In the four episodes provided for preview, the action seldom lags, but just when we think we’re in for a fun ride this season, something darkens the sun.

Thrones exults in the unexpected.

This isn't the best four-episode stretch the series has ever had--as with most cable dramas, the ends of GoT seasons tend to be stronger than the starts--but there's a sense of real forward momentum to the proceedings that hasn't always been there in the past. Again and again, my pulse quickened as I watched these four hours.

Season 5 doesn’t feel like more of the same; it feels like a Game of Thrones played at a new, more intense level.

The unforeseeable effects and ostensible curse of murdering have always proved key to the show's tension, and as the story continues to build a kinetic rhythm and streamline the drama, the thunderous chaos stirred up by each life taken resonates all the more loudly.

It's a more compelling, faster-paced and less frustrating journey than fans were treated to in “A Feast for Crows” and “A Dance With Dragons,” the novels that line up with the current action in Westeros’ winter-is-coming world.

There are so many characters and storylines in this complex series that to keep their arcs moving dramatically forward, writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, creators of the series and custodians of novelist George R.R. Martin’s world, have to parse out so many bits of dialogue and scenes to so many different actors that large chunks of a season often feel like they bounce around frantically, spending little fragments of time with one character and racing across Westeros to service another ad infinitum.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The introduction of Dorne feels like an after thought despite it's importance in the book and in the show as a foreign power. Muting stellar performances through rudimentary dialogues and copied characterisations an immovable achievement questions the longevity of quality in a show going further than what is written for it. Unfortunately the anxiety of shifting alliances and circumstances feels dulled as most apparently through Daenerys who's character who had never been particularly compelling before (Despite emilia clarks award worthy performance) seems to just be nearing threat of unreasonable luck. Her obstacles being surmounted too conveniently as well as her struggles becoming less compelling. The now infamous sands snakes fight scenes choreography to the forgotten storylines make this a dirge to get through. Until the last 4 episodes which come to show the shows capability for quality control of previous seasons proportions.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Departing from the source material was not bad on principle, but the choices made were poor ones. Important characters such as Jaime, Sansa, and Stannis go through reductive storylines, while others like Arya and Daenerys merely tread water. The finale was especially insulting, ending almost all the characters on episode 9-like cliffhangers rather than the traditional resolution and development of seasons past.

Loved game of thrones up until this season where they just started making it up as the go along in comparison to the books. The whole "lets kill off everyone" idea lost its novel appeal after season 2 and yet they team behind GOT still think its a fresh thing thats going to impress the fans. Apart from the aforementioned, season 5 has been boring, slow and generally lacking any form of fluidity in comparison to the first 4.