Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2019

The now famous tag line “winter is coming” has morphed into “winter is here” on some of the press material accompanying the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, but one way or the other, audiences and critics alike, evidently affected by that kind of weather, seemed to have a perhaps appropriately cooler response to this much loved and talked about series during this wrap up collection of episodes. In a way, it’s perhaps completely predictable that Game of Thrones, having evaded the so-called “sophomore slump” that many shows seems to suffer, may have ultimately fallen prey to an analogous syndrome in the annals of series television, the “final season letdown”, as exemplified by such at least somewhat controversial wrap up years like Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season. Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season may therefore not completely satisfy each and every fan in each and every one of its six episodes this season (abbreviated compared to previous years, which may in fact be part of the problem). That said, there is still a wealth of material here that should at least occasionally and intermittently engage various longtime viewers of the series, even if there may be an undeniable feeling of things ending not with a veritable bang, but a snowbound whimper.

For our reviews of the previous seasons of Game of Thrones, please click on the following links:

Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season Blu-ray review

Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-ray review

Even the relatively “minor” lack of an episode or two this season compared to previous seasons may prove to be one of the insurmountable obstacles Game of Thrones encounters as the writers attempt to deal with a vast array of characters and plot points. The season has two major objectives, establishing who will finally assume the duties of the Iron Throne, and also documenting the epochal battle of Winterfell between the armies of the living and dead. That may not sound like a lot of material, but as anyone who has watched even an isolated episode or two of the series may understand, there are so many strands of subplots woven into these two “basic” plotlines that it may have been a fool’s errand to attempt to knit them together with such a relatively few episodes.

Forces are assembled both literally and figuratively as the eighth season opens, with hordes of characters either arriving or meeting in Winterfell, including Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). By the end of the first episode of the season, a number of other notables are in Winterfell, including Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), and Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams). With other hordes of the undead variety due to arrive at Winterfell’s doorstep at any moment, there are somewhat panicked strategy meetings, some explicitly doubting whether the promises of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) to provide fighting forces can be believes. Cersei herself is given some time in this episode as her relationship with Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) enters new territory. (Another subplot involving other Greyjoys seems almost weirdly truncated, as if the writers decided “well, we have to do something with these characters.)

This season has a rather cheeky sense of humor at times which would seem to be an odd match for the overamped histrionics that also frequently take place. Suffice it to say that backstabbing and major character expirations continue to be the norm, but there are some arguably unexpected bits along the way, including what is obviously meant to be a mind blowing reveal about Jon in the first episode (but which may not come as that much of a surprise to some). Other interchanges, as in the “reunion” between Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright), may actually provoke eye rolling in some, with an “are you [inserted expletive here] kidding me?” response to a certain sanguine nature between the two. There are a number of other plot contrivances, including at least two moments when Jon Snow is seemingly fated to be killed (again, it might be added), but then just kind of miraculously escapes.

Kind of surprisingly, given the build up to the big battle with the Army of the Dead (one which gets started in earnest in the third episode), the series just kind of moves on willy nilly to other menaces, until things move inexorably to their bittersweet conclusion, where a ruler if not an “inhabitant” of the Iron Throne is revealed. It’s perhaps salient to point out that some may feel the most emotional moment in this entire season takes place between a dragon and human (more will not be said lest spoilers be inferred), even with a whole panoply of players strutting and fretting their hour on this particular stage.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I have to say I was kind of surprised to be somewhat underwhelmed by the video presentation this season, but part of that might be due to the generally high bar many previous seasons have set for excellent high definition presentations. If the IMDb is to be believed, this was still digitally captured for its eighth season (and presumably finished at a 2K DI), which I'm assuming means the kind of noisy looking texturing that shows up is some form of digital grain. In darker scenes especially (the near constantly dark third episode is a great example), this mottling tendency can almost look like pixellation, especially on rendered backgrounds. (You can see a bit of this in some of the darker screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review.) I also was less than impressed with quite a bit of the CGI this season, with some of the compositing almost looking like old school matte shots where backgrounds don't quite line up with foreground objects. Blacks are often pretty murky or milky looking, verging toward purples some of the time. Now, with all of that out of the way, on the plus side, when things are reasonably bright, as in the showdown between Cersei and Daenerys in episode 4, things pop really well, with appealing fine detail and generally excellent clarity and sharpness. As can be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, the series' long tendency to exploit slate grays and other cool tones on the blue end of the spectrum continues apace in this final year, but there are also some interesting interstitial scenes that are often graded toward sepias, yellows and browns.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season features another nicely rendered Dolby Atmos track, though once again HBO has kind of oddly authored these discs to default to the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track that is also included (so make sure to check your audio settings if you're Atmos capable). A number of the big set pieces offer fantastic engagement of the Atmos channels, notably the huge battles that fill up a large part of Episode 3, but even relatively quieter moments in both Winterfell and King's Landing often offer nicely designed surround activity, with both washes of sound that waft between channels, and discrete placement of individual effects. Dynamic range is very wide throughout this season, and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly. Bursts of LFE for effects like some dragons clearing their throats (so to speak) also provide quite a bit of sonic energy.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Recaps and Previews are available under each individual episode menu (with the exception of Episode One, which does not feature either a Recap or a Preview for some reason).


• In Episode Guides offer text pop ups helping viewers to wend their way through various data points.


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode One with commentary by Co-Producer / Writer Dave Hill and Production Designer Deborah Riley

  
  

  Episode Two with commentary by Co-Executive Producer / Writer Bryan Cogman and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne)

  
  

  Episode Three with commentary by Director Miguel Sapochnik, Director of Photography Fabian Wagner and Camera Operator Sean Savage

  
  

  Episode Three with commentary by Executive Producer Bernadette Caulfield, Visual Effects Producer Steve Kullback, and Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Bauer

  
  

  Episode Three with commentary by Stunt Coordinator Rowley Irlam and Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion)

Disc Two

• Recaps and Previews are available under each individual episode menu.


• In Episode Guides offer text pop ups helping viewers to wend their way through various data points.


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode Four with commentary by Director of Photography David Franco, Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandel) and Pilou Absek (Euron Greyjoy)

  
  

  Episode Five with commentary by Director Miguel Sapochnik, Director of Photography Fabian Wagner and Conleth Hill (Varys)

  
  

  Episode Five with commentary by Producer Chris Newman, Special Effects Supervisor Sam Conway, and Visual Effects Supervisor Joe Bauer

Disc Three

• Recap and Preview are available under the episode menu.


• In Episode Guide offers text pop ups helping viewers to wend their way through various data points.


• Audio Commentaries

  Episode Six with commentary by Executive Producers / Writers / Directors David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, and Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)

  
  

  Episode Six with commentary by Director of Photography Jonathan Freeman and Camera Operator Ben Wilson

• When Winter Falls (1080p; 29:13) is a "making of" documentary providing copious background information on the Battle of Winterfell.


• Duty is the Death of Love (1080p; 31:36) does much the same duty for the series' final episode.


• Game of Thrones: The Last Watch (1080p; 1:52:58) is a nice in-depth piece offering tons of reminscences by principal cast and crew as they look over the long and winding road they've been on.


• Histories and Lore offers more animated background pieces:

  King's Landing (1080p; 2:55)

  
  

  The Greyjoy Rebellion (1080p; 5:31)

  
  

  The Blackfyres (1080p; 5:15)

  
  

  The South (1080p; 2:30)

  
  

  The Defiance of Duskendale (1080p; 5:17)

  
  

  Maegor the Cruel (1080p; 5:18)

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 8:28)

Game of Thrones: The Complete Eighth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Was I completely thrilled with this final season of the much beloved Game of Thrones? No. Did I think it was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish, as at least some other fans evidently did? No. I think things could have been smoothed out here with at least one or two more episodes, but there also is some unabashedly ham handed writing this season, with both silly soap operatic aspects and interpersonal relationships that just don't ring true all of the time. Still, I can't imagine anyone who has been following this show not finding something to like about this final season. Technical merits are generally solid, though I personally found the video side of things to be a little lackluster this season. With caveats duly noted, Recommended.