Adding (and running off at a wild tangent
) to what Peat said above: for me the series failed its promise when they concluded the whole
winter is coming bait in S8E3. I lost interest at that point and watched the remainder out of a sense of completion rather than investment. The prologue in S1E1 set that up*, not the politicking for the throne, not DRAGINZ, not the chance to change from a monarchy to a republic/democracy, but a simple promise of threat from the mysterious north.
In basic terms, they didn't deliver on that; not in scope, nor gravity. And the execution of the episode was shoddy and dingy, and full of ludicrous logic (the Dothraki dashing out into the dark was a contrivance just so the viewer could see their sword flames extinguish).
I could see it was rushed and oddly structured, but I'd not read any of the books and so had no expectations seeded from them, however I still felt
something was amiss; whether that was the pacing or structure, or something else entirely beyond the premature ending of the NK storyline, I can't say.
It's not something I'd get angry about, but I suspect disappointment is maybe more damning than anger. And a lot of the anger that has been thrown by fans - eg the rage over the bottled water and coffee cup - was no doubt fuelled by their
disappointment in this season, conflating the meta gaffs like leaving modern day beverages in-frame, with story weaknesses.
I never thought of it as a Starks v Lannister thing on the TV show; I was disabused of that when Ned got the chop and then later when the other 'pretty' Stark brother got murdered - certainly it drifted from S v L when Tyrion became darling of the fans, and Jamie became likable.
Just some thoughts from an amateur viewer.
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*I stopped wating GOT in S1 and twice in S2 and both times I got back on the wagon because of that prologue
