If the first four hours of Season 5 are any indication, it's a more compelling, faster-paced and less frustrating journey than fans were treated to in "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance With Dragons."
"Game of Thrones" is also looking to expand our understanding of these characters and their psychology in a deeper and more complex way, which is exactly where we kick off the season.
Given the issues of pace and focus that bedevil Martin's later novels, Benioff and Weiss's impulse to both compress and juice up the material makes eminent sense. The result is a season of Game of Thrones that promises to be bigger than ever.
Many shows are starting to run out of gas by Season 5. Game of Thrones, partly because it's as cold-blooded as its characters in treating personnel turnover as the natural order, seems to have little trouble keeping its pedal to the metal.
