If you love Game Of Thrones, then you need to watch these shows

GAME Of Thrones is finished for another year — and season eight may not reach us until 2019 — so what should you watch in the meantime?

GAME Of Thrones is finished for another year — and season eight may not reach us until 2019 — so what should you watch in the meantime?

Obviously there is a world of choice out there, with George RR Martin confirming on his blog (called Not A Blog) last week that he is in talks with HBO for no less than FIVE possible Game Of Thrones spin-offs.

That’s great for after GoT has finished but, if you want to watch something now, there are two excellent alternatives.

A wight from Game Of Thrones.

A walker from The Walking Dead.

Game Of Thrones is now all about a battle between the living and dead, as well as the conflicts between the living.

That also sums up perfectly Fear The Walking Dead, which returns to our screens on September 11 and The Walking Dead, which returns on October 23.

Best of all, they are both exclusive to Foxtel, which means you can use up the rest of the month you’ve already purchased to catch up with them.

These shows are obviously about battles between the living and the dead — set in our world rather than Westeros — but they are far more than that.

The Walking Dead features ordinary people fighting to survive in an extraordinary world.ge/AMC

Take The Walking Dead. About to go into its eighth season, it sees the heroes of Alexandria (think the Starks of Winterfell) allied with The Kingdom, ruled by King Ezekiel (the Wildlings) and The Hilltop (ruled by Maggie, who’s a little bit like Daenerys) taking on the brutal Negan (think Cersei with stubble and a baseball bat).

Season eight of The Walking Dead is all about the war with Negan.

The zombies are an ever-present danger but it’s all about the politics and the betrayals and the back-stabbing. Sure there’s also plenty of brain stabbing (of zombies) but it’s truly compelling.

And then there’s the spin-off, Fear The Walking Dead. Again, at its heart is a family called the Clarks that has lost several members (sounds an awful lot like the Starks again and even rhymes with it).

The Clarks are helping run a ranch that’s full of Doomsday preppers, while angry Native Americans demand their land back and bands of undead look to prey on the unwary. Then there’s two former friends of the family who have ended up with a huge dam full of water — and lots of people who are willing to do anything to get it.

Fear The Walking Dead’s Alicia and Madison Clark are kind of like Catelyn and Arya Stark.

These shows are funny, dramatic and brutal. There’s no incest and in fact no overt sex scenes like GoT but just as much violence.

It is also definitely more horror than fantasy but has those essential elements of humans fighting to survive in a crazy world.

You’ve paid for the rest of the month on Foxtel Now, so why not try the first few seasons. The Walking Dead does take a little while to get going but, by season three, it is utterly addictive.

Spin-off Fear The Walking Dead gets going faster but, by the middle of season two, has hit its stride.

And you can keep reading about all the behind-the-scenes extras on dailytelegraph.com.au.

Of course, if neither of these appeal, then perhaps try Westworld (season two will be out next year) on Foxtel, or Stranger Things on Netflix (season two will be out later this year) or The Expanse, a sci-fi mystery on Netflix that George RR Martin loves.