There are a few things I want to clarify before I dive into this review. This is a review of the show alone. While I have read all the books I find it is easier to review the television show as it’s own entity and within the confines of the world that has been created on it. That being said there will be no spoilers for the books. I will not discuss how the show varies from the books but there will be spoilers for the episode so beware.
On Sunday night the 5th season of HBO’s wildly popular Game of Thrones began and to put it in the words of my brother (an avid fan of the show) “I was bored to tears.” The season premiere seemed to lack the punch that most fans have come to expect from the show. Most of their big moments were lacking in shock value. Varys advising Tyrion to seek out Dany may have been a surprise to viewers who have not read the books but as HBO chose to have their poster depict Tyrion and a dragon they lost a bit of the impact. Their final shot of Jon Snow shooting Mance Rayder seemed to be begging for gasps of disbelief but really we all know Jon Snow is a GOOD GUY. The fact that he wouldn’t allow a man to suffer a painful and humiliating death isn’t a big revelation and sure maybe this will cause some problems but Jon Snow always manages to get out of seemingly tight situations. The episode was severely lacking Stark women. Arya and her great boat adventure were not even mentioned. I was hoping for an interesting storyline for Sansa given how last season ended for her but it appears that she and Little Finger will just continue to hide from Cersei in some unknown location. The most interesting moments in the premiere had to do with Cersei and her apparent rival of the season, Margaery. It is clear given that they opened the episode with Cersei remembering the prophecy from her childhood this will be her major story for the season. Margaery is not going to be pushed away easily though. By far the most enjoyable moment of the episode was the scene with Margaery and Loras interacting. Honestly I would watch a show that was just about the two of them and I would probably enjoy it more that whatever David Benioff and D.B Weiss have in store for this season.