HBO
There was a lot to process after the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones came to an end on Sunday night. Daenerys had just laid waste to King’s Landing and multiple major characters had seemingly met their demise, and while the episode spawned a number of questions, there seems to be one that’s getting asked more than any other: Does Game of Thrones kind of suck now?
As things currently stand, “The Bells” is the worst-rated episode in the history of the show—a record that was previously held by its immediate predecessor “The Last of the Starks,” which only had a claim to the title for a week before being dethroned.
People much smarter than myself have done a much better job examining the perceived downfall of Game of Thrones than I’ll ever be able to do, and while I’m far from a television critic, you don’t really have to be an expert to recognize the show has dramatically dropped off in quality.
We probably should have seen this coming when Game of Thrones apparently just stopped giving a shit about how time worked last season, and it appears that’s not the only thing the creators have stopped caring about based on the great coffee cup debacle, the impressively dark Battle at Winterfell, and the borderline laughable writing on display over the first five episodes.
I’d like to think everything will be forgiven on Sunday night and that Game of Thrones will end on the highest of high notes, but based on all of the evidence at hand, I have to say I’m not very optimistic.
It would appear I’m not the only one.
According to CNBC, hundreds of thousands of people (over 410,000 as of this writing) have signed an admittedly futile petition over the past week in an attempt to get HBO to remake the final season of Game of Thrones with writers, directors, and showrunners who actually seem to care about giving it the ending it deserves.
I can only hope everyone who signs this feels like an idiot when the final credits roll. I normally don’t enjoy being proved wrong but there’s nothing else I’d love more in this case.