For me the scene with Euron’s fleet v Dany in the latest episode perfectly encapsulates everything that frustrates people about the (post season 4) show;
Worthless new characters that bear zero relation to their book counterpart? Check.
Characters and/or entire armies improbably appearing exactly where they need to be to serve the narrative? Check.
Crazy leaps of logic and borderline incoherent storytelling? Check.
Formerly intelligent characters doing incomprehensibly stupid things? Check.
Utterly inscrutable planning, tactics and strategy? Check.
Beloved characters and/or story elements with a deep importance to the lore (in this case one of the dragons) getting unceremoniously written out because the showrunners are tired of this shit and just want to go off and make their Star Wars movie? Check.
All it needed was yet another instance of Jon Snow implausibly escaping certain death and an excruciating pop star cameo and it would have been a full house.
As a show, it’s still entertaining, and it isn’t boring, and I’ll keep watching because I’m so invested at this point. But I don’t think its unreasonable to point out that it used to be so, so much better than this.
As an adaptation, these last few episodes have me almost convinced that the people steering the ship with regards to the show perhaps don’t have the best grasp of the source material. Per the conversation between Sansa and the Hound (and also Arya’s arc in general), the moral of the story they’re telling seems to be; vengeance is neat, might makes right, and the only way to survive in a world where monsters exist is to become one yourself, which imho couldn’t be further from the message George RR Martin is trying to convey with his novels.
Sorry if that makes me spoiled! ;-)