I love this series, I really do. Watching it is so unmeasurably enjoyable. Still I'm slightly ahead with the books, but some of the stuff in the series is better than in the books and I've never said that about any other adaptation. I mean the thing with varys and his "old friend"... mindblowing.
In all honesty though, this is by far the weakest season. I'll admit, you cannot write the 3rd book into one season easily. It would certainly rush things, especially on Robb's side. But the 3rd season is just so slow and half of the time, there's no suspense in an entire episode! Conversations are just there for the sake of the book and sometimes even just for the sake of it... Don't get me wrong, the series provides a high standard for anything else. But measured against it's previous seasons it just totally falls off.
Granted, there was great stuff (It's game of thrones, that's what it's meant for), like always:
Spoiler
Beric Dondarrion and the Hound fighting
Varys conversation with Tyrion about revenge.
Littlefinger's anthem about chaos
Brienne's fight with Jaime
Brienne's bath with Jaime
Oh and any scene that involves Charles Dance, somebody give this guy please the role of the Sith Lord in the next star wars trilogy or I don't know, any film that requires a masterful villian.
But there's too much time filling north of the wall, in the gardens of king's landing, in the caves of the brotherhood without banners, in the castle of stannis, in the desert with a totally redundant ser jorah... wether it's exposition, word-wanking or simply boring stuff...
half of the scenes with jon snow or daenerys could be cut, as well as the brotherhood scenes...
The first two seasons simply had it more in them. I'm not talking about action, I'm talking about the feel and the pace.
Will I enjoy the rest of it? Sure, I still love it, it's just lacking some of the spirit that used to make it outstanding.
Oh and the next best song after the stark theme, full of chills!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82dsNULbmFs#ws
