- Title: Game of Thrones – The Complete Second Season
- wiki: link
Given the ending of Season One in which Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is literally reborn in fire while returning dragons to the world, I had high hopes for Season Two of Game of Thrones to raise its game. Sadly, this isn’t the case. Daenerys has become my favorite character, but due to circumstances beyond her control mean she spends nearly all of the show’s Second Season begging and whining (“Where are my dragons!”). Thankfully, by the end of the season, she seems to throw off her belligerent tantrums and take another step forward in her goal.
It’s the season’s penultimate episode which is the most memorable. While previously skirting around the larger battles around control for the Seven Kingdoms, the attack on King’s Landing provides the most action we’ve seen in the series so far. The episode also offers a big hero moment for Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). I can’t say the same for the boring Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) whose goal to lay siege to the city ends in disaster thanks to Tyrion’s cunning and bravery.
The show continues to jump around to various other stories including Robb Stark‘s (Richard Madden) rise as King of the North, Theon Greyjoy‘s crisis of faith and attack on Winterfell, Arya (Maisie Williams) ending up serving Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), various palace intrigue and deception, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) getting into trouble north of the Wall, and more. While most of these provide solid moments, someone kill Greyjoy please, none proves as interesting as the stories they steal screentime from and drag out the middle of the season. One of the lesser subplots does introduce Natalie Dormer who, it turns out, will have a greater impact in Season Three.
[HBO, DVD $24.97 / Blu-ray $29.99]