Ser Quork

Great article.

The trouble is it has not "just" become the silliest; it's been on a downward trajectory since season 5. The more viewers hand-waved away the character inconsistencies and plot contrivances, the more the writers felt justified in doling those things out in greater measure. I expect it will only get worse.

Two. That's for the excellent CGI, Viserion's death (which I did find very affecting) and Tormund's sheer terror (although he should have died). Everything else was drivel.

A princely 2. Possibly one of the worst eps of the show.

A 7/10 which is the highest I've given it for a long time and it was for the Field of Fire. Loved the VFX for Drogon and the carnage he wreaks. It was exciting and well-paced and gave due consideration to the horror that such a beast could unleash and the understanding of why the kings of old would have bent the knee!

Not as a brother of the Night's Watch though.

Nice. Exactly.

The dialogue continues to decline and the timelines make no sense at all. 3.

An awful lot of fan-service. Arya's murder of the rest of the Freys and just walking out. Nope. Arbour Gold being red. Tissue faces. Dumb. Jon's mercy was good (especially as really only House Mormont was loyal in this version - who would he reward? I expect they're trying to shoe-horn the Northern houses back to where they would have been without the S5&6 deviations - Alys Karstark and Umbers in place. Sansa continues to have ridiculously inconsistent characterisation. Why does LF still breathe when Sansa could just tell Bronze Yohn what LF did? Dumb. The writers literally fed us crap. I really kinda hate them. Sam finding out what he knew already - dragonglass on Dragonstone. Dumb. Professor Slughorn and the restricted section. Love Jim Broadbent but couldn't they try a little harder to be original? Ed Sheeran. Ack. Jamie, Cersei & Cap'n Jack Sparrow. *sigh* How did he build all those ships so quickly? No advance guard to check out Dragonstone before the Queen lands/enters? I liked the Hound's scenes bar his expert fire-reading. Can't give it more than 4.

Yes, I'll miss it too. Re. your second spoiler tag:

I'm dreading what it will be like on C4 - loads of commercial breaks that cut down running time by a quarter, wasting time on voiceover recaps after each ad break, dragging out the false suspense and lots of product placement. Still, back to this one. I think Candice will win (although I'm firmly on Team Jane). Andrew may pull it out of the bag. It's a very open final, I think.

Yes, that's more the "Master Chef" type of amateur. We have that in the UK too. Previous seasons of GBBO have always had very competent, talented amateurs. It isn't supposed to be a contest for incompetent amateurs - so, yes, I'm surprised when basic recipe and skills aren't displayed. I do wonder if they've lowered the bar for more "oh noes!" moments.

I find this surprising. It's a very elementary form of decoration - simple and easy to execute. I'm an amateur too but I really have been surprised by some of the things that have happened this season that we didn't see in previous seasons, of which this is one example. Another example was seeing some of the bakers not use shimmering hot fat for Yorkshires (it's basic - it's stated in all Yorkshire recipes). Even my husband (not a baker) has noticed that there seem to be more fundamental issues with some contestants' bakes this year, rather than real technical issues or unhappy accidents. It makes one wonder ...

That was the case for some, but not all. A coulpe seemed to have difficulty with the feathering itself, which I found surprising.

I was certainly surprised they went for the iced version (although heaven knows why so many failed at the icing/feathering - it's really not that hard).

Good for her.

Special! Thanks for this thread. Love GBBO and so sad it's going to C4. I don't think it will survive the move, if nothing else than we'll lose at good 15 mins plus for commercial breaks. Anyhoo, back the current season: at the moment, I have my small change on either Jane, Andrew, Benjamina or Tom. Selasi doesn't seem to be fulfilling his early promise though. I'm rooting for Val to make it further just because ... !

and from unexpected sources too, I hope.

Yep. Again, I can't give it 1 because the production values are incredible, I love most of the SFX and most of the actors are superb, but the writing is just beyond stupid. None of their plots hold together, their characters flip-flop all the time, and they are ham-fisted and cheesy in so much of their execution. I am weary of their hacking away at this amazing story. I'm not even sure I find it funny any more, just tiresome. 4.

I can and have. But, okay, if you want a more modern show, here in the UK, the Great British Bake Off has millions more viewers than GoT and its figures have risen steadily year on year. It a competitive baking programme! Come to think of it, Sherlock's ratings have risen every year. I just don't think your point has any real substantive merit. It means it's getting more popular? As for the bolded, I didn't say anything about sex and violence.

I wonder if that article is just HBO hyperbole - I'd need to see the statistics to back that up considering all the really popular shows over the years, not to mention that some older shows (like Cheers & M*A*S*H) pulled in far greater viewing figures than GoT has done. There is no doubt that GoT is popular - no-one is disputing that - but popularity does not necessarily equate with quality. It is the decline in quality for the sake of spectacle and cock jokes that so many of us find objectionable.

And at least she isn't a Lannister-Bolton.