Keyser Soze said:

---

The end should have been Jon finding Ygrittes hotter sister

---

With the two of them flying off into the sunset on Drogon.

I've got no problem with the actual facts in the ending. Dany lost mercy while pursuing virtue. Jon couldn't answer the clue phone. Tyrion couldn't get anyone to listen (during the opening slow tracking shot of him walking, I said "this isn't the episode - Peter Dinklage just got fed up and left!).

Several high lords materialized out of thin air in the Dragon Keep to exercise authority from Dog Knows Where. Sam Tarley suggests they govern through classical republicanism and gets mocked. Important characters that we never saw until now decide a kid that no one else knows will now be in charge. They agree to suddenly materialize again later when he dies.

Grey Worm leads an indeterminate amount of Unsullied to, I guess, fulfill Missandei's wish for peace - once he realizes "line of succession" wasn't something in his future. The show can't figure out how many Dothraki are left, but they become Westeros's merchant class for some reason. Arya becomes the Dread Pirate Sequel, Sansa goes back home to watch the Stanley Cup. A dog finally gets petted.

Throughout it all, it can't decide what temperature it's supposed to be in any 2 consecutive shots.

I'm reasonably sure the actual facts involved in the ending were sent in by GRRM. A team of 8th grade creative writers individually were placed in charge of getting us there.

Mr Tulip said:

---

I've got no problem with the actual facts in the ending. Dany lost mercy while pursuing virtue. Jon couldn't answer the clue phone. Tyrion couldn't get anyone to listen (during the opening slow tracking shot of him walking, I said "this isn't the episode - Peter Dinklage just got fed up and left!).

Several high lords materialized out of thin air in the Dragon Keep to exercise authority from Dog Knows Where. Sam Tarley suggests they govern through classical republicanism and gets mocked. Important characters that we never saw until now decide a kid that no one else knows will now be in charge. They agree to suddenly materialize again later when he dies.

Grey Worm leads an indeterminate amount of Unsullied to, I guess, fulfill Missandei's wish for peace - once he realizes "line of succession" wasn't something in his future. The show can't figure out how many Dothraki are left, but they become Westeros's merchant class for some reason. Arya becomes the Dread Pirate Sequel, Sansa goes back home to watch the Stanley Cup. A dog finally gets petted.

Throughout it all, it can't decide what temperature it's supposed to be in any 2 consecutive shots.

I'm reasonably sure the actual facts involved in the ending were sent in by GRRM. A team of 8th grade creative writers individually were placed in charge of getting us there.

---

But how do you really feel?

curtpenn said:

---

Keyser Soze said:

---

The end should have been Jon finding Ygrittes hotter sister

---

With the two of them flying off into the sunset on Drogon.

---

Honestly that was my one regret with Jon's ending. I imagine right after it cuts to black that Drogon lands in front of Jon like...buried momma, now let's ride.

I didn't mind the ending. My main gripe is how they opened to door for it to all fall apart so that Sansa could have her happy ending. Yara is a proud leader. I imagine the Prince of Dorn feels the same. The Prince of the Vail with his impenetrable fortress...I could go on. I just don't understand how they backed some creepy kid in a wheelchair (being the three-eyed raven aside) instead of declaring independence after Sansa pulled that stunt. I'd give it a few years before they just say eff it and break away like the North did. And then what's the point? Seemed they should've gone all the way with seven independent kingdoms or kept it all under one roof with the elected king.

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

So, do they open the door to sequels such as "Jon Snow; Beyond the Wall" or "Arya Stark Finds out What is West of Westerous" or "Is Sansa a Real Redhead?" or "Dogron Returns!" (told from Drogon's point of view including his take on the truth and falsehoods of 'How to Train Your Dragon")

It wasn't that bad Assassin! I liked Tyrion's speech when choosing a king or queen

Wichitabear said:

---

It wasn't that bad Assassin! I liked Tyrion's speech when choosing a king or queen

---

It was. The lost the formula that made them so good. For 7 seasons, you heard "Winter is coming" and winter came and went in half an episode. There were so many ways to kill Cersi - having rocks fall on her where no one could see would be the worst way. And Jon Snow to the Watch? What the heck? Why is there a Nights Watch?

This was not the penultimate Breaking Bad finale. Or Sam saying 'Sorry, we're closed' to end Cheers. Or the tearjerker for Mash. This was blah. After the 7 season investment, it simply didnt payoff

I will agree that I was disappointed in how Cersi died. I was hoping for a poisoning or stabbing scene. I wanted her to suffer. Lolol. You make good points. Mash was a great ending. I remember it well.

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

---

There was and there was in Season 8, just in fast forward mode. They needed a full season really, maybe two to fit it all in, but they worked with what they got.

The story was there for Dany's turn, which is the key element of this final season. Unfortunately, they just rushed the telling of that story so it wasn't believable. Everything else around it was just clunkiness due to a rushed ending. But if they'd told the Dany story right, I think we would have largely overlooked the stuff surrounding it.

I'll say again, the thing I think does the ending a disservice is giving Sansa the North. The wheel is broken, sure. But for how long? How long are those other kingdoms going to stay in line (and how will Bran keep them in line) now that Bran has allowed one kingdom to secede as his FIRST ACT as king?

With an ending that begs you to imagine things, like Jon's life in the "Night's Watch", Drogon's whereabouts, Arya's west of Westeros adventures and so on, I just can't imagine a scenario where Dany's legacy of breaking the wheel lives on for very long. And that's unfortunate.

I'd like to know what was the point of showing Varys sending out letters to disclose Jon's heritage. Did they even make it out? Because Jon's real identity was not mentioned at all in the final episode that I can remember, and you'd think that it might have come up when they were picking the next king. It was this huge secret that permeated the background of the entire show...only to not matter at all when things got to the end.

I loved the Triumph of the Will speech at the beginning of the finale, in fact the cinematography and music and acting this season were all top notch, but what an unsatisfying end with so many easily answered questions just left hanging.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

---

There was and there was in Season 8, just in fast forward mode. They needed a full season really, maybe two to fit it all in, but they worked with what they got.

---

We simply have a vastly chasm of difference over the story then. I assume you also loved the end of The Sopranos?

Game of Thrones deserved a much better sendoff this this. We, the viewers invested 7 years of waiting for Winter to come. In came and went in the blink of an eye. Everything after was them putting lipstick on a pig

The actors acted around the script. The crew did an absolutely fantastic job at interpreting the story line.

Which frankly, reveals the problem. Martin told the writers how he was going to end it. He told them who got what in the end. It was the writers' job to get them there. This is where the train wreck happened.

You know you have to move Character 1 from A to B. When you have 12 hours of screen time to do it, you construct a tale wherein Character 1 makes the journey. We see Character 1 doing this. We interact with him and develop a feeling (love, anger, sympathy, disgust, anything) towards him. We're invested.

These writers goofed off for an hour, then brought on Character 2 to say, "Just wait! Character 1 will be here shortly, and we can rely on him!". Then, Character 1 shows up. We know nothing, and we don't care. Yes, the plot moves along. The story facts get told. Everything is reasonably plausible, but ultimately false in a literary sense because we don't care about the characters.

This is the sort of crud you expect when your sponsors pull a fast one on you. The scheduling execs cancel you midseason, a major character's actor goes into drug treatment (or jail), etc. You have no choice but to make the show pivot 90 degrees and move on. When you're independently funded, warned, and given 2 seasons to land, you're obligated to do better.

the whole show operated around 'Winter is coming". There were so many ways for them to play this one out. What if the Nightking had passed Winterfell by and gone down to Kingslanding to take out the Ice Queen who is now his bride? Her bretrayal came back to bite her in the butt cheeks as they had no defense (or dragon glass) against the undead. Then they came north to battle Winterfell with a vastly bigger force?

Then you get to end the series with all sorts of cool ways.

HuMcK said:

---

I'd like to know what was the point of showing Varys sending out letters to disclose Jon's heritage. Did they even make it out? Because Jon's real identity was not mentioned at all in the final episode that I can remember, and you'd think that it might have come up when they were picking the next king. It was this huge secret that permeated the background of the entire show...only to not matter at all when things got to the end.

I loved the Triumph of the Will speech at the beginning of the finale, in fact the cinematography and music and acting this season were all top notch, but what an unsatisfying end with so many easily answered questions just left hanging.

---

Drogon didn't eat or burn him when he found Momma dead

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

---

There was and there was in Season 8, just in fast forward mode. They needed a full season really, maybe two to fit it all in, but they worked with what they got.

---

We simply have a vastly chasm of difference over the story then. I assume you also loved the end of The Sopranos?

Game of Thrones deserved a much better sendoff this this. We, the viewers invested 7 years of waiting for Winter to come. In came and went in the blink of an eye. Everything after was them putting lipstick on a pig

---

The Sopranos ending aged better than the initial overreaction. As someone who watched it in its entirety later after the series ended, I had no issue with it. GoT I had an issue with the pacing, not the story or how it ended.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

---

There was and there was in Season 8, just in fast forward mode. They needed a full season really, maybe two to fit it all in, but they worked with what they got.

---

We simply have a vastly chasm of difference over the story then. I assume you also loved the end of The Sopranos?

Game of Thrones deserved a much better sendoff this this. We, the viewers invested 7 years of waiting for Winter to come. In came and went in the blink of an eye. Everything after was them putting lipstick on a pig

---

The Sopranos ending aged better than the initial overreaction. As someone who watched it in its entirety later after the series ended, I had no issue with it. GoT I had an issue with the pacing, not the story or how it ended.

---

I dont think anymore needs to be said it you think The Soprano ending actually improved.

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

the whole final season was a disaster. They needed to make peace with the writers from the first seasons and end this thing correctly.

What a horrendous end to what was a fantastic series

---

As Wichita said, it wasn't that bad. Just rushed. The story was there, the pacing was not.

---

I strongly disagree. The story was not there. If you look back over the previous 7 seasons, there was some really great story lines, innuendos, folks dying that we never would have guessed. It felt like Season 8 was pulled out of a Cracker Jack box in comparison

---

There was and there was in Season 8, just in fast forward mode. They needed a full season really, maybe two to fit it all in, but they worked with what they got.

---

We simply have a vastly chasm of difference over the story then. I assume you also loved the end of The Sopranos?

Game of Thrones deserved a much better sendoff this this. We, the viewers invested 7 years of waiting for Winter to come. In came and went in the blink of an eye. Everything after was them putting lipstick on a pig

---

The Sopranos ending aged better than the initial overreaction. As someone who watched it in its entirety later after the series ended, I had no issue with it. GoT I had an issue with the pacing, not the story or how it ended.

---

I dont think anymore needs to be said it you think The Soprano ending actually improved.

---

In retrospect, it did. Not as good as Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but it wasn't bad.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

I dont think anymore needs to be said it you think The Soprano ending actually improved.

---

In retrospect, it did. Not as good as Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but it wasn't bad.

---

when I think you've dug the hole as low as you can go, there you go proving me wrong

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

I dont think anymore needs to be said it you think The Soprano ending actually improved.

---

In retrospect, it did. Not as good as Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but it wasn't bad.

---

when I think you've dug the hole as low as you can go, there you go proving me wrong

---

So you switch to insults when someone disagrees with you? It wasn't as bad as you think it is. Retrospect reviews have also said so. And with GoT, it sounds like some are overreacting to it because it didn't end how they wanted it to.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

I dont think anymore needs to be said it you think The Soprano ending actually improved.

---

In retrospect, it did. Not as good as Breaking Bad or Mad Men, but it wasn't bad.

---

when I think you've dug the hole as low as you can go, there you go proving me wrong

---

So you switch to insults when someone disagrees with you? It wasn't as bad as you think it is. Retrospect reviews have also said so. And with GoT, it sounds like some are overreacting to it because it didn't end how they wanted it to.

---

So you think that was an insult?

It was a horrendous ending. How bad was it?
Critics' Reactions to the Game of Thrones Finale, Ordered by How Bad They Thought It Was

By MARISSA MARTINELLI
MAY 20, 20194:13 PM

Game of Thrones capped a divisive final season with an equally divisive season finale on Sunday night, and even here at Slate, we can't find agreement about "The Iron Throne." Willa Paskin wrote that the episode didn't fit the show that Game of Thrones has become. Dan Kois was the rare critic to argue that it was actually pretty good. Ruth Graham and I, both Game of Thrones virgins, walked away from the finale with opposite opinions about whether it made us want to go back and watch the episodes that came before.
To break the tie, we looked to reviews and recaps around the web to see what other critics thought of "The Iron Throne," and to answer the fundamental question at the heart of this debate: Exactly how bad was it?

Not Bad
Dan Kois, Slate:

Quote:

---

For this finale, Benioff and Weiss were in a position that was somewhat difficult but must also have been a little of a relief. Their ending had been written for them. They didn't have any choice about that. They didn't do a great job of getting us to that ending this seasonthe battle we couldn't see, the underutilization of Cersei, the Starbucks cupbut here in this final episode, needing only to execute George R.R. Martin's ending, they clearly made a choice: to lean into the things their show does better than most other shows. It was the right choice! And it resulted in a finale that played to a pretty good series' strengths and will, I think, be remembered mostly fondly as the years go by.

---

Steve Greene, IndieWire:

Quote:

---

A punctuation of sorts to one of TV's most massive installments, it cut through the myriad expectations and offered up an impressive closing chapter, balancing a litany of character sendoffs with a parting thematic statement on the nature of power.

---

Tim Goodman, the Hollywood Reporter:

Quote:

---

It arguably ended just about as well as one unwieldy, sprawling, complicated epic could end. In doing so, embattled writers and creators of the HBO series, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, at least convincingly and effectively steered a very difficult series to a conclusion that made enough sense, will make enough people happy and was, from this vantage point, more than enough to effectively 'stick the landing' as critics often wonder about when pondering these series finales, though it would be impossible to please everyone, a fate that brilliant series through the best ages of television can attest.

---

Rob Bricken, io9:

Quote:

---

In a way, the story was also the "best" ending people could have hoped for, in that it was a lot happier than I expected. Given the show's penchant for killing off main characters, Ialong with a lot of peopleassumed there would be a bit of a blood bath to close off the show. But no, things worked out shockingly well for everyone but Daenerys and Jonand that was exactly what Game of Thrones needed to get right, more than anything else.

---

Sorta Bad
Brian Lowry, CNN:

Quote:

---

In the final analysis, the first half of the last episodeboth written and directed by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weisswas strong, logical and satisfying. Overall, it wasn't a one-for-the-ages finale, held up against the best examples of them and the abundant hype, but it wasn't an unworthy one either.
[]
It's too bad that the show couldn't completely stick the landing. But when you fly that high, a few wobbles are perhaps inevitable.

---

Daniel D'Addario, Variety:

Quote:

---

Daenerys's death, for instance, was depicted powerfully and movingly by both Emilia Clarke and, as her killer Jon, Kit Harington; it also fell strangely early in the proceedings, so much so as to leave perhaps too much time for debates about the origins of democracy to sap momentum. It was preceded, too, by a disquisition by Tyrion as to Daenerys's entire character arc up to this point and why it makes her quite so dangerous. While Peter Dinklage earned his fourth Emmy by making this Wiki-dump as compelling as it was, her turn to darkness was earned or was not: Reciting a list of facts cannot make up lost time.

---

Hillary Kelly, Vulture:

Quote:

---

Had Game of Thrones given itself more timean added season, perhaps, or even just a few more episodesit might have worked its way to a similar place but laid its bread-crumb trail more effectively, so that we could all follow along and the right kind of closure could be achieved. Instead, a show that's had quite a bit of trouble with time (Varys zipping across the Narrow Sea like he's headed to a weekend house in Hudson, Jaime riding several thousand miles north in as much time as it takes to say "Azor Ahai") stuffed so much into the finale but timed it all so bizarrely that our only clue as to how much time was passing was the increasingly sorry states of Jon's and Tyrion's beards.

---

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone:

Quote:

---

"The Iron Throne" was a step up from some of this final season's other installments, in that you could always make out what was happening (including seeing the faces of major characters as major things were being done by and/or to them), and in that things mostly worked out well for the more likable remaining characters. [] It was as if the finale wanted to compress the travelogue feel of previous seasons into a single 85-minute episode. So many people pacing, leading to an episode that was often badly-paced.

---

Jeremy Egner, New York Times:

Quote:

---

It all could have worked better if the past two seasons had felt less like headlong rushes toward predetermined outcomes, at the expense of character and story believability. (Whatever that means in a dragon epic.) I might have even accepted King Bran the Broken and his "everything happens for a reason" rhetoric if the show had just nah, actually, I probably wouldn't have. But so many of the things that drove fans loudly crazy this season most likely wouldn't have if they'd been given more room to breathe.

---

Bad
Alyssa Rosenberg, the Washington Post:

Quote:

---

As it turned out, both these protagonists [Jon and Daenerys] and the actors who played them were pretty much who we thought they were. And a much more interesting set of actors, and a much more consequential set of questions, got squeezed into a few ridiculous scenes about setting up the new government of Westeros.

---

David Sims, the Atlantic:

Quote:

---

As a fan of the TV show, I felt battered into submission. This season has been the same story over and over again: a lot of tin-eared writing trying to justify some of the most drastic story developments imaginable, as quickly as possible.

---

Spencer Kornhaber, the Atlantic:

Quote:

---

The finale gave us yet another historic reversal, in that this drama turned into a sitcom. Not a slick HBO sitcom either, but a cheapo network affair, or maybe even a webisode of outtakes from one. Tonally odd, logically strained, and emotionally thin, "The Iron Throne" felt like the first draft of a finale.

---

Lenika Cruz, the Atlantic:

Quote:

---

I can't be the only one who was let down, and at a loss for a larger takeaway, after seeing a high-stakes contest between two ambitious female rulers devolve after both became unhinged and got themselves killed. After all the intense discussion about gender politics that Thrones has spurred, and after seeing characters such as Sansa, Brienne, Cersei, Daenerys, and Yara reshape the patriarchal structures of Westeros, we've ended up with a male ruler (who once said, "I will never be lord of anything") installed on the charismatic recommendation of another man and served by a small council composed almost entirely of men.

---

Judy Berman, Time:

Quote:

---

as a viewer, I shrugged. A happy ending isn't the same thing as an ending satisfying enough to keep you up at night, thinking about how the show's elemental questions were resolved (see: Six Feet Under, Mad Men and, just this week, Fleabag). It was all I could do to stay awake through the end credits.

---

Zack Beauchamp, Vox:

Quote:

---

In its final season, Game of Thrones dispensed almost entirely with trying to make sense of its characters' internal motivations let alone the complex political reality that its psychological realism initially helped create. People did things because the plot required them to, not because their actions were consistent with their past behavior. Battles were decided purely by narrative convenience.

---

Kelly Lawler, USA Today:

Quote:

---

In the final episode, "The Iron Throne," the show was unrecognizable. It was hacky; it was cliched. Every character left standing received a saccharine coda. Closure is one thing, but pandering is entirely another.

---

Willa Paskin, Slate:

Quote:

---

In the weeks before the finale, there has been a kind of ongoing debate about the best way to end a long-running show. Should the writers know in advance where they are going? Or should they make it up as they go along? If they know where they're going, theoretically, they end up somewhere coherent. If they make it up as they go along, they may get lost, but the characters usually make sense. Lost is often held up as the worstcase scenario for the second approach. The best, I think, is Breaking Bad (though it did also have a loose sense of where it was headed: Scarface). But Game of Thrones now gets to be a cautionary tale about both approaches. Its characters didn't behave organically, and it also ended up somewhere kind of silly, maybe kind of cheesy, and, depending how seriously you took the show, maybe even somewhere outrageous.

---

Lol are you two actually fighting over this!!!! Lolololol omg! Of course, I certainly have enjoyed it.......lol

Wichitabear said:

---

Lol are you two actually fighting over this!!!! Lolololol omg! Of course, I certainly have enjoyed it.......lol

---

Not really fighting, 8084 is trying to bail his leaking liftboat with a thimble while Jaws keeps ramming it. Not much of a fight

Well of course you would provide a list. Lololol Assassin you crack me up!

Assassin said:

---

Wichitabear said:

---

Lol are you two actually fighting over this!!!! Lolololol omg! Of course, I certainly have enjoyed it.......lol

---

Not really fighting, 8084 is trying to bail his leaking liftboat with a thimble while Jaws keeps ramming it. Not much of a fight

---

Most of those say it was disappointing, not the worst ever like you are claiming. One was even one I posted about how the Finale got most of the main storylines right.

Bear8084 said:

---

Assassin said:

---

Wichitabear said:

---

Lol are you two actually fighting over this!!!! Lolololol omg! Of course, I certainly have enjoyed it.......lol

---

Not really fighting, 8084 is trying to bail his leaking liftboat with a thimble while Jaws keeps ramming it. Not much of a fight

---

Most of those say it was disappointing, not the worst ever like you are claiming.

---

I'll you waller in for a few years. Good luck with that.

The Sopranos was only supposed to exist for three seasons. Before it began, a plot arc covering those three seasons was completed and made sense.

In the middle of the second season, it was obvious the show was a hit. A decision was made to keep it going, so of course the plot arc had to be augmented and altered. When you do that, actors who hadn't intended for this to be a lifelong commitment don't renew their contracts. The lady who played Tony's mother died. All these things happen during a show's run, and the writers have to plug holes as best they can.

Keeping a TV drama fresh is a daunting task. In this instance, HBO started giving unsolicited advice. Costs were considerable, so they tried to watch over their investment. They wanted to give Tony more of a hero's burnish (could the Jersey Mob somehow help bust a terrorism ring?). They kept it together for awhile, but clearly the overall theme started suffering. Without knowing from one season to the next if they'd be renewed, or which actors would return, it was tough to do the development and connecting plot threads that keep audiences enthusiastic.

Rather than get outright canceled, they opted for a quick half-season to wrap up. They didn't have much to work with, and in that light, I think they did a credible job. I personally feel the "Don't Stop Believin'" FtB was a master stroke that let fans fill in their own ideas about what it means. I believe it isn't necessary to force your exact idea on a patron of art, and that great art allows the viewer their own thoughts.

GoT didn't have this problem. They knew for several season when the end would be. Their cast list was committed. The factual ending details were proffered by the author. They had plenty of time to connect the dots and do so with smooth character development and storytelling. The facts are all there. The execution (!) of the character development and story line was beyond bad.

The tech team, the set guys, and certainly the actors really stepped up to provide the fans the best experience possible. They could not escape the writers' lack of creativity or vision.

That was sweet. I guess. Your problem is, which is not really a problem, you have worked with films and obviously are creative. You are just very into all the plots and symbolism. I just enjoyed for what it was and went on.

Mr Tulip said:

---

The Sopranos was only supposed to exist for three seasons. Before it began, a plot arc covering those three seasons was completed and made sense.

In the middle of the second season, it was obvious the show was a hit. A decision was made to keep it going, so of course the plot arc had to be augmented and altered. When you do that, actors who hadn't intended for this to be a lifelong commitment don't renew their contracts. The lady who played Tony's mother died. All these things happen during a show's run, and the writers have to plug holes as best they can.

Keeping a TV drama fresh is a daunting task. In this instance, HBO started giving unsolicited advice. Costs were considerable, so they tried to watch over their investment. They wanted to give Tony more of a hero's burnish (could the Jersey Mob somehow help bust a terrorism ring?). They kept it together for awhile, but clearly the overall theme started suffering. Without knowing from one season to the next if they'd be renewed, or which actors would return, it was tough to do the development and connecting plot threads that keep audiences enthusiastic.

Rather than get outright canceled, they opted for a quick half-season to wrap up. They didn't have much to work with, and in that light, I think they did a credible job. I personally feel the "Don't Stop Believin'" FtB was a master stroke that let fans fill in their own ideas about what it means. I believe it isn't necessary to force your exact idea on a patron of art, and that great art allows the viewer their own thoughts.

GoT didn't have this problem. They knew for several season when the end would be. Their cast list was committed. The factual ending details were proffered by the author. They had plenty of time to connect the dots and do so with smooth character development and storytelling. The facts are all there. The execution (!) of the character development and story line was beyond bad.

The tech team, the set guys, and certainly the actors really stepped up to provide the fans the best experience possible. They could not escape the writers' lack of creativity or vision.

---

While I still think Soprano ending blew chunks, I see your points. However in the gist of what was happening at that moment with everybody getting wacked, taking your family out to a public restaurant was ludicrous to me. If they had added a couple of hoodlums getting out of their car with the bulge of guns under coats, that would have worked IMO. It still would have left the imagination but would have fit what was going on. Were they there to protect the family or take them out?

Would not disagree on GoT. A visual feast until the end. At least it had that going for it. BTW - impeccable casting. Other than the gal playing Sansa, hard to imagine any other actor playing each part. A few actors that didnt get the jobs, http://www.hollywood.com/tv/actors-who-were-almost-in-game-of-thrones-60588170/#/ms-22789/9

The ultimate series ending to me was Breaking Bad. It really wrapped the series with an exclamation point. Bryan Cranston was the perfect actor to pull it off. Understated to overacted, all in the same series - and it worked.

Keyser Soze said:

---

Hold on to your butts ! (Sam Jackson voice)

---

If you're gonna quote Samuel L. Jackson, you should use a line from Otello since he played that role at Baylor!