Rejoining the chorus for another verse of the Song of Ice and Fire HBO are releasing the DVD and Blu-ray set of second season of their barnstorming fantasy series Game of Thrones on the 4th of March.
The show has picked up awards, made stars of its cast and attracted millions of viewers as well as setting a new standard for fantasy television. We’re a long way from Xena: Warrior Princess.
We were given the chance to check out the special features from the Season Two box set and while a fuller review will follow when we get our hands on the final product we wanted to highlight some of the extras you can look forward to when you pick up the set. Because you will, and if haven’t seen the show you really should make it a priority.
The lion’s share of special features we saw were given over to the real king of Westeros, creator and executive producer on the HBO show, George R. R. Martin. The man has a fascinating beard and a keen mind which holds every piece of the complex puzzle and he takes us through the events of Season Two, which centres around the battle for the Iron Throne. Having seen the series this recap was essential before I go around again. The sheer number of new characters, their motivations and their allegiances, can be very hard to keep up with and having a half hour explanation from the man himself makes sense of it all. The writer also talks around the characters, alluding to future arcs or unseen moments from the past but it is essentially a writer’s view on the events of the second series.
The other featurettes include a great chat with Maisie Williams on the continuing journey of Arya Stark following the calamitous events of Season One. Not only is she a charming actor but her scenes with Tywin Lannister (played by a stern and serpentine Charles Dance) are among the series’ best. It’s brief but fun and nice to see her smile rather than have her face full of fear and empty vengeance as it is in the show.
There are two other featurettes looking at the design and the weapons on the show, both brief and both could have benefited from being longer but it’s worthwhile to appreciate the scale of the production and also to get some great behind the scenes looks.
Finally there is a very brief ‘Why we love working on Game of Thrones and what’s new about this season’ piece which has a lot of the show’s biggest moments intercut with some production videos and cast interviews. All of the features got me more excited to catch up with the show when it returns for its third season next month, and also made me all the more determined to rewatch this season.
Hopefully I’ll be able to do that soon and post my complement piece to my Season One overview: Six Good Reasons (and one Very Good Reason) to Buy the Game of Thrones Season One on Blu-ray.
Game of Thrones Season 2 is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download from 4th March
