Review: Game of Thrones Season 5 DVD/Blu-ray boxset

The boxsets come with four Deleted Scenes. None of them are particularly ground-breaking, but here they are.

The best is this one, in which Alliser Thorne and Tormund Giantsbane square off in the Castle Black courtyard. This adds some context to Thorne’s decision later in the season to assassinate Jon Snow on account of the new Lord Commander’s pro-wildling stance.

There’s also this scene between Grey Worm and Daario Naharis, where their banter from “The House of Black and White” is expanded upon.

Also included: an extended version of the Missandei-Grey Worm scene from “The Wars to Come.” Missandei says she’s afraid for Grey Worm’s safety, he doesn’t really get the concept, she corrects his grammar, and there’s not a whole lot of interest here and I see why they cut it. Finally, there’s an extended version of the scene from “Sons of the Harpy” where Jaime and Bronn talk in the hold of a ship on their way to Dorne. There’s some nice banter about Jaime’s rich-boy arrogance and how unhappy Bronn is about being stolen away from the good life with Lollys. It’s fun but unessential.

Commentaries. Ah, episode commentaries. The lifeblood of a home boxset. The Season 5 boxset has a lot of them, and some are pretty entertaining. The best ones, as is often the case, are the ones involving people who have a hand in the high-level decisions behind the show, namely the writers and sometimes the writers. Let’s run through them first, and then pick out the highlights:

• “The Wars to Come” commentary, featuring director Michael Slovis, DP David Franco, and actor Cirian Hinds
• “The House of Black and White” commentary, featuring actors Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, Gwendoline Christie, and Daniel Portman
• “High Sparrow” commentary, featuring production designer Deborah Riley, costume designer Michele Clapton, and DP Annette Haellmigk
• “Sons of the Harpy” commentary, featuring director Mark Mylod, writer Dave Hill, and actors Natalie Dormer and Dean-Charles Chapman
• “Kill the Boy” commentary, featuring director Jeremy Podeswa, DP Greg Middleton, and actors Iwan Rheon and Michael McElhatton
• “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” commentary, featuring writer Bryan Cogman and actors Maisie Williams and Tom Wlaschiha
• “Hardhome” commentary 1, featuring stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam, director Miguel Sapochnik, and actors Kit Harington and Kristofer Hivju
• “Hardhome” commentary 2, featuring VFX producer Steve Kullback, VFX supervisor Joe Bauer, and producer Chris Newman
• “Hardhome” commentary 3, featuring DP Fabian Wagner and camera operators Sean Savage and David Morgan
• “The Dance of Dragons” commentary 1, featuring director David Nutter and actors Peter Dinklage and Iain Glen
• “The Dance of Dragons” commentary 2, featuring executive producer Bernadette Caulfield, DP Rob McLachlan, and camera operators Ben Wilson and David Worley
• “Mother’s Mercy” commentary, featuring writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, director David Nutter, and actor Lena Headey

Now, you might think that’d it’d be fun to listen to the commentaries featuring people like Gwendoline Christie, Kit Harington, and Peter Dinklage, and you’d be right. They’re funny, articulate people.

But if you’re looking for deep insight into the show and the decisions that went into the character arcs, you’re better off going with, for example, the “Sons of the Harpy” commentary, where writer Dave Hill discusses why the writers decided to have Cersei suggest the High Sparrow arm the Faith Militant, why the show killed Barristan Selmy off when he’s alive in the books, and what plot point George R.R. Martin stepped in and corrected. The commentaries for “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” and “Mother’s Mercy” are also dense with insight. The one for “High Sparrow” is also surprisingly fun, as all three of the participants are into the proceedings and keep up a stream of chatter throughout.

The extras: Blu-ray

HBO saved some of the best special features for the pricier set. You can decide for yourself if they’re worth it, although it’s hard to say no to the Dance of Dragons, a 20-minute animated exploration of the Targaryen civil war that tore apart Westeros years before the events of the series proper. Check out an excerpt.

The full video is narrated in turns by several different characters: Viserys Targaryen, Robert Baratheon, Catelyn Stark, Oberyn Martell, Joffrey Baratheon, and Shireen Baratheon. I say “characters” rather than “actors” because they really do stay in character while talking. It’s amusing to hear Viserys describe his ancestors “dancing away [his] birthright” and such. It’s also helpful to hear this story laid out end to end and presented in a compelling way, since it’s a complicated story that can be confusing if read straight from a wiki. And I’m reminded how great the Dance of Dragons would work as a series of movies—this is high drama, here. It’s a highlight of the set.

Histories and Lore:

Finally, there are the history and lore features, short videos exploring different points of Game of Thrones mythology. There are 14 in all. They are:

• The Lord Commanders, narrated by Alliser Thorne
• Winterfell, narrated by Roose Bolton. Roose talks about how far back the rivalry between the Starks and Boltons goes.
• Robert’s Rebellion, narrated by Barristan Selmy. After Robert Baratheon talked about this conflict in another history and lore video, it’s nice to get a perspective from the other side. HBO released this one ahead of time.

• The Great Masters of Meereen, narrated by Missandei. Missandei’s feistier here than usual. She does not like those Great Masters.
• The Faith Militant, narrated by the High Sparrow. It’s worth remembering that the Faith Militant revolted against the Targaryen kings originally because of a marriage between a brother and a sister, so the fact that they’re doing it again now, in the wake of Cersei and Jaime’s relationship, is significant.
• The Seven-Pointed Star, narrated by the High Sparrow
• Dorne, narrated by Ellaria Sand. Ellaria traces Dorne’s tradition of gender equality back to Nymeria, the warrior princess who arrived from Essos and united the country.
• Volantis, narrated by Varys
• The River Rhoyne, narrated by Varys
• Braavos, narrated by Tycho Nestoris (this video is also available to watch, but tricky to embed)
• The Faceless Men, narrated by Tycho Nestoris
• The Fighting Pits of Meereen, narrated by Daario Naharis
• Greyscale and the Stone Men, narrated by Qyburn
• The Many-Faced God, narrated by Jaqen H’ghar. Check this one below:

The season

Beyond everything else, this set includes all 10 episodes from Game of Thrones Season 5. We’ve hashed out our opinions on the season ad nauseam, and whether you’re a huge fan or think the show took a dive this year, the episodes are impressive pieces of work laid out end to end. Personally, I think the season improves on re-watch, in part because it’s so heavily serialized. I think time may be kinder to it than some of its critics were, and any reevaluation will start with the episodes themselves.