The Critical Corner

Let me preface the Game of Thrones series finale review with this: based on the trajectory of where the series was headed over the past few weeks (specially a penultimate episode as bad as what we got), there was no way that “The Iron Throne” was ever going be the ideal ending for the series for most fans. The way the fanbase has been split will ensure this will be one of the most divisive series finales in recent memory. It was always going to be this way. Last week’s episode left my feelings about the series pretty shattered. The way a very important plot point like Daenerys Targaryen’s journey from would be savior to mad queen was handled brought to life the fundamental problem about the series in the last two seasons: shortening them up was a bad idea. There were small hints of Dany’s potential mad queen turn seeded throughout the entire series if you go back and look for them but theexecution in the hastily paced final seasons made it seem like a left t...

Holy. Moley. As I sit here to write this review, I remain speechless. “Why?” I keep asking myself. “How could writer’s David Benioff and DB Weiss let this happen?” As Game of Thrones has been racing through to the finish, there has been a serious concern about the declining quality of the show the closer it has gotten to the end. While the first two episodes of the season were of a good to (specially the second one) great quality, the last two have shown a show struggling severely in the writing department. The Battle of Winterfell was a technical marvel but undone by its plot armor and other issues. Last week’s episode hurdled us through sudden out of left field twists and strange character logic that were serious causes for concern to where we were headed. And now, we have the “The Bells”. From a technical sense, even more than “The Long Night”, “The Bells” is the peak for Game of Thrones from a directorial and technical sense. The entire siege ...

Last time we left off with Game of Thrones, the incredibly epic Battle for Winterfell sure seem to divide the fandom. Either you find people praising the episode’ technical accomplishments, or you could find people complaining at some weird creative decisions or the anticlimactic way it seemingly wrapped the long gestating Night King conflict. The big question after the big battle was: what now? Where could the series go after seemingly wrapping up what was supposedly the “be all, end all” war to end all wars? How could it possibly do something in the next three episodes that could potentially surpass the Army of the Death in both danger and tension? Based on what we see in “The Last of the Starks”, the answer to that makes me both curious and worried to how the final season will ultimately shake up. The episode begins the only way it could: dealing on the aftermath of the people that lost their lives in the Battle for Winterfell. What was supposed to...