I'm back after taking a week off, and happy to get to write a Monday night off-topic about two of the best episodes Game of Thrones has done to date.
So here's something interesting: The last two Sunday nights, Benioff, Weiss and company have stepped farther from the source material than ever before, and they've managed to turn in two highly enjoyable, well-written episodes that felt focused and, well, patient in a way that the first four episodes of this season (even the highly satisfying fourth episode) didn't.
This season seems to have found a groove that's working for it. For me, highlights of the past couple episodes included Jaime's tortured recollection of what really happened when he killed the Mad King, the Hound's coming up against the burning sword (the show has never been all that explicit about his pyrophobia, but I think by now even those who haven't read the books get it), and the welcome return of Davos, which must have made Luke very happy. And best of all, the Jon/Ygritte scenes are as enjoyable on the show as they were in the books, and I flat-out loved their episode-stealing top-of-the-world moment at the end of last night's episode.
I also greatly enjoyed Zach Galifianakis on SNL last weekend:
Heh. So, what did you guys think of last night's episode? How's the season going? Feel free to talk Game of Thrones (Tag your spoilers, please, especially book spoilers) or whatever else, here or over at TAY. And as always, for some more thorough analysis, check out Charlie Jane's most recent writeup over at io9.
To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.