When we look back on television history, how it has been documented has changed over time. For the most part, it’s usually captured like a time capsule, with moments that are easy to recall in conversation. It’s similar in films, too. What won best picture for the film year 1991? The Silence of the Lambs. What was the highest grossing movie of 2003? Return of the King. In television, it can be measured by final seasons and series finales of a pop culture phenomenon.
When Friends went off the air in 2004, 52 million viewers tuned in. Seinfeld had 76 million. M*A*S*H still holds that crown with 105 million (in comparison to today’s standard, Super Bowl LIII only had 98 million). With more options for viewers to choose from and the way content has been disseminated into numerous streaming platforms, it feels like the upcoming final season of Game of Thrones could very well be the last collective storytelling experience that the television medium will offer for a long time.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that Thrones is simply a fantastic show with multiple culture crossing themes. Science Fiction. Action. Fantasy. Romance. Horror. All bottled up in a Shakespearean family drama. Add that to HBO’s global platform reach and you have a massive hit, all while maintaining its traditional approach to releasing content by offering one episode per week.
I’ve always been a fan of this choice, because it allows for conversation, debate and analysis of each episode. When a huge hit like Stranger Things comes out on Netflix, no one can talk about it collectively because everyone is on a different episode at a different time. Or they finish it right away. And if you don’t finish it as fast as possible, you’re bound to have things spoiled. With Game of Thrones, each episode feels like a movie and it will feel even more so given this 8th and last season has longer running times and fewer episodes. How exciting will it be to talk about each of these episodes individually rather than a one day binge?
This is how television history is created, by separating iconic episodes. Baelor. Blackwater. The Red Wedding. The Lion and the Rose. Hardhome. The Winds of Winter. The Spoils of War. And for this last Game of Thrones season, it will be hard not to say that the series finale, which will air on May 19, 2019, will live in the pantheons of television history. The ratings for the series finale are bound to be staggering.
A story that began over twenty years ago will finally receive an ending that even book creator George R.R. Martin couldn’t finish. HBO's Game of Thrones is a culmination of television and film merging together forever, while simultaneously, the audiences of those mediums are continuing to drift further and further apart.
Enjoy the moment. It’s hard to see something like this ever happening again.
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