My Review of "Game of Thrones: Season 4"

Game of Thrones: Season 4 aired back in 2014 and it has to be my favorite season of the whole series. There's just so much that happens in this season compared to the rest of the other seasons. Of course this over ambition could be a bad thing but they pulled everything off in a very comprehensive and cohesive manner. If you've been following the show for this long you will be floored at how good this season is because the previous seasons were just getting better and better.

This one starts off right after the circumstances of season 3. Jon Snow has betrayed and escaped the wildlings. When he arrives back at Castle Black he's seen as a traitor while others may show some jealousy of Jon's courageous charisma spreading throughout his brethren. There is some serious tension going on at the wall and politics within the wall starting to ignite.

Meanwhile Daenarys is starting to take over cities overseas. She's starting to realize that ruling over these smaller cities isn't so black and white. There are grey areas that she has to take care of if she's going to be able to hold herself as a queen. Her dragons are becoming gigantic and a bit erratic. She's starting to learn and see what needs to be done in order to be considered a great ruler.

Going back to Kings Landing we get introduced to new characters, Oberyn from the house Martell. He and his companion Ellaria have come celebrate the marriage of Joffrey and Margaery. The Martells don't really like the Lannisters because they believe that they were responsible for the murder and rape of their sister Elia and the death of her children. In fact, they don't like them so much that Oberyn was a replacement for the true prince. As the monarchy of the Martell family is still furious of what had happened.

Sansa is now married to Tyrion. Arya is now travelling with the Hound. The Hound hopes to collect a ransom from Lyssa Arryn by bringing Arya to her. Lyssa is Arya and Sansa's Aunt. One of their few known relatives that are still alive.

Those are the main houses that are talked about. There's so many side stories going on as well that may make some people's heads spin like crazy. Not me, this is just world building on world building and I love it. This really feels like a big world where everyone has to live with the consequences of their actions; and those actions will subsequently affect all of the other characters in the show as well. It's truly fascinating as if each character is a cog in a giant functioning machine.

This season contains a ton more magical and fantasy elements that the previous seasons were just starting to introduce. We now have full on fantasy creatures like woolly mammoths, giants, worgs, white walkers, dragons, witches and three eyed ravens. I'm glad that they've been gradually been introducing these beings because it's almost like you need an encyclopedia to keep up.

Trust me this show gets really good with multiple viewings because you can see how well they planned everything out. They foreshadow things with prophecies. It's really fun to see how it all plays out. Each episode adds a new nugget that you know will be crucial for a later episode but you don't know why at first. Only way later down the line will you get a lightbulb moment and you start freaking out because you figured it out.

I also found that this season seemed to have a much bigger budget than the previous seasons. Special effects and locales seemed a lot more extravagant and felt a lot more grandeur than before. It is really feeling like an epic show rather than a self contained fantasy show. They take a lot of thought and planning in their scene transitions as well. Some of the way they transition from scene to scene are quite clever and keep you on your toes.

I'm just so impressed that they were able to add so much to this season and still keep it comprehensive. There is a lot that happens in this season and it feels like they completed a few storylines in here too. These storylines could have dragged on for a little longer but they gave us satisfying conclusions. They even gave us a few big battles in this season versus one big one in each of the previous seasons.

Overall, I loved this season and still think it's probably the best season they ever made for the show. I have very few bad things to say about it. There are a few logical things that you kind of have to ignore in the back of your head. They are few and far between though. I have to give this season a 9.5 out of 10. Excellent job and I can't wait to binge season 5.