Seasons 1-4 - Excellent
Season 5 - Meh
Season 6 - Great
Season 7 - Meh
Season 8 - Dumpster fire
This is like Mass effect games. Mostly amazing, sometimes disappointing...with an ending that ruins the entire ride.
First 4 seasons were really good, 5 and 6 have their problems but 7 is when it gets a lot worse. (Season 8 doesn't exist lol).
Don't think I would ever rewatch this because I know how terribly it ends.
And NO WAY I'm hearing anyone out who says this is better than Breaking Bad, that show was perfect from start to finish. How are you gonna compare BB to a show, that has 8 seasons and the writing goes to shit after 4 seasons?
Fantastic Brilliant and Awesome to watch from start to End
Gonna give this a shot over the weekend. Heard so much about it.
OMG reading the books now.
Don't waste your time with this.
I have seen season 1,2 and 3. But I can't get myself to continue. The series is beautifully made, it really is. But I just can't seem to get into the story.
I had to downgrade the rating form 10 -> 9 all is because of Season 8, this is how you almost ruin the best show in the world...!
Chapeau Breaking bad :)
I still don't get it!
First 4 seasons, perfect narrative, dialogue and consequence. 10/10. Seasons 5 and 6, complete dip in all around quality with enough published foreshadowing and plot points from George to get by. 7/10. Seasons 7 and 8, dumpster fire with zero narrative consequences, no consistent character action nor any redeemable arc conclusions. The cinematography and production earns the entirety of the final seasons 4/10. Impossible to give this "complete" story anything above a 7. Completely betrays the characters and the audience.
And here it is: the end of the biggest television show of all time.
Seasons 1-4 are (close to) perfect.
Seasons 5-6 are where some of the cracks start to appear, with some filler episodes that don't build a lot of character. However, they're still great seasons nonetheless.
Seasons 7-8 are good, not great. They have certain pacing (rushed developments, teleportation of characters) and writing issues (plot armour, unsatisfying & unearned conclusions etc.). It is especially the level of production that elevates these seasons above average television.
Am I also unsatisfied with how they handled certain characters at the very end? Absolutely.
Do I think, however, that they mostly stuck the landing? Yes.
S1: 9.5/10; S2: 9/10; S3: 9.5/10; S4: 10/10; S5: 8/10; S6: 8/10; S7: 7/10; S8: 7/10
Overall rating: 8.4/10
Peak show ( S1-4 are the best piece of media )
Seasons 1 to 4 were arguably among the best TV ever created. But the show steadily went downhill after they went past the books and it became clear the writers were in way over their heads. Seasons 5 and 6 were decent, season 7 was bad, and season 8 was one of the worst seasons of television ever put to screen. Just unbelievable. D & D should seriously rethink their career choices after that finale.
"Last season sucked!"
"The end sucks!"
Sorry, I prefer to be positive and as someone who is involved in the creative work as a writer I think that they made their best. You can have your opinion, that's mine!
An amazing show tainted by disappointing deviations from the source material and two absolutely awful last seasons. Bad last seasons will always ruin a show for me if the show is intended to portrait a continuous story with ever evolving characters and plot lines. The ending is as important as the beginning if you are trying to tell me a story. The ending of Game of Thrones was a joke, some of the worst writing I have ever witnessed on TV, the show was ruined and honestly at this point I just want to forget about it. The fans deserved better. George R R Martin deserved better. The people that worked on the show deserved better. It's what you get when a show is made hostage by two horrible writers that are in a hurry to ruin Star Wars next. I honestly wouldn't recommend this show to anyone anymore unless they don't mind getting massively disappointed with the last 20 episodes or so.
If you enjoyed the finale, power to you, but this is my opinion. Game of Thrones is a show I don't intend to watch ever again. Hopefully HBO wont ruin the prequels/spin-offs although I don't think I care anymore.
After reviewing the 8 seasons individually and averaging my personal scores it gets a 7.4 out of 10 from me, it's a shame because the first four seasons were close to being perfect.
I really don't understand why this is so popular. It's boring, horribly slow, the story repeats itself again and again, terrible acting.... Why? Oh I really tryed watching it, thinking "it must be me; it must be good; do your best; make an effort", but I after season 1 I still couldn't find anything that entertained me, not even a bit. It just annoyed me. So just keep the hype going without me!
the most boring thing ever
Plot (Story Arc and Plausibility): 9,2/10
Personal Enjoyment (Premise & Entertainment Value): 9,6/10
Acting (Characters Performance): 10/10
Cinematography (Environment, Setting, and Wardrobe): 10/10
Editing (Pace & Effects): 9,5/10
Music and Sound (Sound Design & Film Score): 10/10
Story (Vision & Execution): 9,9/10
Characters: 10/10
Protagonist: 9/10
Antagonist: 9,5/10
Deuteragonist: 10/10
Ending: 3/10
Season 1. 9/10
Season 2. 10/10
Season 3. 9,3/10
Season 4. 10/10
Season 5. 9/10
Season 6. 9,4/10
Season 7. 9,3/10
Season 8. 6,5/10
Overall Assessment: 9,3/10
Best moments are S1-S6 . Skip s7 and s8
Perfect series but the 8th season is a huuuuuge disappointment
Create a character you root for, kill him off, rinse and repeat. Sure, it is technically, as in acting and special effects, a good show but the story is just crap.
Big loss... it was one of my favourites until sixth season. I really loved it so I'm really disgusted because they basically ruin it... they had a great story, great actors... great all! And at the end they fucked it.
"Game of Thrones" is a dark fantasy story about the way in which power corrupts, and everyone, even our biggest heroes, fail us. It is fantasy, but it is adult fantasy. Highly political, violent, dark, and sexual. What makes "Game of Thrones" so great though is that it has created an incredibly epic fantasy world, but still seems so similar to our own. Most of the show is about human desire, and what they will do for love, power and sex. "Game of Thrones" is full of great writing, fantastic character development, awesome build up, and powerful, intense scenes of action, suspense, and emotion. Unfortunately, "Game of Thrones" falls completely off a cliff when it hits season 8, which likely is the only reason it got a 9 instead of a 10 for me. I understand why for some people this ruined the show, but for me, seasons 1-7 were probably the best television I have ever watched (or very close to), and to me, "Game of Thrones" remains an amazing accomplishment.
Have really enjoyed this show. Recommended for sure
This show could have been my favorite if it wasn't for the unfortunately bad final season
A a a a a 89
Finished series the night it ended.
first few seasons are an 11/10, just astounding world building and enthralling characters. the ending definitely screws the pooch and frankly almost ruins the entire thing, but it's still worth a watch
If it wasn't for the last season, this could have been the goat.
It really hooks you on. The story, the characters.. Everything was perfect, until the end got too confusing me to handle, no idea why they eventually decided to go that way with the ending. Anyways it was a blast watching this.
They managed... by the gods, they managed to fuck it up!
I didn't give this show a chance until recently because I've never been a huge fan of the genre and I heard the last season sucked. What a mistake! A little context - I tend to like dramas like Mad Men or Better Call Saul. I despise shows that have limited backdrops (zombies, vampires, etc) and I've never been a fan of movies like Lord of the Rings.
Season 1:
The opening scene of the first episode gives you a false idea about what the next several seasons are about. The season is generally good and then late in the season you get your first feel for how the series is going to go for you.
Seasons 1 - 4:
The show settles in to a nice pace and there are ebbs and flows along the way. Some storylines are better than others but I can say there are few bad scenes
Season 5:
I started to get a bit itchy. The season is very good but because there are so many storylines it feels like the plot is moving forward ever so slowly. This series really could have gone on forever if they wanted it to.
Season 6:
We start to see the end in site and storylines start to converge (or end)
Season 7:
And then it happens. All of the sudden the episodes went from "this is really good" to me wondering if I could call in sick tomorrow because I want to binge the rest of the season. It really is that breathtaking. It really was a joy to see the storylines come together and to see actors who had not acted together in the series working together. But more importantly, you began to see the results of all of the setup that had been done in the previous seasons. There is probably a stretch of 10 - 12 straight episodes that are just ridiculously good.
Season 8:
There are few shows where you feel like you are losing an old friend when it ends and this show ended up being that for me. I could not imagine that I would ever feel that way about it. Anyway, I can't fathom why this season is so reviled. The finale was only "good" given how poor series finales tend to be I was happy with that. The ways that the stories wrapped up were true to the overall series. I can't imagine what people expected - more fighting? The show was never about that. Anyway, I felt a huge weight off of my shoulders during a certain episode ended - I can imagine that others did as well. It may not have reached the heights of Season 7 but it was still really good.
Overall I would put this series in the same place as Mad Men, The Wire, Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul.
Cast 10/10
Storytelling 10/10
Characters 10/10
Video Prouduction/Cut 10/10
Environment 5/5
Conclusion 3/5
Without season 8 = 96%
Brilliant and unmissable show until the final season where they wrecked years of work. final season seemed rushed and botched, disappointing.
The first 6.5 seasons were really great, often truly amazing. The last 1.5 seasons were poor. The last 1 season was terrible. The last 0.5 season was just an utter disappointment that made me really sad. Overall, still one of the best TV series in the world.
For me, it's the best show ever even with the sharp decline after they ran out of original source material
Trainwreck...
(Don't mind me, just thinking out loud)
Somebody asked me,"should i watch it? i hear the last season was awful". You absolutely should. The last season is bad mostly by comparison and by its own high standards, but the series was declining in quality since it stopped following the books, so it was expected (for me at least). This is the greatest fantasy series ever and one of the greatest of any kind. A must watch.
With already way over 300 comments I am not sure one more will matter but I make the effort anyway.
I've waited 5 years, until the show finished, to watch it in one piece. I actually managed not to know anything about the plot. But, all the time wondering: will it be worth it? From where I stand the answer is a confident "NO". Every season I was looking to convince me to continue until I finally couldn't any longer in season 4.
The production, without doubt, is probably one of the best ever done for TV. That I will like to admit. The cast is splendid. But the story could not get me excited in any way. Half of the time it was interesting while the other half is more like a highly praised soap opera (yeah, call me names but I stand behind that).
Reading how the show ended and what even the ones who love this show think about it, I guess I made the right decision. I don't know of another show that has such a drop in the avarage ratings for it's final season.
Well, there are many other things to watch now.
season 1: good adaptation of a good book. great casting. 8/10
season 2: massive drop in quality. many character arcs butchered. at least the broader strokes are fairly accurately adapted. 6/10
season 3: bad adaptational choices continue but generally the character arcs are better. 7/10
season 4: the material being adapted is the best so far but the adaptational choices are the worst as well. 6/10
season 5: why. why would they adapt two of the most complex books in the series in 1 season. everything is rushed and terrible. jon's story is the best of these but it's still vastly inferior to the book. some truly baffling adaptational choices here. 3/10
season 6: on the surface this is a step-up in quality... but this season feels incredibly artificial. there is so much fanservice crammed in here that it's borderline offensive. this show doesn't resemble george's story anymore. this is an incredibly overrated season. relies on "wow!! cool moment" to mask how fucking vacuous it is. 4/10
season 7: lmao what the fuck is this. this is awful. this is bad fan fiction. absolutely shameful. 1/10
season 8: one good episode. at least we got the broad strokes of the ending if george never finishes asoiaf. funny how people only started noticing the show's problems in the final season. seriously? it's been bad for 4 seasons and season 7 was worse. something tells me that people are just angry they didn't get the fanservice ending they wanted. not that im gonna defend this season, its terrible, but its better than season 7 at least. 2/10
Amazing if you only watch Seasons 1-3.
Anyone who down play this show is mental. The show was epic. Start to finish. Standing ovations to everyone who lived and died. It left me wanting more but content with what I GOT.
Great Show but the last season broke the show, that why i changed my vote from 9 to 6. All nice little hints and stories became broke in the season so this show was a real disappointment for me.
I hate having to wait to watch next episode :exploding_head::exploding_head:
as a big fan have to say it is probably the worst episode I've seen
One of my favorite shows. I'm sad this is the last season.
Winter is here. If you haven’t watch this series, watch this series
sorry I don't get the hype, maybe because I'm European and tits and ass are nothing special here lol
cersei lannister did nothing wrong
I love Cersei so much.
Is ok
I thought this show was massively overhyped. It looks amazing, but I can't say I really care about any of the characters.
Funny, in case of Breaking Bad I am actually one of those people claiming it's sort of the best drama in television history and can't understand most of the criticism that it gets from the "haters" (you know the drill).
While in case of Game of Thrones I am on that other side, the "haters" side, I assume.
Generally spoken, I am genuinely interested in plot driven shows where you have a complex society and their circumstances explained to you. In lack of a better example, I enjoyed the anime MAOYU (Maoyuu Maou Yuusha) a lot. It focused on the improvement of society in a middle age like time. That involved for example trades for profit as well as for political pressure or education for the common men to improve the live of all. Compared to GoT it was obviously much simpler but you hopefully get the point that I am not condemning GoT for what it is or tries to be.
I just can't get into this show. I get where it is coming from, the scenery is actually really good, costumes are very well made, some likeable characters but all that is left after watching an episode are the basically countless breasts, some pointless violence, profanity and a lot of confusion due to the cutscenes that you see in every episode and the sheer endless amount of characters. Cutscenes from one house and plot to another. Because of that it feels like it's not moving forward at all and as a watcher I feel tortured and bored to death with all the unnecessary anecdotes, side characters and sideplots not bringing anything to the table.
The whole show tries way too hard and puts too much into the pot to attract as much people as possible. Sex, nudity, portraying women almost only as whores or otherwise pleasure material, incest, profanity, violence, partly even gore, all kinds of characters mixed together, great scenery, outstanding props/environments.
As soon as something starts to make just a bit sense another cutscene and you're left hanging in the air until you forgot where you were or what happend before until you get back, resulting in you not caring for a single or at least most of the characters.
Having partly awful actors doesn't help this show either (the guy playing Viserys Targaryen for example, wow is he bad). Actors who rigidly recite their text with almost no (plausible) emotion in voice or facial ex-pressi-on (basically every private scene of Eddard and King Robert).
In addition it seems like this show is on of those where you have to prepare before watching it to be able to follow it, like reading up on Wikipedia, the books, searching for a relationships chart (which I did, cause I lost track of all the connections pretty fast) and the like.
Concluding I must say as a TV show this one fails big time (for me). It's bad. Really bad.
After watching 5 episodes, that are roughly 5 hours, a sixth of the whole show for now I can't watch another episode.
Getting back to the hater thing, I can't leave this being unsaid: It's a hilariously overrated show.
Maybe I am going to take the risk and read the books instead, in some years when the hype is over. Instead of watching this I rather waste my time on Homeland that picked my interest from the start and was actually able to make me care about the characters.
Out of all the fan theories that circulated over the years, you would be hard pressed to find one that was dumber and more disappointing than what the actual final season turned out to be. You would be better off watching Cats the movie in its place, because then you would at least be able to laugh and cringe rather than feel immeasurable disappointment and emptiness.
If you can stop yourself from watching the entire show, you might do well watching seasons one through seven and picking your favourite fan theory to close out the series. Truthfully, even seasons five, six and seven were weaker than the first half of the show, but at the time it seemed forgivable because of the show's strong beginning and the expectation that everything would tie together nicely at the end.
Those foolish enough to watch to the end will be faced with an experience similar to the five stages of grief and loss as they make their way through the final episodes. Denial that this episode is actually part of the series and not an out of season April Fool's joke. Anger that you let yourself get so invested in this show after refusing to get on the bandwagon for so many years. Bargaining, that these were fake episodes to "subvert your expectations", or that the season could be remade. Depression, that this is actually the real thing and it somehow turned out so poorly. Finally, acceptance. Just an empty feeling, no anger or sadness over increasingly stupid and illogical scenes and outcomes. Just coming to terms with this really being the end of the show and this somehow managing to get released.
It comes together about as well as a project finished in the last hour of the last day before a deadline, despite having had vast resources to pull from over the two preceding years. The only remotely redeemable aspect of the final season is the endless amount of hilarious critical reviews and memes that come at its expense.
As for the rating, it would be unfair to give a give a 1 the entire series as a whole because of the incompetence of the writers in the final season. The series did start strong and everyone involved in the project aside from the writers obviously invested a lot of time and quality work into the show. The acting, music composition, cinematography, editing, visual effects, etc. all ranged from great to amazing.
Started watching this since it was often trending on trakt. Great show. So thanks trakt!
Can't wait for season 5!
i can’t fucking breathe
This show is awesome. The story line, background and characters are phenomenal. love it
last season( season 4) was 'quiet', seems this one is starting off well. i'm already looking forward to the 3 powers battling for the iron-throne.
At one point in time there was no Game of Thrones. Shudder.
I have never been so bored watching a tv show. Even The Sopranos was better than this, and that was bad!
This is one of the best I've ever seen on TV!
Gripping from start to finish. A must see :-)
Honestly one the most brilliant shows of ALL TIME
I watched the first 3 season's when they came out as well as reading the first two books, this show and the books are overhyped and complete non-sense. Now I've given it a chance and watched all 8 seasons, and my opinion of the show is the same... each season has 1-2 episodes that are good with both action and solid story telling... GOT for me is a fantastic character study with very bad and bland world building.
I honestly wish I liked it more, but it doesn't hit a standard of writing I'm use to with fantasy realms like this.
I know i know the final season is pretty bad...... This does not take away how amazing the show is overall. I just recently rewatched this entire series again and was shocked with just how good this show was. I would honestly recommend rewatching it.
A show that left me waiting every minute for the next episode for the past 9 years, binged watched Season 7 in one night leaving me in a zombie state the next day but well worth it. Seeing the end coming had me anxious and we would religiously watch each episode of Season 8 as it is released, and the episodes were damn good. It was so good it brought people who are not into this Genre to love it and be invested in it as the story unfolds
The ending is not what I was expecting, and I was left unsatisfied and wanting more. I still loved every season of the show but for a show that always set the standard high, it wasn't what I was expecting at the end for such a phenomenal show which was true thrilling roller-coaster. I'm trying not to ruin it for anyone with a spoiler but I loved this show and still do even with the ending that we saw
Lets hope that a show can match the story telling of Game Of Thrones, with an ensemble of fantastic actors, amazing visual effects, and fantastic story telling to fill this void at HBO
#GOT #GameOfThrones #TV #2019 #Seaon8 #NoSpoilers #HBO #GeorgeR.R.Martin #KingsLanding #Books #Fantasy
Many episodes are really boring, especially in the early seasons.Some other are really good but they are not so musch, however is highly overrated
The best Serie that ever existed.
The most beautiful, interesting and amazing TV series for me. I love it. Also I wait the 8 season
could not stop watching burnt up 9 days
everything ends up being women in power
This is the first show ever to make me go from a 9/10 for the first 5 seasons to a 10/10 for the sixth one!
There will be a before and an after Game of Thrones in television history. Must watch! And several times!
Read the books as they came out, I find this to be extremely well done and a mostly faithful adaptation of the books. The real heroes are the casting people and the art direction, I honestly can't think of a single casting decision I disagree with and feel as if the books have come to life.
Undoubtedly one of the best series I've ever seen. Everything on the show is amazing, the way the director adapted the book for the cinema was spectacular.
Epic series!
My best recommended TV show ever.
Excuse me, but what exactly happened in season 2 through season 4? In every season there was one interesting episode, maybe two. Season 1 was the best in my opinion; each episode was thrilling and exciting. I could't wait for the next episode. Now when I watch it I literally fall asleep.
Khaleesi and Jon Snow are just as beautiful as they are boring. Yes, Daenerys is a strong and powerful woman, but all she does is talk and even though she moved a lot the past seasons, her character is static. On the other hand, what Jon constantly does is training. Nothing exciting about that. Still, "The Watchers on the Wall" episode was one of the two interesting episodes of season 4.
The same happens with another show that started amazing and now there is almost nothing interesting in it: The Walking Dead.
Hate me if you want but my words are not untrue.
One of the best show I've watched in a long long time. The story isn't as typical as the American tv and movie stories we are accustom to. I am sick and tired of the white American super hero coming to save the day bullshit. In this show you shouldn't expect anything else but least expected. I love it. I mean look at it's rating. Unbelievable. Great plot. Great casting. Great writing.
Worst show of all time. Fantasy garbage with that typical HBO porn trash flare. Pass on it or just hate watch it. Very poor show.
For christ sake, more and more stuff different than in the book :/
I need to get caught up on the books before the season finale. This show is awesome!
Surpassed my expectations.
for show the best show on television right now.
i read the books ages ago when i was a kid and the show does it wonders!
its incredible how often they are word for word from the book when they speak just goes to show how awesome a writer George R.R. Martin is.
for those who loved to read the books of George R.R. Marin: The tvshow has the same awesomeness!!
It is well worth sticking with, it won't take long to get used to all the characters and the story is easily one of the best I've ever read. It looks like they've knocked it out of the park with the adaptation so if it gets the backing it should, it should start knocking shows off the top of Top 10 lists pretty damn soon.
It’s finally over. It took a very long time to get here.
SPOILERS needless to say
Before I talk about the show specifically I just wanted to say that one of the great things about it is the potential it’s unleashed. Now we know the possibilities of the medium. Literature has long been adapted into movies, most of them unsatisfactory. Occasionally literature has been adapted into TV miniseries, but now we see the full possibilities: literature can be adapted into TV shows relatively completely, far superior to a movie or series of movies. The time has come for more of these adaptations and I hope the industry follows through on the potential. (My favourite pet project is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses plays as one TV series though I know it would never get made. [Note: It has sort of been made by the British.]) If nothing else, Game of Thrones has shown possibilities in TV rarely glimpsed of before – the ability to tell the kind of stories only literature was capable of before, full of deep characters and with lots of nuance.
Now on to the actual show:
I am not a fan of the fantasy genre. I don’t like it for many reasons but two of the reasons can be summed up in the way characters are used, both in how they behave and what happens to them. In fantasy, characters are either good or bad. Good characters can be corrupted or misled, and bad characters can be cured of their badness but nobody is normal or real. And then the are the character arcs, where the good protagonist follows a story arc that involves defeating the main evil character with the world being restored to its natural state. It’s the stuff of children’s stories as far as I’m concerned.
But The Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones are about overturning or subverting these aspects of fantasy, and many others, at least at first.
The first thing that appealed to me about Game of Thrones were its characters, so much more nuanced than any I had ever encountered in the fantasy genre. Though it’s not necessarily clear immediately that the genre is being completely subverted in this way – as it feels as though there are good and bad families in the first season – at least the characters are nuanced in ways in which fantasy characters rarely are. One of the strengths of the show is how everyone is flawed, and the characters we initially think are bad or good turn out to be just human and flawed, some more likable than others. One of the great things about the books, which I never finished, is how Tyrion and Littlefinger are introduced, as a sniveling minor bad guy and a sycophant respectively – both introductions feel like incredible sleights of hand given how important they both are to the plot. The show doesn’t quite commit to the same levels of sleight of hand with Tyrion but it still does introduce these two in ways in which you could not possibly anticipate their arcs or their significance. And this is even more true with Jamie, who is so unbelievably evil early on but is sympathetic, despite his flaws, for most of the show. This kind of thing is done mostly really well and is pretty incredible.
But I think I still wouldn’t have fallen for the show if the characters had just been nuanced. What really got me is that moment in the first season when you realized No One Is Safe. It was absolutely shocking and incredible and the moment at which you realized you were watching something unique in the history of fantasy. (Had I read the books first, I’m sure it would have been just as shocking in the book.) The show kept this up for a number of seasons, and I loved its lack of loyalty to major characters. (The books make it clearer who is safe and who isn’t so I actually found watching it first more rewarding in this regard.) For me, such a big appeal was not knowing what was going to happen next, and not having the whole thing completely telegraphed out by a prophecy and the goodness and badness of the characters. (Think about how this kind of thing happens in The Lord of the Rings and you get a sense of how incredibly unconventional A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones truly is. Imagine Aragon or Frodo getting his head chopped off in the Fellowship of the Ring.)
But 8 seasons is a long time and over this time the show has definitely gotten repetitive, frustrating and at times boring. There are a few things which I think were not handled well, especially as the show progressed.
For one thing, there is a lot of people sitting around or travelling and never getting there. Daenerys sits around or takes circular journeys multiple times throughout the run of the show, and we’re never sure exactly why she’s doing either. (And, speaking of repetition: how many times do Daenerys or forces get ambushed per season? I think it’s at least two times per season in the latter seasons.) Many other characters take forever to get places, none more than the White Walkers, who walk slower than the old Ukrainian ladies in the neighbourhood I grew up in. Other characters go on circular arcs like Daenerys, where they encounter similar issues from one season to the next, sometimes in the same place, sometimes in a new place, but always with echoes of previous travails. (This critique obviously doesn’t apply to early on in the show when there were more characters, and when characters were having their first adult experiences.)
Then there’s the trope that really drives me crazy: a particular army or force is presented in the show as powerful and it is then beaten (regularly ambushed) by another force which is somehow superior, even though nothing in the show has indicated that this other force could in any way be superior. This happens so many times it actually starts happening multiple times a season. It’s basically the equivalent of killing off a major character, but using characters we don’t care about, and preserving major characters, which makes it annoying. The forces that (briefly) triumph always appear out of nowhere and feel like Deus ex machinas. (And they feel this way whether or not they are military forces as this trope occurs with the religious zealots too.) And there are always more soldiers after the fact. No matter how many soldiers die, there are more soldiers in their place. Between the general incompetence of the heroes and the infinite number of faceless soldiers that can be rallied to turn the tide of a battle, it’s a wonder anyone we care about is still alive. But the show doesn’t care about this. As the show generally doesn’t care about the logistics of anything – be it creating armies, travel, building ships or (especially) rebuilding destroyed buildings. (Winterfell and the Red Keep sure look good awfully quick after they get ruined.)
Also, the longer the show has run, the more it has leaned in to the very conventions it was ostensibly trying to overturn, and nowhere is this more clear with how John Snow keeps surviving impossible odds. Given that John Snow is one of the least likable of the characters who make it to the final season, this is particularly aggravating.
And just a note about time: when it suits the show, it takes people forever to get anywhere. When it doesn’t suit the show, they get there quickly. The White Walkers are the slowest but humans can be super slow too. And then, all of a sudden, someone appears impossibly, at least impossibly based on the show’s own concept of time. If you think about the journeys throughout this show of many journeys, many of them don’t make sense if the others are to make sense.
Anyway…as I joked on social media, I was on #teamwhitewalker. I wanted the show to truly be an allegory for climate change, one that humans lost or barely survived. That didn’t happen, but I knew it wouldn’t. As my friends pointed out, they did indeed hint strongly that the White Walkers would not win, even if they were regularly presented as being the ultimate challenge to the humans. So I’m okay with this and with the overall ending of the show.
I think most people didn’t get upset until the final season, or season 7 at least, but I was upset well before that. But to just mention the biggest thing everyone is upset about with the ending: This show is so damn long, I think we all could have used more of a set up for the biggest heel turn. And I don’t think the show needed more episodes to do that, I think they just needed to make the change more gradual, or make her “true nature” more obvious (less subtle) early on. I think I have spoken to one person who thinks this heel turn was earned – everyone else didn’t buy it. That says a lot about how this show has handled the last few seasons, even while most people were completely fine with the way it was handled. But I actually found the final episode about as satisfying as I could imagine it being, given how I’ve felt about the last few seasons, and given that I wanted the White Walkers to triumph, so I think this is more a manner of a flaw in the execution of the show, rather than in the story itself, and the heel turn.
It likely sounds like I didn’t like the show but that’s only partially true. I loved the show for its first half or so, and I think it is a great accomplishment. But at some point it just went on too long for me, and its virtues disappeared or turned into vices. I wrote most of this after suffering through episode 4 of season 8, where the show threw logistics out the window to a new degree but also time and sense, seemingly cutting a few shots which would have explained what the hell happened to one of the major characters, who somehow got herself executed. (Also, like so many people I was very annoyed at how many people survived the Battle of Winterfell.) What I am trying to say is that my memories of loving the show have dwindled under the onslaught of mediocrity that was the latter seasons.
If the show had been cancelled after its first season, I think I would have given it a 9 or a 10, 10 for “transcendent” or 9 for “near transcendent” or “great”. The 9 probably would have held through Joffrey’s death, at the very least, and probably significantly longer. As the show went on longer, and the things I liked about it began to fall by the wayside, I was still thinking I owed it an 8, for “very good.” Seasons 7 and 8 really hurt how I felt about the show, even more so than the previous season or two, and I was really leaning strongly towards rating it a 7, for “good.” However, the final episode was the rare final episode of a long-running TV series that did not leave me extremely frustrated. I still had complaints – I thought the small council scene should have been last though I understand that, at bottom, this is about the Starks and they have to be last, and I had a few other quibbles, particularly about a certain chair surviving the Keep getting burned – but on the whole I felt it was as good a job as could be done of wrapping up, especially given the missteps earlier in the season. So I’ve got some goodwill right now.
PS Can someone please put on a fucking hat? It’s cold out there.
I was so confused on how to rate this. On one hand, you have season 1-4 which I believe to be the peak of television ever. On the other hand, you have season 5-8 which ranges from okay to terrible.
Season 1-4 was amazing since it mostly focused on what the show is about...A game for the iron throne. The politics of the seven kingdoms fighting for the seat was great. After running out of book material, they show basically turned into a Michael Bay movie relying heavily on CGI and dumbed down characters making dumb jokes.
Tyrion went from being the smartest character to be reduced to silly cock jokes. Littlefinger and Varys suffer a similar fate. They completely butcher Jaimie's character arc. Basically every main character was given every plot armor possible. I honestly wonder who was in the writing room in the latter seasons. I'm just glad Tywin was killed so his character wouldn't be disgraced
Seasons ranked:
season 4 - Wowzers! Peak television right here.
season 3 - Amazing.
season 2 - Great.
season 1 - Great.
season 6 - Okay.
season 5 - Mediocre. Such a disappointment especially coming off season 4.
season 7 - Bad.
season 8 - Terrible.
If I could go back in time and not watch this show I would. Production and actors aside, this show is trash. They had it in the first season but continues to fade and fade each season thereafter. Knowing the highs and lows of the series, having watched it all, it was worse than a waste of time. There are banger and that can't be denied. The bangers do not outweigh the multiple plot fuck ups, unnecessary grape scenes, sloooooow story lines, and maybe one of the worst endings of all time. Fuck this show. I will never watch a show by these creators again.
Advice to you - if you've avoided it this long go watch something else! Fucking watch Lord of the Rings. Fuck this show.
Based on the most vast and well defined fantasy worlds with grim reflections of our own history, since J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle Earth; Game of Thrones takes us through the events and history of Westeros bringing myth to life, while the wheel turns and crushes the lives of many others. The Song of Fire and Ice brought to life in the darkest of times. For the night is dark and full or terrors, & winter is coming.
Was a great show, until it wasn’t.
The Stark mongrels all deserved to be deskinned just as much as all the Lannister subhumans. That's about all I have to say about this show. Sansa Stark may have been the most vile of them all. Everyone knew what the Lannisters were, but she connivingly worked her way into an undeserved seat of power. She should've had her skull bashed in, instead. At the end, the people of color and a woman win two wars and bring peace to the realm, and the whites decide to betray and murder the woman, and tell the people of color that they'll die, if they enforce justice for the murder of their queen. They should've slaughtered all those white mongrel subhumans right there in the dragon pit, starting w/ the Starks.
this show is simlply great
The ending is good, actually.
5/5 Rating for the entire series and overall review: A show like this was always going to end in a way that wouldn’t please everyone, but Game of Thrones really polarized viewers and critics alike with how everything got wrapped up. Like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it became very trendy to just dismiss it all as unequivocally rubbish. But like that infamous Star Wars film, the truth of Game of Thrones is more complicated and not as bad as some say. Overall, this is without a doubt one of the best series ever made, and one I was majorly obsessed with throughout the past decade. Pretty clearly seasons 1-4 and 6 are where most of the best episodes reside. Below is a breakdown of general thoughts about each season.
Season 1
Not one of my favorites until years later when a rewatch with perspective on where the show went reveals a restrained, wonderfully written introductory season with complex, developed characters and increasingly dramatic political deceptions in the second half that gives way to the more anarchic and scattered later seasons. 10/10 Best episode: Baelor
Season 2
Has a lot of strengths and also ups the brutality from season 1, especially in the first half of the season. I love how dark and increasingly fantasy-centered this season is, with an incredible battle episode to cap it off. However, I have to deduct a point for butchering the amazing Danaerys in the House of the Undying scene from the second book, A Clash of Kings, and the muddled climax to Jon’s storyline where he gets captured by the wildings, which is far more exciting in the book. 9/10 Best episode: Blackwater
Season 3
The fan favorite, this fantastic season sets up the increased action and face-offs that’re plentiful in season 4. The Rob Stark storyline and tragic ending to him and his mother is heart wrenching, and I absolutely love all the amazing Icelandic scenery throughout. I don’t like the Theon dungeon scenes in the middle episodes, but everything else being so perfect still means this is a 10/10 season. Best episode: tied with The Rains of Castamere and Kissed by Fire.
Season 4
Perhaps the juiciest season yet, comprising of the climactic second half of A Storm of Swords, the best book of all five. Suffice it to say, there are numerous highlights across nearly all episodes, especially involving Tyrion Lannister. Really no weak moments aside from maybe 1-2 random scenes. The season that cemented the show as one of the all-time greats. 10/10 Best episode: The Lion and the Rose, with The Mountain and the Viper, The Laws of Gods and Men, The Children, and The Watchers on the Wall as runner-ups.
Season 5
Oof, this season was a doozy which began the second half of the series with fallout from all that happened in seasons 3 and 4. 5 here meanders around from one miserable nightmare of an episode to another, including Sansa and Theon's storylines, Jon Snow and what eventually happens to him, and Stannis and his daughter. The only real highlight is Hardhome, and I suppose the final scene in the following episode with Drogon escaping captivity in the gladiator arena. 8/10 Best episode Hardhome, duh.
Season 6
The other side of the coin that was season 5. Season 6 is a monumental achievement, finally doing away with the unnecessary “sexposition” and rivaling 4 for being an amazing climax of a season with one highlight episode after another. Sure the Arya storyline is weak, but literally everything else is excellent. High 10/10 with Hold the Door, Battle of the Bastards, and The Winds of Winter all tied for best episode in the season and basically of the whole series.
Season 7
Aaaand here’s where it starts to go downhill. But there are still some amazing moments to be found! The Loot Train Attack and Lady Olenna’s final appearance are without question two of the finest scenes of the entire series. The Beyond the Wall episode is full-on fantasy schlock, but at least it’s fun and enjoyable to watch so I don’t mind. I also like how the extended season finale emphasized character interactions and development, which was very interesting to watch. 7/10 Best episode The Spoils of War
Season 8
A shaky final season with filler episodes and some bewildering climactic episodes too. The Long Night was well executed, but felt anticlimactic after just how much the show built up the white walkers, and they don’t even fight any humans the whole time! The real problem though is with The Bells, a miserable slog where Dany suddenly decides to be a violent mass murderer because seeing the capital of King's Landing made her crazy? Why didn’t she just fly over there and burn it down with Cersei inside and then declare herself queen, instead of doing what she ended up doing. I’ve heard some say she was slowly getting crazy but we didn’t notice, like making her dragons execute people, but come on. It’s an insane jump to go from executing traitorous prisoners of war to slaughtering a city of innocent people. And Grey Worm immediately joining in on it is even more far-fetched. I don’t know, all of that just didn’t work for me. It was well done on a technical level, but I just did not buy the writing on The Bells. The final episode I actually like, call me crazy. Was a nice breather after all the aforementioned craziness, the dragon melting the iron throne was a series highlight, and I thought where all the characters were left was satisfying. I rate this season 6/10 with the best episode being the series finale, The Iron Throne.
Top 25 episodes ranked: 1. Battle of the Bastards 2. Hardhome 3. The Door 4. The Winds of Winter 5. Baelor 6. The Lion and the Rose 7. Blackwater 8. The Mountain and the Viper 9. The Spoils of War 10. The Rains of Castamere 11. You Win or You Die 12. Kissed by Fire 13. The Laws of Gods and Men 14. The Children 15. And Now His Watch is Ended 16. A Golden Crown 17. The Watchers on the Wall 18. Oathkeeper 19. The Wolf and the Lion 20. First of His Name 21. Two Swords 22. Book of the Stranger 23. Winter is Coming 24. The Queen’s Justice 25. Second Sons
one of the top shows of 2011. so many twist and turns it kept me watching till the end.
ending wasn't the best but it definitely was "bitter sweet" as told.
Shushed dheheh hehehe hehehe hehrhr
I read the books after the first season came out and subsequently lost interest in the TV adaptation for a long while. As a result, I come before you in 2022 having finally watched the whole show after being pulled back in by House of the Dragon.
I have to tell you: I'm fucking mystified by the adult babies that hated this ending. It's perfectly thematically cogent and set up well in the lore, the plot of the last few seasons and even the color theory employed in S7 & S8 when everyone but John, Jaime, Brienne and Davos swap their lighter colors for ominous black. I mean, with all the "coin flip" lore about Targaryen's going apeshit periodically, and you still didn't think the lady in the Hugo Boss black leather dress who burns people to death and is increasingly single-mindedly wrapped up in her own will to power might be the baddie? In the finale, TYRION EVEN LAYS IT OUT STEP BY STEP FROM ASTAPOR TO THE PRESENT HOW SHE WOUND UP LIKE THIS. So how come all anybody could talk about in 2018 was how surprising and "poorly set up" it was that the lady who crucified people turned out to be kind of unhinged and maybe not the person you want in peacetime power? Given her path, how is it at all surprising that her last remaining close confidant getting beheaded in front of her, and that confidant's last words being the classic Mad Targaryen "Burn Them All" refrain, pushed her over the edge into flagrantly cruel madness?
This is an idea in historical and political analysis that I've long found fascinating: The people who make good revolutionaries rarely have the temperament for ruling in peacetime. It's usually best for everyone if they fuck off or get murked when the war is won. Add to that the biggest underlying creative force in Game of Thrones - fantasy trope subversion - and you have a recipe for the Good Warrior Queen who goes too far and has to be put down like a dog. Robb, Ned, John, Sansa, Bran... nobody escapes becoming a shattered-and-patched together version of themselves by the end of this. Why would Daenerys? If you were expecting this to end as anything other than the hope-tinged tragedy it ended as, you weren't paying attention and I can't comprehend why you didn't give up on the show by Season 3.
I am convinced if this hadn't come out during the Trump years, when we were all collectively dealing to various degrees with the trauma/upset of Slay Kween Hillary getting fucked out of "her turn" by Trump, people would have recognized this for the genius it is. I can only hope we get to have a re-evaluation of this show soon. Benioff and Weiss killed it, beginning to end. The only subpar thing about that final season is that The Long Night was less impressive than some of the other Battle Episodes, but that's a pretty high bar since The Battle of the Bastards is maybe best battle I've seen in visual media. I will say that I hope Martin finds a clever but equally thematically coherent way to change things up in the final books (if he ever finishes), however, only because it will be more fun for me as a reader to see a different version of the story.
10/10s for Seasons 3, 4 & 6. 9/10s for all the others. 10/10 overall. Love it!
After season 1 I couldn't get back into it. I didn't like how season 1 ended and it was hard to continue watching season 2 because it was a bit boring. After a few years and seeing others praise this show so much I wanted to see what it was about. It was hard to get through season 2, but it was worth it. The seasons afterwards were amazing. This is one of my favorite shows now and I'm glad I've finished it.
Review by dunpealhunterVIP OG 14BlockedParent2013-03-31T06:21:33Z
I can tell you that Game of Thrones is phenomenal, visual beautiful, fantastic, exhilarating and action-packed thrilling rollercoaster that in many ways has not been seen yet in a tv show. I could say that and be absolutely right about it, but unless you have been living under a rock without an internet connection for the past 2 years than no doubt you already heard, seen or read for yourself what a masterpiece the books and/or this tv series is.
Game of Thrones is exactly like the title says: A game for the throne. Played by the people who think its their right to claim, conquer or inherit it. They all have different goals and different ways of getting to that point, but their goal is in essence in one way or another the same for all of them: to be recognized and remembered for their deeds. Off course that is not so weird since everyone in real life at some level thinks like that. But the main characters in Game of Thrones are different, either through noble descent, the power and money they have, intelligence or sheer luck they have become a member of one of the noble houses that rule the countries and can decide the fate and lives of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people within the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos.
The story, setting and characters are all taken from a broad range of European history. Most of what we see of the continent Westeros (castles and tournaments) is taken from High Medieval Western Europe from around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. But the story takes bits and pieces from other time periods as well. For example the wildfire that was used in season 2 in a brilliant strategic move of "The Imp" Tyrion Lannister during the Battle of the Blackwater is in fact Byzantine "Greek fire" which was invented and first used in the 7th century during battles between Muslims and Byzantines. This and other historical events, devices and characters based on real people out of history are all as it seems perfectly interwoven into each other into the fictional world of Game of Thrones by the author of the books George R. R. Martin.
For the actors who play the characters i have nothing but utmost respect. The performance they manage to show episode after episode is definitely what makes this tv show so popular. There is one in particular that without a doubt is one of the more popular stars of this tv show: Peter Dinklage who plays the role of "The Imp" Tyrion Lannister. In the 1st season he was portrayed as nothing more than someone who took advantage of his noble status and money to do whatever he wanted. But in season 2 (and hopefully the next seasons too) he transformed despite his disadvantage of being born as a dwarf (who during medieval times and in this fictional world are considered "lesser" humans) into a brilliant military and political strategist and someone who can very good and enjoys as he so very accurately said himself "play the game".
Game of Thrones is without a doubt the hit tv show of this decade. It started out with a story about medieval times, but slowly with every episode we see the world of the Seven Kingdoms transform into a place where mythical creatures exist, magic and dark powers are used as a weapon against enemies and where the dead are once more walking again.... Winter is coming, and i have no doubt it that it will be as spectacular and story-wise phenomenal as we have have seen in the previous seasons.