Season Five of Thrones continues series’ complexity, cinematic grandeur

Opinion

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This article was published 10/04/2015 (3831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has often been said that the best way to travel through life is by viewing it as a journey rather than a destination.

The same can be said for the experience of watching Game of Thrones — if you can let go of the notion that its multi-layered, tightly woven stories need to get anywhere in a hurry, you can sit back and fully enjoy one of the most beautifully crafted and wondrously entertaining stories ever created for any screen of any size, anywhere.

The acclaimed fantasy-realm series, based on books by George R.R. Martin, begins its fifth season this Sunday on HBO Canada (check listings for time), and it goes without saying that complexity, sprawl and cinematic grandeur are the elements that overwhelm the viewing experience. Game of Thrones is a series that started big and just keeps getting bigger as new characters, storylines, complicated lines of relationship and bloodline entanglement are explored.

Reviewing this season of Thrones presents the same unique challenge that previous ones have — how to describe the narrative that connects what’s happened with what’s about to transpire without committing the sin of all sins by revealing too much and spoiling Game’s ever-being-sprung series of surprises.

Fear not, Throne-o-philes; there will be no wedding-RSVP-ruining spoilers here.

As Season 5 opens, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) is on the run, in the company of the eunuch Varys (Conleth Hill), after having escaped the death sentence he faced for the murder of his nephew, King Joffrey. Varys tries to offer encouragement and hope for a better future, but Tyrion — bearded, crusty and even more disgusting than usual after having been concealed in a wooden crate — is inclined more toward self-pity and drinking himself to death. His response to Varys’s attempted spirit-lift is blunt: “The future is shit.”

Meanwhile, Tyrion’s sister, Cersei (Lena Headey), is scrambling to maintain power in King’s Landing despite having been relegated to the largely ceremonial role of queen mother. Her sense of isolation is intensified as Jaime Lannister (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau) departs on a top-secret mission that might satisfy their shared desire for vengeance.

In the distant realm of Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is learning some hard lessons about ruling as part of an occupying force, while at the same time grappling with an unexpected problem as her beloved dragons mature and become a bit more independent-minded than she’d anticipated.

Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) allegiance to the Night’s Watch is tested when the threat of a forced union of previously warring clans places him in a delicate middle-ground position.

And that, of course, barely begins to scratch the surface of what’s in play as Season 5 unfolds. One of the gratifying things the series’ fans will discern as these various storylines gain speed is that Game of Thrones’ massive world seems to be contracting a bit. Narrative connections are tightening, and there’s a hint — admittedly faint at this point — that a final, once-and-for-all collision of plot threads and characters may be somewhere on the horizon.

As always, it’s easy to get knocked sideways by Game of Thrones’ towering narrative and jaw-loosening special effects, but what remains equally awe-inspiring is the specificity it injects into every onscreen moment. There are no wasted words, no glossed-over details of set decoration or costume design and no throwaway scenes or conversational snippets that don’t have significant meaning to the larger-scale unfolding story.

There’s as much magic in the tiny details as there is in the huge spectacle. And that’s what has made — and continues to make — Game of Thrones a singular TV-series achievement.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @BradOswald