(Some Spoilers)
Game of Thrones, the biggest thing on TV, just wrapped off its seventh season. It's as popular as ever and continuing to be the biggest piece of monoculture in a crowded TV landscape. Thrones is always divisive, always controversial, but nothing if not consistently captivating. Season 7's filming schedule was delayed for weather reasons (sensible choice given that "winter is here"), was subject to script leaks and eventually aired a couple months later than expected with an abbreviated 7 episodes, as opposed to the usual 10. It's still Game of Thrones, but did feel like a different show due to the hurried pace at times and forced plot points. There were signature moments of course, but this was probably the worst season of the show thus far, which still means it's one of the better shows in TV history.
Following an all time great finale in Season 6, and a penultimate episode, "The Battle of the Bastards", already etched in television lore, the bar was set very high for this season. Dany had finally set sail for Westeros, a prospect six years in the making, Jon's journey from the lowly bastard of Winterfell to King in the North was complete, and his parentage was finally revealed and executed on screen perfectly. All the chess pieces were moving into place and setting up for the show's final act. These monumental events and revelations took six years (!) and captured the collective consciousness of millions (16.1 million to be exact watched the season seven premiere live). Most importantly, they felt earned. They took time, as we watched our favorite characters get beaten down, told what they couldn't achieve, violated, tortured, and some even killed, only to rise again and triumph so spectacularly and satisfyingly that season six is probably my favorite so far. It was cathartic, powerful, and but also had more than enough fireworks to keep the audience thirsting for what was to come. The prior seasons also had moments like this: Tyrion killing his evil father, Jaime slowly redeeming himself, Arya getting revenge on pretty much everyone, just to name a few. But season six's last few episodes carried the weight of an entire series at the peak of its popularity and delivered a fulfilling payoff. It was so great precisely because it was so long overdue, the pain of waiting for every large conflict to come to a head made the realization of them so much better, in every way. But season seven did not have the same emotional importance, not even close. It didn't feel earned.
Ever since season four George R.R. Martin, the mastermind behind the novels the show is based on, has no longer been involved with the show. He wanted to focus on writing his books, and the show-runners D.B. Weiss and Dan Beinoff were left to pick up the pieces and go forward after running out of book material. They probably conferred with Martin about having a direction in mind but still, it was uncharted territory for the most part. They've done an admirable job. Season's five and six were both really good, at times great, but season seven started to show a bit more strain. Season seven seemed rushed, simply put, and not just because of the shorter episode count. There was so much fan service, panicked pacing and the season displayed more of the writers' plot maneuvering than the show defining political maneuvering in King's Landing, where I've always found Game of Thrones to be at its very best. The season just felt unnatural. Nothing seemed to be happening organically. It was transparently just two men in a room, moving around chess pieces frantically at the behest of a rabid fanbase. The show somewhat lost its way, as Beinoff and Weiss did their best to adhere to an ever-expanding viewership and have all the necessary dominoes fall. That was perhaps the most frustrating part, Game of Thrones became predictable.
Thrones has long been the standard in subversive storytelling, unapologetically killing off fan-favorite characters, doing the exact opposite of what people have always expected, and overall just being unpredictable, laden with twists and turns that feel necessary, not gimmicky. Almost every plot line this season was predictable, forced, or just plain irritating. The Night King got a dragon, Euron Greyjoy, while enjoyable on screen, sailed into the show and became a plot device cheat code that showed up when convenient. Sansa and Arya had the most artificially manufactured and hard to watch beef in recent memory. The show has literally turned Bran Stark into a clairvoyant encyclopedia. He knows everything, about everyone, at all times! Why even bother at this point? Luckily he hasn't ruined the show's element of surprise either because he selectively uses his immense power, or his powers are just incredibly vague to begin with. Jon Snow's suicide squad expedition up beyond the wall with a pack of fan favorites has been well documented at utterly foolish, and likely existed solely to give The Night King a dragon. Speaking of The Night King, we only have six episodes left of this entire show, he has been marketed as the preeminent baddy, yet we know nothing about him. As far as I can tells he's a mute ice dude who would be an Olympic javelin thrower if he was dealt a different hand in life. And he can raise the dead, but he himself has not been that menacing a character if we're being completely honest. Villains like Cersei, Joffrey, and Ramsey were so good because they were/are reviling characters, and we knew their weaknesses, we knew their insecurities and we saw them be truly cruel. Does anyone really hate The Night King? We're supposed to hate him because he is evil, in an impersonal, esoteric sense. He's never made our skin crawl or be truly afraid. He's a Marvel villain, a video game level you need to get past, and not nearly as important to the narrative as Thrones' human antagonists. This of course can change, but there's such little time left to substantiate his character it feels as if the writer's won't bother. Also, why is Gendry back? Like why on earth did Gendry need to steal valuable screen time in an already shortened season? And how does he run so fast?! Thrones season seven has left us with more questions about its trivial logistics than its moral ambiguities or big themes, i.e. the important stuff.
With Thrones' trudging onward even further into post book territory, it's safe to wonder whether Weiss and Beinoff even know how they're gonna end this thing. They no longer have the luxury of Martin's novels to guide them, and it shows. And maybe they're just tired? Hell, I would be too. As great of a show Game of Thrones is, these guys have been living and breathing it for the better part of a decade. They already seem more invested in their new show Confederate, which may or may not be a good idea, but that's a discussion for another time. They are clearly yearning to mix things up creatively. It's not as if HBO is trying to rush this thing to the end to clear up space for something else. Thrones is their biggest hit ever, they would fund it for another decade if the show runners wanted to. But Weiss and Beinoff want to end it, it's their call. As two clearly talented and motivated writers, maybe they want to do something new. And they are talented, granted Martin wrote the source material, but Weiss and Beinoff have done a phenomenal jobs bringing the pages to life, and have even realized some characters better than Martin had, he admitted as much himself. Weiss and Beinoff have always had a firm grasp on the characters, perfectly understanding their motivations and knew exactly how the characters would act in any given situation Yet in season seven, characters began to betray everything we've come to know about them. Tyrion, Varys and Littlefinger, advertised as the most intelligent men in Westeros, have been borderline stupid. They've been reduced to shells of their former selves at the expense of the plot moving in a certain direction. Watching Tyrion get outsmarted so easily, or seeing Littlefinger trip over his own webs of deceit, was... dissapointing.
It may seem like I hated the new season, and I definitely did at times, but truth be told Game of Thrones is still one of the best shows on right now. I'm still going to watch, and so is everyone else. Game of Thrones is not losing any fans any time soon, if anything it will continue to gain even more. And this season, for all of its pacing issues and forced plot developments, still had its signature moments. Episode four, "The Spoils of War", was a standout, combining reunions we've long been waiting for with a breathtaking action sequence featuring Dany on dragon-back and her Dothraki army ambushing Jaime and Bronn and the returning Lannister forces from Highgarden. Having fan favorites on both sides of the battle made for a much more complex sequence and allowed viewers to be emotionally invested in its outcome. That and dragons breathing fire in an open battlefield is awesome, and something Thrones fans have wanted for like... ever pretty much. The finale had some great moments of dialogue, Olenna Tyrell's death scene was brilliant, and there were a handful of other great moments as well. The acting is still very good, but some of the dialogue was still forced and stilted, and frankly I've stopped trying to understand why the Jon/Dany incest romance had to be a thing. But the production value is as good as its ever been. The camera work, the visual effects, it's all top notch. Ramin Djawadi's score is as good as ever. Game of Thrones still has a ton going for it, and the undying support of millions of loyal fans. The writers just need to be more deft at advancing plot lines, and really be more in touch with the characters we all know and love, or love to hate. Game of Thrones is still Game of Thrones, but this last season was a bit worrisome, I'll leave it at that.