Game of Thrones - Season 8 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Creators: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R. R. Martin
	Actors: Peter Dinklage (X-men: Days of a Future Past, Avengers: Infinity War), Lena Headey (300, Dredd), Emilia Clarke (Terminator: Genisys), Kit Harington (Pompeii)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: May 2019, VOD, 42" TV screen.
Synopsis: Now that Winter is here and everybody knows it, will they unite to defeat the Night King, and in the end who will win the Iron Throne?
Review: The is the long-awaited last season of the cult series started back in 2011 following the George R. R. Martin books A Song of Ice and Fire. Meanwhile, seasons were produced faster than he could write the books, so that the last ones and in particular the ending (this whole season 8) may not be what he had intended, although he still is producer / consultant on the series. Maybe more than other series, to appreciate this one you really have to know your characters, and there are many! you can easily find a recap of the previous season(s) online. Personally I re-watched the whole Season 7 before this one, something I find to be good practice for seasons that are released one year apart (even longer for that last one). The last two seasons have finally shown our characters re-unite after years of separation, something I praised. I will not spoil who lives or dies or wins in the following but give some feeling about what happens in each episode so you may not want to read if you haven't seen the season yet. Those episodes have each a very different story (except the first two) unlike in the previous seasons that were more continuous, or with a mid-season cliffhanger. I found the first two episodes S8E1 Winterfell and S8E2 A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to play too much on the meeting of the characters we know and exchanging memories of when they met or what happened to them, like a veeeery long wink to the audience. S8E3 The Long Night didn't disappoint me but its resolution came at a surprise. In retrospect I think it could have led the series differently (like spoiler highlight to read: the Dead Army avoiding Winterfell and going straight to King's Landing where Cercei would have then needed the help of the North) but I am OK with the choice made. S8E4 The Last of the Starks is the mandatory pause and reflection on what to do next. S8E5 The Bells is the (also) long-awaited final battle, was a bit of a let-down on that aspect and has some major logic flaws (more on that later), and takes a radical turn which may have surprised / infuriated many fans of the story. Finally S8E6 The Iron Throne does not include any battle, this was done before, but a needed epilogue that must bring the series to a conclusion and let people contemplate 8 years of adventure, similarly to the long ending of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. My general opinion on that final season (originally the second half of the seventh): Not bad, understanding that not everybody can be pleased by the choices made. The creators tried to keep up with the dark tone the series is loved for until the end, I think they succeeded in that, a happy ending would have been disappointing. However I feel that they rushed a bit in doing so. People could have easily watched 10 or 14 episodes if they were better paced and took more time to avoid big logical flaws, like the speed at which people now travel across continents (it is more convenient to show but makes no sense at all) or the reason why a depleted army beats a fresh larger one in the blink of an eye. Game of Thrones changed forever the way we watch TV. In fact we don't watch TV anymore, I invite you to search how many people watched the first season on regular TV and on apps, compared to the last. The last episodes have beaten record after record of audience. 15 years ago no one would have guessed Fantasy would become mainstream! I may one day watch again the whole series...
Rating: 7 /10