Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3: "The Long Night" Review

“Winter is Coming”. It’s a line we have been hearing since the first 10 minutes of Game of Thrones. From the show’s very first scene, the threat of the White Walkers has  been a clear and present danger to the overarching narrative of the series. Even when the show would dive deep into sneering politicking and conspiracy theory, once in a while we would be reminded of what seemed like the real endgame: the threat up north. It took 70 episodes, and it’s finally here.

Now the big question is: did the long awaited "Battle of Winterfell" live up to the hype?

Much has been said about the grueling behind the scenes work that had to be done to bring this monumental episode today. 55 grueling nights in dead cold with lots of planning and exhaustive directing. All those nights to deliver on the claim this would be the longest sustained battle sequence in the history of TV and Film were indeed claims to be seen to be believed.

While Game of Thrones has indeed grown incredibly impressive from a spectacle level with each consecutive season, what they accomplished here really is an incredible feat in TV history. The level of scale seen from the first minutes all the way to the very end is something I never expected to see from a TV show. From everywhere you can slice it, what returning director Miguel Sapochnick was able to accomplish with this mammoth of an episode is something to throw huge amount of praises to. Just thinking about the experience of keeping everything together without falling apart blows my mind.

Yet for all the technical accomplishments, for all its rousing moments and epic surprises…I feel conflicted. For all it delivered on the promise of its title, the 70-episode build up and the work put into it, there was just something a little off that prevents it from being the all-time great episode it could and should have been. In short, “The Long Night” manages to be both delightful and a little disappointing.

Let’s start with what really worked. As the long-awaited promise of the dangers of winter (which we got many glimpses of dating back to Season 5’s “Hardhome"), the episode fully delivered on the danger front with the White Walkers. Just seeing how they moved swiftly through the dark night as they easily dispatched the Dothraki army and moved swiftly against the Unsullied kept my heart beating at an unhealthy rate. Huge credit to Miguel Sapochnick for delivering his trademark claustrophobic sense of kinectic visuals as the wights just straight up came in like a wrecking ball. We knew these monsters were scary and it sure delivered. As expected with an episode with a battle as monumental as this one, there was no way this battle could have gone without big casualties, and sure enough the episode took out approximately 7 big characters (even the Night King in the episode’s most surprising and coolest twist). On paper, this episode delivered on everything it set out to do.

But that’s where some of the problems start to creep in.

No matter how you slice it, the decision to stage the majority of this massive, chaotic battle in pitch black darkness was something that in practice, didn't fully work. When you have so any quick cuts and zoomed in shots of the chaos being so obfuscated by how unclear everything looks, it's so easy to lose the thread of what you are meant to be looking at. I understand the concept of putting us in the shoes of the soldiers dealing with the dead in an environment where they can't see. However, until the moment the fire was lit up halfway through the battle, it was hard to get a sense of what was happening in that battle to the point it could hinder the enjoyment of us as viewers. Considering the knowledge of how hard it was to put this episode together, I don't think the obfuscation of what we were seeing in the midst of walls of compression was a good way to appreciate the epic work done. 

Speaking of epic, this is another area that both delighted me and contradictorily left me scratching my head as I saw the episode. This is for real the most epic thing Game of Thrones has ever attempted, as they worked so hard to even top big things from other fantasy movies. But for all the impressive talk about how this was going to beat the length and epicness of the “Battle of Helms Deep” from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and how they made sure to study how to cut the battle for it to not grow numbing or reduntant, the execution was mixed at best. While they did switch scenes to try to avoid said problems, the scenes being switched to didn’t look or weren’t different enough to dispel the notion that things started to numb and grate after a while. Maybe the point was for viewers to feel a ratcheted up sense of tension, and I can appreciate the intention. However, it somehow didn't work for me like I hoped it would.

I blame most of that feeling to the show’s newfound over-reliance in false sense of tension. Let us not forget this was the show that thrived with its “anyone can die” ethos and gave us brutally impactful deaths of main characters at moments we never expected. But the longer the show has gone, it has become a little "too cute" in giving impressions beloved characters are going to die, to then not do it. It wouldn’t be that bad if the show hadn’t overindulged in this trickery back in Season 7’s “Beyond the Wall”. Unfortunately, there were many times in “The Long Night” where so many characters faced impossibly tough odds and moments, it was a little bewildering seeing how somehow, they managed to survive such carnage. It is the reason why, despite the high death count of named characters within it, only two of these deaths (Jorah Mormont and Theon Greyjoy) carried anything resembling real emotional weight. Yes, Lyanna Mormont killing the giant as he crushed her to death and Arya’s stylish way to end the Night King were really cool, cheer inducing moments. But in the end, there was a lack of the emotional gut punch Game of Thrones knows how to deliver. In a way, having none of the people from last week’s phenomenal chimney scene bite it in the end undermines a lot of the emotional power this episode was aiming for.

Breaks my heart to say it, but I don’t feel this episode, or the battle, benefitted from being the bulk of most of the mammoth 82-minute run time. My barometer for success is not measured by how long something is, but how effective something uses its time. Thinking back on previous battle highlights of the series like the Miguel Sapochnick-directed episodes “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards”, I remember how they were able to impress and blow me away with everything those episodes accomplished plus their iconic set piece battles that at most, only lasted 15-20 minutes tops. They say “brevity is the soul of wit”, and in this case, other than the slow scenes of Arya sneaking away from the wights inside the castle or the final somber piece of the Night King making his way to Bran (for real, Ramin Djawadi is the show's true MVP), there was not enough change of style throughout to give me the impression the episode needed to be this long. At some point it just started repeating itself I just started dozing off.

I am harsh with this criticism because Game of Thrones has continually pushed the boundaries with what a TV show can accomplish. In some ways, “The Long Night” represents some of the best examples of what this show is capable of…as long as you could see it. If you were to judge the episode on the sheer effort it took to do something this epic and ambitious (I can’t imagine how grueling it must be to dedicate 55 long nights to do this in freezing temperatures without losing your mind), this episode is an easy 10/10, and the cast and crew deserves applause for doing this. But things are not always judged based on how hard someone worked on something, as the quality of a final product still has to speak for itself. In this case, the obfuscated visuals, lack of true scene to scene variety, the "plot armor" all add up to diminish what should have been a crowning achievement for the series. As it stands, episodes like “Hardhome”, “Battle of the Bastards” and Season 7’s “Spoils of War” better represent what this show can achieve when many things are not actively diminishing the episode’s enjoyment.

And the fact the show already concluded the White Walker arc already is a shocking swerve, which makes me wonder what could the show even do in its last three episodes to give a satisfying endgame that wasn't this. It's both exciting and kind of nerve wracking.

Still, I tip my hat for the effort, even though I wish I'd loved this more.

75%

★★★☆

3.5/5 

Recommended

Written by Alejandro Segovia.

All opinions expressed are exclusive to the writer and do not represent the entirety of Stat X Media.

TV Scoring rubric:

★ : 1 point  ☆ : 0.5 points

★★★★★: Essential. Excellent episodes. Close to flawless. Transcends any minor flaws it may have. 

   ★★★★: Great/Highly recommended. Great episodes. Some flaws worth mentioning, but nothing to worry about.

      ★★★: Okay/Recommended. Good episodes. Contains things worth watching & experiencing, but flaws can hinder the experience.

         ★★: Caution/Questionable. Mediocre episodes. The flaws start to significantly hinder anything good the episode has.

             ★: Avoid. Bad episodes with nothing redeemable about them (some enjoyment as "so bad its good). Preferably don't waste your time.