Game of Thrones is a difficult one if you have not watched the first series. And I hadn't, not until June last year! I hated it to start with, couldn't bear the violence, torture and children shouting obscenities. However, the hubby was engrossed from the start, so now and then I would look up from playing Candy Crush and ask "who's that?" or "why did they do that?". Before long, hubby asked if we should start over so we did. From that moment I was hooked. We raced through the first 3 series and bought the 4th. By the time we had finished, the 5th series was available on Amazon video, so we bought that too. We have watched them all several times over now, and were desperate for the start of series 6. The first episode did not disappoint, more death and intrigue. Please let the Red Woman bring Jon Snow back to life!

We were very late to the party with this programme, everyone was going on about how good it was, we weren't interested. Till we decided to give it a go and buy the box set. Then we were hooked, spent a whole weekend with a marathon GoT catch up, loved it.Watched 3 series in a row! Now we can't get enough of it and hate the months when it's not on. Its just so unpredictable, each episode has you on the edge of your seat. I'm a fan for life now.

Big spoiler alerts

Two episodes in and I already fear for the worst. Here's the problem: we know that the producers have run out of original material, in the form of RR Martin's books. Once you know this, you can't unknow it. Such is the degree of drama and outright surprise that Martin packed into his adventures that you have to eye any new post-Martin storylines with a degree of critical suspicion.
At the back of your mind you keep asking, would Martin really have saved Sansa Stark quite so easily? And all just within easy ride of Brienne and her young apprentice who appears to suddenly be a relatively dab hand with a sword - good enough indeed to slay several of House Bolton's formidable guard... I think not.
We do lose three leaders and two heirs but they lacked the true shock element - and anyway do none of these kings have loyal security?
The whole premise of the previous five seasons was that you really never knew who was going to die. And when they did it was truly shocking, casual almost and usually very bloody.
I hope I'm wrong.

Is it worth wasting 50 hours of my life watching Kevin, be honest as I normally love this sort of stuff as you know.

I would like to state before I post this that I am a fan of game of thrones,how ever after watching the second episode of season 6 left a little disturbed,with Ramsey feeding his new born baby brother and step mum too the dogs of winterfell,having watched all the other season's I have come to expect a certain level of violence and unthinkable acts(joffery's poisoning springs to mind)though I think that this latest act of punishment is a step to far and kind of feel it has now reached the stage where it's shock for the sake of shock,we all know how bad Ramsey can be but ask did we really need this.also the return of John snow(possibly the worst kept secret in history)I felt was the same old same old,dead guy comes back too life gasping his first breath screen fades to black and the credits roll.seen it all too many times.

Hey New, it certainly is! GoT has been a consistent high end drama for the previous five seasons (I've reserving judgment on S6). The great thing is that although it does use special effects they aren't the reason for watching - if anything they are a distraction.
So yes, there are dragons and magic but it is certainly no Lord of the Rings.
It's the clever use of politics, it centres on the way people really behave, not the way that you want or expect them to in lesser TV dramas. Like The Wire , it has dozens of plot lines, intelligent and often very funny dialogue and it isn't afraid to bump off major characters (if I didn't know any better it would be a great way to keep the actors' wage bill reasonable).
Worth investing your time in the first series...

I love Game of Thrones. It took me until late last year to begin watching but once I did I was hooked. Make no mistake, this is a soap opera for fantasy genre fans. The ongoing saga has intrigue, murder, schemes within schemes (to borrow a line from Dune) and back-stabbing in the extreme. The special effects and sets are of such quality that it doesn't look cheap and cheesy. But like a soap opera each episode is a series of ongoing plots. It isn't easy to watch one episode and understand the evolution of characters and stories. Even after watching the whole series you miss a lot of details that you pick up on the next time you watch it. Murder, plotting, traitors violence and magic. What's not to like?

After all the episodes though my favourite character has always been the same. Tyrion Lannister! The cynical drunken dwarf is the only person in all of Westeros that has a complete grasp of reality and he has all the best lines ever delivered "I drink and I know things!"

Ok I will have a go at it. 50 hours lost to tv, heaven.

After Daenerys showed the Dothraki who is Queen and Mother of Dragons, she came down to Earth with a bang when she discovered Jorah has the deadly greyscale infection. "I command you to find a cure and heal yourself".

Strong women are not to be messed with in Game of Thrones. Yara Greyjoy, supported by phallicly challenged brother Theon, managed to raise a fleet and set sail all while some mad bloke was testing her Uncle Euron's claim to the Iron Throne by half drowning him.

Arya Stark "A girl has no name" is being viciously beaten regularly in a bid to become "no one" and work for the many faced God. You get the feeling that she will wreak havoc once she has worked out how to do so.

Sansa Stark finally told Littlefinger exactly what she thought of him although she should have let Brienne execute him there and then. It was a tad foolish to let him escape. However, she is set on attacking Winterfell and gaining revenge on the horrifying Ramsay Bolton.

Speaking of Brienne (aka Robocop), she has stirred the heart (and something else) of the Wildling Tormund Giantsbane. She could do worse, but not much.

In Mereen, Tyrion and Varys had a rather uncomfortable meeting with Kinvara, another Priestess of The Lord of Light. Will she be their ally? They would be foolish to underestimate her.

Interestingly, we got an insight into how and why the White Walkers were created. A secret weapon that got out of control. Dragonglass is the key to their creation and destruction.

Finally, there is always that moment every week without fail, where I cry out "Oh no!" so loudly that my kids yell "shut up we haven't seen it yet" from the depths of their bedrooms.

Hodor.

Game Of Thornes to me seems to be just violence and sex, Guessing that I never watched it through so looks like that from first look. I admit the women are pretty in it through.

It's just seems to be you have to like it to be one of the crowd, Which is the shame as so many better shows get overlooked because people are talking about Game Of Thrones all of the time. My view is that no show is worth the hype and you should watch what you want without peer pressure.

Another thing I add is that poor people can't afford the channel to view it on so you making them left out, Because even if they wanted to watch it. They can't.

This was where we headed to Oldtown and got to find out a little more about wannabe maister Samwell Tarly, and his dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, his father is a total swine, who gets off on slinging insults every time he opens his mouth. Quite why Sam would have expected anything different after the stories he told Gilly prior to reaching home, I'm not sure. However, in a bold moment of decision making, they did a moonlight flit after stealing the family sword. it's made of Valyrian steel so should come in quite useful.

In the strange town of Braavos, Arya finally decided that she would do things her way, despite trying for so long to ingratiate herself to the "Many Faced God". After collecting her sword "needle" from the rocks where it was kept hidden, she waits in the dark for the inevitable visit from her enemy.

Back at Kings Landing, The High Sparrow and King Tommen have done a deal which on the face of it, seems to have united the Faith and the church. It's not the most exciting story of the moment, although anything that annoys Cersei gets my blessing. Double dealing, back stabbing and murders are surely imminent. Ah Jaime, why are you such a bad guy?

Daenerys is once again flying high on her beloved dragon Drogon, who has grown immeasurably whilst being away. She needs a thousand ships, will she fly towards the Iron Islands? After all Yara Greyjoy has set sail with a large fleet(maybe not quite 1000) to Mereen to help Daenerys fight for the Seven Kingdoms. Leave this game to the women, they are much better than the men!

This week's episode brought back a few favourite characters, and once again reminded us of the brutality that often dominates the story. I can now finally write about it as the bulk of my family who do watch the show, have now caught up.

I was so happy to see the return of The Hound, Sandor Clegane. He had been left to die in the previous series after a sword fight with Brienne. But to quote an old Mrs Warboys line from a vintage episode of One Foot in the Grave " Ah, but you never saw him hit the ground". Meaning, If you don't see them die, chances are, they didn't!

The Hound had been living with a Septon called Meribald in a small camp out in the open. Unfortunately for Meribald, played by a well cast Ian McShane, he and the entire camp were murdered whilst The Hound was off chopping wood. Will this now spur The Hound to come back fighting? We all know he is an uncouth, murderous, foul mouthed git of a man, but he has a softer side. And let's face it, Arya wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for him. She even announced the other week that she had taken him off her hit list before the last fight. And I harbour hopes (perhaps fantasies) of Sandor defeating his monstrous brother Gregor "The Mountain" in Queen Mother Cersei's trial by combat.

Speaking of Arya, it was so out of character for her to draw attention to herself, flaunting money and demanding passage on a ship. No wonder the waif caught up with her in the town and viciously stabbed her several times in the abdomen. But, really? My family's theory is that she had learnt a lot about acting skills whilst watching the plays in town. Who's to say it isn't an elaborate ploy to appear murdered then leave Braavos in disguise? After all, she reclaimed her sword last week. I also think that Jaqen H'ghar is fully aware of her plans, as if this is some test he has set for her.

In other news, the likable sell-sword Bronn, played by Jerome Flynn, ( it took me a whole series to realise this previously) made a reappearance down at Riverrun. He is supporting Jaime Lannister who has drawn a blank with The Blackfish, Brynden Tully. He didn't care about his idiot of a nephew Edmure being held to ransom by Walder Frey. In his mind, Edmure will end up dead whatever happens, so why surrender the castle? I so wish Jaime would come to his senses and rally against the raving lunatic Ramsay Boulton and cruel old Frey. Maybe Brienne will convince him?

Jon Snow, Sansa Stark and Ser Davos continue to build their army. So far, it consists of a band of Wildlings and 62 men from Bear island where the 10 year old Lady Lyanna Mormont was a force to be reckoned with. She even turned up at base camp to check it out. Maybe she is one of her 62...no, that would be silly. Wouldn't it? On a side note, Sansa has secretly written to somebody asking for back up. Is it Petyr Baelish? Does that woman ever learn from her mistakes? Teenagers, eh!

Queen Margaery is playing the game well back at Kings Landing. Pretending to atone for her sins and siding with the High Sparrow, she warned her Grandmother to leave for High Garden at once. The little picture of a rose she secretly passed to her before they parted lets us know that she is still fighting. Maybe she is hoping to use her womanly wiles to seduce and therefore bring down the High Sparrow? Cersei remains ineffective at this point.

Despite the excitement building, there was no Daenerys Targaryen this week: I miss the Khaleesi and her dragons. But no Tyrion either? Come on, I can't live without him. I have just been reminded of one of his quotes when discussing Bronn with Pod: "Is it your fault that Bronn’s an insolent black-hearted rogue? He’s always been an insolent black-hearted rogue. That’s what I liked about him.”

And that's what we like (and dislike) about them all. Is it Monday yet?

Many things happened in Episode 8 but with very little drama. We saw the return of Daenerys, the battle of the two waifs, the surrender of Riverrun, revenge of the Hound and secrets and twists at King's Landing.

The battle of the two waifs was completely behind the scenes as all we saw was a trail of blood through the temple and the waif's face (Faye Marsay from "Love, Nina" well spotted Adrienne) on its perch. We saw none of the fight itself.

The hound got to kill the guys who murdered his friends but was only allowed to kick the log out from under their feet for the hanging. No bloodshed again (though we did get to see him do a Lizzie Borden on their friends earlier). Riverrun was a promise of a fight that was a complete surrender. Even the death of Blackfish was behind the scenes and only talked about.

There was bad news at King's Landing as Cersei found out she couldn't choose the old standby method of trial by combat using her secret unkillable Mountain machine. However Cersei then got some cryptic information from Qyburn (Doctor Frankenstein) but we have to wait for that.

The Masters attacking Mereen started out well but we have to just guess at what happened next since all we saw was an uneventful appearance of Daenerys entering the temple and Drogo the dragon swooping in the background. What happened? We have to wait for that too. Just before this though we had a drinking game between Tyrion, Missandei and Greyworm where they actually told jokes. When questioning Missandei if she had ever drunk alcohol she said "Yes but it made my head feel funny" To which Tyrion replied "Good, then you know it's working." Tyrion can always be counted on for a bit of comic relief.

All in all, lots of promise with very little action.

Series six was always going to be hard, George RR Martin just isn't writing his books fast enough and without the original source material to go on the scriptwriters were on their own.
And if anything, they have proved just what a genius that Martin is. We've gone from high intrigue and low cunning to show that makes The Three Musketeers look like a masterclass in the intricacies of Louis XIV's court.
Yes, there are some genuine highlights, the fight of Meereen was spectacular, even better for my money was the battle between the Northern houses. Watching Jon Snow hacking his way through a melee of men and horses was brilliant, certainly up there with the battle of King's Landing.
And yet, there is a fundamental problem with this series. Yes, characters are still getting bumped off at a fair old rate - but they are not quite the leads of previous series.
But worse is the manner in which they are getting saved. Take Sansa Stark, escapes from House Bolton is tracked down by Ramsay's men and then just when all hope is lost... along comes Lady Brienne on a horse.
Lo young Bran Stark, tracked down by the White Walkers and their acolytes flees and despite Hodor's best efforts is run to ground... then along comes some bloke on a horse to save the day.
And now the Battle of the North, after a truly visual feast of blood and gore on the battlefield, Jon Snow's men all but finished... along comes some blokes on horses to save the day.
You see, there's a theme going on here and it is alas bad writing. I could add that Meereen is saved by a woman on a dragon.
Even Ramsay's death... almost loudly proclaimed at the start of battle with the clunking fist of the "HEY EVERYONE THE PLOT IS HERE" dialogue was too contrived.
For all this it remains a first rate (albeit now second class) drama. There still may be a shock or two but I kind of get the feeling that the writers and the producers are a little worried about killing off some of the more popular characters.
And this is the problem, the writers will be looking over their shoulders at Martin (who really doesn't seem to have too much time for his cast) and are losing their direction.
Kill Sansa in the next episode and you lose fans... and things will go even worse if Martin keeps here alive in the books.
The show has a lot of goodwill it would be a shame if they started to lose that.

By Adrienne Bertagnoli

This week's episode certainly did not disappoint, and in fact, could remain one of the best ever.

The televison series has had to take on a life of its own as the next book has not yet been completed (move your backside Mr Martin) and the difference in pace is noticable. However, long time fans and those of us who have recently joined the party are mostly enthralled by the latest turn of events.

Daenerys Targaryen Stormborn decimated the Masters' fleet with her three enormous, faithful dragons filling the sky and the sea with fire. Will they fight fire with fire when they eventually take King's Landing? That's probably another series. Yara Greyjoy has arrived wirth her brother Theon from the Iron islands pledging allegiance and seems to have fallen for our Khaleesi. Who hasn't? Their alliance will be interesting as these women are playing the game so much better than the men.

This was also apparent at Winterfell, thanks to Sansa and her insight after being subjected to the certifiably insane Ramsay Bolton's vile games as his wife. Before the battle started, Ramsay forced his captive Ricon Stark to run towards Jon Snow as he fired arrows either side of him. We just knew he would spear him fatally just as he reached his brother and safety. This inevitably caused Jon to lose his cool and charge without thinking. A very bloody fight ensued, though Jon, seemingly protected by a greater power (The Lord of Light?) was barely harmed. Just when there seemed to be no hope for Jon Snow and his remaining men, Petyr Bailish and The Knights of the Vale arrived to save the day against the Bolton army. The Knights had been summoned a few days earlier by Lady Sansa, after she realised that there would be no hope without them. Jon Snow is a great commander, but was naive in thinking he was dealing with an equal, and that the battle would be fought traditionally.

As Snow's men finally took Winterfell, we witnessed the sad death of the Wildling giant WunWun. It had taken many arrows to bring him down, and he had been a great ally. But he was also the last of his line, and there's no place for him now. But, what satisfaction as Jon set about Ramsay punching him in the face over and over. Who else punched their fist along with him? This one's for Theon, this one's for Osha, this one's for Shaggy Dog, this one's for Ricon....

Sansa had the last word over Ramsay, using his own words "they havent been fed for seven days" against him as the starving hounds were released to feed on him alive. Chilling, but fitting.

Leave the thinking to the women.

The final episode of series 6 was all I wished it would be. Plotlines came together, often confirming my theories.

So Jon Snow IS a Stark, but son of Lyanna, not Ned. Obviously, I think most fans must've already worked that out along with knowing that his real father is Rhaegar Targaryen, the elder brother of Daenerys.

Jon is now also pronounced King of the North, championed by 10 year old aptly named, Lyanna Mormont. Petyr Bailish wasn't quite so chuffed, but he will use it to his advantage I'm sure.But Is Bran Stark now the real King of the North, or will he be warden?

I'm hoping that Jaime now sees Cersei for the power hungry lunatic that she is, and finally deserts her. She knew that their son Tommen would not want to survive after she blew up his beloved wife and half the city, but she did it anyway. Isn't the prophesy that she will be killed by her own brother? She would suspect Tyrion, but I'm not so sure.

Arya made a brief and chilling appearance, ridding us of the vile, crusty Walder Frey for good. Slaying and serving up both his sons to him inside a meat pie was sickening yet also satisfying.

The great fleet of 1000 ships now sails for Westeros. Daenerys Stormborn with her awesome dragons, along with Tyrion Lanister, Theon and Yara Greyjoy, all now heading to take back the seven kingdoms.

Bring on series 7!