OMG, isn’t it about time that alleged “fans” quit complaining about how “Game of Thrones” ended? At this point, it’s just childish whining. And some people just can’t let go of it.
Including some members of the Television Critics Association, who took the opportunity to pounce when HBO’s programming chief, Casey Bloys, appeared at the summer press tour. And pounce with the dumbest of angles — the ridiculous online petition calling on HBO to remake the eighth and final season of “GoT.”
The initial question was relatively innocuous: “What was your reaction to the fans who started a petition to ask you to reshoot the ending?” But the whole petition thing was moronic on so many different levels — not the least of which is that, while viewers are entitled to their opinions, they’re not entitled to demand a do-over.
Bloys calmly, cooly tried to shut down the issue by making it clear he never looked upon the petition as anything other a sign of viewers’ “enthusiasm and passion for the show.”
“There are very, very few downsides to having a hugely popular show,” he said. “But one I can think of” is that “many people have big opinions” about how it should have concluded. “I think that just comes with the territory.”
Yes, HBO wanted people to watch — and millions of people did. But, no, reshooting Season 8 “wasn’t something that we seriously considered.”
He was being nice when he said that. HBO never for a second considered it. Anyone who thinks they did is ... not a candidate for Mensa.
Some of these same people also think that Jon Snow petted Ghost the direwolf in the series finale because of all the social-media whining when he didn’t pet Ghost in an earlier episode. Which is false and ludicrous.
Bloys did have actual news — filming has been been completed on the “Game of Thrones” prequel, although it’s still being edited and HBO execs haven’t seen it yet. How has the social-media furor over the end of “Game of Thrones” affected the still-untitled prequel?
“It has not, at all,” Bloys said. Good answer!
Producer/writer Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” “The Leftovers”) is steeling himself for the social media onslaught. He’s the showrunner for HBO’s adaptation of “Watchmen,” which picks up decades after the events in the 1986-87 comic books and the 2009 movie — and he’s made a lot of changes.
(HBO says it will premiere sometime in October.)
He’s a big fan of the original, but Lindelof said his approach is to “write this stuff for yourself, to some degree, and hope that it connects with other people. But if you’re doing this job and your intention is for everyone to love it, you’re not going to be able to do this job.”
It’s not that everyone involved in making a TV show — actors, producers, writers, crews, network executives — don’t want to make viewers happy. Of course they do. TV is in the business of attracting viewers.
But you’re never going to make everyone happy. And, in the age of the internet, “fans rise up and they have sort of a hive mind.”
“That’s not all fans. That’s some fans,” Lindelof said. “What the proportion is to the overall fandom is anyone’s guess.”
He is, however, certain that if he “woke up every morning saying, ‘I need to make creative decisions based on something that’s going to make the fans happy,’ I don’t think that I could be successful.”
That doesn’t mean you have to like his version of “Watchmen.” You don’t have to like the way “Game of Thrones” ended. You’re entitled to your opinion. You can love them or hate them.
But you’re not entitled to demand that any TV show (or “Star Wars” movie) be remade to fit your particular taste. Would you petition a novelist to rewrite a book?
And who says your opinion is widely held? Who says all that noise on social media amounts to more than a fraction of total viewership? I guarantee that if “GoT” ended the way some of you wanted, a whole lot of people would have hated it.
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