Television Game of Thrones (TV) • The watch has ended

All American TV shows seem to go off the deep end. I remember watching Oz for the first time back in the day and thinking it was gritty and real but in the end it just became ludicrous.
 
I’m sure it wasn’t, but I don’t see how that automatically makes The Sopranos a superior show. What I saw of it couldn’t match the quality of season 4 of GoT.

I’m also not really sure about your last sentence. It’s great that, as the show progressed and grew in popularity, the budget allowed them to do justice to some big moments, but those are only big moments because of the story. Story is king. The show never looked better than in it’s final season, yet it’s vastly inferior to the earlier work.

I haven’t read them, but in what way is the best thing about the TV show the books? And what more are you looking for in a top tier show exactly?

If anything, I’d say the increased budget was to the detriment of the series towards the final few seasons. They put far too much emphasis on the big expensive action sequences and ‘feature’ episodes.
 
All American TV shows seem to go off the deep end. I remember watching Oz for the first time back in the day and thinking it was gritty and real but in the end it just became ludicrous.

I need to rewatch that, can't remember how they ended up finishing it it's been that long. I just loved the character of Vern Schilinger.
 
All American TV shows seem to go off the deep end. I remember watching Oz for the first time back in the day and thinking it was gritty and real but in the end it just became ludicrous.

Most of them just go on for too long. I'd say Friday Night Lights and The Leftovers are the only two highly acclaimed American dramas I've watched that actually ended really well and were more or less consistently great. Everything else, including series I really like, seems to decline sharply towards the end of its run
 
Season 5 of the Wire was pretty damn dodgy tbh.

When it came out I felt that way but on multiple re-watches s5 really holds up to the test of time. I love that season now.

If you want consistency, you can't look further than Mad Men, there wasn't a single weak/filler episode in the whole series.

Indeed. Mad Men maintained a consistently good level throughout the entire run. For me its the second best American show of all time behind the Wire.
 
When it came out I felt that way but on multiple re-watches s5 really holds up to the test of time. I love that season now.

It was a decline from the earlier seasons but I agree it stands up well on rewatch and even with the decline it was still better than 99.9% of other TV.
 
People moaned about the machine gun ending then as well.

This whole outrage will also die down and eventually GoT will be rated among the best shows of all time due to the sheer quality of the first 4 seasons. That is absolutely top class television and the bad end shouldn't take the credit away from that. It isn't just because it was books script, but the acting, dialogue - loads of which was written aside from the books, cinematography, etc everything was top tier.

Pretty similar with most other well rated shows. Breaking Bad itself had some pretty rubbish scripts but pulled through in the end with masterpieces like Ozymandias etc. For me if you look at the peaks then GoT is definitely up there and the peak was for a good 4 seasons with the level hardly ever dropping.

My thoughts aswell. Season 4 was the series high for me, after a stellar first three seasons, but 5 and 6 are still very good and have some similarly outstanding moments/ sequences. The show had cemented itself in the conversation of best ever TV shows by the time it started dipping in quality. I agree that once the season 8 uproar passes it will still be regarded overall as a show to rival the very best.

If anything, I’d say the increased budget was to the detriment of the series towards the final few seasons. They put far too much emphasis on the big expensive action sequences and ‘feature’ episodes.

I think it was just poorer storytelling by folk who didn’t have any source material left, and wanted to move on to other things but also didn’t want to give away creative control to someone else.
 
Currently reading the books, I just fecking love Joffrey. Was a better villain than Ramsay even, and Gleeson did a fine job. Brought back memories of those early seasons, they seem like a different show altogether now.
 
All American TV shows seem to go off the deep end. I remember watching Oz for the first time back in the day and thinking it was gritty and real but in the end it just became ludicrous.

Dexter completely went off the deep end as well, after being so good for so many seasons.
 
I did a quick run through "The Long Night" again, after some calibration with my settings, (not just only wacking up the brightness, as that saturates everything) and it does look pretty great. Lots of great sequences I missed the first time round. I watched it on a Nowtv stream so the bitrate is low, but you can tell in blu ray or 4k it will look amazing, especially if they redo the lighting.

I have never bought anything in 4k before, but a GOT boxset was something I would have definitely picked up as it was a show I always intended to watch again, even after the big drop in quality from season 7..But now I am so conflicted about ever putting the time into it again...:(
 
Just finished watching the GoT 2-hour documentary "The Last Watch" which follows the filming of the last season. Wow, that was incredible. Really reminds us of how massive of a production GoT really was. Fantastic seeing everything from the set design and makeup, to the read throughs of the actors. Those jackets that the extras receive with their house sigils on the back were pretty dope. Seeing the effort that went into it and how emotional people were has definitely softened my stance on the last season.
 
Just finished watching the GoT 2-hour documentary "The Last Watch" which follows the filming of the last season. Wow, that was incredible. Really reminds us of how massive of a production GoT really was. Fantastic seeing everything from the set design and makeup, to the read throughs of the actors. Those jackets that the extras receive with their house sigils on the back were pretty dope. Seeing the effort that went into it and how emotional people were has definitely softened my stance on the last season.
That was their goal, they got you
 
Just finished watching the GoT 2-hour documentary "The Last Watch" which follows the filming of the last season. Wow, that was incredible. Really reminds us of how massive of a production GoT really was. Fantastic seeing everything from the set design and makeup, to the read throughs of the actors. Those jackets that the extras receive with their house sigils on the back were pretty dope. Seeing the effort that went into it and how emotional people were has definitely softened my stance on the last season.
Which makes it all the more annoying those two feckheads botched the landing on this.

Everyone gave their all and killed it except for the two most important guys at the top.
 
What's really annoying is that D&D are just going to answer critics with "we knew we could never have pleased everyone."

No feck you, even the BS "Bran the Broken" (:boring:) ending you provided us could have been accepted if you'd actually fleshed the story out. Selfish bastards simply destroyed it's entire legacy with that horrific final season.
 
What's really annoying is that D&D are just going to answer critics with "we knew we could never have pleased everyone."

No feck you, even the BS "Bran the Broken" (:boring:) ending you provided us could have been accepted if you'd actually fleshed the story out. Selfish bastards simply destroyed it's entire legacy with that horrific final season.

Makes you think - was there ever a scenario in which everything could've been wrapped up into six episodes without making it into a complete shitshow?

Looking back, it is ludicrously short. Definitely needed at least 10 episodes this season, or even another season to close storylines.
 
I think it's weird that people keep citing the production quality to defend the show and its ending. Just because they spent so much money, it's not getting better. People would never do that with a Michael Bay movie or anything. But as this show was on tv, it's suddenly an argument?
 
I think it's weird that people keep citing the production quality to defend the show and its ending. Just because they spent so much money, it's not getting better. People would never do that with a Michael Bay movie or anything. But as this show was on tv, it's suddenly an argument?
I take your general point, but Michael Bay movies look like shit in general. GOT didn't.
 
I think it's weird that people keep citing the production quality to defend the show and its ending. Just because they spent so much money, it's not getting better. People would never do that with a Michael Bay movie or anything. But as this show was on tv, it's suddenly an argument?
Basically everything about Thrones outside the writing at the end was almost perfect. The score, the sets and the costumes especially were all outstanding. The set pieces were spectacular too, even if illogical in the context of the show. It's one of the best produced pieces of media I've ever seen, comparing it to something Michael Bay did is way off the mark.
 
Basically everything about Thrones outside the writing at the end was almost perfect. The score, the sets and the costumes especially were all outstanding. The set pieces were spectacular too, even if illogical in the context of the show. It's one of the best produced pieces of media I've ever seen, comparing it to something Michael Bay did is way off the mark.
It wasn't a comparison to Michael Bay's stuff. The statement was 'production value alone does not make a good product'.
 
Basically everything about Thrones outside the writing at the end was almost perfect. The score, the sets and the costumes especially were all outstanding. The set pieces were spectacular too, even if illogical in the context of the show. It's one of the best produced pieces of media I've ever seen, comparing it to something Michael Bay did is way off the mark.
I strongly disagree. Acting and editing were very shaky at times. And as another user pointed out, I never made a comparision in quality.
 
Basically everything about Thrones outside the writing at the end was almost perfect. The score, the sets and the costumes especially were all outstanding. The set pieces were spectacular too, even if illogical in the context of the show. It's one of the best produced pieces of media I've ever seen, comparing it to something Michael Bay did is way off the mark.
I don't think there will be another show that rivals GoT in the costume department at least. The dresses, armours etc are incredible.