“Game of Thrones” (HBO, 10 p.m.), after a remarkable first season that made fans out of people who weren’t followers of genre tales, got a little muddled in season two as the factions scattered to the wind — or to the little kingdoms marked with those spinning pegs in the opening credits — and they kept adding more and more characters.
The problem with the new characters is that they started to all look like the old characters, before everybody started lookingthe same. Guy with beard over here looked exactly like guy with beard over there. And who was related to who? And which were the ones we were supposed to be rooting for?
Peter Dinklage was distinctive enough to stand out as the clever brother who somehow survived the battle that ended last season. And Jack Gleeson’s callow and evil young king Joffrey Baratheon is vile enough to keep in mind. But with all the scattering at the wall, with the winter and the Walkers now unleashed, well, I’m starting to think I need a scorecard.
Even more characters are being added for the long-awaited new season, and most of them are welcome: Diana Rigg is perfect as grandmother of Margaery (Natalie Dormer), whom she looks just like. She adds the kind of tart lines Maggie Smith used to spout in “Downton Abbey.”
Ciaran Hinds adds authority to his role as leader in the Wilding camp, which has taken in Jon Snow (who looks a little too much like Robb Stark). Another sidelight for the season is the Punch and Judy act of the tough Brienne and her prisoner Jaime Lannister. And who can forget the fair Khaleesi, trying to raise an army in the desert armed with little but her growing dragons.
The truth of the matter is that the show can’t quite get to all of its characters in the first episode. And episode two will be taken up by all of those who weren’t included in the first. But once the show gets its footing, it begins to make strides not only with its action but with its well-written scenes of dialog.
There’s also a pattern on how to keep things straight, after a while: Generally, the people who are talked about in the scene are next to appear with their own scene.
At its most basic, “Game of Thrones” is about a lot of strategizing and positioning for a battle that will take back the iron throne (with another skirmish, like clockwork, at the end of the season, just like last year). But it finds a very entertaining way to get there, even for those of us who don’t ever follow such tales.