@ghost-of-a-duke saidI agree that the "bigger battles" and "spectacle not story" thing made episode 3 dull and interminable and seemed to have no 'story' to it [always an issue when it's basically like a zombie movie]. But I thought the sacking of King's Landing was spectacular and managed to carry multiple story points at the same time.
@FMF
This was a good review by Esquire:
In fact, it would take something like 25 Lord of the Rings-length movies to tell George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy saga...That's why Seasons Seven and Eight felt so ridiculously rushed. That's why people started teleporting, why once complex characters suddenly became flat, vanished altogether, or morphed into nothing but ...[text shortened]... of the narrative. Instead Benioff and Weiss wanted bigger battles! They wanted spectacle not story.
@vivify saidBrilliant!!!
This skit perfectly encapsulates the complaints fans:
[youtube]jAhKOV3nImQ[/youtube]
I challenge FMF to watch that and not change his mind.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidI am sure they did stop to consider both of those things. I think they knew exactly what they were doing.
This was a good review by Esquire:
No one stopped to consider these beloved character arcs or the sheer logic of the narrative.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidIn case anyone didn't get the bit about Starbucks, GOT had a scene where a Starbucks Coffee cup was left on a table.
Brilliant!!!
I challenge FMF to watch that and not change his mind.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidI am not going to change my mind. I am just genuinely interested in what the naysayers' stance is. I blanked out what was obviously going on the media. I never read any TV reviews until after a series has ended. And even then I usually don't care.
I challenge FMF to watch that and not change his mind.
It has done its job. It's not the kind of series I would ever watch again or think about much after this thread fades out. I can only go on the jolly good entertainment that I felt during those last 270 minutes or so and my feeling as the end titles came up for the last time, added to which was trying to explain - later that evening - with the assistance of several Indonesian pilsner beers - how much I'd liked it [after the first three underwhelming episodes] to a teetotal Dutchman who would rather have been talking about his new motorbike parked outside the bar.
That's all I have: that feeling when it finished, trapped in aspic, a snapshot of a happy and satisfied viewer. There will be no other snapshot of what I feel at some later point as I won't ever dwell on the series enough to develop different feelings.
It's pretty much like how it is with music. If I like an album and give it 4-5 spins, no amount of bad reviews or unanimity among critics can affect how much I liked it [or the other way round with a bad album that got good reviews]. TV series and films are much the same.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidA classic example was the superb series called Bloodline. I loved series 1. I didn't look at a single review. Series 2 was similarly amazing. I still didn't look at any reviews. Couldn't think where they'd take it with series 3 but it was brilliantly done and very worthy of what had come before. Then I did look at the reviews: series 1 was said to be brilliant, series 2 was disappointing and poor, series 3 was unwatchable. This, in a way, made my own enjoyment of it, all the more intriguing.
@FMF
This was a good review ...
@vivify saidIt's funny. But I thought that all the series could have been given this sort of comedic treatment. It was always a medieval caper with yer actual dragons and a sprinkle of Dallas, no?
This skit perfectly encapsulates the complaints of fans for the final season:
[youtube]jAhKOV3nImQ[/youtube]
@fmf saidGOT up until that point followed the source material. After season 5, there was no more source material because the author didn't release the books yet. I'm assuming it's because showing what happens on the show would affect book sales.
Just listening to a [rightwing!] podcast about the series. She [Lauren Chen] argued that series 6, 7 and 8 were all very poor and that series 1-5 were vastly superior. Is that a widespread viewpoint?
From Seasons 5 on, the writers had to create their own storylines. Maybe the fans didn't like the direction the GOT writers took it.
