Game of Thrones
has a reached a seriously bizarre plight in its latest season. Despite ratings for the show being very
good and a lot of audiences enjoying the excellent action episode ‘Hardhome,’
the series has hit something of a brick wall in terms of cultural capital. The biggest take away I’ve had from
most folks over this last season is a sense of exhaustion over the show’s
direction and tone, especially after the slew of very alienating “shocking
moments” that punctuated this latest season. What’s more this year just didn’t seem to have the same
fanfare and clamor that accompanied previous seasons.
Some people might argue it’s because of how dark this
season’s big moments were but previous installments like the Red Wedding or the
Death of Ned Stark were thoroughly dark and audiences still found them to be
exciting and compelling.
Personally I think it has more to do with the audience and creators
clashing but that’s an article I’ve already written. Regardless HBO seems aware that change is in order for Game of Thrones season 6 so they’ve
announced both Max Von Sydow and Ian McShane to the series. In addition HBO execs have actually set
a time limit on the show, saying that it will most likely not extend beyond 8
seasons.
