Treason: Who Should Have Lived and Who Should Have Died

Just binged Treason on Netflix -- if you can call watching five episodes in a row really binging.  It's a top-notch MI6 British spy story, right up there with the very best of them.

Every important character has unpredictable twists and turns in their story, including the killing of a very major character, which I'll tell you more about after I alert you to spoilers below.  You'll be on the edge of your seat just about every minute, in a story that rips through London town just about as fast as you can keep track of.  And the political variables, including the role of Russia and poisons its agents so frequently administer, are pitched just right.  But--

[Ok, here's the alert about spoilers ... ]

There were two things I didn't much care for in the narrative.  One was a death -- the one of the very major character -- that needn't have been -- and the other was a death that should have occurred, at least in my humble opinion.

Adam -- as of course you know if you've already seen the limited series -- is the death that wasn't needed.  He could have been badly wounded, and laid up in the hospital, and that would have had the same effect of motivating his wife Maddy to go all out at the end.  It's true the pimest movers in the story are women, but that point could still have been made with Adam surviving.

And the woman who shot Adam dead -- CIA agent Dede -- should have been killed after her murderous act, by either Maddy, who had the greatest motivation, since Dede was her friend and Maddy loved her husband and Dede knew it -- or Kara, who as a seasoned Russian agent must have known better than to leave Dede alive and ever dangerous.   Although Dede won't exactly have a happy time of it, and her career may well be ruined with the downfall of Sir Martin, she deserved a more definitive fate.

But, hey, that's just me, and in addition to most of the narrative being so good, the acting was great, including Ciarán Hinds as Sir Martin (always rewarding to see him on the screen), Oona Chaplin as Maddy (same as Ciarán Hinds), and Olga Kurylenko as Kara (the only other time I've seen her was as a Bond girl in A Quantum of Solace, where she was memorable, too).  Charlie Cox also put in a fine performance as Adam, and a shout-out to Beau Gadsdon as Adam and Maddy's daughter Ella.

All of which adds up to: see Treason, you won't be disappointed.

Game of Thrones 3.7: Heroic Jaime

You don't often see the better qualities in human beings on Game of Thrones.  Last year, we saw some of this in Tyrion.  Last night in episode 3.7 we saw it in his brother Jaime.

Jaime's devotion to Brienne has been building steadily this season.  Last night we see it emerge in the most heroic of ways:  on his way to freedom back in King's Landing, Jaime suddenly turns around and heads back to save Brienne, from what would have been sure death at the claws and teeth of a bear, in an arena with Brienne courtesy of her sadistic captors.   He manages not only to save Brienne but himself, no mean task given that he's one handed.  But Jamie still has his full wits, and he uses those to best effect.

Ordinarily in television dramas, such heroic action coming from a previously soulless villain - after all, Jamie threw Bran from the tower - would be prelude to the new hero soon dying anyway for past sins.  Jaime survived the episode, but I would not be surprised if he didn't survive the season (I've only read the first novel in the saga, so I have no knowledge of what will happen).  I would not be surprised if Jaime died, but now I would be disappointed - which I guess is a good reason, dramatically, for him to die.

Meanwhile, events are heating up on the two peripheries, in the north and with the dragons.  Jon tells Ygritte that her people will be no match for the organized armies of the south.  But that's of course just history, and the clues are the winter and its power is increasing.   As for the dragons, they're bigger than ever, which is nice to see.   What I'd like to see, eventually, is a fight between those dragons and the northern ghosts.

Until then, it's good to see Rob and his wife happy and expecting a baby.   But the scene with Theon was cringe worthy.  Yah, I know we're supposed to see the brutality, but, call me old-fashioned, I'd much rather see Talisa Stark (fetchingly played by Oona Chaplin) reclining as in a Renaissance painting and tempting Robb in bed.

See also Game of Thrones Season 3 Premiere ... Game of Thrones 3.3: The Heart of Jaime Lannister ... Game of Thrones 3.6: Extraordinary Cinematography

And see also Game of Thrones Back in Play for Season 2 ... Game of Thrones 2.2: Cersei vs. Tyrion

And see also A Game of Thrones: My 1996 Review of the First Novel ... Game of Thrones Begins Greatly on HBO ... Game of Thrones 1.2: Prince, Wolf, Bastard, Dwarf ... Games of Thrones 1.3: Genuine Demons ... Game of Thrones 1.4: Broken Things  ... Game of Thrones 1.5: Ned Under Seige ... Game of Thrones 1.6: Molten Ever After ... Games of Thrones 1.7: Swiveling Pieces ...Game of Thrones 1.8: Star Wars of the Realms ... Game of Thrones 1.9: Is Ned Really Dead? ...Game of Thrones 1.10 Meets True Blood

And here's a Spanish article in Semana, the leading news magazine in Colombia, in which I'm quote about explicit sex on television, including on Game of Thrones.