Samuel Brace believes Game of Thrones has lost its crown as the best show on TV…
I was wrong about Game of Thrones, my request was myopic, and now the show is no longer TV’s king.
Game of Thrones has consistently been the best show on TV since Breaking Bad came to an end. The epic fantasy drama by HBO has stood tall above some serious competition, thrilling audiences with its own unique brand of television storytelling. And it was indeed unique, not for its themes but by the way it was constructed and presented. Game of Thrones was never like other TV shows, this was obvious since season one; Game of Thrones was something different, but, unfortunately, this is no longer the case.
What set Game of Thrones apart from the rest was not just its hugely ambitious style of storytelling, juggling vast numbers of characters and subplots, all interweaving together, assuming that you were smart enough to keep up, but that it refused to fall into the traps that other TV shows succumbed to. Giant leaps of logic and misleading storytelling are a routine part of most television offerings, flaws that can take one out of the fictional world which they were once ensconced. Game of Thrones avoided such errors, they were too good for that, this was a different kind of show, this was Game of Thrones. Well, not any more.
I was wrong about Game of Thrones because I was someone who asked for shorter seasons and then cheered when they were announced. After becoming frustrated at silly episode excursions to places like Riverrun involving Jaime for no apparent reason, adventures that didn’t evolve the plot at all, that’s only purposes was to fill episode minutes, I became frustrated. This was holding the show back from transcending the lofty heights it had already reached. I was under the impression that fewer episodes per year would cut out the fat and only leave behind the very best of what the show had to offer. I was wrong.
I was wrong because I didn’t realise how much storytelling Game of Thrones planned on providing in its last two seasons. During season seven, the show has covered more ground than anyone thought possible. There was enough for two full ten episode seasons here, never mind one batch of seven. So instead of removing the occasional fluff that once annoyed me so, the show was forced to slice away at material that needed to be included, rushing over periods of time, and sprinting to conclusions that should have taken multiple episodes, perhaps a whole season, not 40 minutes of viewing time. This was not the outcome that I was expecting; this was not the outcome I wanted. In the end, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Game of Thrones needed at least three more full seasons of television, not two skeletons of what once resembled this great show. I know why HBO have done what they’ve done, Game of Thrones was already very expensive to make and with what they had planned in terms of set pieces and battles, less episodes would allow those moments to look even better with more funds freed up to be spent on them. And while parts of season 7 have been spectacular to witness, the breaking of The Wall being a prime example (looking like something out The Lord of the Rings), the sacrifice that has been made has not been a wise one. The show is still marvellous, but with this most recent season it is not the show it once was. The minimal time available has forced the series into those traditional TV errors that it had once avoided so brilliantly.
Because of what now seems like a quick wrap up of the series (usually I am in favour of ending shows sooner rather than later), Game of Thrones has been forced to focus on their desired ending far sooner than the show has really allowed for. It’s obvious that they want the final season to center solely on the Dany and Jon vs The Night King storyline, with Cersei playing spoiler during the season’s second half. In a vacuum, there is no problem with this. That sounds pretty darn exciting. If this was happening in season 9 or 10 there would be far less problems at hand, but season 8 is now looking far too soon. At season 7’s beginning, there was so much story left to tell, so many plots and subplots waiting to be resolved, developed and expanded on. But because of this desire to quickly reach the intended ending, all that has disappeared far too quickly indeed.
A prime example of this is the fascinating subplot of Sansa and Littlefinger. Throughout the seasons, pretty much since Baelish rescued Sansa from King’s Landing, it seemed like two of them would be integral to the fictional game of thrones, that these two players would have significant say in who ultimately sat on the Iron Throne. While everyone was focused on Dany and her dragons, on the traditional hero Jon Snow, the White Walkers, and the evil queen Cersei, what was happening at The Eyrie and then at Winterfell, with Littlefinger and his protégé Sansa, was been ignored, and it seemed like this would be a grave mistake for all the ambitious players of the world.
And this feeling, the importance of their storyline, and how Littlefinger would continue to corrupt Sansa, perhaps leading her to the throne only to become more like Cersei by the time she got there, was fully intact by season 7’s beginning. However, after 7 episodes of rash storytelling, rushed conclusions, and leaps of logic, this has completely dissipated. Baelish is dead, and Sansa has made nice with Arya. Happy days are here again. Now, this conclusion could have been perfectly fine down the road with more time afforded to these events, but the speed of their occurrence has given off the impression that this particular storyline was expelled from the series as quickly as possible because there was only one more season to come, and any distraction to Jon/Dany/Cersei and The Night King could not be permitted.
What we witnessed at Winterfell this season was cheap and seemingly false storytelling (only being remotely acceptable after learning about a cut scene), where we saw characters withholding information from the audience in order to manufacture a surprise ending, a twist, in this case: the death of Littlefinger. It seemed like Baelish had succeeded in turning Sansa against her sister but at the last moment, inexplicably, she swivelled and executed him instead. You see, she knew (seemingly) all along about Littlefinger’s various schemes, plans and plots, things that he had kept secret via his superior intellect. She knew all about his betrayals and his hand in ruining her family. How did she know this? Her magical brother Bran, with his all-seeing and all-knowing eyes, told her everything she needed to know. This is of course a huge cop-out, a way to resolve the issue of Littlefinger as quickly as possible. This is indeed a shame, and not something you’d expect from a show like Game of Thrones.
But perhaps the bigger issue here is just how long Sansa knew about Littlfinger’s sins. When did Bran inform her of all that Baelish had done? Was she ever planning on turning on Arya? Was it a lie from the start or did she change her mind at the last moment? None of this is clear by watching the season finale. One is left scratching their head and having to indulge in leaps of logic in order to accept the events that unfolded. As mentioned, it turns out that a scene was cut from the finale where Sansa goes to Bran for help after wanting reassurance she was doing the right thing by killing her sister, only for Bran to then dish on Littlefinger’s crimes. The fact that this was removed from the final cut is bizarre indeed and hugely detrimental to the show.
So many issues arose from the decision to cut down the episodes and sprint to the show’s conclusion that we could discuss it all day — the confusing passages of time being among them. And it’s a crying shame because no matter how wonderful parts of season 7 were, these failings have stained our memory of them. As a result, Game of Thrones has lost its crown as TV’s best. There are multiple shows that surpassed it this year (and we’re only in September). The Young Pope, Better Call Saul, and The Leftovers have all managed to outperform TV’s tallest giant. We can only hope that the final season learns from these mistakes as best they can, that there are no more jumps in time, and that they pace themselves, delivering a story that fits the amount of episodes in which they have to tell it.
It’s a shame that Game of Thrones, a show that once had so many interesting things going on, and that you could never predict without reading the books, has become so much more formulaic and indeed predictable. I am sure there will be surprises left to come but these will likely only be the result of the series ending, as all finales tend to be surprising by nature. Game of Thrones once shocked fans by doing things differently, for example, killing off their heroes and letting their villains thrive. Let’s hope that we are truly shocked by what’s to come during its final outing, and that the series ends on the high note the show most certainly deserves.
Samuel Brace
