Game of Thrones: Season 4 [DVD] [2014] [2015]

The game of thrones is one of the very best TV shows I have ever seen. I could not stop watching it. I almost believed it was real. The special effects were amazing and the characters so true to life. I keep trying to think of a way to bring people like Jon Snow and the watch back on the screen. Loved loved loved it all

So many have said it. Now I do too. Applaud here yet another brilliant season. The threat from the North ever more ominous; treachery and plotting in abundance; stirring battles; key characters suddenly no more – some dispatched most bloodily. “Game of Thrones” remains superb – all involved at their very best.

10 episodes. 11 commentaries. Generous bonuses, all worth exploring. Want a laugh? Check out the 25 minute feature where prominent cast discuss their demises. (One only learned of his doom when reading the script in the plane on his way to film).

Television at its best – boundaries extended, new heights achieved.

We were rather late to the party with Game of Thrones. We were bought the first season after the second season had already been released and after watching we quickly ordered season 2. My husband then bought me the books for my birthday and we started to work our way through. Season 4 was the first we watched having already read the corresponding book (in fact we’d both finished them all by the time we watched). So we watched already knowing the plot. However, it really didn’t matter. Almost every episode I found myself watching with my face in my hands and my mouth open (think Kevin McAllister in Home Alone). It is so well filmed. So well acted. Such a fantastic story. It is one series that can get me audibly cheering (you know whose death that would have been), gasping, yelling, crying (was surprised at the death that caused tears this time round). There are a few alterations to the story, but I don’t think they detract.

It’s just such a shame the DVDs take so long to come out after the series airs!

If you’re reading reviews of season four of the fantasy phenomenon that is Game of Thrones, then you’re probably, like us, already irretrievably addicted. In eager anticipation of the release date, we avidly re-watched season 1-3 so were totally immersed and raring to fight our way through the usual impenetrable cellophane and get stuck in.

Although we tried really hard to pace ourselves, we couldn’t help but gobble up the whole season in two sittings; it is just so engrossing, gripping, enthralling and lots of other words ending in ‘ing’. There’s so much going on, loads of intricate plot twists and some truly astonishing surprises (so, you thought the Red Wedding in the last season was a shock, just wait for the .!!) that it would be impossible to describe them without spoilers, but suffice to say that the main story lines established in Season 3 gather momentum and bear some surprising fruit.

The main cast continue to delight and horrify in equal measure; the ghastly Joffrey becomes more so, poor Tyrion had a really hard time of it while Cersei fails to accept the fact that Jamie one-hand is a changed man. Theon is completely broken by Ramsay Bolton while Bolton Snr. attempts to cement his claim to the North by hunting down the remaining Stark boys. There’s an excellent new character from Dorn with his own reasons for wanting to be at The Wedding and Arya and the Hound, Sansa and Little Finger & Brienne and Podrick all set off on separate quests. The wildlings continue South while the undermanned Castle Black prepares for the onslaught (there is a brilliant Helms Deep’esque battle with giants and mammoths) while the Stark boys head north driven by Bran’s visions.

I’ve probably forgotten something important but we’ve only watched it once; a few days after finishing our Blu-ray player gave up the ghost (it may only be three years old, but it has done a lot of hours!). We will be re-watching it as soon as the new player arrives and then we’ll have to wait, however impatiently, for the next instalment.

Whilst I’ve had a bit of love/hate relationship with the series (loved the first series, partially enjoyed the second and hated the third); Season 4 is a real return to form for me because it brings out the elements that made Season 1 so great: character motivations and change, plot-lines that progress and develop and hard-hitting action/twists. This was severely lacking from Season 3 which was real dull-fest of pointless dialogue, no plot or story to think of and an overriding sense of laziness in terms of script-writing: dialogue didn’t progress scenes or character; they usually focused on just long monologues and characters talking about the past to fill up time. Fortunately they did not follow Season 3’s awful format; they have fought back and the monologues are gone, so is pointless expository dialogue in favor of hard-hitting discussions and stand-offs. Finally the plot has taken off; with in each episode a progression of the events. The characters and story all are compelling and interesting: all the stories are finally getting move on, unlike in Seasons 3 in which people spent long periods of time walking from location to the next over a course of entire season. Here everything bounces back: Jamie is no longer just dragged around the mud forever, he is back at King’s Landing having to find his honor and strength back and he’s a changed man, Stannis is not forever moping in his castle anymore, he’s out searching for an army and a way to consolidate power, Jon Snow is back at the Wall and he’s dealing with oncoming war with the Wildings and tensions within the castle and the list goes with Dnarys, Tyrion etc whose stories actually involve conflict.The characters face more threats and get to the locations they have so laboriously tried to get to. Whilst in Season 3, time was slow, as one event or dilemma would take perhaps three-four episodes to resolve, here one event is dealt with in the course of one self-contained episode, this picks up the pace and makes the series so much more interesting. The characters are more complex this time around and each character in the series is finally facing some kind of emotional and physical conflict which was sorely lacking in Season 3 in which all they did was argue with each other. Season 4 is real return, it has won back my attention and I look forward to Season 5. Game of Thrones has all the elements of five star series: cinematic direction, big production value and strong characters but sometimes the writers are not developing the overall story in strong manner which was the case in Season 2 and 3, this is how it should be: fast, twisty, compelling and chock-full of character conflict. This is the series at its best, I hope it stays this way.

It is hard to find any fault with this amazing TV series. I had read the books before seeing the first series and was bowled over by the standard of, well, everything. Great casting – Nicolai Coster-Walder is absolutely born to the role of Jamie. Tyrion is the star played to perfection by Peter Dinklage. The women are superb, especially Lena Headey as Cercei. But the real revelation has been some of the smaller parts in the books which have been so good that they get extra time in the series, notably Bronn and the outstanding Charles Dance as Tywin. Production values are stunning, up to the standard of the Lord of the Rings films if that can be believed for a TV series. No punches are pulled in the sex and violence which were part of medieval society, which is what a Song of Ice and Fire is about. Series four is the last part of the third book though it incorporates some episodes from later books. It seems to get better with each series.