I will endeavor to avoid spoilers, but I may engage in a bit of foreshadowing.
Season 2 is off to a pretty cracking start (it has me talking all British.)
King’s Landing: I support the show’s emphasis on people slapping Joffrey. I am hopeful that we will see much more Joffrey slapping throughout the season.
Perhaps the greatest joy in A Clash of Kings (the second book in the series, for those who haven’t read them) is the face off in King’s Landing between Tyrion and Cersei, and it looks like this season will not disappoint. I also like how they are establishing Cersei’s grand dilemma. She has near-absolute power over a clever man like Littlefinger, but she is utterly helpless before her idiot son Joffrey (who she made into a monster, incidentally.) Joffrey is too much of a mama’s boy to ever actually hurt Cersei, but it will be fun to see how the mother-son relationship develops now that they are Queen Regent and King.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but is the hardcore sex really necessary? It really adds nothing, and it’s a bit distracting. (My love for boobs notwithstanding.) Perhaps the sex lessons in Littlefinger’s brothel served to compensate us for the murder of Robert’s infant son. I think by now everyone knows to expect an atrocity around every corner, though.
Perhaps the strangest line of the whole episode: “You can smell come from the balcony?” Thanks, Tyrion. It is surprising that Tyrion has Shae staying with him in the Tower of the Hand. It has been clearly established that there is no privacy in the Red Keep, so it is a mystery to me how Tyrion expects to keep Shae there without his father finding out. I was bit worried that they are setting up Littlefinger’s brothel to serve the function of Chataya’s in the book. Given the need to condense characters and settings in the medium of television, I could see Chataya’s being one of the setting that doesn’t make the cut, but I hope they include it. Considering how lily-white the fantasy genre tends to be, Chataya and Alayaya are not only some of the very few people of color even mentioned in the books, and Alayaya is one of the few truly honorable characters in the whole series. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Beyond the Wall: Craster is as big an asshole as I imagined he would be.
Dragonstone: Stephen Dillane is freaking perfect as Stannis Baratheon.
I wasn’t sold on Carice van Houten as Melisandre at first. I don’t know exactly how I pictured her. I must say she captures the sheer weirdness, for lack of a better word, of Melisandre. She has some stuff comkng up that’s going to be very interesting to see.
Essos: I hope they don’t linger too much in the Red Waste, because (no spoilers) I’m excited to see where they’re going.
There was a brief hint, it seemed, of something between Daenerys and Rakharo. Where in the world could they be going with that?
The North: Bran’s “wolf dreams” were always the hardest part of the books for me to grasp. I like the way they are handling it so far. Also, I really like Osha. And I can’t wait for Hodor to get to just be Hodor for a while.
On the war front, I can do without many more extended scenes of various Starks taunting Jaime Lannister. I know Jaime spends the entire second book as the Starks’ captive, mostly in a dungeon, but I doubt they’ll stick to that in the show. For one thing, Jaime is a pretty major character and they need to keep him moving. For another, let’s face it, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau is too dang handsome for TV producers to leave him tied to a post for nine more episodes. I just don’t know if they’ll find something else for Jaime to do or if they’ll get him started early on Book 3.
A scene late in Season 1 made a point of Robb excitedly greeting his mother and then remembering that, as lord, he had to be a bit more dignified than that (especially in front of his bannermen). They did a very good job showing Robb’s growth as a leader and the changing power dynamic between him and Catelyn–she may still be his mother, but he’s the king now.
The Kingsroad: We need to see more Arya Stark. She can’t turn into an epic badass if she doesn’t get any screen time.
