“Lost” and “Leftovers” show-runner Damon Lindelof released an impassioned defense of ‘Game of Thrones’ in Entertainment Weekly today, coming out in support of his fellow HBO show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (even after author George R. R. Martin publicly criticized the ending of Lost).
As Lindelof put it:
"I don’t watch television to find things to gripe about, and I think we live in a clickbait-y media culture that exists to pick things apart. I love-watch 'Game of Thrones,' so I’m immensely forgiving of things that perhaps are not the strongest attributes of the show. And despite the fact that George R. R. Martin has flamed the 'Lost' finale, there is a schadenfreude aspect of me saying, 'Well, I kind of hope Game of Thrones sucks at the end, too, so they’ll know it feels to have somebody say that to you.' But I don’t think the 'Lost' finale sucks. And I want 'Game of Thrones' to end awesome, because I’m a huge fan, and I have every reason to believe that it is going to end awesomely.”
Praising the show’s complexity, Lindelof said that he is bowled over by the consistent level of excellence 'Game of Thrones' achieves. "As someone who makes television, I watch that show and I do not know how they do it,” he wrote. "I just don’t understand, on a sheer logistical level, of how they’re able to produce that qualitative of a product in the amount of time they have with so many different locations and so many different parts.”
While he acknowledges that some storylines are stronger than others and some episodes are required to set up the action, Lindelof thinks these changes of pace are what “[make] those excellent episodes all the more special.” As he put it, "when I was watching [episode 8] “Hardhome” this season, I was just like, 'That’s one of the most excellent hours of television I’ve ever seen.' ... I was just like: 'There’s nothing better on television, right now, than this.' You only need to demonstrate excellence once a season for me to view the entire season as excellent, or the entire show as excellent. And 'Game of Thrones' is able to do it at any one time."
Lindelof went on to criticize fickle fans who are quick to renounce the show after a single narrative misstep. Addressing fans who announced plans to quit watching after Stannis burned his daughter alive, Lindelof pronounced "That’s like my 8-year-old saying, “We’re not best friends anymore.”
"When I see a blogger—thank God I’m not on Twitter anymore, because I get into all sorts of trouble—or a critic, or a recapper say, 'I’m done with your show,' if I were running that show I would call them up and say, 'You are not allowed to watch my show anymore,'" Lindelof continued. "'I’m going to f–king alert everybody in your life to watch you. I’m going to hire a private eye to tap your media consumption, and you better not ever watch it again. Are you sure you want to do this?'
Read the full screed over at EW.
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