#GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 FULL#
#GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 SERIES#
#GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 TV#

The following recap is full of Game of Thrones spoilers. But we’re only barely introduced to them in the first four episodes, so hopefully I will grow to like them as we get to know them more.A full recap of the fifth season of Game of Thrones focused on the moments and revelations that will tie in to Thrones’ final season, set to begin on Apr. I only have trepidation about the Sand Snakes of Dorne, who are played a bit too campily for this remarkably un-cartoony show. But trust that everyone this season is in peak form, from a more assertive (and more likable) Jon Snow to a slightly aged-up King Tommen, a hapless teen caught between warring women. There are approximately 16 trillion characters on this show, so I’m not going to go one by one, pointing out each fine performance or winning tweak or detail.

#GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 SERIES#

What happens to her after her Mhysa period is unknown even to book readers, but I won’t mind getting spoiled if the series decides to show us. There are other major characters finally getting close to Daenerys, and I’m eager for them to make contact-she’s been isolated from the rest of the action for too long.

#GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 TV#

Daenerys’s story line in the book begins to sputter and stall at this point, but the TV series is doing a good job of pushing through, giving life to the civil strife in Meereen that Martin’s books can’t quite realize.

There is also, of course, Daenerys, the teen queen played with a beguiling toughness by Emilia Clarke. Sansa’s new groove is the best example yet of the show thoughtfully altering the physics of Martin’s world. Turner especially gets a chance to shine this season, as the show invents a new plotline for Sansa that makes her an active player in the titular scramble for power. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, who play tragedy-touched sisters Arya and Sansa Stark, have matured splendidly in their roles, giving subtle, crafty performances to match the seasoned grown-ups in their midst. And two relatively unknown elements, kid actors at the show’s center whom producers bet big on when they were cast five years ago, have panned out beautifully. While the size of the cast has ballooned, very few, if any, weak links have been allowed into the fold. This really is such a rich, satisfying, fantastically put together series, isn’t it? Reveling in a luxe budget, the series is meticulously designed and executed, paying more than worthy homage to Martin’s prodigious world-building, while adding flair and texture all its own. Bring on the new stuff, I say, as long as it’s this good. (And, really, likely wouldn’t even know for sure that I was getting spoiled until the next book comes out, which at this rate won’t be until I’m old and senile anyway.) It’s actually rather exciting not knowing where the story might be heading, to watch the show almost as someone who’s never read the books has watched the last four seasons. Well, I’m glad the demands of my job (such heavy demands!) ultimately required me to watch the new season, because I suddenly don’t really care if I’m going to get spoiled. I also just didn’t trust television, even creatively assured television like Game of Thrones, to tell as complex and layered original stories as the books. For a while I thought that I might not watch this season, because I didn’t want anything that might be in the upcoming (right, George?) sixth book spoiled for me on the show. Sure, I was partly annoyed that I didn’t know every beat of the story (any book fan knows how fun it’s been to self-satisfiedly lord our knowledge over the neophytes), but it also seemed like the show was spinning its well-built wheels, unsure how fast and how far it wanted to steer away from the books to truly become its own thing.īut now, in the first four episodes of the fifth season, it’s clear that the show has made its decision, and is asserting itself fully as its own entity, keeping Martin’s intricate framework intact, of course, but now unafraid to tell new stories. Martin’s massive tomes, omitting characters and inventing new plot strands that are a better fit for television, I grew frustrated. See, I’m one of those maddening “I read the books” people, and as the series inevitably had to start seriously jiggering with George R.R. Well, O.K., it’s not like Game of Thrones was ever in a real creative rut, it’s just that, if I’m honest, my enjoyment of the show had started to wane sometime last season.

Winter may be coming, but the new season of HBO’s Game of Thrones has a distinct air of rejuvenation, of spring.

Game of thrones season 5