I remember the reactions in the ap.net thread like it happened yesterday... these are actually what got me to go back to the show as I had missed out on Season 2 and what had already aired from Season 3 back then. Fun times!
my wife said to me this weekend that she was thinking about watching GOT for the first time. she's not read the books. my instinctual reply was "...ooof."
Lol yeah it was literally only cool because Tyrion said it. No one else can pull it off. Related-a friend of mine has been going through the show for the first time and been posting reactions. It’s been hilarious to experience it. She flipped out about Jon Snow recently and then a few days later was like “okay nevermind” lol
i don't think i'd say that it blows, but for a show that for the years it was on absolutely dominated pop culture and the attention of everyone whether you liked the show or didn't you couldn't go a day without hearing about it, that last season really ruined it's longevity in terms of being a show i ever want to come back to. i genuinely don't think i will ever have the desire to re-watch this show. and that kinda bums me out because i loved it for so long. i haven't really thought about it at all since it ended save for when this thread has activity. i will give the new show an honest shot however, i think it could really have some potential.
This show is one of the best with a bad last season. The books will be better I have no doubt. It's a shame he's the slowest writer in the world.
The fifth book is also good. I'm okay enough with the last season because I largely like what happens on paper. I still have more issues with season five.
This show is definitely not one of the best, but for a time felt like it could’ve been. Then again, in hindsight even the “good” seasons are loaded with issues and those issues are exacerbated to the nth degree as the show approaches a godawful conclusion which destroyed even the casts’ faith in the legacy it was trying to build. I honestly feel fine saying it blows.
Eh I think saying it blows is some pretty big revisionist history. It was appointment TV (really good TV at that) for nearly a decade. The last 2 seasons are extremely rushed and misguided. Does that betray everything that came before it? Yes and no, as someone said, on paper what happens is what I expected. The plotting of that course is a mess after they were out of books to crib. But I’d be lying if I said the first 4 seasons and season 6 weren’t pretty much uniformly excellent.
Endings can ruin a series. see How I Met Your Mother for the ultimate example. for some people this ending ruined the series. It kind of did for me.
Show definitely does not blow. The ending beats make enough sense that it doesn’t ruin what was excellent TV and story telling for the first 6 seasons (minus two specific storylines in season 5). What ruins the last two is the rush to get to those beats, basically abandoning the great storytelling for summer blockbuster cinema. Which was a very entertaining spectacle! But that’s at least a rung below, if not more, the quality that preceded it. I didn’t watch GOT for popcorn spectacle, I watched it for the rich storylines and complex world building and etc. Even some of the reunions and first meetings of cast members that happened over the last two seasons just didn’t get enough time to breathe and develop and etc.
I mean it’s not like The Wire or Sopranos level golden television, there are reasons to think it blows. Particularly if you don’t like these fantasy style macho stories, and the early seasons definitely had excess rape stuff that almost turned me off from it even though I had read the books. If you do like that genre of television and story though yeah it was great high quality entertainment up until the end.
Reading my post back I make very little sense. Why would you be watching it in the first place if you weren’t into that genre.
tbf, but also to your point…24/25 year old me only knew about it through my wife then gf at the time. And I told her I’d never watch it because I wasn’t into that stuff. But being 24 and flipping through channels and catching the scene where Dany and Doreah were “training” each other, I stopped flipping channels to see what that was lol. Ended up keeping it on for like 30 minutes then later asking my gf about it and as she talked to me about the other scenes I saw I realized I wanted to know more so I began my season 1 binge and got hooked.
I feel like my biggest issues with the last two seasons is that it hit story beats that didn't feel earned, and felt so rushed that some became out of character because it didn't take the time to let the story get there naturally. One that bothered me that I don't think a lot of people bring up is Littlefinger's end. For something that felt so satisfying, it also felt a little hollow. It felt like something that shouldn't have worked as well as it did but it was just so good to see him get what he deserved that I overlooked how it was executed.