Reviews
Review: Game of Thrones Episode Two – The Lost Lords
Telltale Games have delivered another stellar chapter of storytelling with Game of Thrones: The Lost Lords. After the shocking events that concluded Iron From Ice House Forrester is reeling from the devastation wrought onto it by The Red Wedding. This chapter sees you playing as some old faces from chapter one in decidedly slower paced adventures, but the real meat of the episode comes with the two new protagonists of the chapter.
Let’s get something out of the way; Rodrik Forrestor is alive, and very badly beaten. His survival proves to be the biggest surprise of the chapter and it happens very early into the whole ordeal. He’s half the man he used to be, and left to be the head of a House in complete shambles after Ethan’s death at the hands of Ramsay snow. Game of Thrones has always dealt with misfortune in interesting ways, but with Rodrik, Telltale puts you in control of a disadvantaged warrior.
You feel great pain as you’re pushed around in almost every scene, and my heart truly broke by some of the choices I felt compelled to make out of weakness. Even a moment longer as the limping leader would have been excoriating, but Telltale makes you languish in his servitude.
Alternatively we have Asher. The banished son of the house who almost took the entire family to war, and you can feel it in his portions of the chapter. He is filled with energy and bloodlust. If he ever makes it back from Yunaki in one piece, he’ll have Ramsay Snow’s balls.
Asher’s portions show Telltale further expanding on their action set pieces and making them play like seamless quick time events. At the episode’s introduction you’ll feel your heart pounding as you fight legions of masked guards in an attempt to collect a bounty. It’s some of the best gameplay produced by the company.
Meanwhile Mira’s portions play on the deceptive side of Westeros. Showing that only the most sleuthy can survive in Kings Landing, you get to play everyone around you for your own goals. It’s decidedly different and works to break the mold.
Whereas Gerad’s segments as he joins the Knight’s Watch felt like more of drag than anything in the entire episode, with tasks that seem menial and a story that doesn’t really progress.
It’s hard to fault Telltale Games’ The Lost Lords because its one of the most authentic Game of Thrones experiences out there. Within every moment you feel invested in different parts of Westeros with varying degrees of power. Some stories feel more important than others, and depending on what you’re looking for I reckon you might have a very different experience than I did, but no matter what type of gameplay you’re looking for The Lost Lords has it to offer. The compelling story and masterful attention to detail ensure you’ll be engaging in an adventure unlike any other.
This series has proven once again that Telltale Games have become masters of their own craft. The voice of Game of Thrones feels authentic and substantial. The game plays like the best and worst parts of the series, and I mean that in the highest regard. It is nothing short of a masterpiece, and despite a little lull in the back half of the second act, I can’t recommend it enough.
And for those of you unable to play the game yourselves, here’s a handy Let’s Play:
Your enjoyment of Strung will depend on your tolerance of clichés, contrivances, and overused plot devices. There are plenty to go around in Malcolm D. Lee’s new thriller—and each one lands with a conspicuous thud. Yet this is also a movie where the formulaicness leads to amusement.
Strung is already off to a tropey start when the protagonist, a bereft violinist named Laila (Chloe Bailey), is vividly hallucinating during one of her recitals. Who does she see in that ghastly vision on stage? The sister whose death she blames herself for, of course. That’s when Laila wakes up from what’s actually a hallucination within a dream.
After a one-night stand with a handsome rando, another too-good-to-be-true opportunity soon falls into Laila’s lap. Because she’s broke, couch-surfing and forced to practice the violin inside her best friend’s closet, she jumps on it without much forethought. That opportunity is indeed suspicious, though; a wealthy grandmother (Lynn Whitfield) hires the main character to be her granddaughter’s live-in music teacher. The pay and accommodations are definitely good, but what about the client? Or clients, as it turns out.
Strung: Anna Diop as Imani, Lucien Laviscount as Marcus. (Photo by: Ilze Kitshoff/Blumhouse)
First, there’s pianist-in-training Zuri (Romy Woods), the walking definition of “precocious child in a horror movie”. She hides behind the bizarre mask once belonging to her late father, and her preferred form of communication is sharing obscure facts. Eventually, though, Zuri is the least of Laila’s problems; it’s her neglectful, demanding, and temperamental mother (Anna Diop) who proves to be the greatest obstacle at each turn. Diop just about snatches every scene with her zealous performance as the expectant Imani. Yet as amusing as that moody matriarch can be, her behavior brings up a good question: Is this cartoonishly devious character the legit villain here, or is she simply a red herring?
The kid’s creepy mask, along with Blumhouse’s involvement, might suggest a different kind of horror movie is at work here. Strung, however, is more like a smutty modernization of classic domestic thrillers that feature big houses, imperiled women, and heaps of paranoia. Keep in mind, this is not a bait-and-switch situation; Alan B. McElroy’s screenplay never leads the viewer down a different path, only to then send them another way.
Strung feels stitched together from other (and better) movies, and your sussing out the suspects is never a hard task. But on the plus side, this movie is often bright and even a little colorful; it’s not too riddled with scenes of flat darkness or washed-out palettes. The music is also another area of interest; certain choices corroborate that comparison to old Hollywood thrillers.
Chloe Bailey as Laila. (Photo by: Ilze Kitshoff/Blumhouse)
So while Strung does string out a number of overplayed twists—with some being less foreseeable than others—it’s a bit comforting to see how some ideas never cease to be used, no matter how familiar they’ve become. The cast’s eagerness also compensates for the general been-there-done-that quality. So often, their commitment to the story is integral to the movie’s best hand-over-mouth moments (and there are quite a few).
Joe Bob Briggs once said the best source of exploitation movies today is the Lifetime network. If you agree, as well as love Tubi’s own efforts in similar filmmaking, then Strung is made for you. This movie taps that same vein of suspense schlock, all while adding a few flourishes of its own.
Strung streams on Peacock starting on June 26.
Strung (photo: Peacock)
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