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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 Season 2 OTHER FANTASY SHOWS Merlin Mists of Avalon Legend Of The Seeker Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire 
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Valar DohaerisJon Snow meets the King Beyond The Wall as his captive. Joffrey's new intended shows compassion to the town's orphans. Daenerys thinks about buying a slave army and faces assassination. GAME OF THRONES is back and there is so much fallout from the climactic events of the last season that absolutely nothing happens in this episode with the exception of Daenerys' trip through the market place. Instead of a plot, we are given a disparate group of people all talking at each other again and not moving any story forward at all (well maybe Jon Snow's, ever so slightly). Huge amounts of time is given over to minor characters that we're not much interested in and the great Peter Dinklage is given a lot of screen time to do nothing very much, but proves to be more entertaining doing nothing than anyone else. This is GAME OF THRONES at its most pompous, self-absorbed worst and it is only because the actors have managed to make their characters so interesting that it is watchable at all. TopDark Wings, Dark WordsAfter getting the truth of Joffrey's true nature from Sansa, Margaery Tyrell starts a plan to solve the king problem. Arya is taken prisoner by bandits. Bran is having bad dreams and Jaime Lannister plays with his captor, leading them both to be taken prisoner. More of the huge array of characters wander around the landscape, mainly getting captured by even more characters. The tapestry is now so large that only half of it can be dealt with in the running time of an episode, mainly because the pace remains glacial and no moment is left where a character can hold forth at length for no particular reason. This is more of the 'hate' part of our love/hate relationship with this show. TopWalk of PunishmentDaenerys considers an unthinkable price for the slave army. Jaime Lannister saves his captor from rape, but at a price. Robb Stark considers his options. Catelyn Stark's long soliloquy about her childhood sums up all that is wrong about GAME OF THRONES. It's character through explanation rather than acting and subtlety. It's 'let me tell you why am I who I am' and it just doesn't work, as so many of the slow, slow, not quick, slow storylines that are meandering dully all over the place don't work. Then the show goes and does something so dramatic and out of the blue that you are left breathless and think that it's all been worthwhile. There are enough things that happen to make this episode an improvement on the first two, but the cast keeps growing with little actually getting resolved. TopAnd Now His Watch Is EndedTheon's escape continues. Daenerys surrenders one of her dragons as price for the slave army. Jaime Lannister is unable to deal with his injury. The pace picks up a little and concentrating on Jaime Lannister after the shocking last few seconds of the last episode is a smart move. Margaery continues to work on Joffrey and there is much politicking in King's Landing. The episode opens with a horrible example of 'let me tell you how I came to be as I am' exposition that tries to make for a visually interesting scene, but is irrelevant and fails miserably. Fortunately, Daenery's proves to be the episode's saving grace and though she could have acheived everything she has done this season in maybe ten minutes of screen time, it is her actions that provide the epic scale and interest of this episode. TopKissed By FireJon Snow and Ygritte finally give in to their attraction. Arya is witness to a judgement by fire and learns of magic. Robb Stark puts principle above convenience and Jaime Lannister shares some secrets. At last, an episode that has some real action, some real plot development and even an exposition scene that doesn't challenge the outer limits of boredom. This is the best episode of the season to date and whilst it might not move matters forward in any great way, there is still enough going on to make it feel like forward motion has been acheived. It also displays how far the show has come from the first season by having scenes in which there is nudity, but keeping things on the right side of gratuitousness. There is a distinctive theme running through the episode (doing what is right, not what is convenient) and a focus that the show has been missing of late. Let's hope this is a sign of better things to come. TopThe ClimbJon Snow, Ygritte and troops from beyond the wall scale the ice wall. Theon is tortured some more. Arya watches her friend being taken away by the Red Sorceress. Other stuff happens. It is questionable as to whether this show could travel any more slowly. The ice-scaling sequence is startlingly good, action-packed stuff when compared with the lifeless meandering of the rest of it. Being detailed in the depiction of the politicking is all very laudable, but does there have to be so much of it? Watching Diana Rigg and Charles Dance dance a verbal dance of plots and disgraces is very entertaining, does a marriage arrangment between Rob Stark's allies really rate so much time? Is it necessary to detail every manouevre made by every person or couldn't some of them be taken out? Thank goodness, then, for the ice-scaling sequence because there's nothing else in here that is of much interest at all. TopThe Bear And The Maiden FairJaime Lannister discovers he has a conscience. Daenerys Targaryon greets an envoy bearing gifts and King Joffrey gets a telling off from his grandfather. Robb Stark gets some family news. There is no doubting where the true power lies in the Lannister family. The most delightful moment of the season so far is the sight of Tywin Lannister treating his supposed king like the spoiled brat that we know him to be. Sadly, not much else lived up to that until the very end where the climactic titular battle took place and really ought to have been given more screen time to maximise its effect. Daenerys was offered everything that she could want to take her fight to Westeros, but chose to remain and try to free some more slaves. Her humiliation of the arrogant envoy was also enjoyable. The ongoing torture of Theon took an initially pleasant, but ultimately harsh turn. Hopefully, this will mark the end of this repetitive story, since there isn't much else that can be done to him. Other storylines trundle along getting nowhere fast and leaving their protagonists to become less interesting week by week. TopSecond SonsDaenerys receives more envoys in her camp. Arya learns the destination of her kidnapper. Tyrion is married to Sansa. And GAME OF THRONES meanders on its merry way through the detailed filler that passes for story in this show. The Daenerys plotline is jsut a rerun of the visit of the envoy from last time around only with more swearing. The eventual outcome seems rather unbelievable despite the extended time spent on it. Minor character Gendry's introduction to the Baratheon keep and his usefulness to the sorceress (or at least the usefulness of his blood) has little point. There is clearly a point somewhere ahead, but nobody is in any hurry to get there. The centrepiece, though, is the joyless marriage of Tyrion. Peter Dinklage remains the star of the show and his pained dignity throughout, including his drunken threats to Joffrey are the highlights in an otherwise static affair. The detail in which the court intrigues are shown is justified, but the same level of detail to matters elsewhere really is not. TopThe Rains of CastamereArya is brought by her kidnapper within sight of the castle where her brother Robb Stark is presenting a relative in the marriage that he ought to have taken part in himself. And Jon Snow is back on the right side of the wall. As seems to be the case with the penultimate episodes of GAME OF THRONES, this was the episode when the makers remembered that they need something to happen. So much happened, in fact, that you wonder why they couldn't spread it out over a few of the other episodes to improve those. Instead, we get Jon Snow in fight, Daenerys' men in action and, in the last few minutes, a wedding that will go down as one of the most memorable moments in television history. It's shocking, sudden, brutal and brilliant. It shows what the series aspires to being and what it can be when it doesn't get so mired down in admiring its own slow motion. Anyone who hasn't read the books and has managed to avoid all the spoilers will be left devastated, floored, exhilarated and appalled all at the same time. Now that is quite a feat. This is certainly the best episode of the third season and possibly of the whole show. TopMhysaIn the wake of tumultuous events, Arya learns what it is to kill a man, Jon Snow learns that Hell hath no arrows like a woman scorned and Tywin shares a rare bonding moment with Tyrion. After last week's 'Red Wedding' provided a last few minutes that would have proved a hugely effective season finale, the real season finale disappointingly reverts to type with lots of talking, precious little action and a total lack of an ending. It is clear that this season of GAME OF THRONES reached its climax one episode too early. That's not to say that there wasn't anything to enjoy here and this was one of the better episodes, standing up perfectly well as a midseason episode, but proving a bit, well, limp after last week's shocks. This was supposed to be the finale after all. Tywin and Tyrion's bonding over their mutual distaste of Joffrey was a briefly pleasant moment that probably said more about their respective characters than all of their previous monologuing. Note to writers, this is how you do it. Last week, Jon Snow surprised the audience and this week it was Ygritte's turn to act in the exact opposite way to the norm. GAME OF THRONES has never played by the rules and the same can be said of the characters. However, the continuation of Theon's torture and his sister's declaration that she is off to save him, the Red Sorceress declaring the war for the five kingdoms (and therefore season one and two) no longer relevant and Jamie Lannister's return home were all fairly low-key and seemingly pointless side issues. There is an attempt to come up with an epic last shot for the season finale, but let's be honest - season three ended last week. Top |
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