Game of Thrones Season 8 (2019) (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_j]

Part of the problem with the streaming quality probably had to do with millions of people trying to watch the stream at once last night. It is probably better now. And my calibration posts were addressing the complaints of it being too dark. I actually had more problems with SOLO being too dark than this episode.

 

[dpippel]

Anyway, how about that little Lady Mormont? Bad a** to the end.

One of the best moments in the episode for me.

 

[Sam Favate]

Part of the problem with the streaming quality probably had to do with millions of people trying to watch the stream at once last night. It is probably better now. And my calibration posts were addressing the complaints of it being too dark. I actually had more problems with SOLO being too dark than this episode.

No, I watched it on cable, with the hard wire attached to the box. It was still dark and murky. I haven't seen a picture look this bad since I used to watch Star Trek Enterprise (which was in HD) on my cathode ray tube TV.

 

[Sam Posten]

https://beforesandafters.com/2019/0...-behind-the-scenes-battle-footage-right-here/

 

[Sam Posten]

https://www.wired.com/story/game-of-thrones-winterfell-battle-tactical-analysis/

 

[Sam Posten]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/arts/television/too-dark-game-of-thrones.html

 

[RobertR]

I didn't want this thread to devolve away from the episode's conversation. But, I used to install $100k+ home theater systems. I know how to calibrate a display. I read an article recently where they talked about how directors are foregoing artificial lighting and going more naturalistic. Which is nice and artistic but leaves many viewers feeling frustrated. So it's not the displays, it's intentional on the directors/editors/etc. part. I wish I knew this when I was making home movies as the video cameras came out. All of my too dark videos would be in style now.

Apples and oranges. Your video camera didn't have anywhere near the dynamic range of today's professional digital video equipment, which has outstanding dynamic range that exceeds that of film.

Just googling Game of Thrones too dark, comes up with tons of articles saying the same thing. So clearly it's not just a small minority.

Whether it's a small minority or not is irrelevant. I already know that most people don't calibrate their displays, just as most people don't properly set up their speakers. My response is, so what?

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Arya’s finishing move with the dagger on the Night King was the same move she used on Brienne, when they first sparred at Winterfell while Sansa and Littlefinger looked on. I thought that was a great call back.

At the time I watched, I also loved the Lady Mormont slaying of the giant. Looking back, however, I wish it wasn’t so similar to Arya’s move. But that’s a small criticism as both were among the best scenes in the ep.

I wasn’t wowed by the ep. I need to watch it again. The Battle of the Bastards was much better IMO. I actually FELT claustrophobic watching that as the bodies pressed in as Ramsay’s soldiers closed around Jon and his army. Hardhome was also a better battle. Maybe a few of the white walkers needed to be in the early battle scenes to make it more interesting. I didn’t feel the fear of the battle last night. Some of that might have been due to having some difficulty following it in the dark, but not to the lengths some are describing.

 

[Carabimero]

My system and Internet connection are top of the line, state of the art. I know how to calibrate. I stream a lot of action movies. None of them, compared to disc, look great on streaming. The dynamic range simply isn't there because the information isn't adequate for the format. Fine. That's the trade off. But nothing ever looked as crappy on my system as that episode last night. And it wasn't just because it was dark. Or because a lot of people were watching at the same time.

 

[SamT]

As I was thinking, nobody died, no one major. No Tyrion, no Jaime, no Samwell, no Brienne. If they survived this far and against monsters, I highly doubt it they are going to die against mere mortals. I think the producers are going to play it real nice and all the major characters are going to live. Probably only Cersei is going to die.

I'm rating this episode a little lower than usual and think that the last 2 were better. I think they did not handle the Night King death very well. This was a very important moment and the deus ex machina solution at the last minute to resolve all this, did not work very well. We all knew that killing the Night King will resolve everything but they should have played it better. Arya jumping out of nowhere at the last minute was not elegant or satisfying. All the other White Walkers or the undead were carrots standing there? Allowing Arya to come close?

The best death was Lyanna Mormont. It was purposeful and believable. You say why she is going close, why she is willing to die crushed in the hands of the giant zombie, then you realize why she did that.

Something similar or more thoughtful should have been done for the Night King's death. Maybe it was Bran's job to resolve all this for such an important story-line or even if it was Arya alone, it should have been done in a better way.

 

[TonyD]

Whether it's a small minority or not is irrelevant. I already know that most people don't calibrate their displays, just as most people don't properly set up their speakers. My response is, so what

And my response to you telling us like we are children about our improperly calibrated TVs is....

Nobody cares.
People just want to turn on their tv and watch a show or movie.
A lot of us here know all about getting TVs calibrated but so what.
Don’t create tv show and then air it like this one and expect that people aren’t going to,wonder why it looked awful.

Either way you made your point, we all are supposed to calibrate our tv. Okay we get it.

 

[RobertR]

And my response to you telling us like we are children about our improperly calibrated TVs is....

Nobody cares.
People just want to turn on their tv and watch a show or movie.
A lot of us here know all about getting TVs calibrated but so what.

The so what is that actions have consequences. It simply defies logic to say that a non calibrated TV shows black level and shadow detail as well as a calibrated one. If you don't care about those things, it's up to you.

 

[Carlo_M]

And it's officially made CNN!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/entertainment/game-thrones-darkness-trnd/index.html

 

[Carabimero]

actions have consequences

Yes, actions have consequences. When shows are beautifully shot then delivered over streaming networks that simply don't support the requirements of the format, I'd call that a consequence. When the majority of people accept that this is how shows shot in HD are now delivered into their homes, when they give up quality for convenience and instant gratification, when they tell themselves compression is better these days and file sizes doesn't matter, yes indeed actions do have consequences.

Speaking as a filmmaker: If I had put such love, artistry and skill in crafting something apparently so powerful and beautiful, and streaming reduced it to crap like that for the majority of my viewers, I'd be outraged.

 

[RobertR]

I don't disagree with the generalized complaint that people put up with lower quality than they should. Of course, for those who care, the upcoming discs should address the issue.

 

[Carabimero]

I would agree if every show streamed got a disc release. But numbers continue to plummet.

Talk about consequences.

 

[Tommy R]

Speaking for my own experience with last night’s episode, I don’t think it was “too dark” per se. I could see the picture well enough. But the quality of the picture was just really bad in several spots. Like, REALLY bad. It looked ugly and seemed like a broadcast issue, so I’ll hope the problem is gone when I get the Blu-ray. I’m not sure what other adjectives to use to describe what I saw, so I’ll just stick with “bad” so someone doesn’t jump all over my shit for using a word wrong or not being specific enough for their liking (which may happen anyways).

I’ve seen plenty of shows live on my 4K tv (and my HDTV before that) and as far as I can remember I have never had serious complaints about PQ. I don’t know why I would need to calibrate my tv for this one GoT episode when I have never needed to do such a thing in the past.

 

[RobertR]

I would agree if every show streamed got a disc release. But numbers continue to plummet.

Talk about consequences.

We can assume that GOT will get a disc release. Discs vs. streaming in general is a separate topic.

 

[BobO'Link]

Arya’s finishing move with the dagger on the Night King was the same move she used on Brienne, when they first sparred at Winterfell while Sansa and Littlefinger looked on. I thought that was a great call back.

At the time I watched, I also loved the Lady Mormont slaying of the giant. Looking back, however, I wish it wasn’t so similar to Arya’s move. But that’s a small criticism as both were among the best scenes in the ep.

I wasn’t wowed by the ep. I need to watch it again. The Battle of the Bastards was much better IMO. I actually FELT claustrophobic watching that as the bodies pressed in as Ramsay’s soldiers closed around Jon and his army. Hardhome was also a better battle. Maybe a few of the white walkers needed to be in the early battle scenes to make it more interesting. I didn’t feel the fear of the battle last night. Some of that might have been due to having some following it in the dark, but not to the lengths some are describing.

IMHO, *every* battle up to this one was better. For all the hype leading up to the broadcast there was zero payoff on the battlefront. I kept waiting for the "game changing" weapon that never showed. I kept waiting for the intensity promised. I thought the 5 minute gratuitous dragon flight in episode 1 was a monumental time waster until I watched this episode. It needs editing to tighten up many segments. Properly edited it could be a tight 60 minutes and *still* get the point across. Many times I felt like they were trying, rather unsuccessfully, to use the score to generate intensity and tension where little to none was on display.

Overall, it hit all the notes it needed to hit and did so rather predictably. There were only a couple of things that surprised me a bit but nothing earth shaking. Once again, Benioff and Weiss have shown themselves to be mediocre and predictable writers when they don't have a book from which to draw events and dialog.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I thought episode 3 had many standout moments but overall left me feeling unsatisfied. I need to watch it again to fully sort out my thoughts on it, I guess. But these are my impressions after the first time viewing.

I have no trouble with Arya being the one to kill the Night King, but IMO the showrunners went unnecessarily out of their way to sideline Jon Snow and render him ineffectual. Not quite sure what the purpose was in that. Dany didn't fare much better. Also, I can't help thinking that it's a mistake to end the Army of the dead threat so quickly. Obviously, Bennioff and Weiss want to bring the show's focus back to who will sit on the Iron Throne, and needed the Battle of Winterfell to decimate Dany's troops to a sufficient extent to make Cersei a credible threat. This development will probably make a lot of fans happy, but I find myself in the camp that considers the fight between humanity and the White Walkers more interesting and dramatic. I'm guessing we'll get one more big battle between Cersei's forces and Dany's (which will hopefully take place in full daylight!), but the Golden Company is going to seem pretty mundane in comparison.

While Melisandre's lighting up of the Dothraki's weapons was a real spine-tingling moment, their subsequent charge, while eerie and visually impressive, was obviously done for effect rather than any sort of battle logic. I did enjoy many moments throughout the episode...the tension at the beginning was very well done, Ser Jorah, Theon and Lady Mormont, and to a lesser extent, Beric Dondarrion, all got suitably heroic send-offs. Realistically, one or more of our "fireside chat bros" should have bit the dust against such unrelenting odds, though. Ditto, one of the main cast in the crypts should have gone down, too.

And come on...all we get of Ghost is of him running into battle alongside Jorah? What a waste. At least, judging from the "next week" preview, he's still among the living. Is a little Jon / Ghost interaction too much to ask for? Get on it, show!

Hopefully, the next three episodes will wrap things up in a satisfying manner. I particularly hope the producers know what they're doing with Jon's character arc. I think they particularly bungled the handling of him during "The Long Night," which is my chief complaint about the episode. Caveats aside, there is no denying that it was a very impressive achievement for a TV series, from a production standpoint.

Re: the look of the episode...I watched the show on my PC and could make out most of the action well enough, though I do find the complaints about the overly dark nature of the episode valid. It was obviously done for effect and mood ("the "fog of war," etc.) and to hide imperfect CGI when necessary, but a little more light here and there would not have gone amiss. And a lot of the dragon action was unnecessarily confusing, IMO.