Game of Thrones gets back to brutal business

A good measure of whether Game of Thrones is feeding you a placeholder episode is to imagine trying to spoil it for a close friend who has yet to watch. After the series opener, ‘Dragonstone’, I was left scrambling for ways in which I could ruin the viewing experience for virgin eyes. Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone? Not exactly news. Cersei schemes against everyone? Change the record. Jon Snow makes a brooding, portentous speech about the White Walkers? Got the t-shirt. And it took a fair time for season seven’s sophomore effort, ‘Stormborn’, to tread new ground, but, when it finally did, it was in a heady blaze of sex and violence.

For its first half, ‘Stormborn’ is more House of Cards than Lord of the Rings. Jon Snow, Sansa and Littlefinger and busy politicking in the North, whilst Daenerys makes the solid decision to reach out to the King in the North.