Martin's novels at the end of Season 5, the cracks started to show, and the quality of the series started to diminish (oddly enough, this is also when the show started to win Emmys thanks to Academy rule changes). But as the series approached the point where it would outpace George R.R. The rewards of the show's labor were much sweeter, and Game of Thrones was better for it. The show often moved at a glacial pace, but the slow-moving story gave the deepening narrative time to develop and the characters time to grow - and to react to what was happening to them and around them. It's also because the show has been in decline for a few years now.Ĭhances for a Satisfying Game of Thrones Finale Are Looking Very Bleakįor its first four seasons, Game of Thrones was a richly woven tapestry made up of many delicate, interconnected threads. Game of Thrones' collapse isn't exactly the same - if HIMYM went on too long, Game of Thrones isn't long enough - but it is worse, and not just because it's playing out on a far greater, more global scale. The finale was critically panned and remains divisive more than five years later. The creators, Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, seemingly refused to accept that the story they told for nine years no longer fit the ending they envisioned, or that they had no idea how to get from Point A (Ted meeting the Mother) to Point B (Ted ending up with Robin after the Mother's death).

It made no difference the show's final season had focused entirely on Robin's wedding to another man, Barney ( Neil Patrick Harris), that Ted made a very big show of letting go of Robin, or that the Mother ( Cristin Milioti) was no longer just an idea of a person but a flesh-and-blood woman whom viewers had become invested in. I am talking, of course, about How I Met Your Mother.įor those unfamiliar: After nine seasons, How I Met Your Mother's creators used the show's flexible narrative structure to throw out years of character development and story in order to give Ted ( Josh Radnor) and Robin ( Cobie Smulders) the happy ending that had been planned since early in the show's run. But the quick collapse of the beloved HBO series calls to mind another infamously misguided ending that ignored years of story to deliver a rushed, predetermined ending. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised we built up the final season in our mind for so long there was no way it could live up to the hype. The final season of Game of Throneshas been disappointing at best and infuriatingly bad at worst.

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