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Game of Thrones Leads April’s TV Lineup to Boost HBO’s Hugely Important Month

By on March 16, 2015

You might have heard. You might have rejoiced. HBO will be the first cable channel to provide a (sort-of) completely standalone streaming service, granting access to it’s incredible history of TV shows and films, in addition to whatever movies are currently on contract through the service. It’s HBO GO without the cable subscription, dubbed HBO Now for $14.99 a month, starting sometime in April.

There is one strange catch: HBO Now will be exclusive to Apple devices (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV) for at least three months, meaning any Roku, Android, PC or other non-fruity users will have to wait their turn. In that time, though, a choice few HBO shows will matter far more than the rest in convincing new buyers for both HBO Now and Apple’s hardware. They couldn’t be more different.

Game of Thrones

HBO’s most important premier in April is also HBO’s most important premier of 2015, as it has been for the past couple of years. Game of Thrones shouldn’t need much introduction at this point. It’s a show on a never-ending crescendo that, miraculously, scrapes away zero interest of its vast viewership in the routine murdering of main characters and ambiguity of plot direction. Winter is surely coming, but before then a bunch of people are bound to die and some dragons will slowly get larger and only intermittently grace the screen due to undoubtedly high CGI-production costs. Season 5 starts on April 12.

Now gaze into Jon Snow’s eyes.

Jon Snow Meme Game of Thrones You Know Nothing

Veep

Vice President Selina Meyer has risen highest in the ranks. If Frank Underwood’s escalation frightened you, Meyer’s should have you in the fetal position. Julia Louis-Dreyfus uses comedy instead of outright intimidation to make her point, endlessly poking at the vanity and selfishness we all cynical Americans assume is required within our politicians for even a modicum of success. They also curse a whole bunch, since it’s HBO. Expect to laugh at the futility, then maybe cry a little.

Season four of Veep premiers April 12.

Silicon Valley

If Veep takes aim at East Coast politics, Silicon Valley sets its satirical sights on West Coast business, namely the titular tech sector these days regarded with disillusionment as much as envy. Outrageously wealthy CEOs bleed their eccentricities into companies mirroring Google and Apple, while a group of coders do all they can not to lose their identities and sanity on their way up the chain. Mike Judge, responsible for the cultish Office Space, takes the microscope and dies it neon in an effort to burn brightly all the ways our Silicon Valley tears itself down in its purported effort to build society up, and make a bunch of money in the process.

But, if it isn’t industry-encompassing statements you’re looking for, the show is filled to the brim with segments like this, the infamous, and very NSFW, anatomically-focused algorithm. Seriously, take caution, but enjoy. The show’s second season premiers April 12.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

If you didn’t watch the clip above because it’s 13 minutes about U.S. Territories, I wouldn’t blame you. If you didn’t watch it because it’s just that wannabee British guy from The Daily Show, you deserve no points. In either case, give the clip a watch, even if you don’t care about stuff and you’re too cool for politics. You’ll laugh if you aren’t dead-set on being unimpressed.

More importantly, the actual reporting is miles upon miles ahead of anything ever put forth on either The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Both of those shows deserve their prestige as critics of American news and politics, but neither combine that critique with real-world reporting that isn’t obsessed with clips of other news programs. You’ll notice Oliver employs the news-montage trick made popular by Jon Stewart only briefly and only once in the clip. The rest is new information about a topic gone previously under-reported, tied off nicely with quick-draw jokes and hip-hop dancing.

The quality does take away from the quantity, however, at only one airing a week, but it’s a smart trade-off that’s paying out for HBO. Here’s a program that combines the intelligence and immediacy of serious reporting with the wit of the less demographically-challenged Comedy Central offerings. The show is currently running its second season.

About Trevor Ruben

Though I contribute to many online publications on a regular basis, including The Checkout, the crux of my writing lies in video games. When not writing, I'm often streaming a variety of games on Twitch.