Speaking of television these days, I am sure that A Game of Thrones is in the mind of many a people. It is quite a good show, and it has managed to captivate an audience that numbers in the tens of millions (based on HBO viewing in the States, I would assume that there’s at least as many outside the States).
This Sunday we got to a pivotal point in the series — at least, I would look at it as a pivotal point. I am afraid I will have to avoid mentioning what exactly happens in case anyone reads this before seeing that episode or reading that section in the books, but I would like to emphasize that I was quite happy in how the producers managed to portray the events.
Generally, there is a far higher level of compromise in filming a TV series if it is based on a book. Right now, there were only a few changes that I had to disagree with. Namely, having the Blackfish and Talisa both at the Twins: it will be interesting to see if the Blackfish pops up in the next episode for that will be the determining factor in how much the series will start diverging (at least, that is how I see it).
Otherwise, ‘The Rains of Castamere’ is an excellent song. The songwriters for the show and The National have done a really good job of building an enjoyable tune that captures the emotions present. The scene in one of the previous episodes where Cersei quotes the poem/song to Margaery is a decent example of this. ‘The Rains of Castamere’ is what the Lannisters are right now, and it does a good job of telling the story of how little they like being defied.
What I was most impressed by was the reaction to this last episode. I really enjoyed it, I think it was well done aside from the points mentioned above. I am not entirely happy with Bran’s storyline although he saw more action here than in the previous season combined. Daenerys’ time wasn’t too bad either — I could actually stand her scenes in this episode. Plus, lots of good combat skills displayed by her sturdy warriors.
However, I think that people were somewhat surprised by the events in this episode, and that is what prompted them to yell out in fury. But, I would keep in mind that these are George RR Martin’s characters and this is his story. His word is the word of god for A Song of Ice and Fire. And, yet, he did nothing that drastic here. Old men are notoriously grumpy and this is what we see in this episode. The characters had to continue like they did here for this is who they were: their personalities allowed for nothing else.
Also, I was pleasantly surprised by Roslin Frey. It does look that the people in charge of the show took their time in screening even the most minor of the characters.
Overall, I think we’ve had a good lead-in to the season finale which will no doubt (hopefully, at least) feature the next wedding (Joffrey & Margaery) as well as many other things. I hope they’ve put as much effort in as they did here.
The one question I do wonder about is whether we’ll have an epilogue next episode…
