• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 7, 2015

In this blog post about this weekend’s season premiere of “Game of Thrones” (on Sunday, April 12), I will not even attempt to bring you up to date on where we stand with this show’s many storylines and characters heading into the fifth season.

This show is so sprawling that space would not permit such an accounting of all of its stories anyway. Plus, I will admit to you right here and now that I am not someone that you can rely on to keep everything straight where this show is concerned.

For many other shows, that kind of confusion would be a detriment, something I would take pains to point out and complain about in a column such as this one.

But I came to the conclusion long ago about “Game of Thrones” that a total, all-encompassing understanding of its geography, kingdoms, ruling families and warring factions was beside the point. I am sure there are people who can recite all of those details chapter and verse, and more power to them.

For me, however, the joy of “Game of Thrones” lies not in understanding everything, but in not quite understanding it. It’s like a giant puzzle that never coheres in a solution, which means I’m constantly engaged in an effort -- however futile -- to figure it all out. The fact is, I find this show hugely entertaining regardless, mainly because it is such a pleasure to look at.

It’s one of those productions that looks expensive, and by all accounts, is expensive. I watched the first two episodes of the new season yesterday on a DVD provided by HBO, and I was struck yet again by this show’s epic quality.

And since “The Ten Commandments” was fresh in my mind from tuning in and out of it Sunday night on ABC, it occurred to me that if Cecil B. DeMille were alive today, he would be a “Game of Thrones” fan -- or he’d be involved in the business of making this kind of TV series himself.

I had this thought during a scene in the season premiere that showed a colossal statue being toppled from its perch atop a great pyramid in the sky, a symbol of the conquest and subsequent takeover of one of the kingdoms (don’t ask me which one) by new leadership -- in this case, the blonde “dragon queen” Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).

The statue toppling was an incredible spectacle worthy of DeMille himself -- but better by some degree, owing to the great special-effects technology that exists today.

You might think that the human actors in “Game of Thrones” would be dwarfed by the otherworldly environments created for them, but somehow they’re not. That is particularly true about Clarke in the role of Daenerys, and especially true about Peter Dinklage, who really is a dwarf, but in the role of Tyrion Lannister, he’s giving one of the finest performances you’ll see anywhere on television in any era.

What more can one say about “Game of Thrones” other than this: Whether you understand it or not, this show demands attention. Just watch it.

The 10-episode fifth season of “Game of Thrones” starts Sunday, April 12, at 9 Eastern on HBO.