“Season Five poses the idea: what depths would a person stoop to for power?”

Grace Dent's Game of Thrones journey continues this week, with season five

(HBO)

“Season Five of my favourite show Game of Thrones is, it must be said, an emotional endurance test.

Grace Dent

Yes, it’s as bold, thrilling and beautiful as ever before, but Season Five is brutally dark in places. ‘Lannister, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell, they’re all just spokes on a wheel,’ says Daenerys Targeryen, speaking of their quest for victory. ‘We’re not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.’

At times, Season Five was nearly too much for my nerves. I’d got used, over four seasons, to watching the bloodshed through my fingers, but Season Five posed the sombre idea: to what depths would a person stoop for power? The answer to this lies within superstition, witchcraft and bargaining with the Gods.

Some scenes will remain seared into your mind long after the credits roll.

Game of Thrones loves to whisk us to places normal television would rarely dare. Throughout Westeros a sense of inevitability has taken hold over the future. Until now there’s been a certain amount of denial about ‘winter coming’ or the dangers north of The Wall. Now, we observe as Houses and clans are forced to set aside ancient differences for the common goal of survival. Wonderfully, with Sky Box Sets you can gobble the entire season up over a long weekend and relish the lightness alongside the dark.

Yes, the affairs of House Baratheon, meddled with by the Red Witch, may well lead you into grimly uncomfortable places, but in contrast Tyrion’s ‘comeback’ quest is awash with pithy one-liners and fabulous zinging dialogue. Likewise, Olenna Tyrell – played by former Bond girl Diana Rigg – truly hits her stride as a character in Season Five.

Olenna is fearless, statuesque, darkly sarcastic and possibly one of the best female characters on modern television. Think Downton Abbey’s Dowager Countess yet prepared to have underlings killed without blinking. Margaery, Olenna, Arya and Brienne are all complex, challenging characters.


 Dianna Rigg as Olenna Tyrell 
 (HBO)

There’s a strong reason that Game of Thrones has snared millions of people, including myself, who previously avoided the fantasy genre. We adore thoughtful plots like, in Season Five, Cersei Lannister's tangles with holy sect The Sparrows. It’s a neat, rather relevant, look at the perils of inviting religious zealots to fight secular battles.

Elsewhere, via Sansa’s journey we look at sexual power and the human ability to draw on vast inner strength to survive. I admire Season Five for its willingness to smash boundaries. It may not always be easy to watch, but Game of Thrones always leaves you needing more.”

Every episode of Game of Thrones is available now, exclusively on Sky Box Sets.

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