This Just In: GoT Can Make A Bad Episode
Okay, so it wasn't all bad, but it certainly wasn't all good either. This is the first episode of Game of Thrones that I didn't really like. What a disappointment, and it all comes down to shoddy writing. I've seen plenty of things I wasn't happy about in this series, like most recently the death of a certain character, but I could always say to myself that at at least for the most part, it made sense for the direction of the over all story. Not tonight.
SPOILERS. Don't read if you haven't seen the season 4 finale, or at least unless you don't mind being spoiled.
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The beginning stuff with the war and Stannis coming, Mance and Jon Snow was all okay. Not particularly riveting, like last week, but okay. It seems to go downhill from there. Before I go into detail about what I didn't like, I'll just say that I've only flipped around in the books. The show got me into the books, and not the other way around. So, I read more about things that interest me, but I don't read everything because I do want some surprises. Now, on to what I didn't like about this episode.
1. The whole thing with the old teacher/ex-slave was handled very sloppily and poorly and didn't really make sense to me. The man comes to Daenerys and says that since he's been freed from his master he doesn't know what to do and that the newly freed young take advantage of the old. Dany says that she'll provide the support of the Unsullied to maintain the order. Then the teacher/ex-slave (who teaches languages and history) asks what will he have to do after that. I fully expected that Daenerys would make the quite obviously needed announcement that the newly freed young (and old) needed to learn now more than ever.
They could build a school where the old could teach the young. Also, the construction and maintenance of the school would provide jobs for those with nothing to do. Sounds like a great plan to me, but Daenerys says nothing of the sort (even though she has pretty much the same situation going on with Missandei teaching Gray Worm to read, so you'd think that the idea would be easily present in Dany's mind), and the old teacher/ex-slave never asks for a job. Instead, Dany tells him to get a contract with his old master where he'll essentially be a slave again. Ser Barristan pretty much tells her that, but she does nothing to change the situation. I'm sorry, but that's just bad, bad, and bad. And they called her Mhysa! I truly hope that this scene wasn't taken as-is from the books.
2. I don't like how the bones thing was handled. There is a place where this scene quite obviously should have been earlier in the season, and I was a little surprised that they left it out. "Okay," I figured. Maybe they didn't have enough time... Then it pops up in this episode, and I feel like the only reason why this was done was so they could milk this scene for all is was worth during the finale. The problem is, like the teacher/ex-slave scenes, this was handled poorly to, just to a lesser extent. I honestly think that if they had pretty much just left it the way it really happened in the books that it would have been better.
3. Dany locks up the 2 dragons that she has on hand, but did they have to be locked up in complete darkness where they can't even see? And these are the 2 that didn't kill a child.
4. It just felt like this episode was trying really hard to milk emotion at every turn, from Dany locking up the dragons, to the close-up of Jon Snow squeezing out tears for Ygritte, and onward. They also seemed to lay the music on thickly in this episode, like they were trying to tell you when it was time to cry. This is the first time that the music in a GoT episode didn't actually add the story. In some parts it took away. And Jon's burial of her is really disappointing to me because just last week, their moment together when she died was perfect. Perfectly worded, acted, and filmed.
5. The fight when Bran and company go to see the tree Targaryen was surprisingly boring. Although, I have yet to become a fan of Bran's story so maybe that's a part of it, but I just wasn't into any of the scenes that dealt with his story in this episode.
Finally, I can break to say we get some good interaction with Brienne and Arya. So, at least the count of good things in this episode starts to tally at one, but this happens more than halfway through! And, like all good things in this series, it doesn't last. The scene turns sour quickly. At least Brienne's exchange with The Hound was interesting. And then the fight... Arya's scenes with Sandor were interesting too.
6. Okay, so Jamie never tells Tyrion what his part in what happened to Tysha was? Tyrion just goes up to kill dad anyway and with no prompting? I think it might be a mistake not to have this happen the way it happened in the books. I'm not sure about how they did the thing with Shae either... At least that wasn't too far off. But then there's the fact that he says he loved Shae and that's the reason why he's got a crossbow pointed at his father. I think the combination of revelation of what happened to Tysha, that his own brother had been used against him, how his father had treated him his whole life, and what happened with Shae should have been set up as the motivator. The thing that pushed Tyrion over the edge. How it happens here just doesn't seem like enough. It's believable, still, but not nearly as good.
And finally, the other good thing about this episode was how Arya got to go to Bravos. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Watching this episode felt like watching the quality of the show go from the penthouse to ground level in some ways, but I do believe there's a good chance that this is a temporary dip. May season 5 come soon.
SPOILERS. Don't read if you haven't seen the season 4 finale, or at least unless you don't mind being spoiled.
.
.
.
.
.
The beginning stuff with the war and Stannis coming, Mance and Jon Snow was all okay. Not particularly riveting, like last week, but okay. It seems to go downhill from there. Before I go into detail about what I didn't like, I'll just say that I've only flipped around in the books. The show got me into the books, and not the other way around. So, I read more about things that interest me, but I don't read everything because I do want some surprises. Now, on to what I didn't like about this episode.
1. The whole thing with the old teacher/ex-slave was handled very sloppily and poorly and didn't really make sense to me. The man comes to Daenerys and says that since he's been freed from his master he doesn't know what to do and that the newly freed young take advantage of the old. Dany says that she'll provide the support of the Unsullied to maintain the order. Then the teacher/ex-slave (who teaches languages and history) asks what will he have to do after that. I fully expected that Daenerys would make the quite obviously needed announcement that the newly freed young (and old) needed to learn now more than ever.
They could build a school where the old could teach the young. Also, the construction and maintenance of the school would provide jobs for those with nothing to do. Sounds like a great plan to me, but Daenerys says nothing of the sort (even though she has pretty much the same situation going on with Missandei teaching Gray Worm to read, so you'd think that the idea would be easily present in Dany's mind), and the old teacher/ex-slave never asks for a job. Instead, Dany tells him to get a contract with his old master where he'll essentially be a slave again. Ser Barristan pretty much tells her that, but she does nothing to change the situation. I'm sorry, but that's just bad, bad, and bad. And they called her Mhysa! I truly hope that this scene wasn't taken as-is from the books.
2. I don't like how the bones thing was handled. There is a place where this scene quite obviously should have been earlier in the season, and I was a little surprised that they left it out. "Okay," I figured. Maybe they didn't have enough time... Then it pops up in this episode, and I feel like the only reason why this was done was so they could milk this scene for all is was worth during the finale. The problem is, like the teacher/ex-slave scenes, this was handled poorly to, just to a lesser extent. I honestly think that if they had pretty much just left it the way it really happened in the books that it would have been better.
3. Dany locks up the 2 dragons that she has on hand, but did they have to be locked up in complete darkness where they can't even see? And these are the 2 that didn't kill a child.
4. It just felt like this episode was trying really hard to milk emotion at every turn, from Dany locking up the dragons, to the close-up of Jon Snow squeezing out tears for Ygritte, and onward. They also seemed to lay the music on thickly in this episode, like they were trying to tell you when it was time to cry. This is the first time that the music in a GoT episode didn't actually add the story. In some parts it took away. And Jon's burial of her is really disappointing to me because just last week, their moment together when she died was perfect. Perfectly worded, acted, and filmed.
5. The fight when Bran and company go to see the tree Targaryen was surprisingly boring. Although, I have yet to become a fan of Bran's story so maybe that's a part of it, but I just wasn't into any of the scenes that dealt with his story in this episode.
Finally, I can break to say we get some good interaction with Brienne and Arya. So, at least the count of good things in this episode starts to tally at one, but this happens more than halfway through! And, like all good things in this series, it doesn't last. The scene turns sour quickly. At least Brienne's exchange with The Hound was interesting. And then the fight... Arya's scenes with Sandor were interesting too.
6. Okay, so Jamie never tells Tyrion what his part in what happened to Tysha was? Tyrion just goes up to kill dad anyway and with no prompting? I think it might be a mistake not to have this happen the way it happened in the books. I'm not sure about how they did the thing with Shae either... At least that wasn't too far off. But then there's the fact that he says he loved Shae and that's the reason why he's got a crossbow pointed at his father. I think the combination of revelation of what happened to Tysha, that his own brother had been used against him, how his father had treated him his whole life, and what happened with Shae should have been set up as the motivator. The thing that pushed Tyrion over the edge. How it happens here just doesn't seem like enough. It's believable, still, but not nearly as good.
And finally, the other good thing about this episode was how Arya got to go to Bravos. I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Watching this episode felt like watching the quality of the show go from the penthouse to ground level in some ways, but I do believe there's a good chance that this is a temporary dip. May season 5 come soon.