I Finally Watched Game of Thrones (Season 6)

And now, we are out of material from the books. It’s all downhill from here, everyone.

Winter is drawing nearer. As Daenerys and her forces prepare to move towards Westeros, Cersei continues her descent into madness. Meanwhile, up at the Wall, a resurrected Jon Snow tries to escape from his duties. But with enemies still occupying the North, White Walkers growing in numbers beyond the Wall, and Sansa reentering his life, will Jon be able to escape? More importantly: will Westeros be able to withstand the coming night?

This season is where I really start to lose interest in most of the plots being told. The characters are starting to feel really flat and the problems they’re faced with are slowly becoming really uninteresting and unengaging. Aside from a few examples, I honestly don’t have much good to say about this season in terms of story.

Aside from ‘it isn’t as bad as it will get’, but that’s hardly praise.

Still, there is still stuff I like. Bran learning how to use his powers and traveling through time and stuff is really cool. I especially love the Hodor reveal; it’s so weird and creative! And I do think Jon’s reunion with Sansa is pretty touching. Even though the two never said so much as a word to each other before they were separated, but whatever.

My main problem with the story is that it feels like all the tension has evaporated. No longer do you feel that any of the main characters are in any danger. Jon came back to life, so we know he’s not going to die again any time soon. Everyone else is basically invincible. Gone is the show where anyone could have died at any moment. Gone is the unpredictability of it all.

Some of the writing here is just really strange. And not in a good way, like that Hodor reveal. Like, take Euron Greyjoy for example. This dude never feels like he belongs. No matter what scene he’s in, he always feels off to me. Like he walked in from a different show and no one told him to get off set when they started rolling the camera.

Visually speaking, the show is as good as ever. We’ve got some strong editing, fantastic set design, and some great cinematography. It does bother me that almost all of the costumes now are just all-black, but I guess I can let that go. I do wish someone would wear something with even a hint of color to it, though.

Overall, I wasn’t very fond of season six. It’s definitely still watchable, but it isn’t even nearly as engaging and memorable as the earlier seasons. You can really tell that this is where the spark that made this series as powerful as it was is starting to fade.

And now, it begins down a path from which it can never recover.