The end (of the year) is nigh and that means only one thing: we’re one more year closer to extinction–and after the apocalypse, A Dream of Spring will finally be released. Oh, and I guess the end of the year also means it’s award season! The final year of Game of Thrones may have been controversial to say the least, but it was also a monumental achievement of television and the various filmmaking guilds are acknowledging that hard work, including the Art Directors Guild, Costume Designers Guild and Screen Actors Guild.
This past Monday the Art Directors Guild nominated production Deborah Riley for her magnificent work in the final season, specifically for “The Bells,” in the category of “One Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Series.” The explosive episode’s (also explosive) production design goes up against Bo Welch’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Martin Childs’ The Crown, Andrew L Jones’s The Mandalorian, and Bill Groom’s The Marvelous Mrs. Meisel. The winner will be revealed on February 1, 2020.
I probably don’t need to remind you this penultimate episode included the Red Keep’s crumbling stairway where the Clegane brothers battle it out and, most prominently, an immense recreation of the streets of King’s Landing in the midst of fire and blood, based on the architecture of Dubrovnik, the Croatian city most commonly used to depict the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. The work of Riley and her team was so good, in fact, that so many watchers at home understandably didn’t realize the streets we saw were a built set, but I assure you it was a thing to behold:
Riley is nominated alongside her team: supervising art director Paul Ghirardani; art directors Philip Elton, Hauke Richter, Nick Wilkinson, and Harry Pain; standby art Directors Mark Lowry and Rachel Aulton; senior draughtsman Brendan Rankin; draughtsmen Owen Black and Jamie Shakespeare; junior draughtsman Grace-Anna Hay; concept artists Kieran Belshaw, Philipp Scherer, Daniel Blackmore, Ulrich Zeidler, and Jessica Sinclair; graphic designers Jim Stanes and Rhiannon Fraser; scenic artists David Packard and Thomas Kirkwood; and set decorator Rob Cameron.
Interestingly, the nomination is accompanied by a design presentation document that shows not only their extensive King’s Landing work on “The Bells” but the major expansions of Winterfell for the final season, in pretty great detail:
When one sees what went into designing and buildings these gigantic, modular sets, one begins to appreciate a fraction of the work that goes into this job. I closely followed the construction of the new Winterfell and King’s Landing sets since their inception during the eighth season’s production, and even I was amazed by the end result–or perhaps I was so amazed precisely because I saw the kind of time and resources it took to make it all real. Whatever the case may be, and whatever you think of the final season, I hope you can appreciate Deborah Riley’s and her team’s hard work and we can all together hope for them to win this Art Directors Guild award.
Next day–yesterday, that is– the Costume Designers Guild presented, as per Deadline, their own award nominees, which of course included Game of Thrones‘ perennial costume designer Michele Clapton and her work on the series finale in particular, “The Iron Throne.” Nominated for the “Excellence in Sci-Fi / Fantasy Television” CDG award, she is competing with Joyce Schure for Carnival Row’s “Aisling”, Natalie Bronfman for The Handmaid’s Tale’s “Household”, Cynthia Summers for A Series of Unfortunate Events’ “Penultimate Peril: Part 2”, and Sharen Davis for Watchmen’s “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice.”
There is little doubt why “The Iron Throne” was chosen to stand for Clapton’s work in season eight. All of it had marvelous work, especially in regards to Daenerys and Sansa’s amazing costumes, but “The Iron Throne” featured Sansa’s coronation dress (for which you can still vote –amongst others– in our own Best Costume award.)
I would say it’s the perfect costume for Sansa’s coronation as Queen in the North–with the quintessential Northern design mixed with all the people who inspired her, all of it with Sansa’s own flair–, but don’t let a costuming ignoramous like me explain it to you; instead, go read professional fashion designer Hogan McLaughlin’s final “Game of Threads” piece here at Watchers on the Wall. It truly is a work of art, and it holds a special place in the show’s history (and in Michele Clapton’s heart, reportedly) as her own hands are seen on-screen helping Sansa put it on, in one of the show’s final scenes.
Last but not least, today the Screen Actors Guild released their nominees for their 26th annual awards, and Peter Dinklage was among them in the ‘Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series’ category. The other nominees were Sterling K. Brown for This Is Us, Steve Carell and Billy Crudup for The Morning Show, and David Harbour for Stranger Things.
Dinklage has always been an awards-favorite, especially compared to his sometimes undervalued Thrones co-stars, as it’s so difficult to stand out in such an ensemble show. Nevertheless, Dinklage’s Tyrion gets to shine on awards season one last time, adding this SAGA nomination to his long list of nominations and wins. He may not have been the standout protagonist of season eight, as he was in seasons two and four especially (for which he didn’t get so many awards, funnily enough), but Dinklage still delivered an excellent performance, particularly in the series finale.
Remember what I mentioned about standing out in an ensemble? Thankfully, the SAG Awards account for that with the ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series’ award, for which Game of Thrones‘s entire main and recurring cast was nominated: Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Ben Crompton (Dolorous Edd), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Joe Dempsie (Gendry Baratheon), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Jerome Flynn (Bronn of the Blackwater), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Conleth Hill (Varys), Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane), Rory McCann (Sandor ‘the Hound’ Clegane), Hannah Murray (Gilly), Staz Nair (Qhono), Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne), Bella Ramsey (Lyanna Mormont), Richard Rycroft (Maester Wolkan), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Rupert Vansittart (Yohn Royce), and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark.)
When competing for a lead actor award, it’s easy to see how Game of Thrones may lag behind, as it just doesn’t have the time to dedicate to a single actor or character that other shows do, but this kind of ensemble cast award appears to be tailor-made for this show, so I really hope it wins. The cast did magnificent work this final season, and it deserves to be rewarded. The other nominees are no slouches, though, with the ensemble casts of Big Little Lies, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Stranger Things all competing for the big shared prize.
Finally, there is the ‘Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series’, in which Game of Thrones is up against Glow, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, and Watchmen. I’ve watched all of these shows, and there’s some incredible stunt acting in all of them, but–pardon my bias–I can’t see how the Game of Thrones stunt team doesn’t go home with this award. Some truly remarkable (and record-breaking) stunts were performed in this final season.
While we’re in this awards spirit: TVLine included Jaime and Brienne’s sex scene in its list of sexiest TV scenes of 2019, pointing out they are “happy to pretend that Jaime and Brienne’s story ended after Ser Jaime introduced his Oathkeeper to her maidenhead, and they lived happily ever after”. Jorah’s death in defense of his queen also made the cut in their list of the year’s best TV deaths. Here I Stand!
Before you go–this time really last but probably also least–The Wrap reports that Game of Thrones was the most tweeted TV show of 2019. A dubious honor, to put it mildly, but it does reflect how much of a cultural juggernaut the show had become by its final season.
Thanks to everyone especially Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss and the Cast for 8 masterful seasons and a brilliant ending with King Bran the Broken ruleing the 6 Kingdoms of Westeros.
Agreed. Couldn’t have asked for a better series or ending then what Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss gave us. I’ll always be grateful. I hope they all win their respective awards. They were all brilliant.
You two are adorable together. Of course, that’s assuming you’re two different people, which I’m starting to question…
Mr Derp,
Who?
If you mean LightKing and Jack Bauer, they have different IPs and e-mail addresses. If they’re the same person, they’re going to great lenghts to hide it for no reason.
Jack Bauer 24,
Agreed Jack. to this day I still do not get the why there is so much hate online. The ending wasn’t at all what I expected but I could not think of a more perfect ending now that its over. I am glad to see you on here everyday defending the show-runners.
As Tyrion said in season 7 “I trust the eyes of an honest man more than I trust what everybody knows”
Praise of Deborah Riley and company for production design in “The Bells” has to include my favorite segment (with gorgeous cinematography):
Arya, after running the gauntlet through Dany’s Inferno:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02JHf8m_sI
Especially
1:06 – 1:11: Arya framed in silhouette.
1:46 – 2:07 Arya calms white horse
——
Added bonus: Here’s a clip featuring Maisie Williams on her last day on set, in a tearful goodbye to cast and crew right after filming that scene in “The Bells” – her final GoT scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxD3itzE-lQ
at 0:14 – 0:29
#LastWomanStanding
Luka Nieto,
Yes, Luka, I assume if they were using the same IP address and email the mods would’ve figured that out pretty quickly. I don’t actually think they are the same person, even though they’re also going to great lengths to post the same exact statements over and over again on every thread, which does make one wonder.
However, it’s also kinda naive to think that no one can use different IP addresses and emails. If they’re going to great lengths to post the same inane statement then I don’t see why it would be out of the realm of possibility that they would go to great lengths to hide that they are the same person.
Mr Derp,
I can’t help you, that you can’t appreciate the brilliance of Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss nor that you can’t accept that other people liked season 8.
The Light King,
Not this again.
The Light King,
It was easier to just post my reply to you in another thread that you never bothered responding to. You were the one calling people names in your fervor to make yourself out to be a victim, which you most certainly are not. I’ve been very clear in many threads that I don’t care who liked season 8 and who didn’t.
Mr Derp,
I don’t care that you don’t care. Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss deserve all the support for making such a amazing job they did in season 8. It was masterful and magnificent and very special. Some of the best writing I have ever seen and brilliant Storytelling . King Bran the Broken was the Highlight of the show, it was just brilliant. And I will keep posting exact the same statements over and over again.
Thanks for sharing these!! I never tire of seeing these scenes.
The awards keep coming, and these new nominations are well deserved.
A brief tangent for HDM followers. Ten Bears, I’m not sure if you ventured into the HDM world yet. It’s interesting for me to compare Arya to Lyra. Their names almost have the same letters and sound alike. Lyra is growing on me as the series continues with Dafne Keen’s portrayal, but it would have been interesting to have seen Maisie play the same role when she was 12. It would have had a totally different bite to the character.
This last episode had lots of action. Dafne/Lyra continues to get stronger as an actor/character in each episode. I won’t hijack the thread too much other than to say I’m enjoying it, and they had a mother of a cliffhanger at the end of this last episode…
My cable cord cutting is now complete, and my house is now ruled by my new Orbi Mesh router system. I’m on HBONOW since cable has gone bye bye. A brief story about my trip to cancel!
I had to use a large push cart to return all of my old cable boxes to the local cable store. I had 4 very large unopened boxes plus 4 other devices I gathered up plus various remotes and power supplies. I never used the replacement dvr’s they sent me, since they said if I used them, then my “whole house dvr” would no longer work! Well that made no sense to me at the time, because I liked having the “whole house dvr” system. Why would I want to get rid of it just to make the cable company happy? The lady at the cable store counter just kept huffing and puffing when she saw me. First she looked at my push cart. She looked at my file and said, “You had those [4 unopened boxes] for over two years.” I said that one was a router, and she quickly corrected me and said “Modem!!” She huffed and puffed while looking at my unopened boxes. She began opening them, and she had to remove the shrink wrap so she could scan the serial numbers. She said, “You’ve had those for over 2 years and never returned them?” I was going to say that last time I visited the cable store in person it was over an hour wait and it’s not the easiest thing to carry all those boxes through the mall (where the cable store used to be). I didn’t ask for them in the first place, so why do I need to worry about it? The cable company just sent them to me and then told me that if I used them it would make my cable service worse by disabling my whole house dvr! I didn’t say anything out loud though and just smiled. There was another guy who was supposed to keep my spirits up so I wouldn’t yell at the lady clerk who was huffing and puffing. He asked me, “How was your weekend?” The lady continued to breath loudly and rolling her eyes at me. I said, “My weekend was great!” I proceeded to have a nice conversation with the friendly guy about sports and such. I did get my printed receipt and my life and my cart felt much lighter. Unfortunately Lady Frustrated (that’s my new name for her) still had to work there after I left. I wish I would have asked for her real name, but she’ll be forever known now as Lady Frustrated (not related to Lady Stoneheart or I wouldn’t have made it out of that store alive!) I just have the thought of her still working there checking in box after box, router (whoops..modem) after router, person after person for the entire day. Hopefully she doesn’t hyperventilate by the end of the day with all of that huffing and puffing.
Well, that’s one way to sidestep an explanation for your hypocritical behavior. What a mature response.
Mr Derp,
My behavior isn’t hypocritical. I insulted no one. I just defend the masterminds Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss. That’s my mission. I know that you can’t handle such a amount of brilliance. Season 8 and Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss will go down in history as the most magnificent writers and the most magnificent season. GRRM should take a lesson from them.
The Light King,
So, you’re actually just trolling then. Got it. Thanks!
Aww. https://www.instagram.com/p/B58I2Qlpyvx/?igshid=1epl64i2xwnov
Pretty much defines it, doesn’t he/she? Brilliant.
Pigeon,
Brilliant picture 🙂
It truly is. Brilliance at its finest. I especially appreciate seeing Rory, and Peter doing that fantastic facial expression.
Tron79,
“Thanks for sharing these!! I never tire of seeing these scenes.”
And thank you for helping me appreciate that S8e5 scene (Arya framed in silhouette).
PS I have not watched “His Dark Materials” yet. Should I? (I’ve been trying to attend to real world responsibilities since GoT ended, and haven’t been watching much TV anyway.)
Beautiful work on the sets, construction, and costumes — The Bells, especially, was so visually stunning, I couldn’t believe this was a TV show. And congratulations to the ensemble cast for their nominations! They all did great work 🙂
Yup! I really, really enjoyed Monday’s episode!! And I loved the Coulter/Lyra scenes!
To add my potentially unwanted voice here but…
YES.
(And The Marvelous Mrs Maisel!! Maybe I watch too much TV….? :D)
Ten Bears,
Yeah, I think it’s worth the watch once you decide that real world responsibilities are just getting in the way! Just wait until the season ends and you can binge them all. There are only two episodes left. (8 total). I thought it started off slowly, but after the first few episodes it really took off. It’s interesting for me to watch Dafne Keen. I’m always comparing her with Maisie. They have a bit of a similar look, but the two actors are very different. Maisie is much more in your face with her attitude. I think Lyra could have used a little Maisie especially at the beginning of the season. Dafne is showing more spunk the longer the season goes on.
No. 🙂 I didn’t hate Season 8, so maybe as consequence of telling untruths, you should just delete your profile entirely. That would be brilliant.
I thought it was disgusting when she said it.
I didn’t quite get her explanation, but perhaps I did. Was she implying that the daemon was the cause of all of the bad things in the world? I guess it’s similar in Judaism to the concept of the yetzer hara and yetzer ha’tov The Bad and Good Inclination. Or in Star Wars, you have the dark side and the light side of the force. You need both in order to survive (in balance) and it is thought that before you are 13 you can’t control your yetzer Ha Rah (evil inclinations), so it’s your parents responsibility to keep you under control! Then after 13 (when you have your bar/bat mitzvah and puberty as Mrs. Coulter was saying), it’s up to you to control it (control your daemon). If you completely cut out your yetzer ha’rah you would end up like that nurse..just a mindless zombie with no wants or desires. So perhaps, that’s the concept Pullman is wanting to explore?
Tron79,
”It’s interesting for me to watch Dafne Keen. I’m always comparing her with Maisie. They have a bit of a similar look, but the two actors are very different. Maisie is much more in your face with her attitude. I think Lyra could have used a little Maisie especially at the beginning of the season.”
Well, as we’ve observed, the camera seems to love Maisie Williams. Probably in part because she has “very expressive eyes… wonderful eyebrows.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZbiNiDsk48
– Lady Crane, S6e6
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is #2 on my “To Watch” list. I’ve been a fan of Rachel Brosnahan ever since she guest starred in S1 of “The Blacklist.”
#1 on my To Watch list – “Star Trek: Picard” premiering next month.
Ten Bears,
Alex Borstein is also in that show and she does the voice of Lois Griffin on Family Guy. She’s brill……uh, amazing!
Tron79,
There’s such a wholly sadistic side in Mrs Coulter who genuinely enjoys these other children being tormented but when it comes to her own child, who has a big part to play, it poses an interesting conflict for her, which will be explored in greater detail. (I hope that’s not a spoiler!)
I think so!
I remember in a recent BBC1 interview, Pullman described the concept of growing up as “innocence vs experience”, and I think that’s what Dust represents — experience. Sexuality. Thinking for one’s self. Choices between good, bad, and everything in between, free will, free thought, and it seems that’s what the Magistrium wants to control — free thought/will/choice/curiosity? Keeping somebody in a state of perpetual innocence and naivety makes it easier to control them, limit their designs, decide what they know (like that poor, mindless nurse who was split away from her daemon).
I think that’s kind of in line with what you said (evil inclinations) and as you grow up, the ability to control yourself falls on you. What the Magistrium wants to cut out is, yeah, any inclinations they view as evil so you can fall under their control with no desires or mind of your own.
Oh, good! Please, if you can, tell me what you think! I’m on my second rewatch of the series!
(Rachel Brosnahan is luminescent! And she makes me yearn for hats and dresses…)
As for Picard, whenever I see his name… well, it’s Christmas time so the Christmas Picard ‘Make it So’ song autoplays in my head 😉
Deborah Riley should win. I love what she did in episode 5.
Michelle Clapton is one of the few who put costumes on the heir I really like.
The SAG awards I hope either GoT of Big Little Lies wins.
And I agree how can GoT not go home with the Stunt award?
Pigeon,
<3
I love Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss.
Ten Bears,
I read the book decades ago and loved them. Been meaning to watch the series, a bit afraid they will ruin the story for me, but thats not what I am hearing, so probably need to do that. Go ahead and start, we can compare notes
Well deserved!; Congratulations to all!
Adrianacandle,
I didn’t notice when Lyra made the fake alethiometer. I thought that was a very effective trap for Mrs. Coulter, but I must have missed when she constructed it or maybe they didn’t show it? I’m not sure where she hid it when she got captured. I wouldn’t have thought she always carried it with her, so I was pretty confused about that part. Maybe I just missed it from an earlier scene?
Tron79,
Oh yes, all you’ve said is true too — I think Mrs Coulter really does believe that in the books but she just has this appetite for cruelty alongside it. I agree that this trait didn’t really come across in that scene. There is a scene I’m thinking about in The Subtle Knife that shows it on-page, from what I can recall, but I wonder how the show will play that.
I don’t recall it shown in the show but in the books, Lyra swipes the spy-fly soldered in the tin from Farder Coram’s bag and asks Iorek (the bear) to make a new tin that is the same size and shape as the alethiometer (as a fake althiometer to those seeking to take it, I believe) and reseals it. She keeps both the spy-fly tin and the alethiometer with her, so they are still on her person when she is brought to the Station. When she’s taken in, she manages to keep both by being allowed to hold onto her money-belt, which contains the alethiometer in the pouch, and claiming the spy-fly tin is a toy she keeps in the money belt.
The Braime sex scene: I am not embarrassed to admit that I have re-watched it enough times to know all their lines by heart. So happy to hear that it’s been recognized. Personally, I also I like to believe that the whole series ended in that very nice bedroom. I seemed to have stopped caring about most of the other characters by that point.
Adrianacandle,
Aha! The book explanation made a lot more sense!
mau,
They seem like good genuine people. I like everything I read about them too. I like how the praise the people that work for them and I haven’t seen them push the blame on anyone. Like the Dorne disaster wasn’t even going to happen on the show until they were convinced to go there.
Tron79,
Oh, good! I hope my explanation made sense! 🙂
Should I read the “His Dark Materials” books(s) first, before watching the series? I kind of want to be sure the series doesn’t flame out before I invest my time in it.
I’m reluctant, because of past disappointments. Although “The Blacklist” (CBS) wasn’t based on a book of books, as a big James Spader fan I tuned in to that show and though it was really good – until midway through its second season when it started to get stupid, and I just couldn’t watch anymore.
Ten Bears,
Adriana told that the main story is finished, the first 3 books total of around 1,5 GoT book (If I remember right) so it should be reading very fast with that.