The problem is that aside from a few hiccups ::cough cough DORNE:: they were handling GoT very well, even when they got past the books. The book material was better, but one of the highest rated episodes of the entire series was the season 6 finale, and I believe that they had every amount of ability to pull off the remaining seasons. The problem seems to be that when Disney and Star Wars came along, they decided to give short shrift to GoT in order to finish in time to take on the Star Wars project, which might be one of the greatest creative crimes in cinema history. Looking at the direction seasons 7 and 8 went in, there's a lot there that could have worked if they had spent, say, 40 episodes fleshing it out instead of 12. HBO wanted them to go to 10 seasons, GRRM wanted them to go to 12 or 13 (like a true maniac) and the fans would have been on board for as much content as they could generate. I think it would have been entirely reasonable to do two full seasons for 7 and 8, and then either one or two more as the story required. With more room to breathe, the characters could spend their time as themselves instead of exposition monkeys. The character building would have improved, characters wouldn't have had to deviate from their arcs so quickly for expediency, and the show as a whole could have brought in more of the politics that made it such a winner in the early seasons.
It makes me want an hour-long Q&A session where D&D are asked to expand on their thoughts and justify their decisions.
Sounds like the HBO execs should have found someone to take over for them if they wanted out so badly. It was a gold mine for HBO. They have a huge hole to fill now.
D&D had exclusive rights. They negotiated with GRRM before approaching HBO. HBO could not legally continue the series without them.
I'm really curious if HBO suffers from all the negativity. Will their subscriptions drop off a cliff? Sure, they have a few other good shows, but are they enough of a draw to keep the GOT fans around? I also wonder how this will affect the prequel they're talking about, if at all. Will they include some sort of "don't call in a season" clause in it?
Their subscriptions were going to drop off a cliff anyway. A ton of people were only tuning in for GoT, and that was ending regardless of how the finale was received. I think having longer/more seasons would have helped HBO against Netflix and Disney, because they've got a fair bit of content coming on the scene that might have been able to snare GoT viewers if they'd had some overlap. Stuff like the new His Dark Materials adaptation. HBO has always had high productions values and compelling shows, so I think it was more a question of how long GoT aired rather than how the end was perceived.
Just ran across this: Say what you will about Dan Weiss... but the dude can shred a bit on the guitar. Held his own with quite a few big-name guitarists. Couple of pretty sweet custom GOT guitars in that lineup.
Yep. GoT was HBOs first real flagship show. The Sopranos and The Wire are far better and two of the best shows ever, but they didn’t have nearly the wide-ranging cultural impact.
Spoiler: So did Bran... Plot this whole thing? Telling Sam about Jon's true parentage, so he won't end up with Danny, so she then feels more isolated, which makes her go crazy, which makes Jon kill her, which gets him elected king?
Spoiler I would say so. but that would mean he saw her going crazy and killing everyone and he was ok with that. but then again they were looking for a master of whispers when they have bran.
With Bran I’m cynical they actually had some underlying purpose to his omniscient powers. That they wanted us to theorize he was the underlying cause of everything. I’m guessing it was just lazy writing like so many other instances of it.
Spoiler That would be what makes it actually interesting, that he was the most power hungry and murderous of them all, and he ended the winner. But I agree, if they had that much foresight they would've been foreshadowing or at least developing that story line a season or two back
I have no idea who originally came up with that Bran theory, but it was never in the tv show and it's definitely not happening in the books at this point. Wtf are they talking about the tv show checked it off? Yeah, that never happened. Where exactly are they getting this from based on what has happened as of ADWD? That sounds like a random "wouldn't it be cool if..." theory someone just pulled out of thin air.
I caught the GoT documentary The Last Watch, enjoyed it. The crew really gave it 110%. The snow guy busted his ass, I liked him. I never felt anything but impressed with the technical quality of the series, and now it's clear why that part was great. I remain less impressed with the story telling of the last few episodes, but that is no reflection on all the pros that actually brought Westeros to life season after season. Good stuff.
I caught the majority of the documentary today and agree, the work and dedication that the production staff put into the show is amazing. Too bad the writers phoned it in this season.
The line drawn in the sand between seasons 1-6 and seasons 7 & 8 is wide enough to swollow Manhattan.
It basically breaks down: Seasons 1-4: Amazing Seasons 5-6: Very Good if we ignore that Dorne brainfart Season 7: Uhhh... you guys are rushing things a bit... Season 8: What the fuck