded with a character study of an often monstrous, always human anti- hero, creating the template that so many continue to emulate today. The show proved to be appointment viewing in the same way that “Game Of Thrones” still is today, and like “Oz,” proved that a mass audience could deal with stomach- churning violence and creatively foul language without shying away. But perhaps more importantly, it was just terrific, with a caliber of writing and direction that could compete with not just anything else on the air, but anything in theaters too, and it’s telling that some of the show’s most prolific writers went on to continue the cable drama revolution, like “Boardwalk Empire” showrunner Terence Winter and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner. And two of the show’s most frequent directors, Timothy Van Patten and Alan Taylor, were crucial in establishing “Game Of Thrones” (Van Patten, who helmed twenty episodes of “The Sopranos,” directed the second iteration of the “Game Of Thrones” pilot after HBO ordered significant reshoots on the original one, initially helmed by Thomas Mc. Carthy).“The Wire” (5 Seasons, 2. Some might have assumed that “The Sopranos” would always remain HBO. That wasn’t the case when it was on, however. The show was always a critical favorite, but struggled in the ratings, often facing cancellation before getting a reprieve, and the cult only grew thanks to the coming of the DVD box set age, where audiences were able to digest it at their own pace. That’s the perfect way to do it, really, because the show, a Dickensian epic from David Simon—a former journalist, and Tom Fontana. To begin with, it starts simply enough, centering around a wiretap investigation into the drug- dealing operation of crime boss Avon Barksdale, but the show’s scope expanded more and more over time, taking in Baltimore’s dock workers in the divisive second season, the political world in the third, the school system in the fourth, and the press in the fifth. TV Shows to Get You Through . We’ll all be waiting to learn what tragedies and victories await our favorite Go. T characters in season seven. But if you need more epic royal or action- packed drama to watch in the meantime, we have a few other suggestions. The Tudors (Showtime, 2. The Tudors ? Showtime’s sexy The Tudors lays bare the tawdry, bloody history of Henry VIII’s life in more ways than one. And just like Game of Thrones, it doesn’t hold back when it comes to mixing political intrigue and seduction. It’s an exciting series that heightens – and sometimes stretches — history. The Tudors features memorable performances from a large ensemble, including Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry, Henry Cavill as Charles Brandon, and Natalie Dormer (who you know as Maergary Tyrell) as Anne Boleyn. You can watch all four seasons of The Tudors on Netflix and Amazon on Demand. Rome (HBO, 2. 00. Rome . Rome follows the rise and fall of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and the other political powerhouses of the ancient world. The series puts heavy emphasis on the efforts made by the Roman soldiers who helped defeat Caesar. It weaves through the streets of Rome, recreating the once- glorious empire and drawing you in. You can catch the complete series on HBO Go and Amazon On Demand. Reign (The CW, 2. Present)Reign . This romantic drama chronicles the early life of one of history’s most notorious rulers — Mary Queen of Scots. And while it’s a TV show targeted at teens, it’s had its fair share of sexy scenes — so much so that an episode featuring the marriage of Mary and her lover Francis had to be edited for primetime. If you adore the mixture of political intrigue and romance on Game of Thrones, Reign may be a suitable substitute. You can catch the entire first, second, and third seasons of Reign on Amazon on Demand – and a fourth season of episodes are upcoming on The CW. Spartacus (Starz, 2. Spartacus . This historical drama, set amidst a Roman Republic Slave uprising, tells the story of gladiator Spartacus and the personal and political side of his life. The series ran for three full seasons and a single miniseries, and features a huge cast of characters, warring factions — including Romans, gladiators, and slaves. You can watch the complete series on Amazon on Demand. More From Entertainment Cheat Sheet.
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