GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 4: EPISODE 2

Chad Sternberger Apr 18, 2014

Every week we are going to have an episode review of Game of Thrones Season Four which will include SPOILERS for seasons one through to the last episode screened of Season Four. 

WESTEROS – I love King Joffrey. His name is brilliant for a start. George RR Martin has taken the name Jeffrey – which already sounds like an asshole – and made it even more assholey. And that from a man with an ‘RR’ in the middle of his name.

No dragons in this one. Danaerys Targaeryan is on autopilot now. We don’t actually need to see what she’s doing, because she’s essentially been doing the same thing for 3 seasons. I’d forgotten Bran even existed, and in the meanwhile he’s become a man/wolf. Jon Snow was thankfully absent. There are far too many characters who now seem to be simply wandering, meandering even. And although we have evidence every week of how brutally dangerous this universe is, some characters (Shae in this one) are so blasé about it as to render them utterly unsympathetic. I can’t care about you if you haven’t the wit to care about yourself.

Fortunately, narrative slackness was tightened up by a great last ten minutes with good old Joffrey putting the Imp in his place. Unfortunately, he’s now fallen victim to Martins’ need to kill off a major character once in a while to get our attention. It was a great scene, but this is narrative smack. We keep going back to the drug den for another high, but with diminishing returns, and when we finally come down from the buzz, we’ve sold our car and our children are crying. 

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