3 Season 3′s that Suck – Part Two

It’s been a while since I posted the first part of this series of posts. It’s almost like you guys are series watchers and had to wait a whole year before the follow-up to 3 Season 3’s that Suck – Part One came out.

I hate when that happens, especially when that next season doesn’t live up to the previous season’s standards. Kind of like…

Game of Thrones

Okay, so people who know me personally are probably staring at the screen or in the process of calling me right now to say “WTF?”. My friends know I am a die-hard Game of Thrones fan. I love every aspect of the show from the adaptation of the content to the detail on the sets; from the immaculate casting to the dialogue in each scene.

I have season 1 and 2 on DVD (original), I follow the production diary online, listen to the Cast of Kings podcast on a weekly basis after each episode, read articles online about the show all the time and I wish they’d retweet me on Twitter one day. I LOVE Game of Thrones. ..I’ve said too much, hopefully I can maintain some dignity after you all read this bit.

But yeah, season three let me down. I started watching Game of Thrones a bit late in life. Season one was fully released, and season two was almost complete. Initially I thought the way in which I had watched the third season (in a weekly insert) compared to how I had watched the first two seasons (a few episodes at a time) factored into my disappointment of season three.

Then I re-watched season three and my opinion didn’t quite change. Now, I’m going to give credit where credit is due. Season three had some brilliant episodes, and much of the things I like about the series as a whole were on point, such as some amazing dialogue, performances and set design. But the overall season was stagnant.

Yes, there were some brilliantly performed scenes (Tywin and Tyrion especially) and some unforgettable ones (The Red Wedding), but the whole thing wasn’t moving much.

With a few exceptions, I did not see as much character development (Jamie Lannister being an exception), arc development (Dany’s arc being an exception) or twists (The Red Wedding being the most obvious exception).

I wholly attribute this to the show-runners squeezing a disjointed half of book 3 into one season. The result is that the combination of season 3 and 4 has to be constructed into 2 satisfying main arcs that are part of one story, as opposed to one overall arc that encapsulates the entirety of the book.

So they had to end it, but not end it, if that makes any sense. The obvious argument against my premise is that yes, they would not do the content of book 3 justice in one season, and yes, we know there are going to be way more seasons so the story must go on anyway. This coupled with GRRM’s unpredictable writing style makes sense.

So I guess the best way I can convey my feelings is like this: If Game of Thrones were The Godfather trilogy, season 1 and 2 would be The Godfather part 1 and 2 (respectively) and season 3 would be The Godfather part 3; part of the whole, but just not quite on par.

EDIT: Okay so I watched the Season 4 Trailer which you can find below….

… And if the season is as epic as the trailer looks, then (as I admitted on social media) it would give the more mildly-written season 3 a justifiable context.

Any guesses on the last part of this series of articles? Comment below.

About the author: Stephen is a pragmatic series watcher who doesn’t think that one major scene in episode 9 of that season of the series makes the whole season worthwhile.