I checked out the documentary on the making of this final season of Game of Thrones, called The Last Watch. In the spirit of the extra features on the Lord of the Rings DVDs, an embedded crew followed a few of the production units to give us a sense of what it was like to put together a TV show of this scope.

Seeing the scale and pace of what they were doing with each of these final seasons as the show’s stakes got bigger, it’s a wonder that they were able to get anything accomplished with the degree of polish they do (speaking of the quality of the end product on screen, not necessarily the plot points themselves).

HBO has definitely raised the bar for what can be done on television, along with viewers’ expectations of the fit and finish. This season they produced 6 episodes each the scope of a feature length film. To land the plane at all with this project was an achievement.