Game Of Thrones Season 8: 9 Ups And 2 Downs From 'The Long Night'

6. Not Too Much Fan Service

Game Of Thrones Arya Sansa
HBO

Last week's episode contained a lot of fan service. That isn't inherently a bad thing, because the vast majority of it was well-earned and fitting with everything we'd seen up to that point. In that regard, another word for fan service is simply 'payoff'.

Still, it would've been quite easy for them to go down that route again. To turn this into a real crowdpleaser of sorts, and just give the fans more of what they want. There might be touches of that, but again, all of it feels ingrained in the story and characters rather than just being done for the sake of servicing the fans.

Coming at a time when the showrunners have been criticised for becoming too 'fan servicey' (a critique that has never fully rung true anyway), this episode stays on the right side of the divide.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.