Sunday was the series finale for HBO’s Game of Thrones, one of the shows credited for ushering in our new “Golden Age” of television. It was the culmination of eight years of storytelling (and far longer if you’re including the source material), so naturally expectations were sky-high.
Who would ultimately rule the Seven Kingdoms? Which character am I irrationally invested in that will meet the pointy end of a sword? How are they going to inevitably screw this up?
With a production this massive, there’s bound to me some lapses, minor plot holes, and continuity errors. But nobody was prepared for Zephyrhills. That’s right: In one of the most pivotal scenes to wrap-up the entire series, a water bottle somehow snuck its way into the scene. A water bottle in Westeros. For shame.
The kicker here is that this is the second time in this six-episode season that 21st Century consumables have found their way on screen, as everyone was in an uproar when a Starbucks cup appeared in episode four. Both of these errors were plain and clear, and also come in the context of a season that took nearly two years to produce.
If the audience wasn’t ready for this all to wrap up, it’s clear that the showrunners were.
It was an ignominious ending to a series that’s redefined original programming, and occupied an innumerable amount of time in the minds of fans. After all of the guesswork and conspiratorial theorizing, in the end, Game of Thrones was just another show with thirsty actors and seemingly lazy editors.
Will this sully GoT’s legacy going forward? Probably not. But the execution of its final season and the glaring errors which were easily caught on TV but somehow missed by production staff with always mean there’s a caveat with season eight. “Yes it’s good, but…”
Spell check. Fact check. Beverage check. Double check. It’s important in business and everyday life, and it’s certainly important with a generational television production.
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