Some parts good, some parts bad, some parts ugly.
SPOILERS
The Good
1) The change to the Winterfell storyline.
YES REALLY. I approve of this. I have a feeling I'm eventually going to miss the intrigue of whateverthehellhappensintheVale but I haven't read it yet because George hasn't published it yet. So I really can't say whether moving Sansa to Winterfell is a plus from that perspective.
But from the Theon/Winterfell perspective, it's a huge boost. See, I didn't really have any sympathy for Jeyne Poole, the girl Ramsay marries and tortures in the books. She was just one of a gazillion bits of meat tumbling through the pages and I wasn't going to bother getting emotionally invested in someone who hadn't been seen since the first book. Moreover, Theon's rescue of her just winds up feeling like it's done less out of any desire for redemption or forgiveness but more because he just wants out of Ramsay's clutches. Having Sansa there changes that for the better, because now Theon has to help rescue someone whose misfortune is in part his own fault - remember that Theon's betrayal screwed over Robb Stark's alliance and may have had a hand in Robb seeking comfort with Talisa. Much more better.
2) No Bran.
This year Game of Thrones won't devote any time to being the Useless Cripple Show. Yay! Isaac can take the year off and get some actual acting lessons in, that'd be nice, and then everyone else can catch back up to the plot.
3) No Aegon Blackfyre
I didn't like this twist (daily reminder: Dance sucked) and I'm glad the show's not wasting time with it.
4) Valyria
More specifically, AN AQUEDUCT in Old Valyria. Oooooooh. We haven't seen one of those before and it makes you think of Ancient Rome. You know, that ancient civilization that's been gone for ages but still has lingering effects on ours. That was pretty neat.
5) They got Charles Dance back for a day to play dead.
Dedication
6) DOCTOR JULIAN BASHIR IS DORAN MARTELL
It's just really, really weird to see the guy who played the Alec Leamas stand-in in the DS9 version of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (idealistic and manipulated) turn into one of Westeros's most patient chessmasters.
7) Literally every scene Roose Bolton is in.
With all due respect to Iwan Rheon, who also does a fantastic job, Ramsay's a monster and we all know Roose is the one holding his alliance together. Also, because Roose does a much better job masking his psychotic tendencies behind a mask of pragmatism, he seems more sane. He's the most compelling villain on stage right now (partly because we can see how Cersei's downfall is going to come about, and nobody gives a f*ck about Harzoo, but it's not clear what's going to topple the Spruce Roose).
8) Literally every scene Stannis Baratheon is in.
But especially the "you're my daughter" one, at the end, where he has to take a moment to figure out how to respond to his daughter's affections like a human being and not like a pyromaniac robot.
9) Apparently they fired the hacks who edited last year's fight scenes. Either that or they just made those hacks watch From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service about a bazillion times. Either way, net gain.
10) Literally every scene Margaery Tyrell is in, but especially the beginning of the wedding-night scene with Tommen (squicky age difference aside) where she's being all playful and heavily channeling Emma Peel. I like to joke that having Diana Rigg involved in a second post-wedding murder of one of the happy couple where the groom's initials are JB and the bride wears a flower themed wedding dress, only this time she plays the killer instead of the victim, constitutes the greatest casting gag of all time, but seriously, Natalie Dormer could have been her granddaughter.
The Bad
1) Littlefinger's accent
You know, Peter Dinklage's accent isn't really true to anywhere, but at least it's consistent. Aidan Gillen, on the other hand, has an accent that embarks on a drunken meandering tour of basically the entire UK. It's almost as distracting as
2) Littlefinger's plan makes no sense.
It's very very obvious that Creepo McWeaselBeard wants to bang Sansa. So his plan is to marry her off to the biggest psychopath in the land in order to make him look good assuming that he'll get anything back from said biggest psychopath? Also, does Mr. Planned This Whole Thing Out With One Note not know how much of a psychopath Ramsay is?
3) YOU KILLED OFF BARRISTAN THE BOLD
How very dare you cut out basically the only thing that made Dance worthwhile?
I actually don't mind how it was done - guy's unarmored against like 15 enemies, but still. Why the hell he was unarmored is a bit of a mystery. (For that matter, the Unsullied apparently all forgot what their shields were for in that fight too.)
4) Grey Worm/Missandei
This relationship literally cannot go anywhere, and yet it's eaten up screetime that could have been better used oh wait
5) FILLER FILLER FILLER FILLER FILLER
I know that A Feast for Crows is a bit of a drag and A Dance With Dragons is a truly dull book, but come on. You people are willing to screw around with the source material; at least do so in a meaningful way! Like have Rhaegal and Viserion form a band or something.
6) Buddy Adventure Fun Time
What the HELL is going on with Brienne? What the HELL is going on with Jaime? Why aren't they off f*cking somewhere?
The Ugly (note that by "The Ugly" I mean the same thing that Sergio Leone did: some hideous gray area between Good and Bad)
1) The changes to Sansa's story
"Wait," you say, in that irritating whine of yours, "you listed that under 'the good!'" Well, I listed the Winterfell change under "the good." But I did want to see Sansa turn into a master manipulator, and that's going to be a tough thing to do once Ramsay gets his claws into her.
Related, a horrifying thought: we know that the showrunners are downright awful about letting actors know when their services will be, ahem, no longer required. Are they somewhat better about letting them know about nude scenes? One hopes so. The reason I bring this up here is particularly squicky: We're probably going to see Sansa get raped this season, and Sophie Turner's old enough to legally take her clothes off on screen now. So my question is, when did the producers broach this subject with her? When she auditioned for the part at the age of thirteen (because, ew)? Or did they do it at the start of the season: "Oh, by the way, you're 18 now, so guess what." Neither option sits well, does it?
2) Tyrion being a whiny mope
Yes it's book-faithful. Daily reminder: Dance sucked.
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