User Reviews

The good news is that even the most uneven of episodes is still better than the vast majority of other stories out there, and there were still some terrific moments to be mined from this week's entry.

This whole season works very well from start till finish, and this episode is no exception.

Season 3, episode 7. Jon, Ygritte and the Wildlings are heading to Castle Black - Jon is afraid for the Wildlings safety. Arya escapes the Brotherhood and the Hound catches her. Theon is tortured again - and castrated. Talisa is pregnant and tells Robb. Daenerys is still making deals and getting things ready to head to Westeros. Tywin reminds Joffrey who is really in charge of King's Landing. Jaime is release to leave Harrenhal but comes back for Brienne.

10/10

This episode isn't nearly as excellent as episode 4, but everything else makes it very worthwhile.

Yes, some of the pacing could've used some more fixing, but it doesn't matter. The storyline/script is still well-written, the relationships are still interesting, the performances still shine, the some of the pacing is fine, the directing and editing is sharp and focused, the music score is still gorgeous, the scenery is still beautiful, and the characters along with the new characters continue to be compelling to this day including Tyrion Lannister. So, overall, another great episode for Season 3.

Came to 'Game of Thrones' fairly late in the game and due to being so busy the binge-watching was gradual. Have found myself truly loving the show, very quickly becoming one of my favourites. It totally lives up to the hype and not only does it do the brilliant source material justice (a rarity in television) it is on its own merits one of the finest, most addictive and consistently compelling shows in recent years and quality-wise it puts a lot of films in recent years to shame.

"The Bear and the Maiden Fair" may be one of the weaker episodes of Season 3, one that has divided critics and fans (more mixed to favourable), and one of my least favourites of the show up to this point. That it is still a very good episode, from personal opinion anyhow, is indicative of how amazing a show 'Game of Thrones' is.

It is more of a set-up episode of what is about to come, and is not the most exciting 'Game of Thrones' has been. It's far from dull though and the story made perfect sense to me. It's not action-heavy and focuses more on the characters, their interactions and dialogue, this is not a problem because actually 'Game of Thrones' have proven many times that they do this kind of episode very well, brilliantly for some, just as much as when they do episodes that are heavier in action.

Not everything works. The pacing could have been tightened, and this could have been achieved by in particular by shortening Theon's torture sequences which do go on forever. Wouldn't have said no even to them being excised because they didn't add very much and felt very extreme even for torture.

Flaws aside, there are scenes that work extremely well. The final scene is particularly wonderful, tense, thrilling and just spectacular and one of the season's better endings. The Daenerys and slaver scene and the Tywin and Joffrey confrontation are just as brilliant.

Visually, "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" looks amazing. The scenery is throughout spectacular, the sets are hugely atmospheric and beautiful on the eyes with a real meticulous eye for detail and the costumes suit the characters to a tee. The make-up is beautifully done. The visual effects are some of the best of any television programme and are not overused or abused, the scale, the detail and how they actually have character and soul are better than those in a lot of the big-budget blockbusters. As well the cinematography and editing, which are cinematic quality as well.

One cannot talk about "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" without mentioning the thematically, orchestrally and atmospherically multi-layered music scoring and the unforgettable main theme. Again, worthy of a high-budget fantasy/action/drama film.

It is hard not to be bowled over by the quality of the writing, outstanding isn't a strong enough adjective to describe how good the writing is once again. It always has a natural flow, is layered and thought-provoking and demonstrates a wide range of emotions such as suspenseful tension, poignant pathos and witty humour. The story is paced beautifully, structured with such nuance and attention to coherence, a high emotional level and is done with intelligence, passion and sensitivity.

Direction especially shines in the final scene and the Tywin and Joffrey confrontation, while the acting is uniformly superb.

Summing up, very good episode but not the best one of the best shows in recent years has to offer. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Jon and Ygritte are the highlight of the episode, keep your eyes on them! There's also a piece of history that is revealed from their dialog that adds weight to their mission. I even liked the scene between Robb and Jeyne. The love scenes in this season as a whole are done particularly well actually. This is probably to compensate for dulling our senses with all the gratuitous yet equally unnecessary sex/extreme violence scenes that are all over the place in this show. Unfortunately these are present in this episode as well, but at least they don't go the full way (which I was afraid they would at one point, unsurprisingly involving Theon).

The evolution of Brienne and Jaime are a delight to watch... at least they were in the beginning, but by the end of it I felt some writers forgot about these characters entirely and had to come up with lines for them just before the actors went on cameras. There is also a near escape sequence that was done particularly poorly, bearing witness to the show's budget constraints and human retardation. 'How could a man with only 1 hand climb that?' - I found myself asking. 'Damn with the limitations of human nature and physics!' - said every Hollywood director that ever lived, ever!!

Bronn's character - damn, that guy likes reminding us that he's a good actor. The banter between him and Tyrion is fun, as usual, while the little man has some tough decisions ahead of him, judging from what they set up for him this far. Let's hope those end up being executed well.

Sansa is still hanging around with Margaery; I guess some things never change. Bran, Hodor, the Reed brothers and that wild-ling lady (I always forget her name) are still heading North, but suffice to say is they're probably not going to meet any familiar faces anytime soon. Arya is still mad on the Brotherhood. Melisandre is still weird as... the night sky would be with two moons? No complaints there. Sam and his new friend with the baby are completely absent in this episode bo-hoo.

Daenarys is fierce as ever and those dragon, ho-boy. They know how to portray their dragons in this show! She's kind of reached a halt, at this grand-city called Yunkai, that was build on the back of many, many slaves and well... she's a bit unhappy about that. I'm curious to see just how much she gets held back by this new challenge :D

Sadly there was no scene featuring Cersei, either. So where do we get our dose of barely contained rage, by a thin shell of cynicism you wonder? Look no further than Tywin's scene with Joffrey. It's always nice to see two badass blondes - each in their own way - duke it out for the best.

So, what is my final take on this episode: sub-par. I was left at the end with a taste of bitter bile in my mouth and that wasn't due to the coffee I had while watching it. You see, even though I praised individual scenes, the sum of its parts is not greater than the whole, surprisingly. The motivation behind the characters seem a bit shallow, probably because they are so many at this point and so far apart from each other... It's like all the major characters' strengths rely on one- another, but as soon as they have an individual scene to perform, they act bewildered. And you know which are the main characters of the show I'm talking about: they are all the surviving ones, from the 1st season with few additions. Also, it's like they are not given enough care from the directors and the producers involved, like their personal journey and evolution does not matter, unless it involves another sex/extreme violence scene. Well, I CARE about these characters' evolution arcs and I WANT to see them being well-portrayed damit!

The set-pieces are great - GoT crew! - and the amount of detail are charming to the eye, but... look, if this show wasn't sourcing Martin's masterpiece material, I would not be watching this. The 1st season was great and I can find absolutely no criticism: it was raw and powerful. With the 2nd and 3rd season, I feel like I am forced to watch the limitations of the productions's team, botching big action scenes and generally showcasing an unfocused view of their product. If you want to sell this to me AGAIN then you will have to figure out a direction for the story and not just do stuff 'because George Martin said so'. Books don't work the same as stories meant for the screens. Where's your sense of independence that season 1 thrived on and drove the show to success?

*Sigh* I miss the good old days... does that make me old?

First season they did a great job keeping the tension, drama, the stakes, everything tight and moving. Second season they did a damn good job. WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED? Instead of dramatic arcs, episodes this season as a series of disjointed vignettes that they donʻt even try to weave a dramatic thread between. Instead they spend more time adding unnecessary detail to the extreme BDSM treatment of Theon Greyjoy. I love Iwan Rheon as an actor, but one or two quick scenes are enough to tell us about how Theon will evolve...this is gratuitous and the time would be better spent on laying out the over all narrative. If it werenʻt for the strong source material (thank you George RR Martin), this would be an unwatchable mess of disconnected plot points, under-motivated actions, and, as I pointed out, sex/violence that isnʻt being used to drive the narrative forward. The weak directing was most clearly demonstrated when the Yukai arrives to negotiate - what the hell was the purpose of the long arrival scene? To burn some of the budget and add minutes to fill out a short and empty episode? Hire some writers folks! Hire a new director! This is one of the most epic stories written and you gotta do better than your doing.

The Bear and Maiden Fair there isn't enough action, however sewing many political matters on several places, the upset Tyrion always wondering lives in a pleasant life escorted by their countless private lovers, he was stiffly imposes by his high-handed father Tywin Lannister forced to marry the youngest Sansa Stark for your despair still mocked by his baggy face bodyguard Bronn and worst having to explains for your bed's mate this new status.

The lone King Boy Joffrey forgotten and buried in the kick line feels the bitter taste of the lonely power, he calls his grandfather to a chat at his iron throne complaining that no longer he wasn't received any heed from him, Sir Tywin answers politely added a slight accent of sarcasm and also with refinements of cruelty that he has been bused at Hand's tower and the boy must go there anytime even carried by his servants if possible, the boy swallows his pride on the solitude of throne.

Meanwhile at arid lands another meeting takes place, Daenerys the Dragons's Lady envisages a possible attack at the Yunkay city surround by a heavy walls, she calls the powerful Razdal mo Eraz for a fair agreement, he offers umpteen Ships loaded of gold to her withdraw her forces that were besieging the city, although he seemingly is ready for the war and reiforcing that has mighty allies behind.

Finally the one-handed Jaime Lannister was set free to be back at Port Royal, nonetheless his escort girl Brienne must stay there for a while, in the middle of the way he learns that the so faithful girl was doomed to die at soldiers's hands , exposing the exact meaning of the name of the episode.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: Blu-Ray / Rating: 8.5

The episodes written by George R. R. Martin have traditionally been some of the best of their particular season. Since he's the man who invented the characters that inhabit this world (and the world itself for that matter), it's only natural that he seems to have the deftest touch when it comes to creating episodes and writing for the characters. In his hands, the already sharp dialogue gets that much sharper, honed and clever without being forced. His scripts tend to feel very natural, which is pretty impressive when you have slaver kings being threatened by dragons. Balancing out the brilliant scripting is some great visual directing work from Michelle MacLaren. She proves to be a deft hand with the camera, and the CGI crew is more than up to the task of bringing her vision to the screen. The dragons hanging out in Dany's throne tent looked great, but the long and lingering trip of the slaver litter through camp - and its many rows of Unsullied lining the road and generally looking very intimidating - show just how much of a force to be reckoned with the Mother of Dragons is, even without her dragons. However, the show is satisfying not just with its flash, there's also a lot of substance. Much like the show's opening catch-up, it helps keep things organized and helps the audience to make the proper connections between characters and to keep everyone straight. Given Game of Thrones' massive assortment of characters (I had forgotten the name of Robb's wife, though I remembered the actress thanks to her Chaplin connection). Some big steps were taken this week to move the pieces the show has to play with, but there are still a great number of pieces to keep track of and any little bits of help it's willing to give us are greatly appreciated by those of us who stay up late nights to do things like this. With only three episodes left in the third season, it might be time to stop shifting pieces around and start knocking them off the board. The ninth episode is traditionally the episode where the landscape really changes for Game of Thrones, and I have to wonder if that's going to hold true in the third season simply because they're splitting up the third book of the series into two seasons. Will we have a season of (satisfying) set-up with a follow-up season of spectacular knock-downs? They were able to do that with Daenerys and her rag-tag bunch this run after a second season of planning; will they have the guts to do that with an entire TV series, or do I need to prepare myself for something even more awesome than tonight's episode next week and beyond? Will they finally explain the torture of Theon besides just reminding us how he deserves it?

At this point I'm struggling with myself to understand what is going on with this show... it seems like a guinea-pig laboratory... unattractive new faces popping up everywhere while well-known talented actors/actresses make their characters spin around a bat to race to nowhere. At this pace, all thrones will fall by themselves before winter comes. The only people making progress seem to be the dragon girl and the guy coming back from the frozen lands... and that's because the huntress/warrior girl brought some life to his character... the rest of the cast is pretty much dead already. Last time I checked The Walking Dead was a different show (current and coincidentally also spinning out of control). To the producers: there's no reason to GoT aperture last more than 30 seconds... what about using the time to add a little more to the story... maybe some war/barracks scenes... it seems the huge war against the Lannisters is being fought from inside a tent.

What the hell is happening? This show used to be fast paced, interesting, brutal, clever, creepy.. now it's just boring talk. Everyone just.. TALKS.. a LOT..

This episode, thanks to its ending, was kind of more dynamic compared to the last 2 or 3 ones, and yet it's pretty much just dialogs everywhere, and not any kind of dialogs, no.. these are boring, pointless and clever-wanna-be dialogs. Season 3 is just pathetic compared to the first two amazing seasons. The only interesting characters are Tyrion, Dany and Jaime, and we only see them for a couple of minutes per episode.

I would love to keep liking this show but I think that after season 3 I'm done with it (because I hate how they keep the action and interesting parts for the last 1 or 2 episodes, and then it just starts boring and slow again and again and again.. pure disappointment.

This show is sadly turning into the perfect sleeping pill, people.

Oh, and I repeat, this episode is WAY better than the last ones, but it's still plain boring.

• Story (3.5/5)
• Soundtrack (5/5)
• Dialog (5/5)
• Graphic (3.5/5)

Weird CGI? Not crappy, not good, but weird.

• Reasonableness (3.5/5)
• Entertainment (4.5/5)
• Overall (4.1/5)

Daenerys exchanges gifts with a slave lord outside of Yunkai. As Sansa frets about her prospects, Shae chafes at Tyrion's new situation. Tywin counsels the king, and Melisandre reveals a secret to Gendry. Brienne faces a formidable foe in Harrenhal.

What I Liked:

As usual, it's impossible not to be impressed by the high-quality production value. Again, acting all around is solid.

While there are many characters and arcs to establish, it is remarkable how this show balances them all, with almost no scene or storyline feeling dragged out or unnecessary.

What I Disliked:

Each scene involving Jon, Ygritte, and Orell interacting is like watching a soap opera. It's one thing to force conflict, but the love triangle is unnecessary and poorly integrated into a show like this.

Theon's torture scenes are starting to become superfluous and dragged out. While not poorly written, they would benefit tremendously by being shortened.

Overall:

While still a good episode, this is one of the most flawed instalments in this fantastic show. However, one cannot deny that this has been a high-quality season so far.

7/10

King Cadmium.

I've never witnessed something worse than this show, terrible acting, writing, and all around production. So often I hear that this is the best show on television though after watching up to this point I can say that it is nothing other than criminally overrated and mediocre at its best points. This show makes me miss shows like black lighting and iron fist.

Poor Theon and his predicament. His torture goes on and on and he is manipulated by a psychopath bent on taking every dignity from him. There is lots of nudity and simulated sex, but does it serve any purpose. People are moving toward targets they have no hope of conquering. Jaime maintains his strength and has a serious bond with Brienne. Bran continues to be moved from place to place. He is taking advice from the mysterious boy that he sees in his dreams. Anya has run away and is captured. Dany confronts a king and threatens the yellow kingdom. She has the dragons so again the fight is not fair. Their threat is adequate for now. I await some resolution.