Oh, Game of Thrones, what has
become of you?
If the end of season 5 was a hint that without Martin's material this show was beginning to crumble, season 6
has completely and utterly proved it.
A show that was completely
unpredictable, yet flawless in its internal logic, reasoning and character
motivation/development, has now become ‘just another action series’ where huge
explosions and shocking deaths are used to cover up sloppy writing and a clear
panic over the show’s direction.
It would be unfair to say that
season 6 hasn’t given us some great moments; from the revelation behind Hodor’s
‘hodoring’ to the surprise suicide of Tommen after the destruction of Baelor’s
Sept, there have been good scenes throughout – but that makes it all the more a
shame when the season as a whole can’t manage to shrug off the feeling that
without a book to read from, Benioff and Weiss are clearly drowning in the
world that Martin has created.
Sticking out like a sore thumb
throughout season 6 has been the poor character motivation and development.
Peak behind the uninspired dialogue and it’s clear to see that the characters
are acting simply because the plot dictates they must. Of course, all TV characters
are written, but good planning and writing leads to characters that feel real,
characters that act based on their personalities and situation, and characters
who, most importantly, act with a consistency true to their created selves.
Sadly, the main cast this season
have lost their complexity and individuality, and the lazy dialogue leaves
little to the imagination, serving only as a means to move the show along
instead of to actually entertain.
On the plus side, the action
sequences still amaze. Big budget effects and a range of directors cleverly
chosen to handle the more action-oriented episodes have meant we’ve seen a host
of great scenes. The battle of the bastards being a big highlight to the end of
the season, as was the White Walker’s attack on Bran and crew, with the undead
horde crawling like spiders bringing fright, dread and excitement in equal
measure.
Still though, even these scenes
are often let down by a lack of consistency and verisimilitude, with events
often making little sense and characters popping up here, there and everywhere
as if travel in Westeros features teleportation. From Varys hopping from
Meereen to Dorne and bizarrely back again only to set sail for Westeros (a trip
that would take months and see him sail across oceans in harsh conditions,
remember), to various characters hopping between the north and the south as if
there’s a local train line connecting the two.
Do you remember when, back in the
early seasons of the show, great stories and events unfolded in Game of Thrones
because characters were travelling. Remember how Tyrion’s arrest at the hands
of Catelyn and their subsequent journey to The Eyrie actually gave us some of
the best moments of the season? Remember Arya’s torturous trip from The Red
Keep to The Wall, a trip she never completed but one that saw her character
develop in a spectacularly violent, realistic and intriguing way?
It’s such a shame we now find ‘fast
travel’ used so often as a means to hide the poor writing and planning of the show
– switching between characters has become a cheap trick used to disguise
lengths of time or to distract us from where a character is so we won’t notice
where they’ve gone to.
It may seem as if these points
are niggling – to be fair, some are – but when a show is grounded in such a
great, fantastical world and when it features characters so well written that
they seem like old friends, to watch them become caricatures of themselves and
to watch all of the complexity and cunning of the show melt away becomes simply
painful.
Sure, season 6 of Game of Thrones
was still good television overall, it
entertained, it enthralled and it made us tune in week after week – but then, 6
seasons in that becomes kind of a given. We all want to know what will happen
at the end of this saga; we all want to see characters die, others live and we
all want to know just who will be sat on the iron throne at the end (or
whatever’s left of it). It’s just sad that by the time the finale rolls around
and we hear the music play out for the last time, we probably won’t care much
at all.
