LogFAQs > #939927889

Peter Dinklage being phenomenal is part of the reason why the decline isn't as strong before the latter half imo. His says his lines to Tywin in the trial parts to complete perfection, in particular. Actually, a lot of the actors are really good and it's quite the saving grace a lot of times. The actors of Theon, Tywin and The Hound come to mind, but there are others. Even when put in settings they shouldn't be, they do such a good job that it's often still good imo.

Season 2 begins making changes to the source material and then they make more of them as they go. This all sets things up for disaster later on. The lack of Lady Sroneheart, Arianne Martell, Jeyne Poole etc. It just comes back and hits the quality later when they're missing, I'm sure a lot of the missing plots and characters are part of the reasons the later seasons just fall apart completely.

When that's said I still can't bring myself to say the show really began declining that early. They were definitely better showrunners in seasons 2 to 4 than in the first one for instance. Perhaps they begin making bad decisions, but at the same time they become so much better at presenting the good stuff. There's also a fine balance somewhere. You wouldn't make the best possible show by adapting it 1:1. Some characters needed to be cut. POV storytelling is fantastic for the books, but wouldn't have been for the show, changes had to be made. They blew that, but I still think that what worked well in season 2 to 4 upweights what did not, so while they indirectly set up a decline, it just actually start to happen until season 5. They have issues, but the show was never better than that.

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