HBO
If some Game of Thrones fans had their way the entire last season would be scrapped, the script re-written and the cast reconvened for a wholesale re-shoot.
OPINION: This year is a big one in popular culture.
Three long-winded narratives have come or will come to some kind of conclusion.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, a collection of 22 films spread across 11 years, climaxed with Avengers: Endgame, an epic well on its way to becoming the highest grossing movie of all time. Come December, the Star Wars saga, whose core canon consists of nine titles spread across 42 years, will conclude with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And just this week, Game of Thrones, the groundbreaking HBO series based on George Martin’s fantasy novels, which began back in 2011, screened the last of its 73 episodes.
None of these finales will be last words. There is a degree of commercial contrivance in the way they have been promoted as such. Trailers for the new Spiderman film play before Endgame screenings. The very title, The Rise of Skywalker, suggests continuance and continuity, not a full stop. Game of Thrones prequels have been announced and a conclusion that saw one principal character sail off into the sunset, literally in search of new horizons, played like a prelude of things to come.
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If some Game of Thrones fans had their way the entire last season would be scrapped, the script re-written and the cast reconvened for a wholesale re-shoot. One million dissatisfied customers signed an online petition to this end, so aggrieved at the shortcomings. That was before a last episode that seemingly everyone sees flaws in.
For a show IMDB ranks as the sixth greatest ever to attract an episode rating of 4.3 out of 10 for its finale could be thought a debacle, though the first question such numbers pose is “who is voting”?
Complete re-shoots of finished films have happened before. Woody Allen was so disappointed with how September turned out he filmed the entire movie again, with a substantially new cast.
The Exorcist prequel Dominion was on the verge of being released when its studio got cold feet, shelved the project and hired a hack, Renny Harlin, to replace a bona fide auteur, Paul Schrader. Harvey Weinstein likewise ordered so many re-shoots on the Wes Craven werewolf film Cursed that it bore little resemblance to Craven’s original cut.
In each of these cases the released films still bombed, failing to attract an audience. Critical reaction was damning.
Neither audiences nor critics have been kind to the eighth season of Game of Thrones. The scale and the tenor of their vitriol perhaps only has precedent in the reaction of Star Wars fanboys and fangirls to the perceived weakness of virtually every installment outside the original trilogy. The emotional engagement with the material is staggering.
I would not rule out the possibility of equally obsessive fan behaviour in earlier eras. Readers of Gone With The Wind surely had strong opinions about what David Selznick had done to “their” novel.
What makes its 21st century expression unique is of course the internet. A culture of complaint, the circulation of texts, the availability of technology whereby those at home can “do it themselves”, all contribute to a generation that believes it knows better than the professionals.
In so far as this feeds critical thinking and genuine debate, this is a positive thing. Everyone should be a critic. Then again, I can but sympathise with Kit Harrington, aka Jon Snow, whose grumpy response to the negativity swirling around season eight was to tell the critics to “go f… themselves”.
I wish George Lucas had been so blunt to his detractors. Reasoned opinions are one thing, personal attacks that question one’s integrity and honest efforts are quite another.
In broad brush strokes I think Game of Thrones got most things right. The acting and the direction remained of the highest calibre, especially from Emilia Clarke, whose character arc was the most dramatic and the most rushed. If there are regrets they are ones of pace. More episodes were needed. Plot developments needed space to breath. Greater finesse was required.
At least, with the penultimate episode, a higher thematic purpose revealed itself. A television series that often revelled in violence showed the consequences of unfettered power, of the devastation wrought upon innocents. The razing of King’s Landing could have been the Tokyo fire bombs or Dresden. The rape and pillage was that of Nazi invasion of the USSR or the Soviet response four years later. War was seen for what it is.
Richard Swainson is a Stuff columnist based in Waikato
