Game Of Thrones: What Is Dead May Never Die Review

Can the undead resurrect Thrones' episode quality? Find out here.
Last week, I noticed that Game Of Thrones lost its oomph after its Sky Atlantic Season 2 re-run premiere, struggling under the weight of balancing various plot strands. Thankfully, the third instalment What Is Dead May Never Die makes up for this shortcoming in good measure, placing a lot more focus on the key components of the series arc. If Season Three maintains this focus on the core plot, then we'll have much more consistent offerings to come.

This time around, we had developments in the arcs of Tyrion, Arya, Jon Snow, Bron and Theon for the majority, each of which felt far more meaningful in terms of pushing forward the storylines at King's Landing and the North then any minor scene we saw last week. Indeed, a major highlight for the season has to be Varys' exchange on power with Tyrion, further testament to the performing talent of both stars, and indeed which should have profound significance in terms of the dark events that are come to in the remaining seven episodes of this rather epic second full season of ten instalments.

Thus, this new Thrones tale was packed with strengths, although a major remaining flaw has to be that there's little progress in the way of the story arc for us to speak of. Much as with Season One, the writing team manage to keep things moving in a compelling fashion throughout thanks to brilliant casting and emotional setpieces, yet I still have concerns as to whether that will sustain the viewer's interest for the remainder of the season when there are constant promises of war as there have been for almost fifteen episodes now.

Game Of Thrones Season Two is certainly moving along well with some strong standalone instalments, and What Is Dead May Never Die continues that trend in fantastically confident fashion. Nevertheless, there needs to be some serious drive fuelled into the series in the next few episodes, lest it starts to lose the interest of viewers entirely as its plot arc refuses to make enough progress.
4/5