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Mike Hale writes in the NYT that after Sunday night's Season 5 finale the wildly popular show seems to have lost its way, and to be losing faith with a growing number of its viewers. After two or three seasons of coherent and satisfying action, the show is spinning in place, stalling for time as it crawls toward an ending that will be more disappointing the longer it's delayed. Sound familiar? As with "Lost," there may be a blueprint, but it's not looking very sound. According to Hale, the escalating series of shocks in the season finale was a prime example of substituting sensation for imagination, busyness for drama. "Not content to kill off a mid-major character, the episode moved on to whipping girls, putting a major female character through an excruciatingly long, nude walk of shame and, in its closing seconds, assassinating a fan favorite who was one of the few wholly sympathetic figures in the show."
Amy Sullivan says that the problem is that it's incredibly hard to craft a epic series without getting necessarily bogged down in the middle installments. "Your protagonists are usually in some long-term predicament or up against an enemy who will keep winning until some resolution is reached in the finale," says Sullivan. "So the need to throw in a few shocking moments for the sake of surprise and to keep readers/audiences off-balance is understandable." According to Hale when you look at the overall framework, nearly all the characters are where they were when the season began. "The usurping Boltons are still in Winterfell; Sansa is still on the run; Arya is still hiding in Braavos; the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen and the sly dwarf, Tyrion, are still marooned in Essos; the Lannisters still occupy the castle in King's Landing," concludes Hale. "This can be blamed on the show's semidependent relationship with Mr. Martin's novels, but viewers (like me) who haven't read the books don't care about that. The question is how much longer we'll care at all."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SecurityGuy on Tuesday June 16 2015, @08:26PM
I'm continually astounded at the number of people who throw a fit when bad things happen to good people in GoT. Newsflash: That's what happens in Westeros. Ever wonder why there are so few good people there? Because they all die. If you didn't figure that out by the time Ned Stark's head adorned the castle wall, Westeros is not the land for you. Try Disney.
I do think there's something to the complaints about it being drawn out. I loved the books, for the most part. Luckily, I started reading them just before #5 came out, so I got to binge read them all. Now there's been this long desert in between, and I'm losing interest. I only subscribe to HBO during/for GoT, and I didn't bother this season. When the next book comes out, I'll probably read it, but it's by no means a guarantee.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @12:42AM
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 17 2015, @01:54AM
I agree with the bit about it being drawn out. They're doing a good job so far, I think, but I do worry about it "jumping the shark"; this happens to just about every show if it stays on too long. And, just like LOST, this show (AFAIK) doesn't really have a plan just yet, since it's more-or-less following the books, and the books aren't finished. Even worse, they've now caught up to the books, so I guess we'll find out where they take it now, since people are complaining that GRRM is taking his good ol' time on the next one, and making them too long (the length per book has increased greatly throughout the series).
Battlestar Galactica (the 2003 reimagined series) started out amazingly great too, but then it did jump the shark after a few seasons; they tried to save it by putting an end to it in the 5th season, but it really didn't work that well. These shows really would do better if they had the whole thing planned out right at the beginning, instead of making stuff up as they go. But they don't want to do that because it's difficult, and they never know how long these stupid TV networks will keep renewing them.
(Score: 2) by jbWolf on Wednesday June 17 2015, @03:57AM
Fully agree. Which is why I cry every time I watch the Firefly series. You could tell there were significant plans for the series. And some parts of that genius were shown in the Serenity movie. The creation of the Reavers was one. Mal's history in the military and brilliant escape from them shows him to be the one who would successfully lead the revolution against the Alliance. Zoë would have been an awesome right hand "man" because you can see the development of her character that hardens her against the Alliance at the end of the movie. And Mal was all about accepting people for who they were -- complete opposite of the Alliance. What kept the series grounded was that they were all human and made mistakes. What was awesome is there was character development -- even in the guy least likely to change: Jayne. Granted, it's limited, but only Mal could teach Jayne the benefits of friends in the episode Ariel.
Never read the Firefly comics so I don't know how close I am. Anyone read them? Any good?
www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday June 18 2015, @11:15PM
Don't forget Shepherd Book. It's kinda hinted that he has a very interesting backstory, perhaps he was a high-up Alliance officer who maybe even took part in the Battle of Serenity Valley. Of course, we never got to find that out.
The show, however, had a bunch of "secret backstory" things like that, especially the part about the Reavers, so I do wonder how it would have gone if the plug hadn't been pulled so early and had been allowed to progress according to Whedon's design. Would he have stopped the show at some point when the secrets were all revealed, or would it have jumped the shark too?
(Score: 2) by jbWolf on Friday June 19 2015, @06:56AM
Absolutely Shepherd Book is part of that. I hated that he died in the movie without knowing more of his story. With all of that, it makes you wonder a bit more about Kaylee. What secrets did she hide? Maybe not a lot. Maybe she and Jayne didn't have a lot of interesting background and were there just as interesting possibilities for character development.
Ugh! So much potential. I have to admit, though, my biggest fear of investing in a series is watching it jump the shark. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The last Battlestar Galactica did that. I have the series, but seasons 1 and 2 are really good and then it it went downhill in season 3 and did a serious tanking in season 4.
www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 20 2015, @03:50PM
Yes, exactly. BSG was absolutely fantastic at first: the mini-series was phenomenal. Then seasons 1 and 2 were great, and it was all downhill from there. That whole thing about the "Final 5" was so obviously tacked on after-the-fact, it was really painful to watch.
(Score: 2) by SecurityGuy on Wednesday June 17 2015, @01:55PM
Couldn't agree more on BSG. I loved the first few seasons, then it went off the rails.
I did read somewhere that the HBO folks have been told how GoT ends. I think Martin said something like the books and the show will end at the same place, but won't necessarily take the same path to get there.