Abstract
Watching Game of Thrones: How Audiences Engage with Dark Television presents the results of an extensive online survey with over 10,000 Game of Thrones viewers, adopting what the authors label a ‘“qualiquantitative”’ method. The book explores ‘how viewers engaged with the series’ characters, lands and peoples and how they understood its world in relation to their own’ (blurb). The book is split into eight chapters and a postscript. The themes the chapters explore are an introduction into the kind of ‘remarkable phenomenon’ that Game of Thrones is; the methodology of the study; distinguishing the different kinds of audience by grouping them into seven ideal types – ‘just the show’, ‘debaters’, ‘classic fans’, ‘contented consumers’, ‘fan watchers’, ‘players’ and ‘book followers’ (pp. 38–39); favourite characters, climate change and Game of Thrones; conflict and controversies and ‘making predictions for an unpredictable world’ (p. 143). While drawing upon an extensive number of survey responses, and using innovative methods, the book would have benefited from a stronger introduction outlining its aims, contributions and structure.