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GAME OF THRONES |
Tyrion Lannister - Peter Dinklage Catelyn Stark - Michelle Fairley Cersei Lannister- Lena Headey Daenerys Targaryen - Emilia Clarke Joffrey Baratheon - Jack Gleeson Robb Stark - Richard Madden 
OTHER GAME OF THRONES SEASONS Season 1 OTHER FANTASY SHOWS Merlin Mists of Avalon Legend Of The Seeker Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire 
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The North RemembersTyrion is now the right hand man of the boy king Joffrey. The King's mother's relationship with her brother threatens to come out and the rightful heir is sought. Robb Stark continues the war to avenge his father and Daenerys Targaryen tries to lead her people to safety across a desolate land. GAME OF THRONES returns for a second season and this opening episode is a half-hearted effort to bring newcomers up to speed as the characters are all introduced again, but within the machinations of King's Landing and the ongoing storyline. If you were late to the party then you're going to have to catch up fast and on your own. The mounting of the show is as handsome as ever and the acting is just as impressive from the quality cast. Peter Dinklage remains the standout and it is no surprise that the opening scenes are all his, but Lena Headey and Michell Fairley remain excellent. The script works hard at balancing the introductions with the depiction of the complex situation and thankfully shows the characters through their interaction with each other rather than the monologues that blighted the first season. The pointless nudity is also reduced and kept in the background. Nothing very much happens in the first episode, but the circling of the various characters around each other are fascinating and the episode overall promises good things for the rest of the season. TopThe Night LandsTyrion is now the King’s Hand, but the Queen is making all the decisions on Joffrey’s behalf. A self-proclaimed king north of the wall is giving up his children to who knows what and another self-proclaimed king is being guided by witch. After an impressive opening episode, the second season of GAME OF THRONES grinds to a halt with an episode in which precisely nothing happens. Various characters continue to dance around each other, barely veiled threats are made and received, the long monologue pretending to be character development makes an unwelcome return and none of the stories show even the slightest hint of relating to any of the others. Thank goodness, then, for the cast who continue to make the script far more interesting than it has any right to be and keep the interest of the audience when the pace has dropped to the point that would have glaciers calling for it to keep up. TopWhat Is Dead May Never DieThe Baratheon brothers fight over who should regain the Iron Throne. Theon if forced to choose between the Stark family and the family that gave them away to him. Tyrion flushes out a traitor. This is another one of those GAME OF THRONES weeks in which there are lots of lovely scenes between people that go precisely nowhere and acheive precious little. Apart from Tryrion's neat little trick (and Peter Dinklage really is the star of this show) the plot moves forward barely at all for all that we learn about the new characters. The violence and cruetly has been ramped up for this second season, moving away from the sudden, brutal shocks that characterised the last. Instead, we get extended cruelty and graphic slaughter, including of innocents. That's a losing game because sooner or later you've nothing left you can show. TopGarden Of BonesDaenerys finds her way into a great city at the edge of the wasteland. Catelyn tries to unite the Baratheons. Tyrion tries to moderate Joffrey's evil. One of the Baratheons uses dark magic. Apart from Daenerys' dragons there has been precious little 'fantasy in this fantasy show, but that ante was upped at the end of this episode with a striking sequence in a cave that is both impressive and unnerving. This is a more visceral depiction of magic than many shows and it makes it seem all the more real. Aside from that, however, it's more of the same political shenanigans that don't really go anywhere. This is tempered, though by Joffrey's unspeakable evil that turns Tyrion's efforts to contain him on their head in a hard to watch sequence. There's more to like this week than to get bored by and a sense that the pace might finally be starting to pick up. TopThe Ghost Of HarrenhalThe Baratheon issue is violently resolved, causing Catelyn to go on the run again. Daenerys receives a surprising offer of help, but at a price. Tyrion learns a secret that might become vital as war approaches. Considering the shadow birth scene was the standout moment of the season so far, it is disappointing that this strand of the story is resolved almost immediately, rendering it almost unimportant. After that, it's back to the complicated politicking, but there is more of a sense that it is going somewhere now as the strands start to weave a thread, even if characters are still being added faster than situations are being resolved. The characters are more complex and rounded in this second season and so the interaction between them is less about trying to show the characters in words but rather allowing the actors to bring them to life. TopThe Old Gods And The NewDaenerys searches for aid. Winterfell falls to treachery. Joffrey faces rioting in the streets and beyond the Wall, Jon takes an adversary hostage. The Stark family fortunes are varied, and mostly because of women. Robb's found a lady who is taking his fancy, Jon fails to execute the woman who has taken his and Bran learns that loyalty comes from surprising sources. Add to that the Lannisters being mobbed in the street, the execution of a Stark retainer, Arya's close call and the sudden cliffhanger and this is the episode that has it all. There's tons of plot, but it's all held together well and comprehensible. There are great character moments and action as well. All of which is then topped off with some romance and the usual GAME OF THRONES nudity (though not so overdone this time). Very possibly the best episode of the second season. TopA Man Without HonourDaenerys learns who stole her dragons. Jamie Lannister makes a bid for freedom. Theon acts against the refugees and Jon Snow walks around in the snow. This episode absolutely screams 'filler' because very little happens and most of what does is just repeats of earlier scenes. Jon Snow's wandering around in the wilderness with a sassy female prisoner was all done last week and the scenes this week are repetitive in the extreme with nothing new said from one to the next. Arya's conversations with the head of the Lannister clan were also covered off last week and add nothing at all to that particular storyline. Cersei's revelations about her son Joffrey do at least round out that character more and Jamie proves to be more ruthless and despicable than ever before, though he is nothing compared to what Theon is willing to do. After last week's episode, this is a real disappointment. TopPrince of WinterfellCersei and Tyrion continue to duel within King's Landing as the armies of their enemies approach. Robb finds himself a new love and a traitor within the camp frees Jamie Lannister. There's a lot of talk and almost nothing else in this episode. 'Filler' takes on whole new meanings as none of the plotlines are advanced at all. We're also returned to the monologue as character revelation style of storytelling that marred so much of the first season. TopBlackwaterStannis Baratheon finally brings the war to King's Landing and it is left to Tyrion to save the Lannister stronghold from a vastly superior force. This episode sticks with one location and one storyline, the battle for King's Landing, and is instantly the best of the season so far. The tightly written storyline has brutal action aplenty as the fortunes of both sides swing wildly in different directions. All of characters within the fight are given something to do, but at least one minor character is wiped out so quickly as to make their presence throughout the rest of the season somewhat meaningless. Peter Dinklage is the anchor point within all of this and he proves to be completely capable of shouldering the burden. Lena Headey is the second billed actor, but her storyline of being trapped in the ladies' safe room when she'd rather be fighting is a bit of an annoying distraction from the main event. Blackwater marks the high water mark for this season and it is surprising that it is only the penultimate episode and not the season finale. How the final episode will match up to this is difficult to imagine. TopValar MarghulisThe combatants of the Blackwater battle find their new positions. Daenerys Targaryen faces off against a sorceror to get her dragons back. After the tightly-focused and frankly excellent episode last week, this season finale proves to be a disappointment as it returns to the default position of skipping around all the characters and doing very little with them. Few of the storylines actually come to a satisfying ending point. Instead, they just sort of ... stop. The exception is, surprisingly, the Daenerys storyline that has been padded out this season only to be rushed to a conclusion that should have provided the tense and action-filled centrepiece to the episode, but just sort of fizzles its crowning moment. The sorceror is overcome so easily that you wonder how he was ever considered to be so formidable. There's a cliffhanger moment tacked to the end to make viewers want to come back and the show has just about done enough for that to happen. Top |
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