Missing the Golden Days of GoT First Seasons? Here Are 5 More Shows Just Like It

If you’re on the lookout for something as compelling as the early seasons of Game of Thrones, check out these shows:

The Expanse

Set in space, you might think this show couldn’t be anything like Game of Thrones. But while the setting is very different, the themes explored in The Expanse are similar to those tackled in GoT.

The show deals with political intrigue, oppression, discrimination and the battle for survival in harsh conditions.

6 seasons ran from 2016-2020 – and George R.R. Martin is a fan.

Black Sails

Written as a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Black Sails includes all the gritty realism, ruthless violence and sex-fuelled intrigue that made Game of Thrones so good.

Set in the Golden Age of Piracy and 20 years before Treasure Island, it charts the exploits of Captain Flint (played by Toby Stephens) and features other fictional characters like Long John Silver (Luke Arnold) alongside real-life pirates such as Calico Jack (Toby Schmitz) and Blackbeard (Ray Stevenson) as the battle for power in Nassau swings first one way then the other.

There are 4 seasons and a total of 38 episodes.

The Tudors

This tale of life in the court of King Henry VIII (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a graphic account of Tudor England. It explores the political machinations of the time and is packed with sex and skulduggery. It’s not always an easy watch as it doesn’t hold back on the cruel way those who were out of favour with the king were treated, but it’s absorbing viewing.

First broadcast between 2007–2010, the action plays out over 4 seasons.

Vikings

Vikings was inspired by legendary Icelandic sagas from the 13th century such as Ragnars saga Loðbrókar and Ragnarssona þáttr. The writers combined these tales with other historical information to create a show that depicts the life of Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok (played by Travis Fimmel).

As you’d expect from a show about Vikings that is being compared to Game of Thrones, it’s one for the over-18s.

Starting at the beginning of the Viking age (AD 793) and originally aired between 2013-2020, there are 6 seasons of Vikings and a total of 89 episodes.

The Borgias

Set in Italy during the Renaissance era, The Borgias is the story of how one family rose to become leaders of the Catholic Church and one of the biggest crime families in history. This is a world away from today’s Pope Francis. Jeremy Irons stars as Pope Alexander VI, an ambitious man who will stop at nothing to ensure his family is rich and powerful.

It’s three seasons of sex, scandal and corruption that lifts the lid on what was really going on behind the walls of The Vatican in the late 1400s.

There are only 3 seasons and 29 episodes, so it’s perfectly bingeable.