Imagine Game of Thrones without the drawn-out sex scenes (that are often full of exposition, too). Well, if you live in New Zealand, soon you won’t have to.
While Game of Thrones has previously only been available on the expensive paid-for channel Soho (similar to the HBO setup in America), the show will now begin airing on the public broadcast channel Prime. Except it will have been heavily censored, the NZ entertainment site Stuff reports.
Prime will set out to edit each episode to comply with the Broadcasting Standards Authority, “Mindful to ensure story lines remain intact.”
We will be very curious to see what they come up with! While editing out sex, profanities and violence is standard practice (even shows like Friends are censored when broadcast in the UK), we just can’t imagine how it would work for Game of Thrones.
Even just the first episode would have to be sliced and re-edited so heavily. The entire opening sequence is full of dead children and other gruesome sights, and many of the sex scenes in the show serve a double purpose of setting up characters and storylines. Many of the show’s most important moments take place while something violent or otherwise rated is going on, after all.
New Zealand readers will have to tell us how the edited version of the pilot gets around the horrific opener, Bran seeing Jaime and Cersei going at it, Tyrion and Jaime’s establishing scene together, Daenerys’ scene with Viserys and her discomfort at the wedding, and of course her and Drogo’s first night together. If the editors actually pull this off, we will be very impressed!
While editing is common practice when airing rated shows on public channels, is this a price worth paying to see Game of Thrones aired on regular television?
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