Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch Review - 8 Ups & 3 Downs
An unprecedented, lovingly crafted look behind the scenes of Westeros...
No matter where you stood on how it happened, we've all already had to come to terms with the fact that Game Of Thrones is no more and a major part of our lives as fans of epic fantasy TV is now over. Well, until the prequels, but that's an unknown at the minute and this is very much still a period of mourning.
As the long night stretches ahead of us until we get to see more from this wonderful universe, there was one final step on the journey thanks to the feature length The Last Watch documentary released in the usual Thrones slot. It's a great companion piece to the show and offers some great revelations and new insight.
But most importantly, it feels like a fitting farewell to a show as well as a touching tribute to those who haven't been nearly as celebrated as they deserved to be. It's by no means flawless, but it's very, very good and it's worthy of the final Game Of Thrones Ups & Downs from us.
First the negatives...
Downs
3. DB Weiss And David Benioff Are Just Not Present
The decision behind this documentary to focus away from the main cast is definitely brave and very rewarding, but it's great to see David Nutter's process and it's a shame that we don't get to see more of the other directors.
Nutter is a charming figure and his personal story has more colour to it (his background is punctuated by tragedy and he talks about the show saving his life), and what we do get to see of Miguel Sapochnik is good, but it's a little lacking compared to Nutter's presence. He's just there shooting scenes while others watch on.
And as for the show's creators: they're not in it at all bar a couple of very, very brief appearances, DB Weiss and David Benioff don't appear. That's not entirely impossible to understand, because it's a ground-level production, but it doesn't help arrest the idea of them as sort of "lords on high" responsible for all of the crew and cast misery. It might be a fitting image for the show itself, but when people are coming after the show creators so vehemently, it feeds into an unfortunate image of them.