Which had the Better Season: Game of Thrones or Westworld?
Was Westworld’s first season able to outshine Game of Thrones in 2016?
To start this off, yes, we already know that this is a somewhat unfair question to ask. Game of Thrones has six seasons under its belt, while Westworld just wrapped its first. They both aired at different times of the year so there was no direct competition; critics were able to look at the merits of one without having to consider the other. But the year is over, and there’s no reason now not to have a little fun with it.
Westworld and Game of Thrones happen to HBO’s two biggest genre shows, and might be the two biggest on television right now in general. George R. R. Martin himself admires Westworld, and even believes that it’s going to beat out Game of Thrones at the Golden Globes this year. Every season of Game of Thrones gives us something worth talking about, but having a newcomer like Westworld come in and dominate the conversation in the latter half of the year is something wroth considering.
Take a look inside Game of Throne’s stunning season finale:
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The first season of Westworld brought us something new from the sci-fi genre, and even though we had plenty of issues with it, the way in which is wraps everything is just sublime. Game of Thrones has never attempted that sort of plot trickery — it is, after all, playing the long game. It takes years for great plots to come together on Game of Thrones, and season 6 just happened to be one of the pay off seasons.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones was excellent television and offered some best-of series episodes. But outside of a couple of choice moments (Cersei’s plan in the finale) it didn’t wow in the same way Westworld did. It wasn’t as inventive. So while it’s a tough call to make, we are going to give the slight (very slight) edge to Westworld.
Next: HBO is on a lot of best of 2016 lists.
This is just the beginning of a conversation that’s going to go on for years. There is no way that HBO’s two mega dramas are going to be able to go without being compared to each other, sometimes unfairly.
Which season did you enjoy more in 2016?