Game of Thrones, the new US Fantasy drama, continued this past Monday night with episode three. After three episodes the story is taking shape, and I can declare myself a fan. I scoffed when I first heard the declaration that this was "The Sopranos meets Middle Earth". The trailers made it seem like a big budget adaptation of 'He-Man' which focussed on magic and sorcery and other crowd-pleasing chicanery with escapism and real world subtext aplenty. As I do with other hyped up dramas, I drifted in and out of a repeat showing of the first episode, getting the gist of the plot which interested me enough to pursue with the second episode. I watched that episode and from then I knew I had a new place to be Monday nights at nine.
This week, after two episodes of edge of your seat action, saw a transitioning as the viewers, now properly acquainted with the characters and their plots, saw Aiden Gillen join up with the cast as Petyr, an advisor to the King and friend of Catelyn Stark. His main role in his debut episode included being a convenient plot device and inform Catelyn that the dagger used by her son Bran's would-be killer belongs to Tyrion Lannister, brother to the incestuous Lannister twins, one of whom is married to King Robert. Got that? The character acts as both an ambiguous ally friend to the Starks and as a cadaverous pimp; a potentially interesting and likeable character played with vigour, and I can't wait to see how his relationship with the Starks and King Robert plays out.
The most confusing aspect of this drama, an aspect that earned repeated viewings from this reviewer, is the locations, and who are where and when. Episode Three had Ned Stark (Sean Bean), hand of the king, arrive in King's Landing, with his daughters, Sansa and Arya. This was a week after he travelled with the king from his home in Winterfell, leaving behind his wife and three sons. His other son, Jon Snow, aka "The Bastard" is at the Nights Watch, a place where they send peasants and deviants to train as warriors to guard a wall. Ned is worried about a tournament when he is joined by Catelyn who reveals to him the plot to kill Bran. Behind the killing are the dodgy and Aryan Lannister twins, who have no qualms about pushing a young boy out of a tower window, ordering a girl's pet wolf to be killed or killing the previous king. These lot are proper bastards, and the only characters whose malicious intent is made clear to the viewers. The Queen is a scheming bitch straight out of a crappy soap opera. Her brother, Jaime, is a smug, heartless dickweed with a square head and Prince Joffrey is a toe rag straight out of a Hollyoaks scriptwriter's guide to youth stereotypes. These twirps tick all the right boxes and press all the right buttons as they smirk, back stab, bitch, do it doggy style, casually talk about infanticide and look smug with their blond hair. It's villain writing 101 but it works surprisingly well because they stick out so much with their casual child-killing, sibling sexing antics that they practically move the action and drama forward. The plot basically revolves around them.
To say that they're the only villains would be a stretch, since the entire cast look as though they have something to hide. Almost everyone takes some time to look scorned with revenge on their mind. King Robert in particular, husband to aforementioned Cersei Lannister, is particularly dog faced and mad looking. He's paranoid about a forthcoming war, "winter", which, as we learned in this episode, is something quite long, arduous and somewhat horrific. Last week he predicted that there will be a war, though he doesn't know who he'll be fighting. Right now, I see two possibilities, but you never know. This week he only had one scene, one in which he shared a story about killing a rebel, and, If I'm the predicting type, I assume that he either kills or gets killed, or goes stark raving mad. I don't know what to make of this character, as he acts like your typical paranoid and mad king, doomed to be betrayed and be killed, no doubt. He doesn't seem to add anything apart from plot points about how he hates rebels and the Targaryens, which explains how they are exiled at least. He seems like a device to set up another plot later on, like Duncan in Macbeth. Most of his dialogue is of the repetitive nature warning us about winter, he's sadistic and brutish and he isn't exactly sympathetic; the only time he showed some decency was when he hesitated before ordering a pet wolf to be killed. On the other hand, his character serves the purpose of making Ned more humane by comparison. Speaking of Ned, he was busy this week, dealing with his wife's suspicions of the Lannisters wanting Bran dead as well as Arya's tomboy tendencies and enthusiasm for sword fighting. So far we've seen Ned as a cold decapitator of peasants, father to a bastard, so he must be a womaniser, and a concerned father. Sound familiar? Maybe "The Sopranos meets Middle Earth" wasn't that much of a stretch.
The Bastard in question is Jon Snow, who settled into life at the wall with the Nights watch surprisingly quickly. Again, this is a character who I see good things for, though he hasn't done much but look forlorn, possibly due to being called a 'Bastard', first by a dwarf, then by a boy who I thought I recognized from Peep Show. The familiar traits he has that you may have come across before are his eagerness to impress his father and be accepted into the family, and his curiosity about his birth mother. Neither of those really interest me yet, to be honest, but let's wait and see.
Finally, we have Daenerys settling into life as 'khaleesi' of the Dothraki people and wife to Khal Drogo, made possible due to sex tips from a girl from Hollyoaks. This week, after showing her jealous brother who's the boss, Daenerys discovers she's pregnant as well as learning new things about the Dothraki, like how they treat slaves. For the benefit of those who like to explain it in their heads, the Targaryens were exiled by the rebel Robert, now the current king.Viserys Targryen thinks he's the rightful heir to the throne after his father, the former king, was killed by Robert's brother in law, Jaime Lannister. So, he marries off his sister, Daenerys, off to Khal Drogo, leader of the Dothraki, in order to form a rebellion. Pretty much your basic 'Rightful King' storyline involving a prince who's just as cartoonish and indignant as the Lannisters, albeit with ridiculous hair. This is probably the most tedious plot line of the show in its predictability, and I'm only watching for the outcome that will inevitably involve bloodshed, betrayal and more boobies.
Now, you're (?) probably thinking, 'I thought you loved this programme, why the hate?' Well, I'll tell you. You can tell this was adapted from a novel. Information is drip fed to you one scene at a time. Lines and characters that appear non linear become clear much later, so the viewer is rewarded with their patience. This style is reminiscent of The Wire, a programme which resembles a visual novel, and that is what gets me hooked. Intriguing characters are formed within one line of dialogue, the story moves at a brisk pace and each episode ends on a cliffhanger, like a chapter, with some exceptions. I look forward to watching more of Game of Thrones as it unfolds, not necessarily for the unfolding.
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