Genre Monkey

9/10 Great episode. Sure is a lot of whingeing going on about this season.

Episode 8 was a solid effort, with some thinning around the edges. I watched this episode with a group of six, equally divided between readers and unsullied, and we all seemed to enjoy it for what it was. My wife, who is unsullied, and myself both enjoyed Tyrion’s beetle speech way more than it appears the rest of the internet did. Arya’s manic laughter at the absurdity of their luck was great. Sansa testing the waters of her own power was intriguing. And even though Reek on the show isn’t as physically altered (aside from the obvious lack of his favorite toy) Alfie Allen portrays him with such inner turmoil it doesn’t matter as much as I thought it might. The fight between The Red Viper and The Mountain captured the essence of the book duel. And Pedro Pascal nailed it, I mean that scream he let out was blood curling. After reading these boards so often after each episode, I’m not sure if the group I watch it with is indicative of a normal Game of Thrones watching group. The unsullied in our group genuinely enjoy each episode, pretty much getting everything they need to, and the readers amongst us have come to the acceptance that the show is basically an alternate universe version of ASOIAF. I mean if you’re a reader, it’s nigh impossible to watch the show without any bias in favor the source material. So, we just think of it as different version of a great story. It will never be as great as the books, but the differences between the mediums are vast when telling such a sprawling story. And in reality the books are still there in all their glory. To quote James M. Cain - “People tell me, don’t you care what they’ve done to your book? I tell them, they haven’t done anything to my book. It’s right there on the shelf. They paid me and that’s the end of it.”

I gave this episode a 6 (after re-reading my episode critique, perhaps I should have given it a 7, but some of the things that bothered me about the episode, really rubbed me the wrong way). It was still better than most TV shows by a long shot, but judging it against the first two episodes of the season, this one felt the most disjointed to me. I just didn’t think it flowed as well as I wished it had. Here’s some of what I enjoyed of the episode: Sansa’s escape was well done, and pretty much adhered to the book version. I’m very glad to see Sansa get out of King’s Landing. I can’t wait to watch Sophie Turner’s handling of the character going forward. The scene between Tywin and Tommen was quite good, and concisely re-established Tommen as a major character. I also thought the actor playing Tommen did a nice job. By Thor, I love the scenes between Arya and The Hound. Some of Maisie’s facial expressions throughout the scene were priceless. And Rory McCann keeps impressing me with his surliness, snot rockets and all. Shireen and Davos were great together, as usual. I thought some of the best acting of the episode was brought forth by the excellent Tyrion and Pod farewell scene. The Wilding attack in my opinion was handled with aplomb. It was well shot (no pun intended) and contrary to what some might opine, I didn’t consider it too Lord of the Rings like. Pretty much any show placed in a fantasy setting resembling our own Medieval history will bear similarities when depicting warfare. The things I thought could have been improved in this episode: I wasn’t feeling the Jamie forcing himself on Cersie scene. I don’t recall the book version being slanted in that direction. My wife, who out of the four of us watching, is the only non-reader of ASOIAF, really didn’t like that scene. She still holds a strong grudge against Jamie for pushing Bran out the window (which I can’t blame her for, as she doesn’t get the benefit of his POV later in the story), but she was coming around a bit to his slow redemption storyline. I think that rape scene under the dead body of their son, pretty much put her back on the I hate Jamie bandwagon. I like Sam and Gilly, but I too thought the Sam and Gilly scenes could have been tighter. They just dragged, and brought the whole of the episode down a peg. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re more than likely not going to get the character of Strong Belwas, but I was still hoping for a more spectacular fight between the Champion of Meereen and Daario. I don’t think the whole Raiders of the Lost Ark like simplicity with which Daario took down The Champion of Meereen endeared new Daario to the fans like a well fought duel would have, but that is just my opinion.

To be fair, I listened to Martin's audio commentary on his episode from the third season, and there were substantial portions that he didn't write. Some of his scenes were shifted to other episodes, and other writer's scenes dropped into his episode. As I believe that is pretty much standard for certain television shows, then I don't think we can put a lot of the blame on Martin if we feel his episodes aren't up to snuff.