HAS 'GAME OF THRONES' BECOME BIG-BUDGET FAN-FICTION?

It's not something that's gone unnoticed, given what was formerly a Game of Thrones staple: nuanced stories, dense with characterisation. Since the episode plot lines drifted from the book's source material and into the limbo that exists until the release of Martin's next installment, the series has evolved into a 'greatest hits' compilation of fan-service moments, wedged in-between George RR Martin's preordained story beats, provided to the show runners (DB Weiss & David Benioff) so they can land the story's conclusion at least somewhere vaguely near where Martin intended.

So now that we are 'off book', the show runner's limitations are beginning to show. It seems they are expert 'adapters' but pretty wobbly when it comes to originating plot mechanics. 

Clearly Benioff and Weiss are desperate to cash in on the critical/commercial cred they've earned with GOT and move as soon to another project that's wholly within their control - and wholly original . That project will be Confederate, that, as HBO's announcement stated: "chronicles events leading to the "Third American Civil War". It takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone – freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate, and the families of people in their thrall."  

HBO's early announcement of Confederate was ill-considered. They soon had to contend with Minority and Civil Rights groups, no doubt extrapolating on the somewhat exploitative violence and sex of GOT, feared the socio-political and racial minefield of Confederate would turn into an exploitative shit-show, lacking nuance or subtlety. Obviously that's hard to know. Proof's in the pudding, as they say.

You've got to give Weiss & Benioff credit for creating and steering (to a largely successful degree) a mammoth fantasy TV series. that has captured the imagination of audiences the world over. If it wasn't for such a marked gap in quality with the show's writing since it left the fertile ground of Martin's novels - coupled with it's headlong, logic-abandoning tumble into cinematic 'time compression'  - GOT would be a home run, instead, it's enjoyable but patchy  - at best. A deeply unsatisfying outcome considering the immense amount of time the writers get to script and develop the series.

It's been mooted that the wait for the final series (which will feature movie length episodes) could take us to 2019. Let's hope the writers and show runners use the time wisely and give us the character-focused plot lines we've come to love, as opposed to the set-piece reliant megasodes we were served in this current season.