TV: GAME OF THRONES

Tagline: Winter is Coming.

Number of Seasons: 2

Episodes per Season: 10

Awarded Stars: 5/5
Written by: George R.R. Martin, David Benioff, D.B Weiss, Vanessa Taylor

Credit is owed to the cast and production team of Game of Thrones, for putting out such a powerful product. Because of their efforts, Westeros has become a tangible and believable place, giving the story room to work without addressing plausibility. Game of Thrones doesn’t feel like a bunch of actors playing at fantasy, it feels like a world inhabited by real people. And that, after two stellar seasons, may prove to be the series’ biggest attribute.

Following the powerful adaptation of the six book series, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, HBO has brought to life what has been called by some, “The most epic story ever” with Game of Thrones. The TV show which has gained a huge following across all demographics has proved that TV and/or movie adaptations are preferred by most over those, huge blocks of novels the original story is written on. The Game of Thrones season two finale reached an all-time high in ratings, reaching 4.2 million viewers. The whole of season 2 was however remarkably steady, hovering around 3.7 million viewers for premier episodes and over 10.4 million viewers across repeat episodes.

Each season which has been ingeniously crafted around each of the first three books in the series, has done a pretty good job of summing up major milestones and character storylines, leaving Westeros fanatics very happy.

The first season, which was written for the first book, A Game of Thrones, introduced new fans to the seven kingdoms of Westeros and different contenders to the Iron Throne, which was wrongfully taken by House Baratheon. We were also introduced to House Stark in Winterfell, having Sean Bean as the patriarch Eddard Stark. However my interest was majorly with the Targeryens, Viserys and Daenerys, who were presumably the last of their kind, and heirs to the Iron Throne. The Dothraki also made a huge splash in the first season, but the inevitable death of Khal Drogo left many emotional.

The season two premiere introduced us to content in the second book, A Clash of Kings, which majorly centered around all five aspirants to the iron throne conniving and plotting on how to rule the whole of Westeros. House Baratheon, had three contenders to the throne, the teenage tyrant, King Joffrey Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon and Renly Baratheon. The House Stark contender Robb Stark, who has the purest heart and fights for the honor of his wolf sigil, and finally my favorite, Daenerys Targaryen, aka Khaleesi, representing House Targaryen.

The third season that’s constructed around the third book, A Storm of Swords is set to premiere on the 31^st of March, 2013 with plenty new locations, new characters and sad deaths of old ones. Fans of the novels will notice that some characters long overdue will be making their appearance in season three. Season two had rendered some character storylines more important that others, I felt Daenerys and Jon Snow did not have much presence in the second season as they had in the second book, but the season two finale sure cleared this issue up and set the two as catalysts for the upcoming third season. In Valar Morghulis, the season two finale, we see Jon out amongst the Wildlings and Daenerys gets closer to attaining a ship and small army. Her dragons which had only a few seconds of kick ass action, when they smoked the warlock Pyat Pree to ashes, will however get bigger and better in the season three plot line. Dany is once again poised to become a major player, as it should be. Major events this season are as follows; Joffrey takes a new Queen, Petyr Bealish warns Sansa to escape and she dose but not before she unwittingly helps kill Joffrey. House Tyrell makes a plan to rid Joffrey of the crown and make his younger brother King. The Lannisters work at marrying Sansa to Tyrion. Tyrion kills his father and flees the castle. Sansa also finally escapes. Jamie losses his sword hand to mercenaries that work for his father. Jon Snow joins the Wildling army. Stannis Baratheon turns to black magic to aid his claim to the Iron Throne, and finally as you sink yourself into the mystical land of Kings and dragons, remember, ‘Winter is Coming’.