The Butterfly Effect of Game of Thrones Season 8 on Modern Blockbuster shows
Game of Thrones was the defining TV drama zeitgeist of the 21st Century, so far. At its peak, it completely dominated pop culture in a way that very few pieces of media ever have. But its fall from grace was just as dramatic, going from the center of every conversation (at school, at work) to feeling almost nonexistent overnight.
At least, spin-offs like House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have brought some life back to the IP, but it still hasn’t reached the cultural highs it had in the late 2010s.
What interests me most is the butterfly effect that finale may have had on modern television. The ending was so controversial that I think it fundamentally changed how studios and writers approach finales for massive mainstream shows.
Before GOT ending, we used to get bold, risky, divisive endings in shows like The Sopranos, Hannibal, The Americans, or even Dexter. Some worked, some didn’t, but they took swings.
Now it feels like a lot of mega-hit shows are terrified of upsetting their audience, so they default to “safe” endings instead.
We saw this with Stranger Things. The finale felt so safe and formulaic that half the internet convinced itself there had to be a secret twist episode somewhere (Conformity Gate). The band was literally fighting interdimensional beings, yet almost everyone walked away largely unscathed. Even Eleven, who was written as the sacrificial lamb of the story, probably ends up surviving. It feels like the writers just can’t fully commit to major consequences anymore because they’re too afraid of upsetting fans.
On the opposite end, The Boys recently wrapped up, and while the final season did kill off characters, it still never truly felt like there were major stakes at play. For a series that spent years presenting itself as unpredictable and anti-formula, the finale of The Boys ended up feeling surprisingly cookie-cutter and exactly like what everyone expected would happen.
I genuinely think the reaction to Game of Thrones scared studios away from ambitious finales. Writers don’t want to risk delivering an ending that gets hated for years online, so instead, we’re getting endings designed to offend as few people as possible.
I know we’ve still had some great finales in the 2020s, like Snowfall and Succession, but it feels like the truly massive, mega-hit shows that dominate mainstream attention are increasingly choosing to play things safe.