MILD SPOILERS: I’ve not gone into detail but there are a couple of notes on the most recent episode. Nothing that reveals any major storyplots though, but proceed with caution.

It’s official (I use the term very loosely of course), but Game of Thrones now sucks. Despite how popular it remains, it’s fast becoming a bore.

I get why it’s very watchable, the scale of it is impressive, the CGI is good (but these days, so what) , the myriad of converging stories and the hints of the mythology, coupled with some very modern language to keep it familiar, and it’s ticking all the pop culture boxes. I don’t think it’s particularly shocking even though I know some people do – OH: “he keeps using that awful word”, “who?”, “the Hound, keeps saying the c word” – the gratutious violence and gore almost seem, deliberately, OTT, ohhh and you get to see naked people.

There isn’t all that much depth to it either, the ‘good vs evil’ nature of most storylines has the ongoing and not very subtle message that even the good (humans) are also cunts… ohh sorry, I used the c word.

But what gets me the most is how predictable it is has gotten in the latter episodes. It’s almost like they’ve gotten scared to kill off their big stars. Remember those early episodes? Peppered with ‘ohhh they won’t kill … ohh holy crap they did’ moments that kept you on your toes. But now, not so much.

And that’s before you get to some of the battle scenes, where any sense of suspense has been lost thanks to the Battle of the Bastards (Jon Snow should’ve died at that one but no, they need the star in the show now…).

The larger and more popular this show gets, the weaker and more predictable the writing becomes. Take the last episode as an example.

The Hound, lobbing a rock across a frozen lake. The Hound lobbing a second one that falls short… gosh what on earth will happen?? And that final shot with the dragon, was ANYONE surprised by that?

To be fair, I’ve never been fully dragged into GoT like I have with other TV series, and I think this is why. Since it started it’s been predictable. If there is a battle scene, it will be the bloodiest one (until the next one), if a main character gets killed off, it will be a big surprise (until the next one).

It’s that progression that has kept it to being no more than an intriguing hour or so of TV with some pretty good scenery. The fact that it seems to be constantly striving to out-do itself with every episode, the very thing that built its popularity, is now the crutch on which it leans.

I’m sure the producers and TV execs are more than happy with this state of affairs but, for an audience that is being sold a mystical tale of dark forces, removing the ability to surprise and delight us means you are relying on our goodwill and sense of completion to see this through to the end.