Can't believe I'm writing about it again, but that is how bad I felt that last episode of Game of Thrones (S08E04) was. More than just the episode itself, it comes on the heels of a strange 'Battle of Winterfell', coming itself on the heels of an iffy last couple seasons. It all comes down, for me, to two central issues with the show:
1.) The creators (and potentially actors and the rest) are just tired of doing this show, so they shortened the last two seasons to seven and then six episodes, which created incredible plot straing
2.) The creators never signed up to create plot and have to finish this story; they had full belief they would be adapting George RR Martin's source material throughout
I'm actually quite sympathetic to the second point - I truly believe David Benioff and DB Weiss (D&D) expected the books to be done, and be adapting source material. They did not sign up to complete Martin's story, and whether or not they are using Martin's bullet points, they clearly don't ahve the rich material that Martin presented them with initially.
The first point however? That one is all on the shows creators and production, and it truly is maddening. The last cultural touchstone show that I remember was Breaking Bad. While I have my own issues with the plot contrivances of the final season of Breaking Bad, you can tell the care and effort that went into that final season. That was a great end to a great show. This? This is the opposite, a HIMYM level fall from grace.
My issues with the final season come down to both the ridiculous pacing (which was an issue last season as well), and now the bizarre plot devices and conveniences that are littered in every episode. Such as all of these:
- Euron Greyjoy can kill one of Dany's dragons by hitting it with three perfectly accurate shots from miles away, but then somehow they all miss Drogon who was closer?
- Dany doesn't see the Iron Fleet despite being way up in the air.
- The Iron Fleet knows Dany will be coming (though this could be explained by Dany having a traitor I guess
- Cersei does not try to kill Tyrion or Dany despite having every ability to
- Jaime just gives up on Brienne, who him having sex with anyway seemed like pure fan service
- The whole world gangs up against Dany despite little proof she's actually 'mad' the way her father was (more on this later)
I could go on and on and on. Beyond just last episodes, there are larger questions, like why we ever needed a White Walker plot, or what the hell Bran is actually doing the whole time, or was Sansa is so unnaturally untrusting of Dany. There's kjust so much going wrong, and it all really boils down to them fast-forwarding the end-game at the very time they had to take over the pen.
There are still things Game of Thrones does better than any other show - namely creating spectacle, but in spectacle has never really been the key strength of the show. When I think back to the earlier heights, I don't think of Hardhome or Battle of the Bastards; I think of the Red Wedding, or Tyrion's trail, or any of Tywin's small council sessions. That's what made this show so special and great at its peak.
THe last two seasons saw the show become a normal TV show - one becoming increasingly about touchstone plot moments that are driven out of desire to put on spectacle rather than the national progression of a rational plot. We all wanted Jaime and Brienne to bang, so they did. We all wanted a dragon v. dragon fight, so we got one (somehow those damn arrows could take down a dragon, but not another dragon). We all want the Clegane-bowl, so we will get one. Earlier seasons, we didn't know what we wanted, but we got great moment after great moment.
The only other issue I put squarely on the creators is the pace, and this almost two-season sprint to the end. They clearly had the ending written a long time ago, and needed so many ridiculous plot contrivances to get there - namely how to quickly make Dany vs. Cersei even. Think back to the end of Season 6, the last great season the show had, and you had Cersei becoming queen but hated by killing thousands by blowing up King's Landing. At the same time, Dany was finally crossing the Narrow Sea with the following: the dothraki, the unsullied, the combined armies of Dorne and Highgarden, and three fucking dragons.
Two seasons later, shes down to one dragon and a few unsullied and dothraki. This whole ridiculous set of eleven episodes was done just to make Dany weak. The whole northern quest, the whole series of Tyrion becoming increasingly stupid. All of it. The show sacrificed itself by making arguably the strongest written character (arguable) in Dany into a badly written one overnight, just to service plot.
Maybe this is how George RR Martin wanted it anyway. Maybe this is mostly his script, just done at rapid pace - but that pace issue is also a problem. The show chewed enough plot development in the last twenty minutes of last night's episode to take about three or four episodes a few seasons ago. Everything is happening way too fast, way too quick, and way too foreign for this show.
Game of Thrones established itself as one of the shows of all time because of how incredible it was at its peak, telling a sprawling story mixing the fantasy of Lord of the Rings with teh political drama of The Wire. It will end its run doing neither of these things, which is a shame.
I mentioned How I Met Your Mother earlier as a show that just ruined its legacy by missing its ending so badly. Game of Thrones is probably too good and too popular to have that type of fate, but there is one interesting similarity in my mind. How I Met Your Mother came very close to ending after its second season, with at-the-time middling ratings (in reality, the ratings it got then would be seen as a miracle by its end). The second season ended with Robin and Ted breaking up, and Barney mid-sentence. From a plot persepctive, that would have been a disappointing ending, but it would have left behind two seasons of an all-time great sitcom (truly, those first two seasons were awesome).
For Game of Thrones, it was never in any fear of cancellation, obviously, but in my mind, if I ever choose to rewatch it, I'm stopping after Season 6. That was basically the last point the show was at all influenced by the source material. That ended with a truly great final episode, with Cersei blowing up the sept, 'winning' the throne, and Dany finally crossing the sea. Up North, Jon was named King of the North, with Sansa by her side, and Arya was finding her way back to Westeros. That was a perfect point to end the show, and truly, I wish that is when it did end.
1.) The creators (and potentially actors and the rest) are just tired of doing this show, so they shortened the last two seasons to seven and then six episodes, which created incredible plot straing
2.) The creators never signed up to create plot and have to finish this story; they had full belief they would be adapting George RR Martin's source material throughout
I'm actually quite sympathetic to the second point - I truly believe David Benioff and DB Weiss (D&D) expected the books to be done, and be adapting source material. They did not sign up to complete Martin's story, and whether or not they are using Martin's bullet points, they clearly don't ahve the rich material that Martin presented them with initially.
The first point however? That one is all on the shows creators and production, and it truly is maddening. The last cultural touchstone show that I remember was Breaking Bad. While I have my own issues with the plot contrivances of the final season of Breaking Bad, you can tell the care and effort that went into that final season. That was a great end to a great show. This? This is the opposite, a HIMYM level fall from grace.
My issues with the final season come down to both the ridiculous pacing (which was an issue last season as well), and now the bizarre plot devices and conveniences that are littered in every episode. Such as all of these:
- Euron Greyjoy can kill one of Dany's dragons by hitting it with three perfectly accurate shots from miles away, but then somehow they all miss Drogon who was closer?
- Dany doesn't see the Iron Fleet despite being way up in the air.
- The Iron Fleet knows Dany will be coming (though this could be explained by Dany having a traitor I guess
- Cersei does not try to kill Tyrion or Dany despite having every ability to
- Jaime just gives up on Brienne, who him having sex with anyway seemed like pure fan service
- The whole world gangs up against Dany despite little proof she's actually 'mad' the way her father was (more on this later)
I could go on and on and on. Beyond just last episodes, there are larger questions, like why we ever needed a White Walker plot, or what the hell Bran is actually doing the whole time, or was Sansa is so unnaturally untrusting of Dany. There's kjust so much going wrong, and it all really boils down to them fast-forwarding the end-game at the very time they had to take over the pen.
There are still things Game of Thrones does better than any other show - namely creating spectacle, but in spectacle has never really been the key strength of the show. When I think back to the earlier heights, I don't think of Hardhome or Battle of the Bastards; I think of the Red Wedding, or Tyrion's trail, or any of Tywin's small council sessions. That's what made this show so special and great at its peak.
THe last two seasons saw the show become a normal TV show - one becoming increasingly about touchstone plot moments that are driven out of desire to put on spectacle rather than the national progression of a rational plot. We all wanted Jaime and Brienne to bang, so they did. We all wanted a dragon v. dragon fight, so we got one (somehow those damn arrows could take down a dragon, but not another dragon). We all want the Clegane-bowl, so we will get one. Earlier seasons, we didn't know what we wanted, but we got great moment after great moment.
The only other issue I put squarely on the creators is the pace, and this almost two-season sprint to the end. They clearly had the ending written a long time ago, and needed so many ridiculous plot contrivances to get there - namely how to quickly make Dany vs. Cersei even. Think back to the end of Season 6, the last great season the show had, and you had Cersei becoming queen but hated by killing thousands by blowing up King's Landing. At the same time, Dany was finally crossing the Narrow Sea with the following: the dothraki, the unsullied, the combined armies of Dorne and Highgarden, and three fucking dragons.
Two seasons later, shes down to one dragon and a few unsullied and dothraki. This whole ridiculous set of eleven episodes was done just to make Dany weak. The whole northern quest, the whole series of Tyrion becoming increasingly stupid. All of it. The show sacrificed itself by making arguably the strongest written character (arguable) in Dany into a badly written one overnight, just to service plot.
Maybe this is how George RR Martin wanted it anyway. Maybe this is mostly his script, just done at rapid pace - but that pace issue is also a problem. The show chewed enough plot development in the last twenty minutes of last night's episode to take about three or four episodes a few seasons ago. Everything is happening way too fast, way too quick, and way too foreign for this show.
Game of Thrones established itself as one of the shows of all time because of how incredible it was at its peak, telling a sprawling story mixing the fantasy of Lord of the Rings with teh political drama of The Wire. It will end its run doing neither of these things, which is a shame.
I mentioned How I Met Your Mother earlier as a show that just ruined its legacy by missing its ending so badly. Game of Thrones is probably too good and too popular to have that type of fate, but there is one interesting similarity in my mind. How I Met Your Mother came very close to ending after its second season, with at-the-time middling ratings (in reality, the ratings it got then would be seen as a miracle by its end). The second season ended with Robin and Ted breaking up, and Barney mid-sentence. From a plot persepctive, that would have been a disappointing ending, but it would have left behind two seasons of an all-time great sitcom (truly, those first two seasons were awesome).
For Game of Thrones, it was never in any fear of cancellation, obviously, but in my mind, if I ever choose to rewatch it, I'm stopping after Season 6. That was basically the last point the show was at all influenced by the source material. That ended with a truly great final episode, with Cersei blowing up the sept, 'winning' the throne, and Dany finally crossing the sea. Up North, Jon was named King of the North, with Sansa by her side, and Arya was finding her way back to Westeros. That was a perfect point to end the show, and truly, I wish that is when it did end.
