The wonderful thing about Game of Thrones is that it is easily consumed. In hour-long chunks, it's just enough episode to keep you interested; every individual episode contains something worth talking about, be it the awesome action sequences, the brilliant writing, or the incredible acting. To prepare for this season, I watched the entirety of the first season in two days. I got the DVD on Friday night and by Sunday I was caught up. Burning through the season wholesale makes it a bit easier to follow along with, but getting it in smaller doses gives viewers more time to ponder what happened and to digest events. As new kings spring forth from every corner of the seven kingdoms, the game is afoot in King's Landing, and Tyrion Lannister has shown more ability to play the game than well-meaning, loyal Ned Stark ever could. In a brilliant series of triple match-cuts, Tyrion feeds information to the members of the small council in an attempt to root out any potential traitors in the midst. Wisely, Tyrion chooses not to trust the eunuch who alluded to blackmailing him, the man who betrayed the last hand of the king, and the man who may or may not have allowed the hand of the king before the last hand of the king to die a poisony death. In this case, a mole is rooted out and the small council gets even smaller, as Varys puts it so succinctly. Plus, there's the whole thing about the king being an emotionally-unbalanced tween with a lust for murdering people for poorly-thought-out reasons thing to deal with. Arya Stark, Gendry, and their pals are all still headed towards The Wall, and those Gold Cloaks aren't exactly going to let them go quietly. They said they'd be back, and they returned (after a wonderful scene between Maisie Williams and Francis Magee) to claim what is theirs. Fortunately for Gendry, they're pretty stupid. What Is Dead May Never Die was brilliantly edited, even for a show with brilliant technical prowess behind it. There were multiple transitions this week that were impressive, either due to their wit or due to the way they were executed. Director Alik Sakharov brought his cinematographer sensibilities, and his ability to wrap a scene around the camera added an extra layer of subtle, impressive artistry to the show's usual glorious parade of nudity and bloodshed. I'm thinking of Bran Stark's close encounter with his pet direwolf, but that's only one of multiple moments of beauty this week-Sakharov was the cinematographer for the opening and closing of the first season, so he's no stranger to grandeur.
