Game of Thrones Season 8 vs Season 1: Building A Series Engine That Lasts

Game of Thrones Season 8 vs Season 1: Building A Series Engine That Lasts
 
This week we’re going to be talking about Game of Thrones. But we’re not actually going to be talking about Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Instead, we’re going to go back and we’re going to look at Season 1.
 
And the reason we’re going to look at Season 1 is that I want to talk about engine. I want to talk about how you build a series that can run for eight seasons, and I want to talk about how you build a pilot that can launch a series that can run for eight seasons.
 
So I want to talk about the things that turned Game of Thrones into a successful series, that made it replicable, that made it a hit show, that started in the very beginning, in the pilot, and that were launched in Season 1.
 
Then I also want to talk about some of the things that went awry over the eight seasons, as they do on every show, and how the writers of Game of Thrones overcame the issues that came up over the course of trying to replicate a specific kind of show and a specific kind of feeling over eight seasons.
 
So we’re going to talk about that, and then my plan is to follow up with short podcasts that you’ll be able to catch on our social media channel where we analyze each episode of Game of Thrones Season 8, where we do a quick little breakdown to show you what you can learn from that episode. So, we’re going to have a lot of fun with this.
 
But first off, let’s talk about the engine. Now, a lot of people think of an engine as an external thing, as something that you need to put into the series.
 
Remember what an engine is: an engine is the thing that allows the series like Game of Thrones to run forever.
 
The engine is actually what someone is buying when they buy a series, because without a great engine the series is going to peter out.
 
A series is different than a feature film. A feature film is one journey that leads to catharsis, that leads to a feeling of change, that feels like a complete unit.
 
But series, by nature, are incomplete. In fact, series, by nature, are designed to refuse us that catharsis, to force us to keep seeking it again and again and again so that we binge episode after episode, or so that we wait with bated breath for a week until Episode 2 or Episode 3 or Episode 4 comes out.
 
So, when people come to watch a series, just like when you go to watch Game of Thrones, you’re watching for a specific reason, right? You want to get a specific feeling. And, of course, a big part of that is the beautiful fantasy world and the epic shots and the violence and the sex and the perversity and all the complications of Game of Thrones.
 
But, there are a lot of series with those elements that don’t have anywhere near the success that Game of Thrones has.
 
So, what actually leads to a successful series? Well, it’s the engine. But where does the engine come from? The engine is the thing that allows you to create the same feeling again and again, episode after episode, even as we watch characters go through different plots.
 
In a syndicated series, the engine is very simple because each episode resets. If you think of The Simpsons, Homer and Marge and Bart and Lisa are the same every episode. Nothing ever changes; they don’t age, even if they go through a huge change in one episode it resets in the next.

But when you get into a complicated drama series like Game of Thrones, the concept of engine becomes a lot more complicated.
 
So, where does the engine actually come from? Well, the engine actually grows out of character.
 
The engine actually grows out of the main character. Because even though Game of Thrones is an ensemble piece,