My opinion is Martin has lost his economic incentive to do the hard writing - story-telling. This problem started a decade ago. But, who knows...?
Offering up a luke-warm defense of showrunners; they do not have the luxury of years and stay true to actors' maturation and professional lives. They have to march forward and hue to calendar, thus they were working with constraints from the start. They met and agreed to show concept with Martin in 2005. Reached agreement with HBO early in 2007. Four books already published, and they probably considered 5th due out anytime. They very likely expected series to be concluded just in time for them to work with that material. Martin got them to the moon with no way back. Now, they're problem solving. The question in my mind is, how much detail has Martin shared? How much of the show's storyline consolidation and bending/folding is being done with complete fore knowledge?
|