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fabrizio-mafessoni
Reviews
Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019)
you get what you deserve
First, this episode is not great, but not nearly as bad as this season's previous ones.
Somebody might hate some characters' story arcs. The truth is that it is not clear why characters' developments should be a straight line, and why people cannot go back on their steps. So all this can be forgiven.
However, D&D should learn some writing, and they are getting exactly what they deserve. It is great you go against expectations. If you want to mess up with fans' favorites, that's great. But at least motivate a bit better their choices, make them feel natural. If you just exaggerate for the shock value then you can't complain that your fan base will be outraged.
What did you expect D&D? That viewers will buy all the silly choices characters make just to advance the plot in an unpredictable way? Bad, bad storytelling.
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall (2017)
Purposelessl bombastic action
Polarizing episode: as you can see reviews are either extremely positive ( "cool, ice dragons!!") or very critical ("no logic, bad writing").
It is Predictable, with characters behaving erratically, only to be saved ex machina with cheap tricks. And special effects just cannot compensate this.
I guess it is a matter of priorities, but since GoT became famous and appreciated especially for its plot consistency and complexity, and the realism in sacrificing even important characters when the plot required, this episode can only be considered one of the worsts ever. It puts got on the same level of cheap action movies.
All in all, this episode would deserve even a negative vote, like -5, since it takes off from the entire series, that is otherwise truly excellent.
Vote: 2, but it could be -5.
Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards (2016)
psychology and good storytelling sacrificed for a spectacular (and predictable) scene
It made no sense. All the characters took totally random decisions, and this episode truly betrayed the most valuable quality of GoT: consistency of decision making and realistic psychology. One can accept flying dragons, but shallow psychology justified by the need of a spectacular entry (the knights of the Vale, after Sansa for not reason whatsoever did not mention this to Jon) really brings down the quality of this season. The writing is very bad, definitely contrasting with the depth of previous seasons. Many speculated that this is because the producers deviated from GRR Martin's book deeply. For example, since Sansa was not anymore with Littlefinger as in the books they had to devise this non-sensical trick of her not telling anything to Jon Snow to justify the last-second entry of the savior army. I honestly think this was the worse episode in GoT, as the big budget and spectacular scenes - truly spectacular admittedly - cannot compensate for the cheap story-telling. If possible, they make it even more obvious, as they highlight the change in priorities of the producers.