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Critics Consensus: With a blistering opening salvo, Game of Thrones charts an assured path for its anxiously-anticipated final stretch.
Critic Consensus: With a blistering opening salvo, Game of Thrones charts an assured path for its anxiously-anticipated final stretch.
One might wonder whether the biggest, bloodiest, most Dragon-heavy show on television would still have the ability to shock and surprise. The answer, happily, is yes.
Now that winter is officially here, the map has gotten smaller and, more importantly, the players smarter.
The season premiere of Game of Thrones was thoroughly satisfying, a transporting hour that brilliantly reestablished the chessboard for the new, penultimate season.
"Dragonstone" was the kind of table-setter Game of Thrones always prefers for its season premiere, promising carnage to come but mostly using the first hour to push the pieces into place. And, in this case, to give us a good old-fashioned bedpan montage.
In my Game of Thrones fantasy league, Arya's worth at least two dragons. Maybe two-and-a-half. And she's headed like a heat-seeking missile toward Queen Cersei, if, you know, heat-seeking missiles stopped off to listen to Ed Sheeran sing.
"Dragonstone" did move a lot of pieces into place, re-establishing our memory of various alliances and giving a few key characters some show-stealing moments.
Daenerys has waited a long time for this, and she's clearly restless to begin her conquest of Westeros. At the same time, it feels as if the writers are communicating with the audience too.
But really, at this point what better metaphor is there for watching Game of Thrones than a poop montage?
This premiere makes it clear that the series is finally arriving at its endpoint.
"Dragonstone" won't go down as one of the show's grander season premieres, as it's more interested about reestablishing where its main characters are before rushing into the game's "final round," as it were.