This show  p i s s e s  me off in ways you can't imagine. How is that possible you ask? That's easy. When you have a show as kick ass as Game Of Thrones is, you too would get bent out of shape when all you get are 10 episodes per year. It is beyond frustrating that I've spent all this time waiting for Season 1 and now Season 2 and all I've got to show for my loyalty is a measly 20 f*cking episodes!!!! Argh! The other thing that kind of drives me up the wall, especially with this season is that there are so many characters and story arcs running at the same time that it's just not possible to get to every one of them in a given episode. So, when the light shines on an arc or two, it comes at the expense of others. In a perfect world, we would get 25 episodes per season with each episode 2 hours long.

For me, the one story I was most anxious to see continue from the conclusion of Season 1 was the story of Daenerys Targaryen. So, you can imagine my reaction to the fact that her story was the least played out here. That doesn't mean that this season was a bust. Far from it. It was just as awesome as the last and it actually did give me another story to glom onto in a big way. I was very happy that a great deal of time was devoted to Arya Stark, who is turning out to be one of my favorite characters now. But my fave is definitely Tyrion Lannister. I was absolutely certain they had killed him off and that half his face was going to split apart. Boy, was I ever ready to start throwing things at my TV!!!

Every great series has to have great villains and this one has two of the most pathetic ones ever.....in a good way that is. I of course speak of Joffrey Baratheon and Theon Greyjoy. Both of them are awesome in their ability to get me riled up to the point of wanting to smash their faces in. They have a huge age difference between the two of them, but are both made from the same cloth. Ugh, their cowardice and false bravado is indeed good for mocking and that's what makes them great villains to watch and I want to see more.

I absolutely recommend this as a Buy. I fully intend to buy the series as a whole once the inevitable Box Set comes out. The only way I will jump the gun on that is if the stand alone seasons were dirt cheap and the deal was too good to pass up. FYI, its taken me great will power to watching only 2-3 episodes per day, otherwise I would have blown through this in one sitting. Great cliffhanger too.

Please, no discussion of Season 3 as I have not seen it!!! Thanks.

You know the reason the show is as good as it is is because it's not overloaded on content.  I know ten eps a year sucks but I'd rather have 10 great episodes than 20 just-okay ones.

I LOVE how awful Joffrey is, I just RELISH that that brat of all people is King and that he's just such a horrible person.  The scene with the two ladies just added a whole other level of insane to him.

Plus, how great is it that one of the best shows on TV is headlined by a dwarf that's not only one of the most bad-*ss characters around but you almost don't notice he's physically any different than anyone else?  He's got the presence.

Oh, and this little Arrested Westeros kills me, one of my favourite things from season two:

The dude directing the new Thor directed quite a few episodes of Game of Thrones.  They mentioned on FilmState a few shots in the movie look VERY Game Of Thrones-ish (though I don't we'll get to see Natalie Portman become mother of dragons.  Though that would seem to be a Kitty Pryde thing...)

I do wish that the map at the start could go beyond the wall, I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't know the lay of the land, but I'd like to see that Wildling camp show up, cause they're not technically at The Wall.  It could just be "Parts Unknown."

And BTW, how long did it take you to notice that the history of the kingdoms is shown in those astrolabe rings?  The animals fighting the three-headed dragon (Targaeryan), and at the end the animals kneeling down before the stag (King Barantheon).  It's pretty clever.

Did you see Peter Dinklage's interview on the Daily Show a few weeks ago?  It was pretty funny, "we're summoned to set every morning by a raven" etc.

....but the real killer is waiting until SEASON FOUR since that's when the discs of the third season come out.

Ugh. Don't remind me. Trying not to think about that. This is gonna be a brutally long wait for me.

With the seasons already so short, watching them all at once makes more sense and you know what, I figure that when Season 3 is released on DVD, the first two seasons will be cheap enough on Amazon to pick up. Amazon has a pattern they follow for pretty much every series and the first two are usually 50-70% off. With the money I saved on those two, I can make up for it on Season 3. Usually Target is a pretty good alternative to Amazon as they have great deals when their DVD sets are released.

One thing I noticed while watching Season 2, it made The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey look bad in my eyes. Bad is a relative term. On it's own the movie is 'better than average', but comparing it to Season 2 of Game of Thrones, it suddenly becomes a 'below average' film for me.

There was just a lot of dead space to The Hobbit and just wore on and on, but in Game of Thrones, every scene is there for a reason and it's always engaging. Even their "quiet" scenes have an energy to them that The Hobbit does not have. Pick any scene with Tyrion and you will know exactly what I mean by that. So many great characters and story lines to carry the weight of the series.