Game Of Thrones Recaps Recap
Because you need to come down gradually
Episode 4 gave viewers what they’ve been waiting for: dragons flambéing Westerosi troops. Still, the episode had some headscratchers: like why didn’t Jaime think to use the dragon-piercing ballista earlier and why was the episode so damn short.
It also would’ve been fun if Jaime actually managed to queenslay Daenerys and was killed in the process by Drogon. It would have made for a much more unpredictable and exciting war to come. After all, Daenerys is a fairly uncomplicated — and thus fairly uninteresting — character. (The same goes for Jon Snow. They are made for each other, to be honest, in how dull and one-note they can often be.)
Anyway, I’m not here to discuss the episode; rather, I’m here to discuss the niche industry that is Game of Thrones recaps, which, like opiates, are all the rage right now and only getting more epidemic. They’re usually light on analysis and heavy on written play-by-plays and “OMGs;” in other words, they offer little to anyone who’s just watched the episode.
And yet, every Sunday night and Monday morning, viewers read them all as a way to squeeze out every last bit of adrenaline from the most recent episode.
The Quick
Some ambitious sites start posting ten minutes after the episode ends. These tend to offer even less in the way of analysis or insight than their fashionably late counterparts. They do, however, fill you in on things you might have missed whilst urinating or grabbing more salt for your popcorn or checking your phone during scenes involving Sam (when not debriding greyscale skin, natch), pre-three-eyed-raven Bran, or eye-roll-inducing monologues from Daenerys’s underlings about their loyalty to her. The pieces may even go so far as to raise questions that might be important going forward, a la Vanity Fair.
They’re also good for non-Game of Thrones watchers who want to know what people will be discussing at work from eight a.m. to around one or two p.m..
Otherwise, the fastest recaps are usually pretty flimsy — which isn’t to say I didn’t read them all before bed. What they lack in substance, they make up for in something to help with the narrative comedown of having no more Game of Thrones to watch until next week. Looking at you, Variety, Polygon, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, et al.
The Dead (On)
The good recaps tend to post the morning after and offer some insights. These are the best — or at least my favorites.
The Ringer
The Ringer isn’t Grantland, as any fan of Zach Lowe or the essay- and nonfiction-writing in the latter will tell you, but the pop culture analysis stands out without going the Slate-y route of painfully contrived, empty counter-intuitiveness. Their recap this week covers dramatic irony (e.g. Jaime) and the roadblocks on the paths to glory.
Gothamist
Gothamist rankings and lists are, like most lists, highly dubious and seemingly arbitrary. That said, their weekly Game of Thrones recap/power rankings are robust (to misuse a word). They’re funny (enough) in a cutesy, non-snarky way, while pulling in memes, interviews, tweets, etc. Normally I’d find this kind of thing annoying (because I’m a curmudgeon at heart), but it works both because it’s born of a joyous obsessiveness and because it’s a unique take on an otherwise crowded subgenre of the online writing world.
io9
I’m a bit biased here because, with some exceptions, I’m a huge fan of ̶G̶a̶w̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶M̶e̶d̶i̶a̶ Gizmodo Media. If you don’t like snarky writing, though, I’m not sure what to tell you, only that you should (re)visit Tom Scocca’s classic attack on the real problem with the internet: smarm. All of that said, io9, a subsite of Gizmodo, has an entertaining recap that mainly focuses this week on the gloriousness of the Loot Train Battle and how, despite all of its many schematic problems, none of its problems really matter.
Salon
Salon has one of the most underrated TV writers in the game in Melanie McFarland. While most recaps are focusing on the spectacle of the battle between Jaime and Daenerys, this one is mainly about the Starks and how their different roles shape the episode. In particular, I like the bit about Arya, who’s grown into one of the darkest and most complex (and complicated) characters on the show. Also, bonus points for calling the big crossbow what it actually is: a ballista.
Dane A. Wisher is based in Brooklyn.
