The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 — 5
‘Thrones’ opener
explores power
TV REVIEW
Characters’ roles
shift in season
premiere
By MATT BARNAUSKAS
Daily Arts Writer
“Everybody wants to know
their future, ‘til they know their
future,” says a witch to a young
Cersei Lannister
(Lena
Headey,
“Terminator: The
Sarah
Connor
Chronicles”)
in the opening
sequence
of
“Game
of
Thrones”
’s
fifth
season.
Throughout
the
run
of
HBO’s
acclaimed
fantasy-
epic,
there’s
been an overriding sense of
unpredictability,
at
least
for
those who haven’t read George
R.R. Martin’s books. Characters
scheme and plan but can never
truly know what the end result
will be. Yet there is a cyclical,
fatalistic nature to these events –
a character comes to power, falls
and a void is left, and then another
takes their place in the cycle. In
the season premiere, “The Wars
to Come,” most characters find
themselves in various stages of the
cycle with the events of last season
still hanging over them.
Few characters can fall lower
than Tyrion (Peter Dinklage,
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”).
The former Hand of the King now
finds himself a fugitive, ready to
drink himself into oblivion with
no care of what lies ahead. “The
future is shit just like the past,” he
says between cups of wine to Varys
(Conleth Hill, “Suits”). Dinklage
has always been reliably excellent
in his role, but this season finds
him at his most downtrodden. At
least when he was imprisoned
last season, he had something to
fight for. But there is hope for the
character, as Varys points out, “I
don’t believe in saviors. I believe
men of talent have a part to play in
the war to come.”
Tyrion’s sister Cersei struggles
to come to grips with her father’s
death. Harkening back to the
opening flashback, Cersei knows
some parts of her future, but
solace can’t be found there. In a
world of the unexpected, knowing
one’s
future,
ironically,
only
brings dread. Cersei’s paranoid
response to words uttered long ago
precipitate her precarious position
as her family stands on a knife’s
edge in regards to their power.
Daenerys (Emilia Clarke, “Dom
Hemingway”) sits on the throne
of Mereen, ruling with absolute
power. “I’m not a politician, I’m
a queen,” she says to an adviser.
However, her leadership shows
cracks beneath her strong facade.
In a stunning sequence, Daenerys
visits her imprisoned dragons.
Darkness surrounds her until
pillars of flames erupt, revealing
gigantic beasts that can no longer
be controlled with words.
Several characters are covered
in the premiere, establishing the
multiple, interworking storylines
that comprise a season of “Game
of Thrones.” This leads to the
episode’s biggest issue: it feels
primarily like setup, reminding
the viewer of where everyone is
and hinting at what is to come.
While the show has proven that
it can deliver on promise, this
premiere felt stretched a little thin.
While the moments spent with
each character are solid, they feel
sometimes too short.
The most satisfying arc in the
premiere comes with Jon Snow
(Kit
Harrington,
“Pompeii”)
dealing with Stannis Baratheon’s
(Stephen Dillane, “Zero Dark
Thirty”) arrival at the Wall.
Last
season,
Jon’s
storyline
was a simplistic but effective
war narrative with him and his
fellow Night’s Watch brothers
desperately defending Westeros
from the impending Wildling
threat. Now, with the arrival of
Stannis, Jon must learn to play the
game of diplomacy and political
tact. This comes to a head when
Stannis charges Jon to convince
Wildling leader Mance Rayder
(Ciarán Hinds, “Frozen”) to bend
the knee. Faced with subjugation
or death, Mance chooses death,
“The freedom to make my own
mistakes is all I’ve ever wanted,”
he tells Jon. In regards to what
they believe, Mance and Stannis
are
uncompromising
and
it
creates an effective conflict for the
episode. Stannis offers freedom to
the Wildlings if they fight for him,
but freedom gained this way is a
perversion of what Mance dreamt
for his people. Unable to see that
happen, Mance decides the only
thing left for him to do is die in
protest.
“The good lords are dead
and the rest of them monsters,”
Brienne
(Gwendoline
Christie,
“The Zero Theorem”) says as she
sharpens a sword. There are no
saints in “Game of Thrones” – just
people within the cycle of power.
Choices are made and characters
unpredictably rise or fall, but as
long as power exists, the circle will
keep turning.
A-
Game of
Thrones
Season 5
Premiere
HBO
Sundays at 9 p.m.
BOOK REVIEW
‘O’Briens’ blends
science and drama
By VANESSA WONG
Daily Arts Writer
Of all the trite writing adages
tossed around, perhaps one of
the most often repeated is to
“write
what
you
know.”
Whether
budding
authors
heed
that
advice
with
eager
ears or scoff
and promptly
ignore
it,
Lisa Genova’s
writing career may indicate its
truth. After studying a P.h.D.
in
neuroscience
at
Harvard
University and working as a
healthcare industry consultant,
she became … a novelist? Since
Simon & Schuster snapped up
rights to her debut, Genova
has gained popularity for her
probing insight into neurological
diseases and their effects.
In her latest novel, “Inside the
O’Briens,” Boston police officer
Joe O’Brien discovers he has
the genetic defect that causes
Huntington’s disease. Though
initially oblivious to the disease’s
existence,
Joe’s
involuntary
spasms and growing inability
to
control
nervous-system
functions teach him exactly what
the degeneration of nerve cells
wrought by this neurological
disease entails. More painfully
for him, he also learns how it
hurts his family in terms of
potential inheritance and the
burden of caring for a terminally
ill parent. Even though it sounds
morbid, the family’s resilience
makes this a story about living,
not dying.
For those who have read
Genova’s
previous
bestselling
novel-turned-film, “Still Alice,”
many of the themes in this
story will seem familiar. A
character
initially
diagnosed
with the eventually fatal disease
struggles
to
define
his/her
identity, especially once the
symptoms escalate to the point
where he/she cannot do their
jobs anymore. And yet, “Inside
the O’Briens” seems to expand
on concepts that didn’t get much
focus in her other work. At first,
it comes off as repetitive. Where
“Still Alice” settled its narrative
focus on Alice herself, “Inside
the O’Briens” gathers the entire
family into the folds.
The story centers on Joe at
first, but then breaks into parts
that delve into his children
and how they live their own
lives. The children must decide
whether to take a test to see if
they have Huntington’s, too.
The test itself is a simple blood
draw, but its implications span
much
broader
psychological
effects. Once you know, what
happens next? The solution
requires
individual
courage
and decision-making, but also
taps into a complex interplay of
personal relationships — how to
proceed living and loving others
knowing that you’ll contract a
disease with no cure, how to
support other family members
dealing with their gene statuses
regardless if your own is positive
or negative. While Genova’s
previous work touched upon the
psychological aspect of chronic
illness, only in “O’Briens” did she
really illuminate what is a deeply
important and engaging issue.
However, the dialect-infused
narration
sometimes
verges
on grating. Though told in the
third person, Genova tries to
emulate
Joe’s
Irish-Catholic
police officer colloquialisms in
more than just his dialogue by
peppering words like “ain’t”
and “friggen” into narration.
Though this brings the reader
closer to him as a character
and allows for more intimate
access to how his beliefs and
goals evolve during and after his
diagnosis, the execution often
feels
unnatural.
Fortunately,
the latter parts of the book
bring marked improvements in
this area, though the narrative
distractions from the rest of
the storyline don’t disappear
entirely.
Still, the novel as a whole takes
us beyond the book club. What
Genova does best in all of her work
is gracefully weaving scientific
and psychological knowledge into
her storylines. The readers learn
facts about how Huntington’s
is inherited and the symptoms
it causes as they are unveiled to
the characters themselves. It’s
an organic means of advocacy.
She probes deep into characters
we can imagine meeting on the
street, peeling back the layers
and
recasting
acquaintances
into people who we care about.
We care about their feelings, we
care about their fate and readers
who may have never even heard
of the disease before now care
about Huntington’s.
Inside the
O’Briens
Lisa Genova
Simon & Schuster
April 7, 2015
Illuminates
a deeply
important and
engaging issue.