'Game of Thrones' cinematographer says the show being too dark is your own damn fault
Game of Thrones' "The Longest Night" is still buzzing days after its premiere -- not only due to its questionable battle strategies and one shocking death, but because many fans were barely able to see the episode.
Season 8, episode 3 was one of the show's literal darkest episodes, one which had us squinting into the darkness, much like the soldiers at Winterfell and with a similar success rate (R.I.P. Dothraki screamers). Cinematographer Fabian Wagner has a simple, non-technical explanation.
“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly,” he told Wired. “A lot of people also unfortunately watch it on small iPads, which in no way can do justice to a show like that anyway.”
Ya hear that? It's your own damn fault!
There are legitimate explanations for the show's midwinter nightmare aesthetic, including the actual production design (there's no electricity in Westeros!). TechCrunch explains difficulties with video compression and banding, in which it's difficult for a TV to distinguish between similar shades of the same color (e.g. bluish-white snow hues against a sea of shadow).
“Another look would have been wrong,” Wagner said of the darkness and on-set lighting. “Everything we wanted people to see is there.”
“Game of Thrones is a cinematic show and therefore you have to watch it like you’re at a cinema: in a darkened room,” he added. “If you watch a night scene in a brightly-lit room then that won’t help you see the image properly.”
That sounds just majestic, but creating absolute darkness is literally impossible if, say, you're watching on Pacific Time and the sun is still up. We may have defeated death, but we can't defeat the sun! I sure can tape up my windows Bird Box-style to watch an episode of television, but I'm also not going to do that!
As Wired notes, shows like Thrones can be shot in 8K, so unless you have an 8K TV, you won't see it as it was meant to be seen. And the thing about 8K TVs is, uh...
The good news is that the long night is ostensibly over thanks to one Arya Stark, so we might be done squinting at Thrones for the foreseeable future. Or forever! Sniff.
Topics Game Of Thrones HBO
Proma Khosla is a Senior Entertainment Reporter writing about all things TV, from ranking Bridgerton crushes to composer interviews and leading Mashable's stateside coverage of Bollywood and South Asian representation. You might also catch her hosting video explainers or on Mashable's TikTok and Reels, or tweeting silly thoughts from @promawhatup.
