Game of Thrones: S8 (4KUHD + Blu-ray + Digital)

An amazing conclusion to what I consider my favourite TV series of all times. Iv’e been following this show closely for years and it was pretty much the thing I anticipated the most every year, and the final season managed to take everything to the maximum with a stretch of 6 amazing feature length episodes that broke all the rules. We've seen it with the Sopranos. We've seen it with Seinfeld. We've seen it countless other times- if your show is popular enough and you give the audience an ending which is not the most conventional conclusion possible- or, god forbid, a little bit brave- you are going to get the heat. Say what you will about the final seasons, it's amazing the show started to really divide the fan base only in its very last season, that being it's eighth one- something that is ultimately unavoidable with something in that magnitude of popularity, that has so many characters and storylines for people to nit-pick from. It's expected some will be disappointed with the way elements of the story have concluded but I believe people went way overboard and overreacted with their negativity and scrutiny towards these final episodes, something that originated heavily from being swept by the negative buzz on social media. I mean, once it became ‘fashionable’ to hate on the last season of the same show it was so trendy to love beforehand seems like people were just quick to join the latest trend without even giving it much of a real thought. It’s all fugazi. A lot of plot points that were deemed by a lot of people as "making no sense" from the characters perspective are, at least in my opinion, totally in line with their arcs on the show if you give a moments thought about it. I won’t even start talking about blogs posting misleading headlines about the cast “hating” the season just to support the narrative or disguising the team’s unprecedented achievements in Award shows for this very season as some misfires for the show-runners people love to talk dirt on so much these days. The show gets plenty of criticism for its deviations from the source material season 5 and onwards, but if you just think for a second how enormous this story is it's pretty easy to realise a lot needed to be altered to fit the TV medium, and David and Dan managed to do so while preserving the original essence of Martin's creation, keep the story well constructed and coherent and keep dozens of millions of viewers satisfied, and not only a handful of hard core followers that wanted it to be a page- to-page adaption of the novels. While I enjoyed all the books and didn't agree with a few of the changes they made for the show as well I can see why a lot had to be cut, things don't work the same in books as in television. Considering they knew the ending from the start and the huge amount of details you have to alter just from omitting one storyline if you want to reach the same final goal as the books, I believe it was overall for the best and they knew what they were doing, the story didn't collapse under their hands- at least as far as I'm concerned. In a show this popular, when it came to writing the ending to all these story arcs it seems nowadays a writer has two choices- giving the internet audience what they always wanted and predicted or just going with your vision and making a brave ending actually staying true to the show and it’s characters- which is exactly what David and Dan did. Though if you choose the latter option, be sure you are ready to take all the heat- and GoT is not merely the first example of that on television in the last couple of decades. I don't think there was anything as pop-culture as GoT in it's early seasons, and with the social media and internet meme-culture so present these days- this time this phenomenon was taken to heights never seen before. This season offered some of the best episodes or moments from the entire show in my opinion, with Miguel Sapochnik’s brilliant Battle of Winterfell episode and later “the Bells”, a penultimate episode better than anything I could have ever imagined. The many story arcs of the show came full circle in a beautiful manner, with either heartbreaking or uplifting conclusions to all these characters we’ve been following for years. Well, I do agree this season was a little bit rushed and could have used a couple more episodes, I’ll give you that. However, I still don’t think it was that noticeable or damaging to the story as a whole or the logics behind the characters’ motivations or actions. One more thing I’d like to mention is Ramin Djawadi, the composer of the show that has always been one of the best aspects of the show. He took everything to the maximum with the best soundtrack album out of the 8, wrapping everything up beautifully and as emotionally as possible. As I mentioned before, at least season got it’s recognition among the several award shows- more specifically, being the most Emmy Awarded final season of any show in the history of television. Game of Thrones was a legendary series I’ll go back to watching again and again, and I really hope new viewers in the future, away from the 2019 internet-buzz climate will approach this season with a more open mind and see this is exactly the ending this show deserved. At first I was really bothered it’s became so mainstream to trash my favorite show online for no concrete reason, but when I look back months later I think this is a side effect I can accept for having a real authentic ending to the show and not some mundane predictable fan fiction, tied up in a pretty bow. After re-watching the show for the first time after knowing how it concludes, the ending makes even more sense. All the arcs are building up beautifully towards the endgame, and it make you understand better some of the choices they made along the way, knowing where it all intended to go. It also makes you understand some of the characters better, and re-contextualizing a lot of things you thought while watching the show the first times around. As for the product- top notch HBO quality as always. The packaging looks amazing and the video/audio quality is spectacular. The Steelbooks looks great just as I expected. Highly recommended.

Personal opinions of the direction season 8 went, this product was well packaged and functioned as expected. No complaints.

Completes my set

I watched these on my 55" inch LG B8 OLED TV. there is one setting I had to put on a lighter choice--it may have been black level to High. Anyway there was no macro blocking in any scene. The first split second when the Dothraki encounter th dead army it is like: On HD HBO streaming my perception was like: "What's that ? Was it a....?" I watched it on a rental HD Blueray disk and it was: "Wow that was a giant I think." Watching it on this 4K UHD Blu-ray, I freeze framed that moment and you clearly see the front of the giant's body in detail--you can clearly make out both of the giant's hands and fingers. None of the darkest scenes had any of those flashing black squares of macro-blocking, no stratified banding of the night sky. The dragon fight was immensely detailed. So anyway this 4K UHD is just what I wanted it to be. The only downside is the 6 diskettes do not fit well in their holders they are always popping lose--making everything very fumbly. If your TV can set up the opening seconds of episode 3 so that you can see clearly what is going on without strain then you should be good for the whole episode. I ordered the Steelcase version of the season. The vender sent me the conventional non-Steelcase version because: "They did not have the Steelcase version on the shelf." Anyway that is my experience. (Maybe later I will post my exact TV settings.)

I think the final season of Game of Thrones gets a partially undeserved bad rep. While I do think the show would have benefitted from having its regular (up to that point) ten-episode run, or even a thirteen-episode run to really flesh out the story, I do not have a problem that they ended the show without wrapping everything up in a nice little bow, or had everything play out as expected. Although, if you watch the behind-the-scenes material on the last disc, you will find out that the show largely ends the way George RR Martin intends to end the books, even though the path to get to that ending point may be different. Going into the final season there were essentially two remaining storylines, first the coming battle with the white walkers, and second, the battle to rule the seven kingdoms. The first I think was pulled off almost flawlessly (aside from the really (visually) dark third episode of the season, but the behind-the-scenes material makes clear there was a reason for that, in which the battle takes place). The second, in the last three episodes, would have been better if it played out over six or seven episodes instead of just three, which would have allowed for a much better payoff. Given how large a cash cow the show was to HBO, the showrunners absolutely could have got as many episodes as they wanted for the final season, and I definitely think it was a mistake to do a six-episode run. I will not spoil the overall outcome of who lives and dies. If you have seen the show up to this point, you know that several main characters have died in every prior season, and this one is no different. Who does and how may not appeal to everyone, but realistically there was probably not ever going to be an ending that was going to make everyone happy. For those who get the 4k set, the show looks and sounds great on the format, especially if you have a large screen TV and a good sound system. There are three regular blu-rays and three UHD blu rays. For extras, as in prior seasons, every episode has a commentary track with member(s) of the crew and/or cast. It also includes deleted scenes and behind the scenes and making-of featurettes (including The Last Watch which aired the week after the finale). A decent amount of material for those who like going through the extras. As for the packaging, this one is a steel-book packaging with the three regular blu rays on one side and the UHD discs on the other, stacked on top of each other. They are not all that easy to get out, and you have to be careful when taking them out of the seating. It is a payoff season for a great show. Certainly, not everyone loved it, or will love it, but despite the stupid petition to re-shoot the final season (which gets mocked in one of the commentary tracks), it is the ending that was made. If you got the other blu-ray sets then chances are you will get either this one or the regular set despite what you thought of how the show ended. If however, you were never all that into the show, then this season is definitely not going to change your mind. It is still very violent, as much so as the prior seasons. The sex was toned down a lot, mainly because of the various battles that occurred during the season. While I do think the season had its issues, I believe it is better seeing it a second time around all at once.

I’ve been a fan of GOT from season one and I am surprised by all the negative reviews. I guess they have a right to their opinions, however, I do not agree with them. I did not feel the series was rushed, nor under developed. We’re already quite aquatinted with the characters and how they’ve matured. Any longer it would have felt like the season was dragging along. To some, it may not have ended the way they expected, but GOT from season one has never been predictable. That was the beauty of the series. Season 8 was well written and acted and well executed throughout episodes 1 thru 6 with a logical and satisfying ending to the series... Who could ask for anything more... One final note: The 4K and blu ray versions of this season look absolutely stunning!

Excelente producto, con un Steelbook muy bonito. Vienen los 6 discos (3 por cada lado) lo único que quizá no es tan bueno es que vienen empalmados uno sobre de otro, aunque era de esperarse por ser el Steelbook, por eso no bajare ninguna estrella. Los dos formatos (FHD y 4K) son un salto increíble en calidad con respecto al servicio de Streaming el cual sabemos la controversia tan grande que causo con el episodio de la batalla de Winterfell. Aquí la imagen es limpia, sin macro bloques, con un excelente contraste y con el bandeado muy mínimo. En definitiva de esta manera es posible disfrutar mucho mejor de todos los capítulos, especialmente el tercero. En cuestión de sonido, el Dolby Atmos es desgarrador y muy bien empleado. Lo bueno es que a los pocos minutos de que empieza puedes darte cuenta de lo genial que es este codec. La escena en el capitulo uno donde Drogon y Rhaegal vuelan sobre Winterfell es sencillamente genial. Ambos formatos son excelentes, así que si te decides por el Blu Ray FHD, de igual manera te veras beneficiado y podrás disfrutar de esta temporada. El servicio de Amazon fue bueno y son problemas.

Justo lo que quería 👍🏼

I couldn't afford to subscribe to HBO so I had to avoid any spoilers regarding the final season until I could afford the DVD set but it was very hard to avoid the negative press, which after watching this, I totally disagree with. I think a lot of people just enjoy criticizing and promoting negativity because I thought Season 8 was excellent and I'm a hardcore fan including reading all the books. I waited until the price dropped to something more reasonable and when this Steelbook version became available for less than the regular boxed version I grabbed it. I didn't have any problems with the delivery condition which was excellent. It's going to be a long time, if ever, for another series of this quality is going to come along.

esta ultima temporada es muy buena, la calidad del blue ray es excelente, el steelbook es muy bonito el imán para el refrigerador esta padrísimo, el producto llego bien, a tiempo y sin ningún problema.. aunque a muchos no les gusto el final, a mi me pareció adecuado, todos los capítulos de esta ultima temporada nos dejan queriendo mas !!