A Game of Thrones **BOOKS OFF LIMITS** v2

[Kybosh]

It's essentially impossible to build such a vast and enthralling world with all these interesting characters and also have a nice, tidy ending that everyone is happy with. The best parts of these types of shows, or books for that matter, is the journey and not the destination.

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

It's essentially impossible to build such a vast and enthralling world with all these interesting characters and also have a nice, tidy ending that everyone is happy with. The best parts of these types of shows, or books for that matter, is the journey and not the destination.

I wouldn't say it's impossible. You just need people at the head that are willing to see it through to the end with as much detail as the beginning and middle.

It's fairly obvious that D&D are tired of it and just want to close this decade-long chapter of their lives as quick as possible. HBO offered them more seasons and more episodes but it was ultimately D&D that forced this rushed mess.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

It's essentially impossible to build such a vast and enthralling world with all these interesting characters and also have a nice, tidy ending that everyone is happy with. The best parts of these types of shows, or books for that matter, is the journey and not the destination.

The show was clearly rushed and/or poorly planned through the last 4 seasons or so. We ended up with a large amount of time being spent on the San Snakes. Euron was shoehorned in. And now, the writers aren't spending as much time as they need to wrap up the main story line.

A perfect ending, might be impossible, but a better one would have been fairly easily attainable.

[Mass_nerder]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

I wouldn't say it's impossible. You just need people at the head that are willing to see it through to the end with as much detail as the beginning and middle.

It's fairly obvious that D&D are tired of it and just want to close this decade-long chapter of their lives as quick as possible. HBO offered them more seasons and more episodes but it was ultimately D&D that forced this rushed mess.

I would guess that they weren't particular excited about moving forward without source material. Sure they know what's already been established, and ultimately how things end; they probably even received a rough idea of how some of the other plots tied up, but weaving it all together on their own is much different than what they did in seasons 1-6.
I wonder if the final two books had been finished, whether the series would have continued for another season or two?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Really has any long and successful show ended on a high? Certainly Breaking Bad didn't.

The best episode in the entire series is the 3rd to last one. The aryans were a dumb final villain, but overall the series was incredibly consistent from start to finish

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Really has any long and successful show ended on a high? Certainly Breaking Bad didn't.

Dexter? Nope.

Six Feet Under and the Sopranos had excellent final episodes but their final seasons were far from the most critically acclaimed of the series.

Seinfeld? Nope.

Rome? Maybe. But it got rushed due to cancellation because if the massive budget.

Mad Men? I thought the final season was the weakest but it wasn’t bad. Not a high note for sure tho.

Entourage? Nope.

Downtown Abbey? Nope. Final season wasn’t bad but like Mad Men was far from a high note for the series.

House of Cards? Nope. Like Dexter the quality really dropped off.

[ResAlien]

The Shield. The answer is always The Shield.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Really has any long and successful show ended on a high? Certainly Breaking Bad didn't.

Six Feet Under maybe?

Twin Peaks has a case, even though there was a lot of filler before the excellent ending. That and it was only 2 seasons (originally).

[Yamer]

By high point do we mean happy?

Off the top of my head Justified was as close you might get.

[AltaGuy]

Totally off-topic, but the problems that plagued the Wire in the 5th season are overblown imo, and completely different than the problems plaguing GoT.

The Wire's 5th season was literally about how few people would take an interest in the inner city unless there was a psychopathic, homeless person murderer doing weird sex stuff to cadavers, even though there was a very real serial killer on the loose. That includes the audience. It was purposefully bad and outlandish and spoke directly to the fourth wall.

It wasn't great as compared to earlier seasons, but its themes - among them the media's changing budgetary constraints and increasingly headline-driven reporting - were exceptionally well done.

That said, GoT reminds me of BSG the most as a great show that fell off a cliff.

As an example of a great show that remained great: Buffy. I mean, the whole town fell into a literal hellhole. How's that for moving on with your life?

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Really has any long and successful show ended on a high? Certainly Breaking Bad didn't.

I thought Sopranos did the best job.

But there was A LOT of outrage after that finale dropped.

[edslunch]

In the trailer for Episode 5 Euron is shown searching the sky for something, presumably a dragon, then his expression darkens. Any guesses what he sees? An armoured dragon? The second dragon that didn’t actually die, just went for a swim? A swarm or crows?

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by edslunch

In the trailer for Episode 5 Euron is shown searching the sky for something, presumably a dragon, then his expression darkens. Any guesses what he sees? An armoured dragon? The second dragon that didn’t actually die, just went for a swim? A swarm or crows?

Daario Naharis on a dragon 5x the size of Drogon. Then Second Son's join the battle and Golden Company are defeated.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by edslunch

In the trailer for Episode 5 Euron is shown searching the sky for something, presumably a dragon, then his expression darkens. Any guesses what he sees? An armoured dragon? The second dragon that didn’t actually die, just went for a swim? A swarm or crows?

I'm guessing Yara.

[Matata]

The Wire's 5th season was the most flawed, but was still a strong season. I thought the Wire had the best finale in TV history, as depressing as it was, it showed how all the characters were trapped in a cycle, and how all their personal growth just led them into different roles in that cycle. It was the perfect summation of the series.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by neo45

I thought Sopranos did the best job.

But there was A LOT of outrage after that finale dropped.

So the best ending would be by not ending it?

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Matata

The Wire's 5th season was the most flawed, but was still a strong season. I thought the Wire had the best finale in TV history, as depressing as it was, it showed how all the characters were trapped in a cycle, and how all their personal growth just led them into different roles in that cycle. It was the perfect summation of the series.

I find a lot of the criticisms about the "serial killer" story line ruining the whole season are really overblown. There are elements of that story line that are unrealistic, but it wasn't even the main story line in the season. The depiction of the overall situation of poverty/crime as a self-perpetuating cycle were excellent.

Maybe season 5 doesn't hold up as well as the other seasons, but it's far from bad. It might be an A instead of an A+. In no way does it relate to the drop in quality in GoT.

[Senator Clay Davis]

The Wire season 5 was competing not just against the highest level of TV ever that we saw in seasons 2-4, but maybe of any form of entertainment ever. If it was a new drama with no attachment to the Wire, most people would give it at least 8.5/10. When you've been at the pinnacle for three seasons, it can only go down, relatively speaking.

[Rando]

Despite the issues in the latter half of the series Game of Thrones will go down as one of the greatest drama series ever. The Wire, Sopranos, Breaking Bad etc.

This highlights that shows, especially ones as gruling as GoT and the others listed, shouldn't go past the five season mark. No data or research to back this up, purely my thoughts.. but people tend to turn against shows, become too nit-picky, find flaws, once you get past that mark. Most dramas tend to peak in terms of support by the 3rd or 4th seasons. That's when it has some episodes behind it, word of mouth has gotten around and everyone is still in that honeymoon phase. After that it gets iffy. There were certainly a lot of detractors with regards to The Sopranos as the fifth and sixth seasons aired. The Tony Blundetto character and Tony's coma/dream sequence in the 6th season.

That's not excusing poor writing or hasty decisions in the 7th and 8th seasons of GoT (though season six gets lumped in here and it shouldn't it's great). But to me it's still high quality writing compared to most. The amount of nit picking I've seen done is amazing, people are just checked out.

I can't imagine the outage if Stannis suicided dived into an army of Lannisters at this point in the series and survived, especially seeing The Onion Knight show up alive later. No accusations of plot armor at that point.

My thoughts, as terrible as they might be

[Inglewood Jack]

and the 2018-19 Calgary Flames are the 2nd best team in franchise history, as long as you only count the regular season and ignore how it ended...