I rewatched game of thrones skipped the final season and just left it there actually enjoyed it a lot more

I rewatched the entire thing while my partner caught up. I didn't notice it on my first watch, but the first 4 four seasons we're genuinely good, groundbreaking television.

Season 4 is where it started to fall apart. Season 6 through 8 suffered terribly with the shift in writing and structure, and I'd be happy to never watch any of those episodes again.

GOT got stuck in a strange feedback loop with some of its audience, they adopted some kind of cult of the badass and producing shocking or "badass" moments for social media.

First books had same shockers, but then he run out of characters to kill.

Maybe you're right that the books didn't give the tv script writers enough fodder for the shock and awe they wanted, but that just shows they were the wrong people to adapt the story for tv.

I think that after season 4, individual plots/episodes were still fine (the finale of Season 6 was fairly enjoyable). Season 8 was the exception, where it really felt like the show writers were tapping their watch and going "oh wow look at the time".

If you skip the last 4 seasons it's a masterpiece!

I wouldn't really have trouble selling GoT. "Didn't finish as strong as you might like but it's worth watching so long as you're OK with graphic sex and violence."

But I agree with Lost. "Really original show but it pretty much goes off the rails."

The issue with GoT is that the weak finish starts in about Season 5, when so many plot lines go completely off the rails, and everyone sticks with it in the hopes that they will be resolved in a reasonable way. You think: "Surely, there's some kind of payoff or consequences to <important, logic-defying event>. After all, in this universe, one person being killed triggers <an avalanche of world-changing things in seasons 1 and 2>".

To everyone's surprise, there isn't any payoff, and there aren't any consequences.

> To everyone's surprise, there isn't any payoff, and there aren't any consequences.

It was not really a surprise. As you said things went off the rails for a while already, that was a sign of a bad ending early on. When I saw how quickly they wrapped the Night King in Season 8 I knew all hopes were lost for a good ending.

Lost's peak was the end episode of Season 1. It was just perfect, emotional, and opening up a whole new world of mysteries with the hatch. Season 2 episode 1 was one of the worst disappointments.

It was clear by the end of season 2 that they were never going to explain anything to you. Ever. I peaced out and have not regretted that decision a day of my life since.

> "Didn't finish as strong as you might like but it's worth watching so long as you're OK with graphic sex and violence."

That's a pretty lame sales pitch. I think you meant you wouldn't mind recommending them, but then you wrote out a quote as if it were actually a pitch

Exactly.

The "pitch" for catching up on GOT now is much weaker now than it was midway through the series.

Sure. I could go on at length as to why I liked GoT. It obviously isn't for everyone and it got less strong around the time it outpaced the books. But I would recommend it in general.

Funny, for me it would be the reverse. I recommend Lost, even without a strong ending. GoT I believe it’s not worth to anyone due to its horrible last season.

It's not just the last season which is weak in GOT, it's been weak for 2 seasons before already. If anyone did not notice they seriously need to go back and rewatch the first few seasons to compare.

I agree. It was getting worse, but still an ok show in my opinion. The last season was just terrible.

An awesome show becoming an ok show and then ending as a terrible show is not worth recommending for anyone.

For me Lost, was a great show, with highs and lows, with fairly good last season, with a very disappointing and confusing last episode. Still worth the ride in my opinion.

I agree except on your comment on Lost. Lost was just smoke and mirrors all along, with absolutely no pay-off to the unlimited amount of questions they raised year after year. They really thought the audience had no memories at all.

I think it depends on your personality, are you a person who likes things to hang together coherently and think that when a narrative implies something will be resolved it should be resolved (that is to say if you see Chekhov's gun, they keep talking about it, and it never goes off - do you get really upset?) well, if you're that kind of person you will be pissed off about Lost. You might also dislike GoT (can't say haven't seen, but I'm that kind of person and not going to risk it)

If you feel characterization is the most important thing, and the emotional connection to characters or having highly evocative emotional moments in the narrative is what makes it worthwhile then you will probably like Lost quite a bit, but you might hate GoT (given my understanding that the last season fucked up major characters for shock value - I can't speak directly to it as I haven't watched it)

So based on that my wife still talks about how great Lost was, and if it gets brought up the first words out of my mouth will not be complimentary.

I hate the ending of GOT, but I will also admit that had it been a normal show then ending would have been below average, but not terrible. With the budget GOT had (or could get) it was inexcusably bad, but if you go in knowing that it won't live up to the rest of the series it is not terrible.

this could be true, but it doesn't really make sense to me. a bad ending could certainly sour a movie for me, but a long running TV show could have a hundred hours of quality content that goes out with a fizzle. doesn't make it not worth watching.

I'm not sure I would recommend your examples to a friend though. GOT started going downhill around season 5; it wasn't just the ending that was bad. I'm sure people would disagree with me here, but I think lost hasn't aged very well. it was a good show only by the mediocre standards of '00s TV.