Postmortem

As expected, some of the reviews of Game of Thrones last episode, and indeed it’s last season, have been scathing.  And having reflected on it, I do think the last couple of seasons have been really disappointing.  I don’t think it’s enough to change my mind that this is one of the best TV shows of this decade – many of the earlier episodes and seasons are outstanding - but the ending has been anticlimactic, in much the same way that Lost was a decade before.  It’s interesting to note that as soon as the series went beyond the book material, the drop off in the quality of writing, plotting and pacing was significant.  I’ve owned the books for some time, but never started to read them – mainly because I didn’t want to compare or spoil the TV show – but now I’m finally in a position to start them, and it will be interesting to compare and contrast.  Unfortunately, I fear that George R R Martin will probably die before he has a chance to finish them.  Similarly, I saw a theory that the show changed for the worse when it moved away from sociological storytelling (a focus on larger society) to psychological storytelling (a focus on the individual)– a really interesting, if somewhat over intellectualized, theory that probably has some truth to it.  In many ways, I have some sympathy with the producers that the last season has felt so rushed – this is a huge show with a huge cast who I’m sure wouldn’t want to commit to lots more years for another 2 or 3 seasons that the show probably needed.  So in many ways the show has been a victim of its own success.  But that’s not going to stop me buying the box set, and indeed I’ve already pre-ordered the “Complete Collector’s Set” for the princely sum of $250.  That’s a lot of money for something that, much like other box sets I own, I’ll probably never get round to watching…