Re: TV Show Popularity in Your Neighborhood
Reply #29 –
You could claim that A Song of Ice and Fire/The Game of Thrones is already a pastiche of the War of the Roses and other English and European history (and beyond to Asia and Africa). Westeros is a kind of a Late Medieval Europe with the sex, violence, and treachery dialled up.
If you like sexed-up history like Rome and sexed-up pseudo-history like GoT, as do I, you would probably enjoy series like The Tudors and The Borgias as well.
GoT and Roma have their own merit that separates them (each one at it's way) from the other series you mention.
The inclusion of a decent amount of boobies is certainly welcome but it goes further than that.
Roma tried to be a portrait of the entire Roman society, with all social classes, while maintaining a reasonable amount of Historical likelihood. Fictionally, they created an ensemble of interconnected characters, ranging from the very low to the higher possible classes, who's mixed destinies explained History.
Innovative and brightly done. The other series you say just does the traditional, focusing on the life of the powerful, the usual thing.
The historical recreation of life at those times was brilliant.
Game of Thrones, yes it recreates a Middle age full of sex, violence and treason but it adds an element of fantastic. The formula is not new but the way it's done, is superb.
Instead a final product that would be sordid or, even worst, something like Lord of the Rings it results at probably the higher moment in fiction that television has ever created.
It's going to be very very difficult to do better. GoT is at a different championship.
Of course, as Mary Pickford says at my sig, I'm totally against what I above said.

A matter of attitude.