AS ALWAYS: SPOILER WARNING!
Released: 2014
Distributor: HBO
Cast:
Peter Dinklage: Tyrion Lannister
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: Jammie Lannister
Lena Headey: Cercei Lannister
Kit Harington: Jon Snow
Masie Williams: Arya Stark
Sophie Turner: Sansa Stark
Aiden Gillan: Petyr Baelish
Charles Dance: Tywin Lanister
It is rare to see a TV show get better as time goes on. More often than not, newer seasons of a show end up getting worse. Not so with Game of Thrones. It started off pretty rough, but it really found its footing towards the end of Season 2 and now we are just barreling along. Some people think I’m nuts for doing a marathon of the show in the span of a week. They maybe correct, but honestly, it’s not as daunting a task as some people would believe. It’s only ten episodes a season, while many shows are between 20-35 episodes a season. Now, you tell me which one’s crazier. Game of Thrones is perhaps one of the best things to come out of the fantasy genre in decades. It’s engaging, exciting, funny, disturbing and devastating all at the same time. I didn’t get into the show when it first started because I didn’t have HBO at the time, but now I understand why people really love this show. Because I love it, too.
Thoughout Season 3, we saw Tywin Lannister become Hand of the King to Joffrey, while Tyrion became Master of the Coin. Robb Stark is still waging war on the Lannisters while Stannis Boratheon is licking his wounds at Dragonstone. Arya Stark is currently on the run with The Hound, Sandor Clegane with everybody looking for them. During his march on the south, one of Robb’s banner-men commits an atrocity, and is promptly executed. As a result, Robb loses about half of his forces, forcing him to reforge an alliance with the fickle Walder Frey. After apologizing to Frey, Robb Stark and his army are massacred by Roose Bolton’s men masquerading as Frey’s, in one of the most shocking and controversial scenes in TV history. The Red Wedding, as it is called, is one of the biggest turning points in the show. It certainly pissed a lot of people off, even though I hear the book’s version is much worse. But we also got to see Daenerys Targeryan take control of her dragons and rain destruction down on slave cities. Meanwhile, Bran Stark and company are headed north beyond The Wall in search of the mysterious Three-Eyed Raven, that Bran keeps seeing in his dreams. Jamie Lannister reveals to Brienne of Tarth why he assassinated the Mad King, who ruled until Robert Boratheon showed up.
Season 4 opens as Jon Snow is recovering from being shot at by the wildlings who took him in, revealing that his allegiance was always to the Night’s Watch. After realizing that number of Watchmen have deserted and made camp beyond the wall, Snow, along with a handful of volunteers decide to go and end them, so that Mance Rayder can’t get information from them. Meanwhile, Joffrey is getting married to Margaery Tyrell to secure an alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells. Jamie Lannister is having to retrain in order to fight with his left hand, since his right hand was severed in the previous season. While the war appears to be over for the moment, there are many elements that are forming against the Lannisters, including the Martells, who have a fierce hatred of the Lannisters. After getting married and celebrating his wedding, Joffrey is poisoned and dies painfully in his mother’s arms, ending his reign of terror. To the north, it is revealed to the Night’s Watch that Mance Rayder is marching on the wall with 100,000 men and giants at his disposal. Daenarys takes another city and frees thousands more from slavery, but her dragons are becoming uncontrollable, so she has to deal with that as well. The story is obviously continuing to pick up steam here. There’s a lot of twists and turns, some are predictable, but some are not. If people were pissed off at the Red Wedding, then Joffrey’s death should be pretty satisfying, albeit horrific.
A lot of characters have really evolved over the course of the show thus far, my particular favorite right now is Jaime Lannister. When he revealed his motives for killing the Mad King, it becomes very clear that this guy is not the evil scumbag that he appeared to be during the first season. This is a guy who cares about his family, and trying to do things for what he feels are the right reasons. While it may seem that he is on a path to redemption, it’s entirely unclear whether or not he continues down that path, but since he lost his hand, he has changed quite a bit. Petyr Baelish is still a mystery. After 4 seasons, we still don’t know what this guy is about. We don’t know what his ambitions are or why he does the things he does. The characters are just extremely well-written and the performances are stellar, again.
Each season has had a defining moment in which things take a major turn. The first season saw the beheading of Ned Stark and the subsequent murder of his entourage. Season 2 gave us the Battle of Blackwater Bay in one of the most spectacular episodes in the entire show. Season 3 gave us the Red Wedding with the murder of Robb Stark and his army. Season 4 has two particularly spectacular battles. One is the one-on-one fight between Prince Oberyn Martell and Ser Gregor Clegane. It’s a surprisingly even-matched fight. It surprised the hell out of me. The second is the Battle for The Wall, which involved thousands of people as well as giants and mammoths. It’s quite possibly the most ambitious battle sequence up this point. The fight choreography is second-to-none. It’s brutal, spectacular and amazingly fun to watch at times.
So far, the show is something truly spectacular. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. With the all the events going on in the series, it’s really difficult to gauge where things are going to go next. With two season left to go, I’m really excited to see what happens.
The Score for the Season: 9/10