Now then Game Of Thrones the last time I reviewed an episode of Game Of Thrones was all the way back in July 2020 (with the exact date being either July 1st 2020 or July 2nd 2020 depending on where your seeing this review) as such I thought that it was about time that I review another episode of Games Of Thrones. I fully admit it was hard for me to pick an episode to review since there are alot of good and memorable episodes out there and join me as I review the Game Of Thrones episode that is called simply "Hardhome" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is episode Dany gets advice from an unlikely source , Arya makes progress in her training with the many faced god and Jon tries to rescue some Wildlings. If i'm being honest it was pretty hard for me to write a plot summery for this episode simply because not that happens plot wise and this episode is rather rightfully more focused on advancing storylines from earlier in this season (this episode is from season 5 / five by the way) which honestly made it hard for me to write a summery of the plot for this episode but I will admit that this episode did a good job of advancing the shows other storylines in a way that felt natural with one of the plot lines being advanced in this episode being so good that I might talk about later on in this very review but we'll see.
Starring in this episode is Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister , Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen. Also starring in this episode are Kit Harington as Jon Snow , Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark , Maisie Williams as Arya Star , John Bradley as Samwell Tarly , Hannah Murray as Gilly , Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giants bane , Alfie Allen as Reek , Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei , Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar , Michael McElhatton as Roose Bolton , Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton , Anton Lesser as Qyburn , Faye Marsay as The Waif , Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Karsi , Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella , Brenock O'Connor as Olly , Richard Brake as The Night King , Ian Whyte as Wun Wun and Ross O'Hennessy as The Lord Of Bones.
In terms of what I thought about the acting in this episode in all honesty the acting in this episode was one of the many highlights of the episode. Simply because all of the actors in this episode manage to convey so much emotion without actually saying what there character is feeling and for a good scene to highlight is the Sansa and Reek / Theon since in that scene we see that Reek / Theon try and hide the pain that he experienced with Ramsay was torturing him and we see him open up to Sansa for few minuets thus showing us that Theon is still in there and that Theon feels a little bit of joy just by knowing that his old self is still in there and all of this is done with out a single word from either Alfie Allen or Sophie Turner telling us how either character feels and is a great example of how good the acting and the writing in this episode truly is in my honest and very humble opinion.
Doing the CGI for this episode and I assume the rest of the series is El Ranchito , Lola Visual Effects , Rodeo FX , Atomic Fiction , Clearcut FX , Image Engine Design , Screen Scene , Cadence Effects and Nviz. What really did shock me about this episode is the fact that the episode makes great use of practical effects and while there is some CGI in this episode there's not that much CGI in this episode which is honestly a shame since the CGI effects in this episode look really good and in my opinion alot of why I think that the CGI in this episode looks really good is not because the CGI in Game Of Thrones is generally really good but because the CGI effects and the practical effects are blended together so perfectly in this episode that you can't really tell what was a CGI effect and what was a practical effect.
I will fully admit right now that the one speech that made me want to review this episode is the one that Daenerys Targaryen gives to Tyrion Lannister. That entire scene is so well written and given what we now know happens to Daenerys Targaryen I can't help but wonder if the bit where she mentions wanting to break the wheel was either a very clever bit of foreshadowing or if it has a double meaning since how Daenerys Targaryen acts when she says that she wants to break the wheel is very creepy and even the music gets a little bit creepy as well and as such i can't help but wonder if it's during season five (the season that this episode is from for those that don't know) is where Daenerys Targaryen started to go insane but that's just what I think tho.
In all honesty his is one of the best episodes of Game Of Thrones in my opinion since everything in this episode is just so freaking good. One of the only things that I didn't like about this episode is that Arya doesn't get a whole lot screen time in this episode I think Arya only gets one maybe two scenes in this episode which is a shame because her scenes are in my opinion at least pretty good but at the same time I can see why Ara wasn't included that much in this episode since this episode had so many storylines to juggle and so having one more storyline take focus in this episode would have been a bit much and the episode would have crumbled under it's own weight in my opinion.
Now I said that I might mention the Cersei Lannister storyline at the start of this review and I truly meant it. I honestly loved the scenes with Cersei Lannister in this episode and I loved how her storyline was advanced since we see her go even more crazy in this episode almost to the point where watching her is quite scary and I just love that and I love that even tho she doesn't out right say that she's planning to kill everyone in the sept you can tell that that's what she's thinking (yes I do know that she says that her face will be the last face that the people of sept will see but she doesn't say how there all going to die) and this honestly makes her more cold and calculated because due to the fact that she's had the time to think this through or at least that's I think anyway.
Now I can't recall the exact running time for this episode but I now that this episode has a running time of at least fifty seven minuets. Which I feel is another of this episode faults since this episode was so good that I wanted it to last longer and I wanted to see more of the characters that we got to see and catch up with in this episode but due to the episode being at fifty seven minuets long and the fact that the episode honestly had enough story for at least an hour and a half it meant that scenes felt rushed and because of the fact that some scenes felt rushed suffers because of that one simple thing in my honest and humble opinion.
Now then boys and girls since there was alot of action in this episode I have to talk about the action that was in the actual episode itself. In my opinion the action in this episode was honestly really good even tho we only got one action scene it was still a really cool action as well as an action that mixed both practical effects and CGI effects really well in my opinion the only action scene we got in this episode was the massacre At Hardhome / Battle For Hardhome which is honestly the only action scene that we needed in this episode plus this action gave birth to that awesome sight of The Night King raising his arms and thus brining back dead back to life but now to serve in his army which in my opinion just seeing that image of The Night King raising dead is such a cool image in my very honest and humble opinion.
Overall like I said earlier on in this review this is perhaps one of the best episodes in Game Of Thrones TV history in my opinion. However that doesn't mean that this episode is perfect because no episode of Game Of Thrones or any Tv show for that matter is perfect since i've discussed alot of this episode episodes flaws (this episode is also pretty forgetful) in this review just like i've discussed the good things that are in this episode in this very review as well and as such this episode gets a 9 out of 10 from me.
As for where I got the images that I used in this review in this review well I got all of the images that I used in this review from either Google Images or the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page with the website that I preferred to use for the mages that I used in this review being the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page simply because not only is there alot more images from this episode up on there but the images on the official Games Of Thrones fandom wiki page are for the most part very high definition which for me at least is always a good thing since it makes the review look alot nicer and alot more pleasing on the eye in my opinion.