Definitely what I was thinking during the Jaime-Brienne scene. Oy.
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I don't even see that post.
I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week's, but then you start thinking about things. Like Jon giving up Ghost for no apparent reason other than to save on the VFX budget. Like the ludicrousness of Dany immediately rushing into a second battle with zero strategy, because ...there's only two episodes left? Like how easy it would've been to just fly the dragon at an angle higher than 45 degrees to avoid the attacks, especially after the previous episode established how much higher they could go. Like Cersei not killing Tyrion immediately even though she's already committed herself to the 'scorched earth' playbook.
I will say that the ending was effective in establishing some emotional stakes for next week, and Clarke played that moment really well. I'm taking in the rest as silly fan service at this point. There's no reason to believe it's changing course. At least we'll get a lot of Lena Headey doing Cersei things.
Makes you wonder how terrible their Star Wars TV show is going to be...
Is there a reason that this season was rushed to get to an ending? It's HBO's biggest show, so I figured they would've been find if it went a bit longer, unless they were fearful they couldn't keep the cast?
For reasons already listed, if this show had seven episodes all leading to the Battle of Winterfell to END the season, and then all of next season to siege King's Landing, the rushing issues could've been addressed.
I'm enjoying it and all, and I think the emotions at the wall of the suddenly barren King's Landing worked, but it's all on the actors that are making this succeed right now.
Great question. I bet TW doesn't see any benefit going any longer and they are tired of spending $100 million on 8 episodes?
Cast salaries + the ATT merger.
The main cast is underpaid relative to the show's popularity. Henley, Harrington, Clarke, and Coster-Waldau each make $500k per episode. Turner and Williams $150k per. (To put that in perspective, toward the end of "Friends," each of the 6 member main cast made $1 million per episode for 24 episodes, and that was 20+ years ago.)
Everybody signed a 5 year contract in 2014. If they went ahead and extended the show for additional seasons, the network would want another multi-year commitment and the cast would want huge increases.
When the entertainment press crows about how GoT spends $10 million an episode, they never mention that a third to half of that is going (or would be going) to cast salaries.
This is the same reason every popular show gets cancelled if it goes on long enough. When it times come to negotiate new contracts, the numbers don't work out.
I seem to remember HBO really wants to continue it, even going hint-hint publicly that it’s up to D&D but they could go on longer, but D&D wants this done the way we are seeing now (imo the abbreviated seasons, so they having less work per one’s season’s same salary, and general sense of cramming pace really do feel like they want this finished already).
Hey, Irish. I can now say without hesitation that you're a fucking dick. I mean, this is news to no one, but thanks for giving me no guilt about saying it.
Yeh where did that come from?
I'm still waiting for them to announce a one season, one-off prequel series about Robert's Rebellion, dammit.
Not inaccurate, although I would say 6> 5
This last episode may have finally jumped the shark for me. Some of the dumbest shit the show has pulled, only now basically there's no reason left to continue watching. Every time something is about to go down, you think "now, what's the most GoT thing they could do here?" and they do it. Every time. Yuck.
I'm definitely annoyed with many of the decisions the writers have made this (and last) season, but I have watched this show live from the very first episode and have loved it. I *still* love watching the episodes because the actors are fantastic, the production cinematic, and so on. I really don't want to spend the final episodes of this great show just full on hating it. I'll still critique its weaknesses as a TV show but I've resolved myself to mostly letting it go. I think someone mentioned earlier that this makes them more likely to read the books and I agree - assuming they actually get written. The show is what it is now and I want to enjoy it as much as I can for as little as I have left of it.
I'm primarily thinking of the way they tanked the character of Tyrion, turning him into an ineffective and foolish advisor, epitomized by the decision to send a gang north of the wall to capture a wight. If I step back, that episode was probably the first time I started to deconstruct the logic of the episode and found it utterly ridiculous, even though I enjoyed the hell out of watching it. It was a monumentally stupid decision in the first place, then compounded by miraculous time jumps from Gendry pounding the snow at record speed back to the Wall to get Dany to save them all. Jon's impressive ability to avoid dying of hypothermia on his ride back to the Wall. Then the Night King eventually taking down said Wall with Zogon (what we named the zombie dragon), which makes me wonder how the hell he was planning to take it down on his march there considering he didn't get that weapon till the last minute.
Anyway, it's those caliber of questions I am asking myself after each episode now and it feels like it started there. Otherwise I agree - lots of stuff to love in that season.