Newsweek reviews season 3

The first official Game of Thrones Season 3 review is here. Jace Lacob of The Daily Beast/Newsweek, has published his review. Despite some misgivings, he says overall the first four episodes are really strong, especially episodes 3 and 4.

Season 3, which will depict roughly the first half of Martin’s A Storm of Swords, will present Benioff and Weiss with their greatest challenge yet, as both sides attempt to pick up the pieces after the last season’s climactic Battle of the Blackwater. The first four episodes of the new season, provided to critics ahead of its premiere, demonstrate a canny ability to fuse the literary with the visual, resulting in an exhilarating and magnificent thing of beauty, particularly in those scenes that make full use of locations as diverse as Iceland, Croatia, and Morocco.

While Season 3, like the novel on which it is based, takes a little while to get going, when it does pick up speed, it soars—particularly in the sensational third and fourth installments (“Walk of Punishment” and “And Now His Watch Is Ended”), both written by Benioff and Weiss. The first episode back lacks energy and intensity, but provides a necessary foundation off of which to build dozens of separate plots for the scattered characters.

Be sure to check out Jace’s full review for more details, although be aware it does contain minor spoilers.

Winter Is Coming: Considering I had the opposite opinion of the first episode (I found it to be quite thrilling) I really can’t wait to see these other episodes!

• Published on 03/25/2013 at 12:47 PM CDT
• Last updated on 03/25/2013 at 12:49 PM CDT