S506 - Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken - Have Read the Books

I run to praise this show when it deserves it, and it does quite often deserve it, but I have to chime in with my two cents on this week's showdown in Dorne...

Is this a different show? Do D+D have some old camera and choreographing friends who used to work on Xena, but D+D are throwing them a bone now with some GoT work as second unit crew?? I hope somebody gets a bollocking from a HBO exec over the production values of that scene, it brought the show right down IMO. All it was missing was the Benny Hill music.

The Sand Snakes - I was never their greatest fan in the books, but feel they could have been handled so much better in the show. Might it have been possible to cast the roles more carefully? I feel the current crop have been pulled out of their third week in drama school, given two afternoons of 'combat training', and flung in front of the camera with a "It'll be grand" sort of direction, their lines read from a prompter.

Elaria is like a different character than the one who accompanied Oberyn to King's Landing and moved many viewers in some scenes last season. I'm sure that actress is happy to be working on a prime-time HBO show, I just hope she has no emotional attachment to the character and can 'switch-off' once she clocks out of her day's work.

Jaime and Bronn's march into Sunspear felt like a walk in the park. If only poor 8-bit Mario had this easy a time gaining access to a castle to rescue a princess, the games would have been a bore.

All that said, the Water Gardens set is impressive. Alexander Siddig as Doran and the guy playing Hotah are doing good work despite the hollow and scarce material. However, these silver linings don't really matter as the clouds they are among are just too vast and grey.

Apart from Dorne, I enjoyed the episode. Aiden Gillen gets some slack over his accent, but I really think he is great as Littlefinger. So LF is just trying to get everyone murdering the shít out of each other and he'll swoop in with his Knights of the Vale and take victory from the wounded victors? Cunning and potentially brilliant. I finally got some sense from he and Cersei's scene of the show drawing together all of the 'war' plots that are brewing. Nice to see Cersei acknowledge that there is a man (Stannis) intent on marching on KL and taking the Throne from her son, and her trying to do something about it. Even if that 'something' is her just going along with LF's plan, and LF certainly does not have the Lannisters' best interests at heart.

I agree with others that Sansa knew exactly what was ahead of her when LF told her what destiny awaited her in Winterfell. Right, Sansa might not have known that Ramsey is the devil, but would have known as a young maiden that on her wedding night, whether she wanted to or not, there would be some 'consummating'. Sansa is playing the long game here, and it is going to make her revenge all the more sweet when it finally does happen. The scene was handled well and I was happy not to be subjected to the visuals of the character in that distress. The sounds along with Theon's expression said it all.

Speaking of which, Alfie Allen is doing serious work as Theon/Reek. Mad to think that his older sister wrote, released and charted a song about him sitting in his room getting high all day about 10 years ago! All three of he, Sophie Turner as Sansa and Iwan Rheon as Ramsey are at the top of their game in the Winterfell scenes. It's hard for me to believe that these scenes come from the same show that is currently giving us Takeshi's Castle: Dorne.

I liked the Arya scenes, but will be surprised if we get more than her meeting up with Meryn Trant and going blind somewhere in the midst of that before season's end. Jaaqar was rightfully taking none of her "I hate The Hound" nonsense, because she didn't as much as she wanted to. I miss The Hound and Rory McCann, but it is promising that both the show and the book have left the character's fate uncertain.

In King's Landing, I have to believe that Tommen is such a pushover because when it comes to the Faith arresting his mother Cersei, his reactions will be consistent and not even he can get his mother released from their custody. It seems Tommen will just be a mere observer this season. Joffrey is turning in his grave at his younger brother's inaction!

So Jorah is going to make his way back to Meereen as a slave/fighter with Tyrion of the Golden Cock? That's cool with me. Iain Glenn is quite bad-ass in the role. I love how he stepped up to tell the Slaver (Adebisi in da house!!) that he killed a Dothraki blood-rider in single combat. The character still has gravitas, and I hope he gets some kind of redemption before the greyscale/other means kills him. Also, the scene between he and Tyrion where Tyrion confessed about killing Tywin and then Jorah found that out his own father had passed was quite poignant and well done.

As someone who stopped judging this show on the merits of how close it followed the books earlier this season, I feel it is still quite strong. D+D just need to rein in it a bit. Scenes at the Wall, Winterfell, KL, Meereen, Bravos look stunning, but with all due respect to the hard workers involved, the D-crew got sent to do the Dorne scenes and it isn't good enough for a show that has set its own bar so high.