Along the way we were introduced to a host of new characters: from Stephen Dillane’s grim Stannis, to creepy Craster sitting tight in his northern smallholding with a host of cowed daughter/wives. In half a dozen sharply written and cleverly shot scenes we covered everything from Tyrion’s arrival in King’s Landing as the new Hand of the King, to Dany’s desperate struggle to keep her tiny Khalasar alive.
One of the most admirable things about David Benioff and DB Weiss’s adaptation is the way in which they stay true to the source material while covering a great deal of ground – and this episode was a masterclass in how to say a lot economically. My excitement levels are rising after a strong opening episode which gave hope that this show has avoided the dreaded second season collapse. ‘You can’t trust anyone in King’s Landing.
So please watch out for the spoiler alerts at the top of these posts. We massively value our UK readers and and we’re very much looking forward to your continued brilliant contributions to this blog – we’re just keen to include as many fans as possible in that conversation.
We took this decision because the UK broadcast follows so soon afterwards. We are publishing it after the US broadcast of the show, in order to give American readers a chance to discuss it as soon as it airs. SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read on unless you have watched the opening episode of Game of Thrones season two, shown on HBO at 9pm ET on Sunday 1 April and due to be shown on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Monday 2 Aprilįor the purposes of this blog we are also going to (hopefully) avoid book spoilers as well.įirst, a note on the timing of this blog.