Game of Thrones: Season 8 (Blu-Ray + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Dec 6th, 2019
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Liam Cunningham, Alfie Allen, John Bradley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Gwendoline Christie, Iain Glen, Conleth Hill, Rory McCann, Kristofer Hivju, Jacob Anderson
Created By: George R. R. Martin, David Benioff, D. B. Weiss
Directed By: David Nutter, Miguel Sapochnik, David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
Studio: HBO
Buy On Amazon.com
I already reviewed the final season of Game of Thrones but having some time to sit on things and rewatch some episodes, I think my stance still holds. I love this series and while the final season did disappoint in some areas, there was still a lot to love as well. I now own every Blu-Ray for the series and will be watching them over and over, well I’ll wait a bit but you know what I mean.
Since I already reviewed the show here, I’m going to just briefly discuss my thoughts on the final season and then get into what’s on this Blu-Ray, the special features and things like that. After rewatching the season again, I still think the final season and the season before were too rushed. I’m fine with the outcome for most of the characters but feel the stuff in the middle could have been drawn out more if they did more episodes. Some things felt so rushed, especially like Dany going bonkers on King’s Landing. Unlike Lost, I’m not going to write off this series because of a few sloppy episodes. I think over time, people will still think Game of Thrones was one of the best TV series of all-time.
One episode I was curious to see how it looked on Blu-Ray was The Long Night. It was so dark, so pixelated watching on the TV when it originally aired. I and many others were so pissed off by that, but thankfully the pixelation is gone. The episode is still dark as hell and recommended to watch in a super dark room, and at night. I get what they were trying to do with just using the lights of the torches, the moon and dragon fire but it’s hard for a viewer to see at times. Still, the episodes look crisp and clear on the Blu-Ray and seem better than the broadcast. I originally didn’t like the episode when it aired because it was just too intense and gave me anxiety. It made me cheer at the end of it though. I’ve grown to appreciate it more since I now know the outcome of it.
The Blu-Ray has a few extras that are worth watching if you’re a fan of the show. The first thing I wanted to check out were the deleted scenes. The one that stands out the most was a scene with Tyrion and Sansa down in the crypts. Missandei, Gilly and little Sam are about to be toast by crypt wights but are saved by Tyrion and Sansa at the last minute. No idea why they didn’t include this scene, but it did feel odd with the editing of that part of the episode and felt like something was missing. Another one is finding out what happens with the young Alys Karstark at the Battle of Winterfell. There’s so much going on with that episode, you tend to forget certain people were there. She is a minor character but still, was interesting to see what happened with her character.
The featurettes When Winter Falls and Duty Is The Death of Love are new bonus features and loved watching them. In a way, it made me appreciate the episodes more by watching this and seeing the blood, sweat and tears into making these episodes. When Winter Falls is solely about the Battle of Winterfell. The other one is more about the conclusion of the series. In there, we do learn some interesting tidbits from the showrunners that they knew who would kill the Night King very early on in the show, and knew who would be sitting on the throne early on too. They just had to paint a picture to get there, which is part of the reason why so many people hated this season. It seemed like they painted across a map to get there. I’m fine with who became the ruler of Westeros, but just feels weird the way we got there. But anyway, those featurettes equal about an hour of material, lots of juicy behind the scenes tidbits and stuff to see. Of course there’s the excellent The Last Watch documentary that aired on HBO after the series and was included if you bought a digital copy already. Also included on the Blu-Ray is audio commentaries which I’ll probably get around to listening to at some point, histories & lore and in episode guides.
If you own the other Blu-Rays or DVDs, it’s a no-brainer to finish the set and get this. Watching these episodes on Blu-Ray is better than watching on streaming, and they look crisper. In a nutshell, you’re getting this if you didn’t mind the final season of Game of Thrones and I think it’s still worth getting. There’s just too many wonderful moments in this show and season, despite the flaws it has. The battle alone is worth the price in my opinion and I didn’t know what to think about the Battle after I originally saw it. I have come to appreciate it more for what it was. Just have to watch the episode with the lights of and in the dark. It’s more of the last 2 episodes where I have issues with but nothing I can do about it. Either accept it or whine about it on the internet for months and months. The ending of the series is fine, not what I would have done or expected but I’ll definitely be watching Game of Thrones again, again and again.
Features:
In episode Guides
Histories and Lores
When Winter Falls
Duty Is The Death of Love
The Last Watch documentary
Video:
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Bottom Line: Not the best season but still one of my favorite shows of all-time
Running Time: 425 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
