Winter Has Come
The fall of HBO’s cultural defining hit, Game of Thrones
There have been many TV shows released the past six years, but few can claim the title of cultural phenomenon. However, this past weekend saw people from all across America coming together for viewing parties, baking cupcakes and meme-ing, all for the Season 7 premiere of A Game of Thrones. However, they say all good things must come to an end. Perhaps it was the task of having to live up to increasing expectations for the sixth straight year. Maybe all the money pouring in made the producers more lazy and content. Realistically, probably a combination of a number of factors contributed. But what is unarguably clear, is that the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones was a resounding disappointment.
I first started watching GoT the summer of 2011. That first season, the show threw viewers into a refreshing fantasy setting where none of the standard romanticism normally associated with fantasy existed. Incest, beheadings and a plethora of hard truths wrapped a classic tragedy of Eddard Stark, a man.
The show was full of surprises, and turned into a surprise hit. That summer I immersed myself in their source material, the books. GRRM’s writing was modern and it translated into television very well, most notably the POV chapter format. The next few seasons cemented A Game of Thrones as the premiere show on television.
This latest season marks the beginning of the end for the show. The writing on the show has far outpaced the books, where the action is still decidedly many degrees away from boiling. With just 13 episodes left, the first one starts the march with a weak note. Arya does her best Tom Cruise impression as she kills an entire room full of grown men and then takes off her face. Ed Sheeran inserted for some extra star power and social media oomph but adding nothing to the scene artistically. Awkward silence from Dany to overdramatic effect.
Most of the scenes in this latest episode seemed forced or wasted, with the majority of them gravitating towards an inevitable clash at season and series’ end. Gone is the dialogue driven banter, replaced with effects and (rushed) plot. But recall that the first 5 books took GRRM a total of fifteen years to complete. The writers for the show have just one year to write a full season and have to compromise with deadlines and business-minded studio heads.
So it seems that the GoT world has to deal with an interesting dilemma: without mainstream attention, it is relegated to being associated with comic store nerds and fedoras, but with mainstream attention, the material is diluted and mixed with muddy mainstream waters, an excellent example being Hollywood’s recent Wonder Woman-led empowerment for women movement sprinkled into Jon’s Great Hall. In the end, I hope a tight balance can be struck between the two as I come to the powerless realization that nothing can be done but continue watching the show with an open mind to surprises while remaining wearily optimistic of the future.
