Season 1 to 4 = 10/10.
TVW = TV writers.
Since the TV show left the books behind (around S5 on), the show's writing has gotten worse and worse. I think the first poor episode was probably the one where Arya is being pursued by the T- 1000. It was utterly absurd. But this season (s7) has been by far the worst.
Aside from the odd decent moment, and the awesome spectacle of the dragons, it has been average at best. Melodrama has replaced a proper narrative. Contrivances have replaced logic. Let me give you some examples:
1. Daenerys has spent her entire time planning to invade Westeros. And when it was finally time to do so, the dumb TVW threw a spoke in the wheel. Out of nowhere, she suddenly can't hurt any bystanders, so holds off the attack on King's Landing (Yeah, 'cause she hasn't had to hurt any innocent people in order to get to the position she is in now, has she!?) This silly little contrivance is designed to prolong Cersei on the throne (itself a really dumb idea) as long as possible in the most artificial way possible. The TVW are completely shitting on logic in order to force this demented Mexican standoff. The latest episode goes even further... A proposed alliance between Cersei and Daenerys and Jon - to defeat the Army of the Dead. Jon and co have to prove to Cersei that the army is real by capturing one of the living dead. Just think about how DUMB that sounds. As if Tyrion, or Daenerys, would be entertaining anything of the sort, especially at this moment in time. Tyrion would never even advise it, because he isn't stupid enough to trust his sister for ANY REASON.
2. The long awaited reunion of characters was handled in a really clumsy way. It was dreadful. Where was the real emotion with Sansa- Arya or Bran-Sansa? It was non existent. It was like these people were just ordinary buddies who chanced upon a meeting. I was really looking forward to seeing the reunions, because we have been waiting since SEASON 1 for it. What a complete let down that was.
3. Characters are everywhere at any time, as if they have a teleportation device. Daenerys hears that the Lannisters have taken Highgarden - and the next minute, her army is right there with Jaime in the thick of it. The continuity has gone out of the window. Whatever the writers want to happen happens. Magic wand, LAZY writing.
4. Melodrama / soap opera nonsense. In the last episode (S7E4), I had to suffer watching jaime being saved by Bronn in the most ridiculous way there is. The cliché and brainless 'last second save'. And then, as I fully expected, we open episode 5 to discover they haven't been captured and have miraculously managed to escape unscathed, floating in deep water while WEARING ARMOUR and A SWORD! Holy crap. That's what happens when you run out of actual genius (Martin's work) and have to work on your own crappy, limited brain (TVW).
5. Characters aren't behaving like they should be. I've already mentioned Daenerys in regards to this, but it extends across the board. Bran "OOooo I am suddenly not Bran anymore... but I can feel who he was" or some slop. He still hasn't explained ANYTHING to anyone, even though the world is about to do battle with a mortal threat that he understands better than any other person on the planet. Sansa's turned into some awful caricature, totally alien to who she is as a person. And don't give me the Ramsay bullshit, since that was a dumb TV move in the first place and never happens in the books. Cersei is somehow queen and ultimate ruler, and making logical tactical decisions. But, here's the thing, it's already been established long before now that she is a useless tactician, and a naive, childish brat, who has no leadership qualities. But that's all out now, because they need her to be a main antagonist on the show. Speaking of Cersei, her one remaining child died and her emotion to it was zero. That's after it being well established that her only reason for carrying on with life was her children. Oh, but let's just switch off our brains again. The TVW said it's all OK! Whoopi-doo.
6. Contrivances. For example, Jorah Mormont needs a cure. Suddenly, he's managed to trek to some sort of hostel hundreds and hundreds of miles away, seemingly to just die - where he meets up with Sam - who not only finds a cure in a random book, but manages to pull off the delicate procedure, explained within, at the first time of asking. Then Jorah is back with Daenerys super-quick time. It's just so damn lazy and transparent.
7. Dialogue. This has taken a big hit as well. It's always been the case that the writers think swearing is uber-cool and shoehorned it into as many places as possible - but now they are out of Martin's material, a lot of the meat is gone. Tyrion stands out the most. The TVW are in over their heads. They are out of their depth.
Does anyone think Martin will be remotely THIS incompetent? The TVW have always made a mess when changing things (very often for no sane reason) from the books. For example, army numbers and population numbers being exaggerated to absurd levels; ridiculous and unrealistic events, like Sansa marrying Ramsay; over the top swearing, sex, nudity - for no other reason than to appeal to the mindless, lowest common denominator. But this is worse.
It's still entertaining, but the quality slide after S1-4 is larger than people are admitting. Some cool scenes with dragons isn't making me blind and dumb to all these issues.
It's not really a shock that it came to all this though, is it? The writing has been getting worse season on season since they left the books behind. And even before that, as I mentioned previously, Dumb & Dumber were making foolish mistakes and deviating from the actual plot for no logical reason. Even when GOT was a 10/10 show, there were clear signs that they would be useless once GRRM's material ran out.
Honestly, though... no show has disappointed me with an ending as much as GoT.You should watch Dexter next
1. Battlestar Galactica (new series)Yeah, talk about jumping the shark. New Caprica, say what??? (but I still think the "Adama maneuver" was pretty sick)
Honestly, though... no show has disappointed me with an ending as much as GoT.Umm... how about any decent sci-fi series Fox picked up, like Firefly or Terminator:Sarah Connor Chronicles?
Firefly had a great last episode and a very good season - and was cancelled. The show itself didn't disappoint me at all.It was cancelled despite doing well in the important categories. 'Nuff said.
I never watched Sarah Connor nonsense... spin offs like that are always going to be poor as hell.If you've got DVD Netflix, give it a shot (don't know if it's on streaming or not). It was reasonably well-written (especially when compared to the likes of Galactica and DS9, both of which Ron Moore was involved with), and was getting into how the players in the future (being SkyNet and the Resistance) were sending back more than just "Kill ___" and "Protect ___" missions, but almost playing a game of chess against not only each other, but even itself (especially SkyNet). Oh... and Summer Glau is easy on the eyes, and she was also in both series (do I see a pattern?)
editHere, have some karma :D
Haha, you edited your post with the same as me.
You should watch Dexter nextOh, good heavens. Four excellent seasons, one meh season, two crap seasons, and then season 8 was the single worst season of a television program I have ever seen, capped with the single worst episode of television I've seen, a finale so stupid that it makes the rest of the season look brilliant by comparison.
I'm not going to invest time for nothing.Watch Babylon 5 instead. Netflix reviewer said it best... "Season 1 showed the lack of budget they had, but so much that happens later in the series depends on things inconspicuously laid out previously."
Yeah, talk about jumping the shark. New Caprica, say what??? (but I still think the "Adama maneuver" was pretty sick)
Season 1 is also a very decent season that for some reason gets criticism.Mostly because it does spend so much time setting up back story and future events, that it doesn't seem to actually "go" anywhere.
Parts of Season 5 were on the poorer side, but again it was a very good season with an excellent final episode.Much of what happens in the latter half of season 4 was pulled forward from season 5 because the team didn't know whether not they'd get renewed. When TNT did pick up the fifth season, they suddenly needed filler material. The series finale was actually shot during season 4 (production number 422) because of that. After being renewed for the fifth, what we saw as the season 4 finale (production number 423), was filler (even here JMS managed to incorporate the foreshadowing of humanity's future becoming non-corporeal, which we saw again in "The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari" as Sheridan was changing "uniforms" in the Zocalo).
Yeah, the consensus everywhere is "Don't watch Dexter", so I definitely won't haha!Honestly, the first four seasons of Dexter are absolutely worth watching. The show is pretty good about isolating plot arcs to seasons, especially early on, so you can easily watch the first three without cliffhangers. Season 4 is the best season the show ever got, and it ends on a... sort of cliffhanger? Like, it definitely leaves some questions unanswered, but it still makes for a good stopping point. I would definitely recommend watching Dexter and continuing through the end of season 4.
Is it worth watching season 1 or does it end on a cliffhanger? I'm not going to invest time for nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxdLult6YKUMore like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znNciln7qwY
That's how a real final season is done.
Honestly, the first four seasons of Dexter are absolutely worth watching. The show is pretty good about isolating plot arcs to seasons, especially early on, so you can easily watch the first three without cliffhangers. Season 4 is the best season the show ever got, and it ends on a... sort of cliffhanger? Like, it definitely leaves some questions unanswered, but it still makes for a good stopping point. I would definitely recommend watching Dexter and continuing through the end of season 4.
Game of Thrones will never touch that. And even BB doesn't.This has to be trolling
Only seen season 1 of B5, and keep hearing good stuff about it. I know the cg is outdated but still wanna check it out.CG was never the driving force behind B5. They did set some records at the time for stuff like number of objects concurrently on-screen, but that was never their goal. If/as you watch, keep in mind that the most seemingly innocuous of events/statements can have empire-changing ramifications two, three, or even four seasons later. Example:
I feel sorry for you guys who can't enjoy it. Must suck!
Not as much as realizing that the majority can because of their chronic lack of an IQ. That depresses me far more.
I'm just waiting until the series finale to chime in on my disappointments.You've got more patience than these half-million (and counting) (https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/game-of-thrones-fan-petition-remake-season-8-1203217025/) people :-P
Hopefully the momentum isn't killed yet, and we can continue to discuss our maaaaany thoughts on this beloved series. I'm just waiting until the series finale to chime in on my disappointments.
GRRM will probably die before he releases WOW, and we'll have to deal with his estate (like Tolkein's) stringing us along for decades. Or maybe they'll hire D&D to flesh it out with spinoffs?Couldn't be any worse than what Frank Herbert's boy did with "Dune"
Couldn't be any worse than what Frank Herbert's boy did with "Dune"Don't remind me, I'm handling sharp objects right now.
Wow. That was a painful ending. So so bad. Worthless writers.It's OK, it's over now! I loved it. Have fun waiting for your books :D
I appreciated Firefly a lot for Summer Glau.FTFY 8-)
It's OK, it's over now! I loved it. Have fun waiting for your books :D
In fact, even the actress herself has made comment about how silly that is.Yes, in the back of the scenes of the slaughter episode she says something like "they want me to appear dead for second and then recover, but the audience is too smart for that..." she also appears with a very insecure posture.
I mean, it's possible to enjoy a show but still acknowledge the writing is bad, lacking, etc. One of my favorite movies is The Room. That movie is bad at a level beyond human comprehension. It was made by an alien after all.The thing is we spected something deep but we got something empty just for easy entertaiment and laziness, I guess I also blame cocain for their inflated ego.