The totality of Game of Thrones Season 8 isn’t a failure by any means on a technical level, it’s one of the most impressively constructed TV seasons of all time, demonstrating the kind of visual artistry that you could previously only see in a multiplex. (These are the same writers who did such a thoughtful and poignant job of fleshing out relationships we didn’t get to explore much in the books, like Robert and Cersei’s, or Tywin and Arya’s, but they're also the ones who completely mishandled Dorne and the Sand Snakes, some of the most interesting characters in the novels.) But even if they didn’t have Martin’s blueprint to follow, Benioff and Weiss have still been in these characters’ heads for the past 73 episodes, so it’s hard to buy that they simply forgot how to believably explain our protagonists’ motives and inner turmoil - even though it often felt that way when we were watching Jon fumble every opportunity to have an honest conversation with Dany or act strategically against the Night King, and seeing Tyrion make mistake after mistake in his schemes against Cersei, despite having been keenly aware of his sister’s vindictive and destructive streak all of his life. Martin’s novels (which literally spelled out Jon, Daenerys, Cersei, Arya, Sansa, and Tyrion’s internal monologues in black and white), perhaps they didn’t have Martin’s insight into exactly what our heroes were thinking - just the endpoint the author wanted them to get to, without the full context behind it. Part of that could be because, once they passed George R. I discussed my issues with Daenerys’s convenient heel turn at great length after “The Bells” and “The Iron Throne” (although if you want to beat a dead dragon, we unpack it from pretty much every conceivable angle in the final episode of Dragons on the Wall above, or download the audio version of the episode here), but when looking back at Season 8 as a whole, it becomes clear how deeply all of our “POV” characters suffered from being stripped of their point of view in these final six chapters.Īs I touched upon in my episode 5 review, David Benioff and Dan Weiss have purposefully kept the audience at a distance from the characters for the past couple of seasons, placing more value on shocking us than building a coherent narrative structure. Compared to the narrative feasts of Seasons 1-4, which were stuffed full of meaty character interplay, political maneuvering, and a sprawling canvas of fascinating cities and cultures, the shortened Season 8 feels a lot like candy - in the immediate sugar high, it’s frequently entertaining, often hilarious, and certainly dazzling to look at (which is probably why I scored some episodes too highly in hindsight - looking at you, "The Long Night") but when that rush wears off, you might be left feeling empty, or even a little sick.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |