Apr 9 2012
Game of Thrones 2.2: ‘The Night Lands’ Recap
The second season of Game of Thrones continued with ‘The Night Lands’ and demonstrated more clearly than any episode thus far, the positives and negatives of being an HBO fantasy adaptation.
Picking up right where The North Remembers left off, this episode stopped playing catch-up and began moving this post-Ned Stark chapter forward. However, it didn’t move that much forward. The reason for the slowed pace and clunky character management? I’m chalking it up to the sex, which almost becomes a parody of HBO’s characteristically naughty diversions in most of its primetime fare. Yes, there was much sordid—often downright nasty in context—coupling going on in Martin’s books, but Thrones specifically wallows in it to the point that it muddies and trivializes almost everything going on. In a story that has as many moving parts as this—there are political machinations, growing supernatural threat, civil war, incest and secret allegiances—it isn’t wise to spend as much time on people popping in and out of bed. This is especially true when that’s not where the interest of your story lies.
Do we really need a three-tiered romp of voyeurism in Littlefinger’s brothel, or the bawdy exploits of Theon Greyjoy with a ship captain’s daughter? Some of the other pairing makes thematic sense, but it needn’t be as, um, ‘fleshed out’. It’s hard to excuse these diversions when the most interesting, and world-building, plot threads are given extremely short shrift. This week, we had but one scene of Dany the dragon-keeper and her Blood Riders, one of whom was beheaded and returned to her sans body. Although they found their own way into perversion, the Night’s Watch at the wall had little to do but sit around and contemplate the sordid nature of Craster’s daughter-wives living situation. Last night closed with Craster delivering a baby to some strange figure in the wilderness, right before he knocked out Jon Snow.
Because this is HBO and pay cable, there’s this expectation to make it as tantalizing as possible. I do believe though, that this emphasis on giving the geeks all of the deviance they assume they want, will eventually kill the show if it goes unchecked. Not something anyone is paying attention to now, but any reader of Martin who knows where the story is going can tell you that things only get more complicated and sticky. The show-runners need to start being more economical in how they deal with narrative momentum. I acknowledge this is a juggling act, but so far, season 2 has meandered at a nearly drowsy pace.
Of course, being HBO, they can also afford great production values and acting, which is also why myself and others keep tuning in. And there was some great stuff in this episode, especially when regarding MVP Peter Dinklage. As Tyrion, he’s been burning up the screen, and seeing him completely own and expertly navigate the role that ultimately brought to ruin poor Ned Stark is very satisfying.
The highlight of this week was watching him tease Varys, chastise Cirsei and ultimately banish Janos Slynt to an outpost at the Wall because of his role in the purging of Robert’s bastards. A stand-out line was ‘I’m not questioning your honor, I’m denying it’s existence’. The fact he does possess some of his own honor, and is willing to display cunning in rebuffing its absence in others, makes Tyrion fascinating to watch. He sneaks Slynt onto a ship and away to the Night’s Watch and appoints his own man Bronn to the City Watch after asking him if he would follow orders to kill children. We also learn that it was wicked and impudent child-king Joffrey who ordered the hit (in the novel it was Cirsei) on Robert’s other kids.
In other storylines, we watched the remaining Starks and Baratheons scrabble about looking to get a leg-up in the burgeoning, unavoidable war. Theon Greyjoy traveled to his homestead of Pyke to petition his father for an army on behalf of Robb Stark. What he learned is that he has a sister Yara—which he manages to grope before realizing this—and that elder Greyjoy trusts his daughter, not his son, to lead the army. Where and for whom she will lead the army isn’t explained…yet.
Cirsei rips up Robb Stark’s terms of peace,complete with Tyrion snarking ‘You’ve perfected the art of tearing up papers.” Littlefinger gives Ros the night off to mourn the child killed during the purging. Davos and his son recruit a pirate, Salladhor Saan, to help Stannis in his plan to take King’s Landing. At the same time, Stannis sexes it up with the witch Melisandre, who has convinced him he must give himself to her deity, The Lord of Light, if he wants to survive this war. All of it is somewhat interesting, but only slightly moreso than players dividing up the map in a game of Risk.
The most interesting segment of last night’s episode belonged to Arya, who is disguised as a boy and traveling with a group of ruffians on their way to Castle Black. Here she meets Jaqen H’ghar, a straggly-looking customer looking to stave off dehydration, and Yoren, of the Night’s Watch, who fends off the Gold Cloaks looking for more of Robert’s bastards. The combination of these new characters and an interesting team-building dynamic make Arya’s storyline more dramatically compelling. She’s also a potentially rich character who falls outside of all the court backstabbery currently underway. I look forward to her development in future episodes.
Overall, the episode was a bit of a non-starter for me. On one had, it’s got Dinklage on full display and it is taking its time in developing the terms of the coming war, but it’s also so full of unecessary cutaway, asides and erotic frolicking that it at times threatens to derail completely from the story it wants to tell. Here’s hoping that in future installments, there’s a better sense of dramatic urgency and character development. And someone give some more screentime to the Night’s Watch.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 18:47:19
has it gotten any less sleep inducing?