Game of Thrones showrunners were "affected" by the backlash, but it didn't stop them

The backlash to the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones was legendary. Fans didn't like what became of Daenerys Targaryen. They didn't like what happened with Bran Stark. They thought the whole thing was rushed, and they said so, loudly and often. Folks on Reddit hatched a scheme to make sure that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss would be the first thing people saw when they searched Google for the term "bad writers." I just tried it and they show up in three of the first four photos produced, which should give you an idea of how deep the antipathy ran.

More recently, Benioff and Weiss debuted their new Netflix series 3 Body Problem, which they created alongside True Blood producer Alexander Woo. The show is about what happens when humanity comes into contact with an extraterrestrial species that may or may not have our best interests at heart. It's a trip and I recommend you check it out if it sounds even remotely interesting.

Speaking to Mashable, Dan Weiss talked through how (or whether) the backlash to Game of Thrones affected their process when approaching this new series. "I mean on the one hand it’s impossible to not hear that on some level," he said. "We’re not particularly plugged in, by design we unplug from the hive mind reactions to things. But it doesn’t mean we didn’t know what that reaction was."

"There’s no way to do justice to the show that you’re working on, especially one on this scale, if your eyes are on the rearview mirror the whole time. You kind of need to practice letting go and focusing on the moment that you’re in, because the moment that you’re in is long – it took five years to make this show – and it just wouldn’t have served this show very well to be constantly seeing it through the lens of something else, if that makes any sense?"

I completely get what he's saying. Again, the backlash to Game of Thrones was cacophonous, and while there were plenty of people making good-faith critiques of the show, there was also a lot of vicious venom poured directly from the id onto the internet. There's no way to absorb and learn from all of that noise in a way that's useful, because so much of the noise wasn't useful. I can't imagine making a show as complex and thoughtful as 3 Body Problem if they were also trying not to tick off all the people who had said mean things about them on the internet. Better to put it out of your brain as well as you can and keep working.

Benioff expounded on this idea while speaking to Radio Times. "I think in the middle of the Thrones process, we realised that both for reasons of general productivity and mental health, that plugging into that isn't helpful. Trying to pay attention to what a million people or more are saying – we're not just built to handle that, we're not evolved to handle that," he said. "Making a show already involves having to pay very close attention to what dozens or hundreds of people are saying at any given time, and that's the job, and if you don't do that, you're not going to do the job very well. To try to do that while listening to millions of voices that are coming to you through your little black device of one kind or another, that's not helpful, at least in our minds."

"And it doesn't mean that we don't want outside voices to help tell us how we're doing. We very much want that too. But the way you process the outside voices of the five people you show episode 2 and ask them 'Does this make sense?' is very different than the way you process what 10 million people think in 140 characters or less. I find the former to lend itself much better to doing good work and to having a good life than the latter."

Again, this sounds like the wise course of action to take. Weiss brought things home: "I think that all your experiences affect you, and that was definitely an experience that affected us, but I also think that more importantly, we kept our eyes and attentions forward, and really wanted to push forward with the show that we were working on," he said. "All you can really do at the end of the day is tell the story you want to tell in the best way you know how, and then what happens is out of your hands at that point."

Have David Benioff and Dan Weiss been "redeemed" by 3 Body Problem?

There's discourse going around now about whether their new show has "redeemed" David Benioff and Dan Weiss in the eyes of fans who remember the backlash to Game of Thrones; that's the language that TV Insider used in a new poll, anyway.

I think redemption means different things to different people. In the eyes of fans, Benioff and Weiss may indeed need some kind of redemption, and I think 3 Body Problem is good enough to set them on that track. We'll see how the court of public opinion judges the show after it's been out for a while. But in their own minds, Benioff and Weiss have learned what they could from the experience on Game of Thrones and moved on, which is why they were able to still apply themselves to a big new project in the first place. And it looks like people are responding:

3 Body Problem now the number one Netflix show in the U.S.

3 Body Problem is a thought-provoking, occasionaly spine-tingling sci-fi show that asks big questions about our place in the universe while also introducing us to some characters worth following. I thought the show took a minute to get on its feet, but by the end of the first season I was ready for more.

And I'm hopeful I may get it. The last time I checked in on ratings for 3 Body Problem, it was at the top of the Netflix charts in 70 regions (up from 60 the day before), but still at number two in the United States, one of the most important regions for the streamer. But as of today, 3 Body Problem has claimed the number one spot, pushing the true crime docuseries Homicide: New York to number two.

It seems that 3 Body Problem is gaining momentum as more people discover it, which I think tracks with the kind of slow burn series it is. I'm hopeful that Netflix will renew the show soon! Netflix renewed shows like One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender two weeks after they premiered. 3 Body Problem dropped on Netflix on March 21, so I'm going to keep an eye on for news on April 4.

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