Game of Thrones

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Admittedly, Preston can be a bit of a nut-job with his crackpot theories on the books (though he fully admits that they're probably wrong), but it's fun to watch him obsess over GRRM's material so much, and also hilarious to see how over-analytical he can get with his interpretations of GRRM's writing that even Martin himself said that he was overreaching a bit in one of his questions to him (yes, he has met him in person).

But the dude definitely knows his shit. He actually inspired me to read the books a second time through and completely reinterpret many scenes and characters with his WYAM video series going through each episode of GOT since the beginning and highlighting all of the major story-line differences between the book and show.

As for Internet reviewers who he reminds me of, I get a lot of YMS vibes from his "Preston Watches" series (it really reminds me of YMS's The Walking Dead review), though obviously a lot more tongue-in-cheek.

I mainly like how he's one of the few book purists who doesn't act like an obnoxious ass-hole to fans of the show, even if he disagrees with them. We already have Comic Book Girl 19 for that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's a video of two Israeli guys picking apart this season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXDxNq08UNY

I know it sounds redundant when people like me bitch and moan about how things were "so much better in the books," and I try to avoid that as much as possible, but it's also important to note that it's not that the show is different from the books that pisses me off. It's that it won't even follow its own goddamn logic without any source material to directly rip its content from. It has created numerous inexcusable plot-holes based on stuff from this season contradicting plot points from earlier seasons which were completely original to the show to begin with.

I started my obsession with A Song of Ice and Fire thanks to the show, so I will always be grateful to it and the people behind it for introducing me to such an awesome book series in the first place. And I still stand by my opinion that the first four seasons of Game of Thrones are some of the best television in the history of the medium, while season five is flawed but overall good television. While season six has definitely had its moments ("The Door" was a legitimately good episode, FWIW) and is entertaining on the whole (though, far too often for the wrong reasons), it truly is glorified fan-service. For the people who do still like this season, that's fine, go on liking it, but for those of you dissatisfied with how the writers have handled things since Martin has detached himself from the show entirely (which, not coincidentally, happened right after season four), I really do implore you to check out the books someday. While I can't guarantee that you'll like it (to be fair, some people find it a bit boring since it's decidedly anti-Hollywood in its narrative and is notorious for getting stuck in detailed exposition about it's world and character backstories), I can at least promise that you will get a coherent and incredibly well-through-out ensemble story with interesting characters and plot twists that are earned through good build-up rather than something that the writers pulled out of their asses to make a scene come off as "cool" or "epic" regardless of whether it made any sense within the context of the story or not.

At this point, I'm really just keeping up with the show more so to see Preston make fun of it in silly character voices rather than out of actual interest in seeing the plot unfold. The sad thing is that most of the main actors are still turning in great performances, but their talent is wasted here. Peter Dinklage in particular has really been criminally underutilized.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Remembering one of my favorite groups of characters in the earlier seasons, Tyrion, Shae, Podrick, and Bronn. Out of all the characters herds, I liked them the most for their chemistry and occasional camaraderie. And as of now in the show:

Shae: Betrays her lover (understandable) and Sansa (less so) then gets strangled and barely gets mentioned by Tyrion nowadays.
Podrick: Became Brienne's slave.
Bronn: Follows Jaime's shit despite getting nothing in return.
Tyrion: Shitty ruler whose previous military and leadership expertise from the earlier seasons is completely absent here.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So far in the books, Tyrion, Jorah, and Penny have joined rank with The Second Sons (who are NOT lead by Daario), who have currently switched sides and joined the slavers, betraying Danaerys in the process. However they know that the slavers will be a lot cause before long, so Tyrion joined under the pretense that he could use his skills to find a way to get their leader back into Dany's good graces, along with himself and Jorah. He also happens to have inside information on another Targaryen claimant who is after the iron throne. Yes, that's kind of a huge deal. No idea why the show decided to cut that one out when there are several other story-lines that felt like filler or padding.

For whatever reason the showrunners really wanted to rush towards teaming him up with Dany, but one has to wonder what the point of it was when he has been given nothing to do this season.

[Dr. Insomniac]

This was in my head when watching the episode.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Only in this episode? At least it took Arya more than an episode to make it to Westeros. I'm still trying to get over the fact that apparently Littlefinger learned the Instant Transmission technique, and apparently the Sand Snakes as well.

I won't lie, this episode had about as many writing problems as previous episodes, but the directing was brilliant, as was the acting. That's what makes it so much more hurtful when the writers can't keep up to snuff with the story. I see episodes like this and want this to still be one of my favorite shows so badly, but the heart and spirit just isn't there anymore. Is it bad television? No, not even close. Even several other shows that I like such as Arrow or The Flash can't even begin to compare to this. But when you compare this to the first four seasons of the show, or stuff like Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, it just doesn't hold a candle to them.

If I had to rate this season on a scale where season one of Game of Thrones was an A+ (definitely the best season by far, in retrospect), and seasons two through four were a solid A, and season five was a notable step down but still retained some of that spirit to hold its own as a solid B, then this season would be a C+ for me. As general television it's undeniably entertaining with unrivaled spectacle and great acting. And in episodes like this and The Door, I just have to acknowledge when something is directed really well. On all of those levels the show succeeds greatly, and it makes it an entertaining watch. But was that why people fell in love with the show in the first place? Perhaps to an extent, but I believe the main reason was because of the story and characters. So few shows could tell a great story of this caliber and keep running with it. And for a while, when they still had great material to pull from, the show did run with a great story. But now those elements have taken a complete backseat to the spectacle. And when traces of GRRM's writing make it into a season like this, it's terrific. Unfortunately, that's not enough to make up for an incredibly sloppy plot encompassing the rest of what we got this season.

In a way, this season has become the equivalent of an Uncharted game. Emphasis in writing seems to be more on having an excuse for the characters to take part in cool action set-pieces, and the story is written around that rather than naturally flowing of its own accord. The same goes for the character development. And for that reason, this season was really lacking.

I'd say that I was disappointed, but if I'm to be honest, this is about what I was expecting once the series veered so far off the path of the books last season. So, at this point I'll just take the show for what it is, glorified fan-fiction. That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy it, but all of the themes and meaning and original intent of the story are all but lost.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek2O6bVAIQQ

Alright, I know that I bitch about the show a lot and how much I like the books. I don't want to be one of those people who doesn't shut up about it, so now that I've gotten my thoughts out so many times, and linked to that video which helps to sum up a lot of my own viewpoints on this season, I'm just going to go into the next season and just judge it at face value.

Of course, seeing as how the writers seem to have trouble even keeping up with their own continuity, I'll still probably find things to complain about, but for all that I do complain about it, I still do enjoy the show a lot. I don't hate it by any means. I just wish that this season was better than it was.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

https://youtu.be/mnyseAZ4xU8

Ok, seriously now, last time. I just couldn't resist.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Jesus Christ...

[Dr. Insomniac]

So the guy who directed the last two episodes won't be coming back. Yet the guy who directed the 8th episode this season along with the Sand Snakes fight will. Fuck.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Miguel Sapochnik also directed Hardhome. For as much as I complained about the writing in this season, we still got some great television through brilliant direction and production values, and Sapochnik's episodes particularly showed his talent at visually keeping us engaged. I think that he's a talented director and I'm actually excited to see what projects he moves onto next, because I totally want to check them out.

In a way, you could say that his talents are sort of being held back by Dan and Dave's sloppy writing for this series. And for the record, I don't actually hate Dan and Dave. I think that they are doing the best that they can with only a few months worth of time to write over half a season's worth of content, seeing as how this is a story that was in development for over two decades, while they have less than ten-hours worth of content per season to somehow cram so much story and character development into and still balance everything out. I acknowledge how hard that must be to do. But, just because I acknowledge it doesn't change the fact that the writing is still all over the place.

Now, just imagine what Sapochnik could do in a series with writing quality on par with Breaking Bad or The Wire.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, now that we've all had our share of criticisms on this season, here is a video on a more positive note that predicts how this series will probably end: http://youtu.be/wxG03oBY5zU

I'm in the camp of fans that also thinks that this is what Martin is going for.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, going by recent news articles, it looks as though season seven will be delayed to account for winter finally coming to Weteros.

[Peanutbutter]

So, going by recent news articles, it looks as though season seven will be delayed to account for winter finally coming to Weteros.

It makes sense. They had to do that with the first few seasons of the show, didn't they?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No, Game of Thrones has always premiered between March and April for each year of its run. This year, filming won't start for several months since the show needs to account for the winter weather on most if not all of their outdoor sets. Because of this, filming will also wrap up later than ususal, so the next season may be delayed by a few months in its premiere.