Game of Thrones' "Inside the Episode" featurettes were more disappointing than the final season

The Outline

"Why do these segments even exist?" asks Max Staley about the peek behind the curtains featuring creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and their cast and crew. "One imagines that there’s no reason other than to appease the Gods of Content. Peeks behind the scenes, commentaries from writers and directors — these used to serve as bonuses for collectors and completists, enticements to purchase media for home libraries. Now, with digital distribution, everyone can frictionlessly consume this toothless content. But behind-the-scenes material seems increasingly central to our media consumption, as instead of watching the show and discussing it at the water cooler the next day, we get a stream of prestige TV-adjacent content throughout the week, in a process that begins right after the credits finish rolling." Benioff and Weiss, he says, have been especially disappointing in analyzing their own show. But Staley says it's not just Benioff and Weiss -- showrunners are generally not interesting when tasked with reflecting on their shows in post-show featurettes, from Mad Men's Matthew Weiner to Girls' Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow. Staley adds: "All this auxiliary material diverts our attention towards precisely those things that showrunners focus on: storytelling, thematic development, character arcs. They depend on and perpetuate the notion that prestige TV series are deep texts that reward serious viewing, and that a showrunner’s choices are what makes them so." ALSO: Why did the guys responsible for TV's most exciting show come across as boring?