Why critics hated Game of Thrones when it first premiered

Emilia Clarke as Daenrys in the television series Game of Thrones. Photo / Supplied

"Sketchily fleshed-out", "infantile", "cheap", "Dark Ages hoo-hah".

It may be one of the most popular series of all time - with a record number of Emmys - but critics weren't always so keen on Game of Thrones.

A lot of major media outlets piled on with negative reviews after it premiered in 2011, mostly branding it an over-sexualised, over-complicated gore-fest.

Wetpaint has taken the liberty of compiling the most brutal reviews so we can look back on them with our 20/20 hindsight goggles - and they're pretty hilarious.

Under the headline 'Servants, Swords and Sad Sex', Nancy deWolf Smith at the Wall Street Journal wrote:

"We're back to the familiar favourites of the infantile, e.g. spurting blood and gore, bastard sons, evil vixens, blond nymphets, quasi-lesbian action, crude talk among men about their private parts, incest, rough couplings, and more random bare breasts than any other contender in the adolescent-boy-action-show contest this month."

The New York Times' Ginia Bellafante wasn't much kinder: "Game of Thrones serves up a lot of confusion in the name of no larger or really relevant idea beyond sketchily fleshed-out notions that war is ugly, families are insidious, and power is hot."

The Orlando Sentinel 's reviewer Hal Boedeker wrote: "Game of Thrones doesn't touch the heart. The series too often puts children and animals in jeopardy; depicts lopped heads and geysers of blood; and lingers over an incestuous relationship with unsettling results."

"You're subjected to a lot of unpleasantness, but there's no dramatic pay-off to make the slog worthwhile."

David Hinckley from the New York Daily News said: "When you're three episodes into a series and still unsure which member of which family holds which nominal role in which ruling household, you may start asking whether the effort is worth the payback."

The Washington Post's Hank Stuever: "It is possible to admire Game of Thrones for its sincerity and clarity of purpose - its utter devotion to form and detail - while the rest of your TV brain struggles to keep pace with what happens ...

The eternal question is, are you up for the journey? It's about becoming (or not becoming) the kind of viewer who can sign on to such a daunting amount of Dark Ages hoo-hah."

Mark A Perigard from Boston Herald: "Keeping track of people - much less learning their names - is the biggest hurdle in this competent if sometimes trying adaptation ...

"Those who love the books will probably geek out on the series. The rest of us may have a harder time sitting through Game of Thrones."

The cast and crew may have found these tough to read back in the day - but it certainly looks like they've gotten their revenge.

Game of Thrones is scheduled to return on HBO July 16th.