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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the got-books? dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by CoolHand on Wednesday June 17 2015, @11:41AM

    by CoolHand (438) on Wednesday June 17 2015, @11:41AM (#197213) Journal

    Obligatory SPOILER warning.

    Jon Snow: Yeah, he's dead. However, the show takes great pains to bring Melisandre back to Castle Black before the traitor party happens. We've seen another priest of R'hllor (Thoros of Myr) repeatedly resurrect Beric Dondarrion back in Season 3; presumably Jon will be brought back similarly. My money is that he'll act as if nothing happened and everyone who participated will be so shaken they will come into line, permanently, but there are a number of other ways this could go.

    ...and Jon's "death" releases him from his vow to the Night's Watch, enabling him to re-take the North for the Starks, and compete for the throne (as Rhaegar and Lyanna's son, he would have a strong claim), or to become Azor Ahai from the Red Lady's prophecy.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @03:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @03:36PM (#197324)

    Remember, the dragon has 3 heads - Daenerys, Aegon, and Jon, the last 3 Targaryens.