Anyone who dismisses television viewing as a passive activity clearly hasn't watched "Game of Thrones." HBO's crown jewel requires the sort of OCD focus and possibly the same picture-plastered, color-coded white board that Carrie Mathison used to track down Abu Nazir in Showtime's "Homeland."
As with the George R.R. Martin series from whence it sprung, "Game of Thrones" has redefined "sprawling epic." And as Season 3 opens, the sprawl factor is perilously high, with the multitudinous characters — seven families, people, from seven kingdoms — scattered all over Westeros, their story lines progressing in an ever-climbing wall of overlapping layers, a citadel of narrative.
For those just joining the show, here's what you need to know: Abu Nazir is about the only one not trying to sit on the Iron Throne. Everyone else, from Dragon mistress and possibly true heir Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) to little crippled Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), is a potential contender; they just have to get through the mud and cold and ravening armies to depose the current despotic brat-king Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), whose murder every viewer is awaiting with morbid eagerness. Step by grimy, blood- and urine-soaked step, everyone on screen is slouching toward his or her destiny. Because winter is coming, and three-eyed ravens don't show up to herald an annual white sale.
PHOTOS: 'Game of Thrones' cast without their costumes
Having made the decision to stay true to the original text, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss challenge viewers just as Martin challenged readers. Each episode juggles half a dozen mini-episodes.
In scenes that last but a few minutes, the narrative shifts continually across wood and water and frozen sky, slides in through windows and behind closed doors, snakes between bodies as they sleep and shiver and mate.
We see first the grim horror of the blue-eyed White Walkers risen once again beyond the wall where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) learns the ways of the wildings. We then sail to Kings Landing, where denizens battle a similar fear, though now cloaked in silk and courtly menace as Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Cersei (Lena Headey) regroup in wake of temporary victory. Now here's Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) trotting cross-country at the tip of Brienne's (Gwendoline Christie) sword, and young Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) still trying to return to her home at Winterfell.
As with the George R.R. Martin series from whence it sprung, "Game of Thrones" has redefined "sprawling epic." And as Season 3 opens, the sprawl factor is perilously high, with the multitudinous characters — seven families, people, from seven kingdoms — scattered all over Westeros, their story lines progressing in an ever-climbing wall of overlapping layers, a citadel of narrative.
For those just joining the show, here's what you need to know: Abu Nazir is about the only one not trying to sit on the Iron Throne. Everyone else, from Dragon mistress and possibly true heir Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) to little crippled Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), is a potential contender; they just have to get through the mud and cold and ravening armies to depose the current despotic brat-king Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), whose murder every viewer is awaiting with morbid eagerness. Step by grimy, blood- and urine-soaked step, everyone on screen is slouching toward his or her destiny. Because winter is coming, and three-eyed ravens don't show up to herald an annual white sale.
PHOTOS: 'Game of Thrones' cast without their costumes
Having made the decision to stay true to the original text, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss challenge viewers just as Martin challenged readers. Each episode juggles half a dozen mini-episodes.
In scenes that last but a few minutes, the narrative shifts continually across wood and water and frozen sky, slides in through windows and behind closed doors, snakes between bodies as they sleep and shiver and mate.
We see first the grim horror of the blue-eyed White Walkers risen once again beyond the wall where Jon Snow (Kit Harington) learns the ways of the wildings. We then sail to Kings Landing, where denizens battle a similar fear, though now cloaked in silk and courtly menace as Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Cersei (Lena Headey) regroup in wake of temporary victory. Now here's Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) trotting cross-country at the tip of Brienne's (Gwendoline Christie) sword, and young Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) still trying to return to her home at Winterfell.
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