First season they did a great job keeping the tension, drama, the stakes, everything tight and moving. Second season they did a damn good job. WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED? Instead of dramatic arcs, episodes this season as a series of disjointed vignettes that they donʻt even try to weave a dramatic thread between. Instead they spend more time adding unnecessary detail to the extreme BDSM treatment of Theon Greyjoy. I love Iwan Rheon as an actor, but one or two quick scenes are enough to tell us about how Theon will evolve...this is gratuitous and the time would be better spent on laying out the over all narrative. If it werenʻt for the strong source material (thank you George RR Martin), this would be an unwatchable mess of disconnected plot points, under-motivated actions, and, as I pointed out, sex/violence that isnʻt being used to drive the narrative forward. The weak directing was most clearly demonstrated when the Yukai arrives to negotiate - what the hell was the purpose of the long arrival scene? To burn some of the budget and add minutes to fill out a short and empty episode? Hire some writers folks! Hire a new director! This is one of the most epic stories written and you gotta do better than your doing.
Review of The Bear and the Maiden Fair
