Nobody likes being disappointed by their favourite television shows. Months and months of anticipation, completely ruined within half-an-hour. Heck, it's enough to prompt many fans to take to internet forums and social media, criticizing the shows they so desperately want to love. It's even worse when viewers can see the glaring problems and their very obvious solutions. Viewers like to feel like they're being taken on a journey, not that they're smarter than the writers. Leading up to the premiere of a new show, fans love to speculate on and analyse possible strengths and weaknesses. On top of that, there are also the long-running shows that have already stumbled. Take the fifth season of Game Of Thrones, for example strong, entertaining television, but beginning to show weaknesses. These are the shows that haven't solidified their future, and can still be saved provided that the writers are careful enough. So whether it's a brand new show or the return of something already established, these are the decisions it needs to get right, the changes they need to make, and the things they need to keep the same.
8. Game Of Thrones Needs To Stop Trying To Shock
All right, we get it...Game Of Thrones contains a bunch of violent, shocking twists and prominent character deaths. When these are written into the narrative masterfully by A Song Of Ice And Fire writer George R.R. Martin, fair enough. But when the show-runners are attempting to crowbar characters into situations simply for the sake of being edgy, well It's no secret that Game Of Thrones season five veered the furtherest from George R.R. Martin's source material. Why? Because there isn't a whole lot of source material left, owing to the fact the series is still being written. But it also added in some of the weakest material in the show's history, burning Stannis' daughter Shireen at the stake and depicting the brutal rape of Sansa Stark. If Game Of Thrones season six wants to please both fans and critics, then it needs to stop with the attempts to shock. The finale of season five saw many of the show's main narrative strands reach cliffhangers: Theon and Sansa jumped from the top of Winterfell, Arya was blinded, Myrcella was poisoned and Daenerys was captured by some Dothraki. This was clearly so that the writers could take time to plan what happens next. So what does need to come next? A return to strong plot, that's what. Previously, the show earned it's shocking moments through interesting arcs and intelligent characters, not by transplanting Sansa into another character's role or by writing Stannis' motivations as completely erratic. In essence, Game Of Thrones need to take a break from what the media thinks the show is about and return to what it actually is: complex, nuanced storytelling.
