US Airdate: April 14th-May 19th 2019
And She Never Wanted To Leave: They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and having a two year gap between the seventh season and it's eighth and final season certainly tested that theory for audiences.
In terms of ratings, it's amazing that this was a show that started off with a modest 2 million upon it's debut in 2011 to ending with 13 million upon it's ending in 2019. However, there's also the shift in attitude towards audiences and critics as this final season fell into some disappointing traps. Maybe we expected too much. Maybe Benioff and Weiss were too eager to wrap things up. I'll give you a hint: it's elements of both but it's mostly the latter.
Upon the knowledge that HBO actually wanted 10 episodes each for the last two seasons but Benioff and Weiss felt that 13 episodes over two seasons would wrap things up better was clearly an error of judgement on their parts.
Coming in with six episodes, this last season managed to feel incredibly rushed with certain plots and oddly dragged out in other parts. The first two episodes are regular lengths but the remaining four are somewhat overextended with only the final probably be the more deserving of the extra time.
Things do start off well enough in season opener, Winterfell which finally saw Daenerys arrive in the North, immediately clash with Sansa and Arya while having her title for the Iron Throne threatened the moment that Sam enlightened Jon about his birthright. Then there was Jaime's offer of help in the lovely character driven A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms which boasted some beautiful character moments, especially for Brienne and the use of a lovely song that I'm currently listening to as I write this review.
Of course with the first two episodes being rather light on the action front, it was the third episode, The Long Night that finally saw the battle with White Walkers and started bumping off several characters as Jorah, Melisandre and Theon all met their maker in this one while the Night King also came to a rather sticky end at the hands of a character who probably didn't need to be the one to kill him if we're being honest here.
Then there was The Last Of The Starks where the division between Jon and Daenerys only widened as Cersei and Euron saw them getting the upper hand and also saw the death of Missandei for good measure. I have to admit that Cersei should've had a far larger role in this final season than she ended up, especially given that both Jaime and Tyrion were better utilised in the episodes they appeared in.
Penultimate episode The Bells though was the one that seemed to sap any good will from the season. On the whole, it's a dramatically engaging episode but Daenerys erodes any sympathy audiences could've had for her when she incinerates the majority of King's Landing and some of the deaths such as Cersei and Jaime's are horribly anticlimactic for their own good.
Last but not least, the series finale - The Iron Throne. There have been worse series enders than this one, but god damn it, this should've been so much better than this. I can deal with Daenerys death and even Jon not wanting the Throne, but giving it to Bran of all people with absolutely no story build up to still makes no sense to me. I did like that the Starks made it out of the series alive as well as a few other favourites like Tyrion, Brienne, Davos, Gendry and Bronn but overall and after eight seasons, this still felt a rather unsatisfying way of ending such an epic series.
DVD EXTRAS
As per usual the series doesn't skimp on the extras and there are commentaries for every episode, including more than one for some of them. As well as a few deleted scenes that fill in some gaps (like Sansa surviving the events of the third episode), there's The Last Watch two hour documentary that aired after the series finale along with new documentaries such as When Winter Falls, Duty Is The Death Of Love and Histories & Lore.
EPISODE RATINGS
8x01: Winterfell = 7/10, 8x02: A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms = 9/10,
8x03: The Long Night = 9/10, 8x04: The Last Of The Starks = 8/10,
8x05: The Bells = 7/10, 8x06: The Iron Throne = 7/10
Season 8 and The Complete Series are currently available on DVD and Blu Ray. A spin-off series, House Of The Dragon has also been commissioned by HBO.
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