I'd say it's a spoiler but it really doesn't spoil anything, and I didn't even watch the final couple of seasons: The Sopranos abruptly ends the entire series by going black and Journey's Don't Stop Believing plays and that's it. Now it's considered one of television's more genius devices but back then it really pissed people off (though it's also why you hear this fucking song so much everywhere.)

As far as I can tell, the "Sopranos" ending still pisses people off.

I didn't follow the show or see the ending, but I get the sense the point was that Tony Soprano's life could be upended at any time. Any time a door opens it could be the Feds or a killer; there will never be one last confrontation after which he can calm down and live a peaceful life.

I kinda like it: HBO has a track record of its' shows ending on very low notes, like True Detective's Scooby Doo ending or Eastbound and Down's.. well it was a horrible way to end a great series IMO. Then you've got a show like Oz which was probably the best thing I've ever seen on TV for a while just trying to stay on unnecessarily. The only show I really followed on there that ended really well was Californication.

I know, right? It they were going for the Sopranos reference they should have had a more ambiguous cut of the GoT S5 ender. It's worth a four just for the juxtaposition, still.

The Sopranos ending was excellent. True Detective Season One had kind of a crap ending, on account of it being boring, and Breaking Bad's ending was terrible - not on account of the final scene, but just the whole episode leading up to that final scene was aggressively sub-par.

FOR THE WATCH was not a bad ending. The GoT team could have easily fucked it up, but they nailed it. I also like how they handled The Arya Thing, which honestly, to *me*, was probably the biggest piss take I've ever read. GRRM dropped THAT little bombshell on us, the readers, completely out of nowhere, literally in one throw-away sentence, tacked on at the very end of the last Arya chapter before he decided to retire her story for the next BOOK AND A HALF - which, in GRRM time, wound up being something like eight years, was it, before The Arya Thing saw any kind of resolution?

TeenerTot - what don't you get? Did you see the GoT Season Five ending? If not, then your confusion makes sense; the joke here is that Something Which Happens does not happen, the Game-of-Thrones-style twist is averted, and everyone is happy, instead of venting their rage on Facebook and Tumblr.

SPOILERS: in the show, it turns out that Jon Snow's Uncle Benjen has transformed into a White Walker. They have a kung fu fight and Jon Snow is forced to kill his uncle.... moments before Sam shows up, with a special serum that can cure White Walker disease and turn the afflicted back into normal human beings.

The guy who made this video spliced together footage of last week's finale episode, and footage of Jon having a happy meeting with his uncle way back in Season One. That's why the video quality is different, the clothes change, and Jon loses his beard.

Oh.. Californication was Shotime.. I just torrent em. That's right society! I'm a renegade like that.

I don't have cable.

Torrent it. That's what I did until my friend gave me his HBO Go information. You're missing out on a lot of great stories, like when Lady Liara d'Shadowrose, the beautiful violet-haired assassin whose eyes shift color from purple to pale salmon depending on her mood, is revealed to be pregnant with Kit Harrington's child and Kit must protect her from the shirtless love-mad Dothrakis even though Liara is such a great warrior that she could probably kill them all by herself, or the time Danearys gets sick and shits herself to death.

The end of Eastbound and Down was perfect in every way, and that's a scientific fucking fact.

I dunno.. it didn't do it for me, but I never really watched it as a comedy. I've known people who are exactly like Kenny Fucking Powers (without the baseball) so I never really saw the show as a comedy: if it was funny (and it is) it's funny like Falstaff. The emotional impact at the end of S3 was great whereas the Doogie Houser conclusion was.. I dunno.

As for GoT, I have mentioned it before but I can't really get into it. It's pretty to watch, the acting's great, and it's one of the few instances where you can say the movie (or show) was better than the books (or book for me). But I guess it's like being at the store and deciding between Skyrim and Fallout 3. They're not that different when you break it all down but it depends on what universe you're looking for.

I've got pretty low expectations for all the new HBO stuff this summer, with the possible exception of The Brink, so if you've got Netflix I'd recommend Bloodline. It's kind of like a condensed GoT but in the Florida Keys.

So are you just the way you are, or have people told you what the thing is that's wrong with you? Just wondering what it is.

I'm sorry, that was untoward. But what the actual fuck? Not watching it as a comedy? It doesn't matter who you know, you really have to miss an avalanche of major cues there to think of it as anything other than farce and satire... And the emotional impact at the end of Season 3? With the voice-over, and all the visual gags and callbacks? And moreover, how could that work for you emotionally, but then the end of Season 4 doesn't? So you were watching it as what exactly?

The absence of zombie Catelyn instantly killed my interest in Game of Thrones

I hated Catelyn AND zombie Catelyn. Keep her dead, I say. Unless you bring her back just to kill her again, more slowly this time, which seems to be the direction in which the book is headed.

I'm guessing the lack of Brienne-lynching was to keep the feminists from rioting again, as they did over Ramsey. The show might still get to all that in the next season, however.