Game of Thrones was considered an elite genre entry through its first six seasons and is still well-respected as an accomplished television drama. Some cracks in the armor started to show up in the seventh season when the episode order was cut and viewers felt that the show was rushing too quickly to its finale. Then the eighth and final season arrived with even fewer episodes and the last two episodes proved very divisive among the show’s fans. Just recently it has come to light that George R.R. Martin wanted the show to carry on for at least ten seasons as he believed that there was plenty of material to keep the story going. So did HBO rush to wrap this show up, and in doing so did they give it the short shrift? And is it possible that they could make amends and redeem the show?
By the time that Game of Thrones had reached its sixth season, it was one of the most-watched shows on television and it enjoyed wide acclaim from critics and fans. But it was also one of the most expensive shows on the air, and network executives were likely thinking about an endpoint for this epic fantasy drama. The show’s eighth season was announced as its last before the premiere of its seventh year, and the number of episodes per season were reduced across its last two years (though many went longer than an hour). The indication at the time was that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were ready to wrap things up for creative reasons, but there was almost certainly pressure from network execs to guide this rather expensive series to an end.
Even though the viewership for the show continued to increase each year, that does not mean that subscriptions were increasing at a rate that could keep Game of Thrones viable for the network. The longer a show stays on the air, the more expensive it becomes because of the increases in pay for cast and crew. And GoT was getting into some epic territory in its final seasons, so sfx costs were certainly up as well. HBO makes money on its originals by selling subscriptions, and while the network was certainly drawing in new viewers each season based on the rising ratings, that may not have been enough to justify the increasing costs. And this show is not well-fitted to a syndication run due to its adult nature and the varying lengths of the episodes, so future revenue from encore runs could be much lower than the average Prime Time entry that lasts for eight seasons. Benioff and Weiss may have insisted they ended the show where they wanted to, but there was almost certainly pressure from the network to wrap it up sooner rather than later (I believe the same thing happened with Battlestar: Galactica resulting in an unsatisfying conclusion for that show as well).
George R.R. Martin had remained mostly quiet after the series ended (partly because the fans were mad at him for not finishing the last two novels yet), but just recently some information came available suggesting he had not been happy with the direction of the show for some time. By the fifth season, Game of Thrones had started to go beyond the published books, though GRRM had provided the showrunners a template on how to proceed based on his plans for his upcoming books. Starting with Season 6, though, he was concerned with where they were taking the story. According to the book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller, GRRM wanted the show to continue for at least ten seasons and lobbied HBO boss Richard Plepler to keep it going:
George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it and to tell him it would be a more satisfying and more entertaining experience.
Had the show gone that long, the ending certainly would have felt less rushed and it would have had more time to wrap up the many character arcs. Of course, if GRRM had remained more closely involved with the show and/or had finished the books fans have long been waiting for, that might have helped guide the show to a better ending as well. But in any case, the way that Benioff and Weiss wrapped things up left many disillusioned with a show that had demonstrated such a high level of quality for most of its run and gave it with a tarnished reputation.
Is there still a glimmer of hope for Game of Thrones, and could HBO still redeem the series?
(Spoilers ahead and all that) An online petition was set up after the series ended demanding that HBO completely re-do the eighth season with new writers, and that tallied over 1.8 million signatures. Of course, it would be completely unprecedented for a network just dump an entire season and start over again. But what if they just added an episode or two worth of material to flesh it out and better develop some of the arcs that viewers felt had unsatisfying conclusions? The biggest sticking point for many was the way that Daenerys Targaryen turned so ruthless at the end and started viciously killing off thousands of people in the show’s penultimate episode. Despite a family history that suggested this turn, many felt like the series did not properly set up that sudden change for her character. An episode’s worth of new material could possibly lead up to that better and address some of the other issues fans had with the final season.
It does not necessarily have to be a single episode, just additional scenes that could be added to the final season. HBO could then make an event out of it and re-release it as an “expanded eighth season”. And that would certainly draw in significant revenue from people re-upping their subscriptions. Sure, it would be costly, but then the network basically just threw away $30 million on a Game of Thrones prequel that is not going forward. Surely they could come up with $10 to $15 million to shoot some additional scenes and give their flagship show a better ending. And while it certainly would be a longshot to convince the network to go that route, it is much more feasible than a complete re-do of the eighth season. 1.8 million people lobbied for the latter, so if fans could put pressure on HBO for an extended eighth season, perhaps the show could be redeemed in the eyes of fans and get the ending it deserves.
Would you vote for an extended eighth season for Game of Thrones, or were you satisfied with how the show ended? Chime in with your comments below.
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