The Worst Review I’ve Ever Read: Ignorant, sexist, and insulting to fans of fantasy.

Never have I felt quite as insulted when reading a review of any novel, film, or television series, as I was when I read New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante’s “review” - if you can call it that - of the new series, Game of Thrones, and I am most certainly not alone.

The review came to my attention as I stumbled across the waves of anger and backlash that flowed across the internet in the wake of Bellafante’s article being posted on the NYTimes website, and out of curiosity, I endeavoured to investigate. I wondered, what could have possibly triggered so much frustration and fury from so many people? What I discovered, as I read Bellafante’s article, was enough to have me seeing red.

To begin with, I have sadly never read George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, though I do own the first one and intend to read it this summer. I had seen some of the promos for the new HBO series and had long since made the decision to check it out (hey, it’s epic fantasy, a genre I’ve loved since I was eight years old - why wouldn’t I watch it?). I didn’t know much about it other than what I’d been told by enthusiastic fans (I used to work in a bookstore, so I interacted with ASoIaF fans often as they arrived every couple of months or so to inquire as to the new publishing date for A Dance With Dragons). So, like many others, I had thought that perhaps Bellafante’s “review” would give me a bit more insight to the series, and perhaps give me an idea of what to expect to see.

I was so very mistaken.

It seems that Bellafante’s understanding of the term “review” is rather different from the general population’s view. I, personally, would consider a review to be a written (or spoken) analysis of a work that examines all the aspects of it and makes a recommendation of its quality - in more basic terms, someone with experience critiques a work and makes an argument as to why they think it is good and worth a person’s time and effort to see, or why they think it is not. Bellafante, on the other hand, seems to have decided that reviewing Game of Thrones was the perfect opportunity to not review the new TV series, but instead attack the fantasy genre as a whole and, to cap it all off, insult the female population of the planet in the process.

“What?” you may ask, and I will now proceed to tell you. Let’s start with her first paragraph:

With the amount of money apparently spent on “Game of Thrones,” the fantasy epic set in a quasi-medieval somewhereland beginning Sunday on HBO, a show like “Mad Men” might have the financing to continue into the second term of a Malia Obama presidency. “Game of Thrones” is a cast-of-at-least-many-hundreds production, with sweeping “Braveheart” shots of warrior hordes. Keeping track of the principals alone feels as though it requires the focused memory of someone who can play bridge at a Warren Buffett level of adeptness. In a sense the series, which will span 10 episodes, ought to come with a warning like, “If you can’t count cards, please return to reruns of ‘Sex and the City.’ ”

Okay. Is it just me or am I starting to sense a bit of prejudice here? 

We’ll leave that point aside for now, and focus on the first thing about this article that raised my ire. Bellafante’s assumption that people cannot keep track of complicated plot lines and a large cast of characters is, to put it plainly, insulting. Claiming that “if you can’t count cards, please return to reruns of ‘Sex and the City’” is doubly insulting. Why refer to that show in particular, when there are so many good shows to choose from? My problems with that show will be reserved for another rant, but let’s leave the point at my feeling of insult at Bellafante’s awful underestimation of peoples’ intelligence. 

Let’s carry on.

Not only is Bellafante’s appraisal of human intelligence insulting, but her understanding of Game of Thrones is woefully inadequate as well. It begs the question of whether she even actually watched it:

We are in the universe of dwarfs, armor, wenches, braids, loincloth. The strange temperatures clearly are not the fault of a reliance on inefficient HVAC systems. Given the bizarre climate of the landmass at the center of the bloody disputes — and the series rejects no opportunity to showcase a beheading or to offer a slashed throat close-up — you have to wonder what all the fuss is about. We are not talking about Palm Beach.

Allow me to detour for a moment on the topic of HVAC systems. Bellafante seems to have some kind of unhealthy obsession with these. Perhaps she has her own faulty HVAC system that drives her insane at home, or poisons her air with noxious fumes that cause her to write these awful reviews? My reason for this assumption is Bellafante’s recent review of one of my own favourite television series, and one I used to work on as a PA: Supernatural. 

In Bellafante’s review of Supernatural, she writes about the beginning of the story, with the death of Sam and Dean’s mother in Season One, though I doubt she’s even watched it (yet again, the doubt) because not only did she get the details woefully wrong, but she described it thusly:

Broadly speaking, it revolves around two brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester, who lose their mother early in life when a bizarre air current sucks her body up to the ceiling of the family house one night, leaving a bloody, ravaged corpse.

Apparently a faulty HVAC system is not the culprit. Occult forces are at work in Winchester world [...]

Again, the HVAC system. Ginia, you should really get that fixed. One last note before I return again to Bellafante’s review of Game of Thrones - I have another rant coming for her review of Supernatural. 

And so we return to Game of Thrones, and Bellafante’s bizarre summation of the aspects of the show to which she seems to take offense. Having seen the first two episodes, I can feel reasonably secure in saying that no, the series does not specifically go out of its way to “showcase a beheading or to offer a slashed throat close-up”. In fact, they show much less than I had been expecting, with careful camera angles and framing. Trust me, it could have been much worse. On another note, I have to ask: from where did Bellafante  get the idea to include the line “We are not talking about Palm Beach” ? Pardon me, but how does that make any sense in the context of this review?

However, we have not even reached the worst of this. Believe me - there is worse to come, and it comes in the form of a highly insulting, sexist attack on women lovers of fantasy, whom apparently do not exist in Bellafante’s world. 

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

Bellafante’s preceding paragraph detailed her issues with the sexual relationships in the show, and in this paragraph she explains that the excessive scenes of intercourse are only there to appeal to women who, in her opinion, would not watch otherwise.

Excuse me? She can’t possibly be serious... but, sadly, she is. Again, I am insulted, as a woman who would actually prefer less sex in my TV shows, but I accept it as something that a lot of viewers seem to like. But saying that it is there only to appeal to women is awfully insulting and degrading. 

This, apparently, is Lorrie Moore's most popular work.

And then, the part I find the most insulting: Bellafante’s assertion that sure, there might be some women who read fantasy, but they don’t stand up in book clubs and demand to read The Hobbit. Firstly, The Hobbit - while being awesome, and a definitive fantasy novel - is certainly not the fantasy novel that I would demand to read at a book club. There are plenty of other fantasy novels out there, and many feature strong female characters that are far more interesting than any characters I’ve ever read in literary fiction. On that note, who the hell is Lorrie Moore? I believe I mentioned earlier that I worked in a bookstore for three years, and became very well acquainted with just about every genre there is and most of the authors for each (it was somewhat of a requirement), and I have no idea who Lorrie Moore is. 

As well, since when is fantasy “boy fiction”? Let me repeat: BOY FICTION. Even more insults and sexism. Does Bellafante realise she’s being sexist to her own gender? Fantasy is boy fiction? 

It seems to Bellafante’s mind that the only literature fit for women is “quietly hewn domestic novels” - something she argues, in a roundabout way, in her article attacking the people whom, like me, were insulted by her review. This rebuttal, titled “Pull Up A Throne And Let’s Talk”, did little to pacify the infuriated fantasy-loving women of the world but instead further antagonized us, as well as reaffirming the fact that Bellafante a) had no idea what she was talking about with Game of Thrones, and b) she completed missed the point of what was prompting this highly negative reaction. She argues that her critics had not even seen the first episode of the show yet before attacking her review, but she fails to realise that that was not the point they were trying to make.

Her “review” was not a review in any sense of the term. It does not analyse the elements of the show in any meaningful way whatsoever, but instead attacks the genre and insults everyone who likes fantasy, especially women. I have now seen the first two episodes of Game of Thrones and while I do not think it is perfect, I am finding it quite interesting and enjoyable, for the most part. I eagerly anticipate the next episode, and I plan to write my own review of the series after the tenth episode airs. 

What amazes me is that Ginia Bellafante is one of the New York Times’ leading television critics, despite her ignorant, sexist, insulting and generally poor writing. I am hoping that the backlash to Bellafante’s review of Game of Thrones sends a strong message to the NYTimes’ editing staff: stop having Bellafante review TV shows, especially anything that is of any kind of genre beyond contemporary ‘corporate’ fiction (as she herself calls it). Preferably, give her job to someone else who actually knows how to review a TV series, or anything really. A student fresh out of art school could write a review far better than Bellafante - it’s what we’re trained to do. If Bellafante absolutely must remain on staff at the New York Times, give her material to review that she’ll enjoy: the so-called “domestic novels”, that don’t require too much mental strain on her part to comprehend. 

What Bellafante fails to realise in her ignorant article, is that along with insulting a large percentage of the population, she also insults herself. If only she would open her eyes and notice.




Links to Bellafante's articles:


http://tv.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/arts/television/game-of-thrones-begins-sunday-on-hbo-review.html?pagewanted=2
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/pull-up-a-throne-and-lets-talk/?ref=giniabellafante