Game of Thrones Season 5- 3 Stars

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I'm a huge Game of Thrones enthusiast so as this season has ended I thought I would write up a summary of my feelings. In many ways, season 5 has been a deeply flawed season and Game of Thrones really needs to improve in order to keep its audience. That said, there have been some brilliant moments this season, which are what keep me watching. So first I shall address the flaws, then the good points and finally where I think it will/should go. This review will contain spoilers up to the ending of Season 5.

The main flaw with this season and, in my opinion, with seasons 3 and 4 as well, is that it has no drive- it doesn't feel as if it is heading anywhere and is simply tangled plot lines with rather arbitrary climaxes at the end of seasons. This is especially true of Dany's story line during the past seasons (basically every season since s1) where her story seems to be being delayed in order for her arrival in Westeros to be at the right time. That said, I do like the way we have seem her develop from a well intentioned young girl, to an inexperienced tyrant and now, possibly, to a more benevolent and capable ruler. But still, in plot terms, her story seems to be being incessantly and unnecessarily delayed. This lack of drive doesn't engage me as a viewer, as I don't feel the plot is going anywhere. Compare the latest seasons with s1, which I believe is the best Game of Thrones season. Everything was fairly united and driving along to the end of the season- Dany's story line was moving towards the death of Drogo and the birth of her dragons, King's Landing to Ned's death and the wall to the beginning of the expedition to find the White Walkers. Season 5, in contrast, has bumbled along without much direction. King's Landing has simply been leading up to Cersei's literal walk of shame which, although brilliantly done and very moving, does not lead anywhere plot wise compared to Ned's death which sparks the whole of Robb Stark's rebellion and the war of the 5 kings.

 Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, Joel Fry as Hizdahr and
Emilia Clarke as Daenarys

The second biggest flaw in this season has been the way the key moments have been integrated. A lot of the most shocking scenes seem to have been filmed in such a way as to generate the most outrage. For example, the rape of Sansa, although possibly justifiable in terms of plot, seemed very much to me an attempt by Game of Thrones to generate the kind of mass attention on social media that TV shows thrive off. Another example would be the burning Shireen, again another incident that was not in the books. Although both these incidents had been built up to and were executed well, GoT's reliance on these shocking incidents shows that they are failing to find other ways of engaging their audience. Previous seasons had fewer of these shock moments, and when they did occur they were only at keys points (e.g. in season 1 there are practically no shocks or dramatic deaths till episode 9, excepting perhaps Robert Baratheon, although his death was not gruesomely shown on screen). I think this increase in shocking scenes has come about because the shock factor has become a major part of Game of Thrones- it is known for it's brutal and surprising deaths so, naturally, it increases them as the best way to engage the viewer. But this is the wrong way to go about it- what was so original and fresh about GoT was its harsh but realistic brutality, but when it is overused the audience becomes numb and frustrated with it. It no longer maintains engagement and simply ends in alienating viewers as the numbers of brutal deaths increase with less emotional weight.

 Lena Headey as Cersei and Jonathon Pryce as High Sparrow- two of
the best performers this season

However, the season has had its moments. The battle with the White Walkers was fantastically done and in fact the wall's story line has probably been the best part of this season. I've never been a Jon Snow fan- his character has always seemed a bit of repetitious conflict between his duty to the Night's Watch and his emotions (s1 tries to desert to help Robb, s3 to help Ygritte, s4 to help Ygritte...again)- but he's really grown on me this season. He's become a leader trying to do the right thing which is not always possible in Game of Thrones. Dany's story line was also the most interesting its been since probably s1, although still rather uninteresting compared to other events. I'm beginning to feel as if she could make some progress across to Westeros and the tensions between the Sons of the Harpy and Dany's new order were also engaging in their own right. King's Landing has been a bit of a weak spot this season, although Jonathon Pryce's performance as High Sparrow was brilliant and elevated the whole story line. That said, the clash of the faith with the crown was quite interesting and Lena Headey once more put in very good performances as Cersei. Her walk of shame in the final episode was a brilliantly executed set piece made even better by the fact that it made you feel sorry for a character who has done so many despicable things. Stannis' story line was also well done in showing the gradual breaking of a strong and dutiful man. The thing the Game of Thrones series has done badly in previous seasons is their poor treatment of Stannis' character, making him unsympathetic and overly cold. However, this season Stannis was made much more human, partly down to Stephen Dillane's increasingly confident performances as a man who loses his soul for nothing.

Liam Cunningham as Davos and Stephen Dillane as Stannis

That said, I thought his end fate was poorly done- how did he manage to survive the battle to be killed by Brienne? It seemed like more of an attempt to appeal to fans with Brienne's vengeance- personally I would have preferred to have just seen Stannis' body after the battle. Brienne's story line has perhaps been the worst this season with no direction at all and very little to do. On top of this, I am unsure about the Ramsay/Sansa storyline. I very much like Littlefinger and so was naturally disappointed to see him go, but there is more than that to why I don't feel this story line works. I think it's down to the fact that Ramsay is basically just another Joffrey- we've seen it all before and so now this pure evil character interests me less. You could argue that this mirroring is deliberate, and shows something about human nature or whatever but I think you would be giving the GoT writers more credit than is perhaps their due. I also feel that Arya's story line has been quite uninteresting- it's so disengaged from everything else that it feels less relevant and even boring. Dorne has been equally forced with the battle in the sun gardens being comically bad (How did Jaime and Bronn get in without guards noticing? Why was the fight choreography so awful?). The sandsnakes are equally boring and interchangeable, with the only distinguishable one being the girl who shows her tits to Bronn (what a well rounded character she is...). That said, I did enjoy Myrcella and Tristain's relationship- nice to see a little lightness in Game of Thrones once in a while. Also, the scene with her and Jaime at the end was very touching (even if it was Jaime basically justifying incest) making the subsequent tragedy even more heartbreaking.

Season 5 consistently got its fight scenes right with engaging battles which focused around characters and didn't simply descend into a CGI gore fest. This is perhaps one of GoT's greatest successes in that it manages to produce epic, large scale battles, yet keeps the focus strongly on the characters involved giving us the thrills but not losing our engagement after 5 minutes of what-the-bloody-hell-is-going-on-in-this-fight-scene like Transformers. The battle at Hardhome and in Meereen's fighting pits were great examples of this, even if the latter's dragon CGI was a little off.

Kit Harrington as Jon Snow- will he be back?

So what about the future? Well first off I don't believe Jon Snow is dead. Not only has George R.R. Martin said, in response to a question about Jon's murder, 'Oh you think he's dead do you?', but the rather contrived reappearance of Melisandre at the wall after the battle (a witch whose red priest powers have been shown to be able to bring people back from the dead by Thoros of Myr) suggests perhaps Jon might be saved. On top of this, from a purely story perspective, with Sam having left the Wall, if Jon Snow is dead then there is no one left at the Wall for us to care about, which will be a problem as the narrative is building towards a white walker invasion. There are also less convincing theories that Stannis may be alive- his death has not been confirmed by the books and we did not see him die (in GoT you always need a body as proof) but I am less convinced of this theory. In terms of the overall story, we need the narrative to start becoming more unified again. I feel as if GoT only really has a couple more seasons left in it before it runs out of steam, and so it needs to start building towards a conclusion. This means war- specifically between the Lannisters and the Martells (as a result of Myrcella's death). Not only that but we need to see Dany invade from across the narrow sea, Arya come back to Westeros to use her new assassin skills wisely and some kind of white walker invasion. Season 5 felt more like a build up season than anything else- not much has really significantly changed since the start but there is a heightened sense of tension and anticipation for the future that perhaps wasn't there with season 4. The question now is- will this build up be used wisely?

Overall, season 5 has had its flaws but also good moments too. There has been significant progress for characters (e.g. Cersei) even if there has been little change in terms of plot. Hopefully this build up will pay off in next seasons and I hope that they continue to streamline George R.R. Martin's work- although the books perhaps manage individual moments with a little more subtlety than the TV show, the later books especially are too expansive and slow so the TV adaption has done a good job of speeding the narrative up.

Ratings: Entertainment: 7 Technical: 4 Intelligence: 3= 14/20

N.B. I was going to give the season 8/10 for entertainment but the first half of the season was much less engaging than the second, dragging the score down. I could be accused of simply loving action too much and therefore being disinterested in the politics of it but my love of the first season, where there is very little action in the first half, disproves this- I love the scheming and politicking, just only when it's well done and engaging.












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