Game of Thrones: no spoilers

[BigSlizz]

I actually wrote Sam and Brienne off as dead a couple times during the show. One moment they were covered, the next fighting.

[BigSlizz]

I can't wait until the symphonies get to license that episode. That would be crazy good.

[slag]

The Dead are scary as fuck

[Susquehanna Birder]

I'm not Mr. Film Maven but I was thinking during that entire time frame "who the fuck is responsible for lighting this shit?"

I get it that it was at night and in the fog of the Dead, but come on.

I'm not sure if it was the digital aspect the broadcast, my old plasma screen, or what...but damn, my TV was having a hell of a time cleanly rendering all the levels of black in much of that episode.

[slag]

I listen to ESPN radio in the car and sometimes while working and on the Le Batard show this morning they were saying the same thing I posted.

They also said that social media indicated that some people knew to adjust their brightness before the show aired.

Wish I had known ... I kept waiting for the view to get clearer on its own.

[JuTMSY4]

This was my take

the entire battle until they retreated to the wall of Winterfell was a dark, hard-to-see, dog-pile of shapes and swords.

I'm not Mr. Film Maven but I was thinking during that entire time frame "who the fuck is responsible for lighting this shit?"

I get it that it was at night and in the fog of the Dead, but come on.

It was good, but a bit of a mess. Enjoyable and I get the long night and darkness, etc, but visually it was really hard to follow even if you enjoyed the battle of the bastards level confusion.

~~SLIGHT SPOILER~~

Some high points though and the ending meshed well with GoT's eschewing of high fantasy tropes which felt pretty on brand.

~~SLIGHT SPOILER~~

[HEREisAKERS]

In some ways I appreciated that it was difficult to see...

It made it so that I wasn't totally sure what was happening -- which I imagine is closer to the feeling of being there. All of this obvious action but its hard to know for sure what is what, who is OK, how, where...it was terrifying and disorienting...it kept you unsure of the fate of these people that you've come to know over 10 years...hope, relief, fear, devastation on and off on and off.

[BigSlizz]

Yeah, I think that was by design. Also made for a more forgiving production environment. Think about how long it took to make LOTR, and their battles weren't this long.

[nerd]

the entire battle until they retreated to the wall of Winterfell was a dark, hard-to-see, dog-pile of shapes and swords.

I'm not Mr. Film Maven but I was thinking during that entire time frame "who the fuck is responsible for lighting this shit?"

I get it that it was at night and in the fog of the Dead, but come on.

It was meh for me because it was pretty disappointing in some areas. Can't go into it too much because of spoilers but if people thought it was awesome then cool for them.

I just came away going, "well, that was disappointing."

It was probably done on purpose. One, it's cheaper to shoot at night because you can hide CGI stuff better. Two, probably done to add to the sense of dread.

[slag]

Please ... it was annoying and tedious ... and I'm a huge fan of the tv show and have read the books.

Speaking of tedious ... that inconsiderate cunt George Martin should have finished them 15 years ago.

[Susquehanna Birder]

Yeah, being prepared with the right settings was probably a good idea. I'm not sure that would have worked for me. While I still revel in the fact that my 15+ year old Panasonic plasma still performs well, banding is an issue, and I think this episode brought it out like crazy.

Edit: Now that I did a quick search, it appears that the Comcast/X1 customers are almost universally pissed off at the crappy video. And I trust that most of them are using newer technology and have their settings adjusted properly. It still sucks, but I don't feel so bad about my aging beast of a screen.

[BigSlizz]

It was, but it's also stylistic and covers a lot of warts in terms of Wight CGI. There were a few moments toward the beginning where I thought I they consulted Sam Raimi.

Yeah, that fucker now is just going to be novelizing the show.

[Ellsworth]

yeah, that's when i was like 'Come on, man!'. they should have been offed.