Only 10 eps a season drives me crazy, or the fact we have to wait a year for the next set of episodes. does anyone know why it takes them a year to deliver?
I'm pretty sure they are worried about the show outpacing the books.
Well that and it is by far the most expensive show on television with the massive cast, 6 or 7 locations all in vastly different parts of the globe, and all of the CGI that is required. Plus since they don't have commercials, they get a solid 52 minutes (or whatever) of actual show, which is about 12-13 minutes longer than your typical hour long show, so the ten episodes is 520 minutes, which equates to more like 13 or 14 regular shows.
Plus it is HBO, they have 4 staple shows all of which air once per year (all of their other shows also air pretty much once per year as well). It is the new thing to do on tv. It in theory makes shows better because they don't have to have all of this extra filler nonsense just to fill in the season.