Originally Posted by
EternityEnd
They've been shitting the bed for a long time, though, as far as writing quality and world cohesion. This past season just really put it into perspective how awful their priorities are as showrunners.
Yes, the go-to excuse is that GRRM hasn't put out the last two books, but they've been setting up the TV series as its own continuity as early as S2, which has had a butterfly effect as the series progressed. Last time I checked, HBO is renowned for its screen writing in original dramas, so lacking source material is a pretty poor excuse for being incapable of writing original content.
Unfortunately, they've made awful choices with which writers (and occasionally directors) they've hired or promoted (including themselves) -- from promoting the dude who came up with Olly to writer... because he came up with Olly... to promoting Bryan Cogman to writer, the person previously in charge of story continuity, whose mantra is now "our mistakes don't matter, viewers don't care."
Not gonna discount the herculean efforts of the other production crew, but the show's narrative has been mismanaged big time. Went from typically deep, immersive HBO drama to frat bro fist bump hour, because D&D don't understand the source material.