# Game of Thrones

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Game of Thrones and 26 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its strong early seasons and an unpredictable, complex world; critics say the later seasons lose character development and the ending is rushed.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong early seasons (2 comments): "Game of Thrones was good for a few seasons, but half way through the fans started dropping almost as quickly as main characters." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46163514)) "the amazing (early on) TV series, and not the book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119716))
- Did not follow a formula (2 comments): ""Game of Thrones" was interesting because it did not follow any formula I could discern" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46840191)) "interesting because it did not follow any formula I could discern" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46838703))

## What people warn about

- Character development dropped off later (3 comments): "From that point on, everyone gets 10 inch thick plot armour, and then the last two episodes skip a whole season or two of character development" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432215)) "cut major character development to get to the pre determined ending" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172236)) "It's the way stuff is done, the characters' changed behavior, incomprehensible logic, stupid explanations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432221))
- Rushed, poorly tied-up ending (3 comments): "My biggest grievance on the rewatch was just how poorly it's all tied up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46429595)) "even if the TV series drove off a cliff at the end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49863658)) "it would have been an infinitely better ending than what they actually wrote into the show" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457282))
- Episodes too dark to see (2 comments): "telling us our TV settings were at fault when they decided to release an entire episode filmed in the dark" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46432021)) "Could barely tell what was going on, everything was so dark, and black crush killed it completely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46430261))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Halt and Catch Fire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/halt-and-catch-fire.md): 166 recommend
- [Babylon 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/babylon-5.md): 86 recommend
- [Silicon Valley (TV series)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/silicon-valley.md): 52 recommend
- [Andor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/andor.md): 52 recommend
- [The Wire](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wire.md): 39 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Game of Thrones", https://hackerapproved.com/p/game-of-thrones/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).