Winterfell (S08E01)

Notre Dame is in flames and everybody is watching Game of Thrones. Sam drops spoilers and you can smell the money in the special effects in an absolutely superfluous fly-past. As an intro, it’s ok, but you can see that the creators are fumbling around for something to say. But the finale got me wanting to see more. (15/04/2019)

A traditionally well executed and patient start that makes you remember of the narrative character of the first season. (16/04/2019)

Basically a solidly done collage of all the key characters' interactions and a seamless continuation of previous episodes. It's a slow start, but that's to be expected, there’ll be plenty of time for carnage. The more intense the convergence of the individual characters before the battle, the greater the emotional catharsis can be after it. (01/05/2019)

After several previous disappointments, I never thought I'd give the opening episode of the final season more than three stars. But here we are. My concerns remain, though—probably because there were no action scenes for the writers to mess up. This episode was heavy on dialogue, mostly in Winterfell. While some of it didn't grab my attention, it wasn't terrible. Cersei must be a wild one in bed; poor Euron was so caught up in it that he didn't even notice he lost three ships. What happened to his soldiers and sailors remains a mystery. (14/08/2019)