Simon Fernandes

Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 10–The Children

“We both know that winter is coming. And if my people aren’t south of the Wall when it comes in earnest, we’ll all end up worse than dead.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Unpredictable beasts, season finales of Game of Thrones. In the past, they’ve tended to be a chance to take stock after the tumultuous events of episode 9, while also laying the groundwork for next season’s plots. This one, though, was uncharacteristically action-packed, with some game-changing plot developments that should leave even those who’ve read the books impatient to see what happens next.

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Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 9–The Watchers on the Wall

“I am a man of the Night’s Watch. I made a promise to defend the Wall, and I have to keep it. Because that’s what men do.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Another episode 9 directed by Neil Marshall (Blackwater), and like his previous effort, it didn’t stint on the action. Also like that episode, it was virtually a self-contained story, covering only the plot thread where a massive, epic battle was due so as to show the events of the battle in detail. The action was furious, breathtaking and satisfying. The emotional drama, which is what Game of Thrones stands or falls on? Well, that depends on how invested you are in these characters in particular.

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In the Flesh–Series 2, Episode 6

“Every PDS sufferer in Roarton must be destroyed!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

And so the second series of In the Flesh has come to an end, with a mostly satisfying climax that still left a few things to be desired. In structure and plot details, it was actually more than a bit reminiscent of the finale to series one – but with the need to lay groundwork for a potential third series, things weren’t so neatly tied up this time.

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Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 8–The Mountain and the Viper

“Everybody dies, sooner or later. Don’t worry about your death, worry about your life.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

With Game of Thrones off the air for a week between episodes for the first time, my first thought was of the recent internet furores regarding the show’s sometimes gratuitous use of sex and violence. I had wondered whether, in light of the controversy, the broadcast of episode 8 had been delayed to allow for some hasty re-editing to ‘sanitise’ the show. As to the sex, that might be true, but as the ep amply demonstrated, it certainly wasn’t true for the violence (of which more later).

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In the Flesh: Series 2, Episode 5

“We are the community – and we have deemed you a threat to it.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

With the plot ramping up for these final two episodes of In the Flesh’s second series, show creator Dominic Mitchell is back at the helm for scripting in a fascinating episode that features, for the first time, some detailed flashbacks to the events of the Rising. Since our only glimpse of it previously was Kieren’s traumatic recall of the girl he killed in the supermarket, this was yet more expansion of the show’s mythos, which Mitchell has cleverly revealed a fragment at a time.

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Mad Men: Season 7, Episode 7–Waterloo

“No man has ever come back from leave – even Napoleon.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Mad Men is usually the most understated drama possible, much of its plots conveyed by subtext, implication, Don Draper staring enigmatically at nothing in particular. Every so often though, an episode startles you by bringing that subtext to the fore, making it… text, I suppose, with events that carry a real dramatic charge. A rape, a pregnancy, a suicide (or two) – all these are like a shock of ice-cold water to the face after a lengthy bathe in the nice warm water of the show’s usual near-ambience.

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In the Flesh: Series 2, Episode 4

“There’s what I believe – and then there’s you.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

In a week when tribal differences were thrown into sharp relief by the triumph of xenophobic political parties all over Europe, it was another script from writer Fintan Ryan for this week’s In the Flesh. And following on from his poignant vignette of Freddie and Haley last week, this week’s ep foregrounded another of the more minor players in the drama – parish councillor and would be suitor to Amy, Philip Wilson. Not quite as separate a narrative as the Ballad of Freddie and Haley, this still stood apart enough to be a good character piece running alongside the ‘main’ plot.

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Mad Men: Season 7, Episode 6–The Strategy

“You really want to help me? Show me how you think.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

I always know I’m in for a treat when Mad Men’s opening credits include the words “written by Semi Chellas”. Chellas, for my money is one of the best writers working on the show. She it was who (along with Weiner) wrote the storming season 5 ep The Other Woman, which showed us Joan’s heartbreaking decision to compromise her integrity for career advancement; I still rate that as one of the best single eps the show has ever done.

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Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 7–Mockingbird

“Given the opportunity, what do we do to those who hurt the ones we love?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

With showrunners Benioff and Weiss on scripting duties again, this week’s Game of Thrones may have disappointed those who tune in for the show’s usual heady mix on action, sex, violence and intrigue. It was one of the eps the show occasionally does in which very little actually happens, but we get to spend a lot of time with the characters while they reflect on where they are, how they got there, and where they’re going.

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In the Flesh: Series 2, Episode 3

“You’re being used by them. What I’m doing is giving you a chance to choose the right side.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

As I said last week, the established dramatic style of In the Flesh is driven by the characters’ secrets; and with the relevant secrets revealed and resolved in the first series, the challenge for this second run is to come up with new secrets. In part, this has been achieved by a stronger focus on the Rising itself, which was rarely questioned in the first series. But the other approach has been to introduce new characters, and delve into the secrets driving them.

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