Will the end of Game of Thrones keep you away from House of Dragons?

[payn]

It didn't keep me away from it. Dumb and Dumber aren't involved in this one, so that was reason to give this a chance.

That said, I found this premiere a little too eager to shove all its parent show's greatest hits of gratuitous sex and gore into it, not all of which was necessary to move the plot. I'm not finding the characters particularly engaging, and Daemon is looking a little one-dimensionally evil a la Joffrey and Ramsay. Also that song of ice and fire reference toward the end really didn't work for me, knowing where that led in the parent show.

I'll watch for a couple more episodes but it needs to improve fast to keep me tuned in.

I agree, they seemed to hamfist sex and violence into the premier to remind folks, in case they forgot, this is a GoT story. I wish they took more time to use exposition (the strong suit of the original series) to set the plot.

 

[payn]

I couldn't disagree more. Every scene in BCS was necessary for all of its intricate character development and plotting, and it's why all of those moments of payoff hit the way they did.

I guess they stopped hitting after Chuck died for me. IT took too long to develop, and when it did, it was entirely predictable. I mean, if hitting you mean delivering fan service, than yes they certainly struck those notes. Though, the story long stopped being interesting by the end.

 

[Gladius Legis]

I guess they stopped hitting after Chuck died for me. IT took too long to develop, and when it did, it was entirely predictable. I mean, if hitting you mean delivering fan service, than yes they certainly struck those notes. Though, the story long stopped being interesting by the end.

When something in BCS (and BB for that matter) is predictable, it's because of all the logic that went into setting it up. Predictable is not a flaw. Subverting expectations for the sake of subversion is, and thankfully BCS didn't do that.

The biggest moments in BCS' later seasons had little to nothing to do with BB callbacks, either. The moments of fan service that were there clearly weren't the moments the show built up to.

 

[Parmandur]

It's Martin's inability to finish his story that keeps me away from the whole damn franchise.

Yeah, I was intonation before it was cool, I haven't touched anything Song of Ice & Fire out of bitter nerd rage since Feast of Crows was released.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I never watched the later seasons. What gives me pause about both this and the Lord of the Rings television show is the mediocrity of that Wheel of Time adaptation, which made me realize that a Hollywood writers room on a deadline is not fertile grounds for creating epic fantasy, at least not without hewing fairly close to source material produced by an author taking their long sweet time with a coherent vision.

I don't know what exactly went wrong with Wheel of Time, but woof, it was rough. Scenes with Rosamund Pike tended to be better, which I assume was her throwing her weight around on set and rewriting scenes and giving direction to the camera operators. Since she signed on for a second season, I'm hoping she's performed something of a coup and will help the second season be better.

 

[Ryujin]

I don't know what exactly went wrong with Wheel of Time, but woof, it was rough. Scenes with Rosamund Pike tended to be better, which I assume was her throwing her weight around on set and rewriting scenes and giving direction to the camera operators. Since she signed on for a second season, I'm hoping she's performed something of a coup and will help the second season be better.

They might have shot all of her scenes up-front, then got rushed due to Covid.

 

[Morrus]

I guess they stopped hitting after Chuck died for me.

Huh. That's when it started to take off. Guess different people just like different things.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They might have shot all of her scenes up-front, then got rushed due to Covid.

I don't know. There are a lot of clearly cut corners, like all of the costumes -- even for the traveling caravan folks -- being clean, ironed (!) and clearly brand new. Some of the sets have a distinct high school theater set vibe. To me, the production looks like it went with cheap/inexperienced people in almost every role. And let's not even talk about the CGI.

If the second season isn't a lot better, Rings of Power and House of the Dragon are going to make it very hard for audiences to forgive how shabby everything is on Wheel of Time.

 

[payn]

Huh. That's when it started to take off. Guess different people just like different things.

Well, I didn't say I disliked it. I am speaking of the series as a cohesive whole. It goes from a Saul origin, to a Breaking Bad Prequel, to a sequel. It feels like 3 different shows during its run. I dont feel like it was always consistent either, however, I never quit watching or actively grew to dislike it as I did for Walking Dead. Though, if AMC would have milked it further, which they like to do with shows, I would have gotten there.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know. There are a lot of clearly cut corners, like all of the costumes -- even for the traveling caravan folks -- being clean, ironed (!) and clearly brand new. Some of the sets have a distinct high school theater set vibe. To me, the production looks like it went with cheap/inexperienced people in almost every role. And let's not even talk about the CGI.

If the second season isn't a lot better, Rings of Power and House of the Dragon are going to make it very hard for audiences to forgive how shabby everything is on Wheel of Time.

The weir part is that in the unterim between the first season of the Wheel of Time and the Ring of Power...Wheel of Time was the biggest budget TV show of all time.