GAME OF THRONES
Wall’s Come Tumbling Down
Oi, Westeros! Just how many shocks can our poor, battered nervous systems take?
Welcome to Game Of Thrones: The ADHD Years. With season seven a) being the show’s penultimate run and b) having three episodes fewer than previous seasons, it was reasonable to expect a certain increase in pace. However, at times it feels like the show’s various armies are mainlining Colombian marching powder. Where once it took characters multiple episodes to cross Westeros (the mysterious, teleporting Littlefinger aside), this year they’re apparently traversing continents between scenes. Is Westeros shrinking?
At times you can forgive this sudden haste as a necessary side-effect of the show entering its endgame. But when, in episode six, Gendry manages to run across half the frozen North back to the Wall, from where the Night’s Watch sends a raven to Dragonstone, from where Dany rides her dragon to the North to save Jon and co, it’s clear the show has moved a long way from the slow-burn politicking of year one.
It’s not just the travel that’s sped up. Ongoing plots seem to be wrapping up or coming to a head with dizzying rapidity too. As much as the Stark girls ganging up on Littlefinger is a great WTF moment, you can’t help feeling disappointed that all his plotting didn’t have more of a pay-off.
Somewhere along the line, the show has transformed from the War of the Roses with a hint of The Lord Of The Rings to The Lord Of The Rings with a hint of the War of the Roses. For six seasons the show has largely been powered by human-driven concerns such as complicity, powerplays, collusion, alliances, deceit and betrayal, and the more supernatural threat of
For all its faults the show is still utterly compelling
the Army Of The Dead changes the feel of the show. It’s fun to watch. It certainly provides breathtaking spectacle (the sight of the Dead using Viserion to destroy the Wall sends shivers down your spine). But it’s also a bit like the aliens from Independence Day turning up in The Tudors.
The show’s also taken a bit of a soap opera turn with the Dany and Jon relationship. Sure, sister and brother Cersei and Jaime have been knobbing since season one, but they were well aware of what they were doing. The revelation that Jon and Dany are (apparently) nephew and aunt – revealed just as they bonk for the first time – feels a little too Dallas/Dynasty.
Having said all that, Game Of Thrones remains pretty awesome, and for all its faults the show is still utterly compelling. While the battles are clearly the crowdpleasers, some of the best moments are character-led, especially as main players who’ve never met before finally come together. A lot of the set-piece pow-wows and war councils are surprisingly riveting, from Dany’s first encounter with Jon to Cersei being confronted with one of the Dead for the first time. Cersei has rarely been more coldly evil than when wreaking revenge on Ellaria, forcing her to watch helplessly as her daughter dies. There’s also plenty of wry humour; the potentially dull trudge into the North is improved no end by the Hound’s droll insults, while Ser Davos’s deadpan response to Dany’s endless litany of titles (“This is Jon Snow. He’s king in the North”) is a classic.
So while Game Of Thrones is unarguably showing signs of unravelling as it nears the final chapter, if season eight is half as good as the show once was, it’s still going to be a blast. Dave Golder