The less patient among us pitched fits on Sunday because the Season 7 premiere of HBO's "Game of Thrones" wasn't as action-packed as they'd hoped.
I blame Netflix.
Well, I mostly blame the less patient among us, including my son. He posted on Facebook that the show should "have narrative momentum again."
My response was — "You are super annoying me." I was only sort of kidding.
A lot happened in Sunday's episode. No big battles, it's true, but you can't have those in every episodes. Nothing but big battles would be nothing but boring.
The events in the episode titled "Dragonstone" laid the foundation for events in upcoming episode. Because, just like every other season of "GoT" — just like every decent bit of fiction ever written — you have to set up situations before you pay them off.
But we live in a world where many people want everything now. If "GoT" was on Netflix, the seven Season 7 episodes would be available all at once. And, yes, I would've stayed up half the night if I had to in order to see them.
But this is HBO. This is like old-timey TV with an episode a week. Which is a different kind of fun as anticipation builds.
And gives people time to complain on social media. Ugh.
The one thing we know for certain is that "GoT" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss can't possibly make everyone happy.
Last week, I listened to someone on NPR argue that "GoT" is just not the show it used to be because it no longer has much in the way of character development. On Sunday, we GoT character development like crazy for Jon Snow, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Sandor Clegane, Cersie Lannister, Jaime Lannister and Euron Greyjoy.
And the less patient among us complained because there were no big battles.
I've never argued that "Game of Thrones" is perfect. Yes, I believe Benioff, Weiss and their team have done a magnificent job translating George R.R. Martin's extremely long (and sometimes meandering) novels into a fantastic TV series, but it's not like I love everything about it.
In "Dragonstone," Sam emptying chamber pots was disgusting and went on far too long. And having Ed Sheeran play a singing Lannister soldier was a mistake. Not that Sheeran's performance was bad, but his presence pulled you out of the reality that "GoT" works so hard (and spends so much money) to establish.
Still, I have faith in Benioff and Weiss. They've consistently exceeded expectations.
Hey, the Arya Stark-in-Braavos storyline was not my favorite, but it's certainly paying off now.
Season 7's big battles are coming. We've seen clips in the trailers HBO released.
Come to think of it, those clips probably made the less patient among us think all that was going to come in the season premiere. Which raises one big question:
Have you never seen this show before?
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