The GoT strategy only works if the writing is good. Dialogue and plot quality are vital, specially when you're watching an episode to episode release model. Often times I felt like I was watching a bunch of middle schoolers cosplaying and making up the dialogue and story as they went along on the playground. Nothing of interest was happening, no deep topics were explored, what was said had no literary or poetical interest, it lacked any complex structure and it sometimes didn't have any structure at all, there was nothing to discuss on the hypothetical water cooler talk. Its cancelation is probably going to drive more conversation than any of its episodes ever did.