Should I be glad I got Game of Thrones season 4 for free?

I have always loved watching the series.
:)

Sure, why not? But you should be sad for the crappy video quality/stream you watched. And like you, I tend not to trust those sites.

For better resolution and 0% chance of viruses, next time try eztv.it and torrent them.

@wildpotato Those streams are not as bad as you claim. The quality is equal to the quality of standard definition that people were fine with for almost the whole of television history.

@flip86 “with minor interruptions and issues” = unacceptable for a show like GoT with highly lush visuals. Almost the whole of television history did not, until quite recently, have the capability to create visuals that would benefit from being viewed in high resolution.

@mazingerz88 “Does HBO really has no choice but to delay on the availability of popular shows like GOT to non-cable subscribers-?”

Of course they have a choice. They just refuse to because, like most in the broadcasting industry, they’re still clinging on to a moribund business model.

@wildpotato Game of Thrones is just fine on an internet stream. Only HD snobs complain otherwise. HD television is overrated. Always has been, always will be.

I don’t understand your details… episodes of GOT are typically available to pirate about an hour after the show airs; you don’t need to wait until it becomes “available for web retailers.”

You realize that millions of regular viewers habitually do the thing that you are worried about, right?

@dappled_leaves No I’m not aware that millions have been habitually doing it. I waited a year before buying the Blu-ray release of the 3rd season. A year of hearing and reading about the Red Wedding before I saw it. LOL This was my very first free viewing of GOT.

@Darth_Algar I agree HBO is clinging on that model. But could it be because if they change, that could be the ultimate end of HBO-?

Fun fact: Last year GOT was the most pirated tv show.

… which inspired this Onion piece.

Technically you are a thief. Whether you care or not is not for me to decide.

@mazingerz88 “I agree HBO is clinging on that model. But could it be because if they change, that could be the ultimate end of HBO-?”

No. Certainly not as a content creator. If anything making their original shows available to non-customers right away would only increase their revenue. I cut the cable cord a decade ago. In that time there’s certainly been shows I’ve been interested in. I’d be fine with paying to watch these on a show-to-show basis, but there’s no way any of them are going to lure me back into a cable subscription.

I wouldn’t pay for anything GoT related. It’s garbage. Mildly entertaining garbage, yes, but still trash.

I wish someone would put half the effort into an actually good series that they are shoveling into GR^2M’s nonsense. Elric of Melnibonë, for instance. Or a high-quality series based on Dune, to make up for how lame the David Lynch version ended up.

GR^2M’s? You speak a language I do not understand.

GR(squared)M.

George R. R. Martin.

Nerd. ;)

Whatever would give you that idea? I’m gobsmacked!

@Seek “I wouldn’t pay for anything GoT related. It’s garbage. Mildly entertaining garbage, yes, but still trash.”

I think “mildly entertaining” might be stretching it a bit.

Well, the show does have boobs.

@Seek

Eh, everything has boobs now.

Sucker for fantasy films so in the absence of LOTR and The Hobbit and while waiting for The Silmarillion movies which will come in ten years…LOL….had to watch a few episodes of GOT and eventually ended up drinking the Kool-aid from Westeros.

Noticed the art direction, costumes, lighting were above average so I stayed and enjoyed the blood and boobs. I would love to see a decent Dune series @Seek.

@mazingerz88 “while waiting for The Silmarillion movies which will come in ten years”

Not gonna happen. Not while Christopher Tolkien is alive at least. Then again, the man will be 90 this year, so how much longer can he have left. Personally I hope whoever takes the reigns of the Tolkien Estate after he passes (most likely his son Adam, from what I understand) has the same stedfast refusal against selling the film rights. The Hobbit films are enough of an abortion. I’d hate to see The Silmarillion get pissed all over by Hollywood as well.

@Darth_Algar I wouldn’t mind Hollywood financing The Silmarillion. Always the possibility the right producers, director and writer could get the right inspiration and give the material a decent cinematic treatment.

@mazingerz88

I really don’t see how. As it is the Silmarillion compresses thousands of years of history into a book into a fairly short book. I don’t see how that could possibly be filmed as there would, by the nature of the material, be a lot of sudden jumps in the story. That doesn’t sound like good cinema to me. The only story in that book that could be film (as it was fleshed out by Tolkien, then later published as its own work) is the story of the Children of Hurin.

@Darth_Algar The way I see it is that the LOTR and Hobbit movies are billions of dollars earning movie material. No studio in their right mind would ignore and not risk producing The Silmarillion.

Cinema is gobbling up fantasy stuff more and more and it’s just a matter of time. If a producer and director assigned to it say it will take at least eight 3 hour movies, to give justice to The Silmarillion, that will be an encouraging start.

What would turn me off is if they hold back on budget and use nothing but digital effects and if I get the impression the creative people assigned would just screw it all up. LOL

I don’t mind seeing it in installments even if it takes years.

Eight 3 hour movies? Seriously? With no more material than is in that book that would require tons more shitty padded than the Hobbit movies got.

Different perceptions on the book and how it could translate on film.

I would personally not do it the way Peter did The Hobbit. Although I understand why he did it. Sometimes, the movie is altogether a different animal. It’s not the book anymore but a new creation. The business side always matters most and Jackson made the call.

As for The Silmarillion, for me to enjoy all that complicated myth making, grand dramatic narratives and jumping around, it would take at least eight 3 hour movies.

There are certain stories in the Sil and in The Children of Hurin that I would love to see on screen. I don’t know that eight three hour movies would be necessary, but it would be nice to see Turin Turambar and The Fall of Gondolin. And all the sappy love story fans want to see Beren and Luthien, of course.

@Seek I won’t be surprised if HBO asks Martin to prepare a screenplay for GOT. Makes a lot of business sense to make a movie with a continuing story after its last season. There’s enough captured market I think.

Oh, look, another movie I won’t pay to see.