10 Amazing TV Episodes (That Doomed Great Shows)

10. Game Of Thrones - The Long Night (S08E03)

When The Long Night brought the armies of Westeros and the Night King together at last, this was going to be a TV smackdown like no other. Game Of Thrones would end, just not exactly how fans had imagined.

Show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss set out to subvert expectations from the very first series - this was a show that thrillingly, and to great dramatic effect, killed off main characters without warning - The Long Night would be no different.

When Arya ninjas her way through the Night King and to victory, whilst making for utterly thrilling television, this twist effectively split the last season into two acts: the defeat of the armies of the dead and the shift to the war for the throne of Westeros. The story arcs were no longer intrinsic to one another and the narrative lost all tension in the last three episodes.

With one battle fought and won, relocating the drama to King's Landing left the fate of Cersei to Daenerys' increasing mania, turning the remaining episodes of the world's greatest, most epic and beautifully crafted TV show ever made, into a quickly tied up squabble.

The dramatic tension of GOT came from fighting the war on two fronts; while The Long Night was exciting, scary and unpredictable, the battle for King's Landing and the fate of the Iron Throne never had much of the drama that Benioff and Weiss had spent eight years carefully creating. Perhaps George RR Martin will have more success sticking the landing on paper.