Stark Contrast: Episode 14 “Book of the Stranger” • Television

After the high of last week’s excellent Game of Thrones episode, we were bound for some disappointment. Fortunately it took the form of “Book of the Stranger,” a mediocre but hardly terrible episode that felt like treading (and retreading) water more than anything else. J and I delve into what makes this such a strange and off-putting episode in our podcast discussion.

In particular, we commiserate about Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) – again – and just how awful his character is. We pay special attention to how his cruelty and sadism seems to manifest largely on killing or abusing women, a trend that is hard to watch, does nothing for his character and sacrifices good, interesting players on the show to the altar of Ramsay’s badness. It’s a bad look.

We also discuss Daniel Sackheim’s odd direction this week. Characters who’ve worked this whole season (and oftentimes this whole series) suddenly felt stilted as if they were underperforming their parts. It’s a difficult thing to pinpoint, but both J and I noticed it acutely. Still, a great moment with Theon (Alfie Allen) and Yara (Gemma Whelan) and heartwarming reunions for the Starks and other major characters managed to keep everything largely afloat.

And again, no Dorne and Meereen continues to benefit from Tyrion’s (Peter Dinklage) presence. Praise be.

~ Søren

As always, you can subscribe to our podcast feed (including all episodes of “Stark Contrast”) using iTunes or by copying this link into your RSS reader. Alternatively, you can check out the episode online or download it here. Happy listening!