Game Of Thrones: Dark Wings, Dark Words Review

Can the second episode of Season Three provide Thrones with the depth its season premiere lacked?
While last week's Valar Dohaeris was undoubtedly a visual spectacular for fans to behold as Game Of Thrones Season Three commenced, there was certainly little in the way of the core narrative supremacy found in Blackwater and similar instalments. You'd hope, then, that Dark Wings, Dark Words would reclaim some of that supremacy to bring the show back on top, yet there were still sadly a couple of shortcomings which prevented that eventuality.

Let's focus on the positives first, though. It was fun to see brilliant character arcs such as Jaime and Brienne's journey to King's Landing and Arya and her friends' quest to return to Winterfell back in action, with both of these arcs looking set to take intriguing developments in the weeks ahead. All of the performers involved in these sequences were on top form, allowing for a reprisal of the great empathy fans have often been able to strike with many of George R.R. Martin's constructs. Naturally, Peter Dinklage was still brilliant as Tyrion too, even if his character didn't have much to do this time around. What a surprise, as well, to have the wonderful Thomas Sangster from Nanny McPhee and Doctor Who: Human Nature on board as Jojen Reed!

There were definitely plenty of strengths this week, then- however, Dark Wings, Dark Words was still by no means perfect. Given that last week's cliffhanger was so intent (strangely) on pushing forward Danaerys' arc, it felt bizarre to have her absent from this second episode, especially as her scenes seemed to have been replaced by filler material such as Catelyn's disapproval of Robb's newfound love, and Jon meeting a Warg (played by Pirates Of The Caribbean's Mackenzie Crook) to explain the concept of Wargs before Bran discovered he was one. The latter scene just felt like repetitive content, truly filler in a season which should really be pushing the boundaries of its storyline further than ever before.

I shan't leave this review on a pessimistic note, but it would have been dishonest to have you believe that this was even close to the best of Game Of Thrones. Sure, it was a good episode, above average in every literal sense of the word, yet for Thrones, the 'average' episode is usually fantastic, so it's a different definition here and one that Season Three has struggled to live up to this past fortnight. This reviewer was anticipating Thrones coming back to reclaim its spot as the best US drama currently on television, but right now, there's little dividing it from its rivals (Arrow, Elementary and the like), so the production team really need to step it up a notch in the weeks ahead if they hope to reclaim their crown.
4/5