I Haven't Seen Any Game of Thrones. Does That Make Me Culturally Deprived?

We have never had cable, though I've seen it at my mom's and in hotels.  I remember when they were first starting to promote something called "Pay TV."  The big advantage was going to be "no commercials."  

I finally broke down and signed up for Netflix.  It was to show my mom a movie when she was no longer able to get out of the house much.  Netflix has a lot of good movies and shows.  I'm amazed at the amount of raw talent that exists in the world.  We get to see it because the cost of making a movie has dropped drastically with modern technology as have the distribution costs.  And films we have access to nowadays, represent many different world views and show many different images of heroes.  It's great.

But I really don't think I need to spend any more time on the computer beyond Netflix and my blogging and other non-entertainment activities.  I just don't need Prime or HBO. I can't watch everything.   And I'm particularly concerned about Prime after reading an article in The Sun that suggests it's the 'free sample of consumer heroin" to hook people into buying everything via Amazon, which, this article argues is trying to become the world marketplace and take a cut of every transaction there is.  (This is an eye-opening interview!)

But with all the hype about GOT, I began to wonder if there was something so important, that not watching it makes me less capable in important ways.  I've heard that it is riveting.  That it's about ruthless people.  Perhaps there's something to learn about our current national and international politics.  But in what I have heard, no one has said it presents ideas and insights that you can't get anywhere else.  Is it just really good story telling that plays on human emotions in a way that gets people hooked for however many seasons?

But then I began to wonder how many people who gave up other events so they could watch the latest episode of GOT, have also read War and Peace or Crime and Punishment?  I'm sure many have done both, but many haven't.  Is missing one more significant than missing the other?  What about seeing a performance of King Lear?

I also wonder how many people who don't have time to read the Mueller Report, did watch Game of Thrones.  How many of those folks are members of Congress?

I have enough to keep me distracted.  I think I'll survive.  I might miss some comedic references to characters or events in the series, but I don't think that will be debilitating.