It's getting bad, and I have not read the books (even though I own them lol).
You can only dangle certain plot lines in front of me for so long, before I begin to resent greyworm speeches and truncated running times.
How long has winter been coming? Geebus man, how long has the wispy haired white walkers been meandering towards the wall? How do the Men of the nights watch make such good time going north, but its taking the wildlings so much longer to go south? I realize there are character arcs, and story arcs, but they have dangled that banana in front of this monkey too long.
Its like sonatine says, a show that was once an "event" that I looked forward to, popped popcorn for, and sat and gave my sole attention to.......has been degraded to something I watch while I game, or talk on the phone, or peruse forums. Its simply not as good as it once was.
That being said, its still one of the best shows on TV. When its over, I plan to read the books........ So I also can also pick apart the show like a filthy smart BOOK READING elitist pig. Ha! That's gonna be fun.