GoT: House of the Dragon
That’s a big ‘hmmm’ from me.
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I want this to be as good as the first several seasons of the original series, but there’s something Wheel of Time-y about it so far that does not bode well.
I started watching the original game of thrones again for some reason. It was probably social media marketing trying to subliminally get me to watch the new series.
Anyway, I think we forget how damn good it used to be. The dialogue, everything. The first season has a slightly under budget feel to it, but that changes fast.
I think I’ll stop watching when Jon snow dies (spoilers lol) so I don’t have to put myself through watching the later seasons again
I’m about ready to throw cautiously to the wind and go with full bore optimism. The second episode was outstanding. 
Well, it’s here. The first episode of Rings of Power didn’t simultaneously break my heart and infuriate me like Wheel of Time did, so I guess that’s a plus. I did question, though, some of the directions they are going with this. Granted, it’s been two decades since I’ve read The Silmarillion, so my impressions of the show are juxtaposed against a middle-aged memory. Some quick notes off the top of my head:
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Production is generally top notch and there are some amazing panoramic shots. Music, though, is completely bland and forgettable.
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Within a couple minutes of the show starting we are told through voiceover that Morgoth has been defeated. Really? I guess knowledge of The Silmarillion isn’t going to be necessary after all…
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No offense to the actor, but Elrond looks goofy. I guess when you have to play a character previously played by Hugo Weaving you’re going to have unfair comparisons.
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So the writers felt they needed to create their original characters to have a forbidden elf/human romance? These characters even referenced the epic romances we know from The Silmarillion. The show writers couldn’t have told those stories?
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Galadriel’s brother’s lesson about rocks and boats was utter pablum and the whispered payoff that was supposed to be some character-defining lesson was nonsense. It came across as a first year English student’s attempt to write something Tolkien might say.
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My wife doesn’t like fantasy…
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Don’t think much of the cast.
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Lol’d at #6. I feel your pain and add sci-fi to the list.
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LotR: Rings of Power.
‘You people’!? On a more serious note: this just isn’t very good, is it, and the fact they swing between doing mock-Tolkien dialogue and just standard stuff is not great. The faltering attempts at epic speeches are not good.
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I think these Hollywood intern writers honestly believe they are better writer than those boomers J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, etc.
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They only have the rights to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit. They can’t use anything else, like The Silmarillion.
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Interesting. I didn’t know that.
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Chuckles - someone always has to position themselves below the English nobles.
It’s as if everyone decided that the colonial English upper class were the alpha of everything.
I suppose they do have a nice little island with lots of greenery.
When I’m working out intend to tolerate things that I would otherwise find intolerable. Knowing that it has been getting panned and knowing that it’s already been cancelled I just watched Resident Evil. I didn’t hate it. Granted, I haven’t played RE since the PlayStation 1 days so I don’t know stories or characters all that well so I couldn’t be disappointed by any bastardization there. That said, it didn’t really feel like Resident Evil as I know it. Interestingly, I found much of the future zombie stuff boring and was actually more interested in the present day storyline in spite of the teen drama crap that I usually hate.
This isn’t an endorsement for that show and I will likely forget that it exists a week from now, but as something dumb to distract from the fact that I despise my treadmill, it worked.
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Storm of the Century.
If you like Midnight Mass, this series did a similar thing back in the Before Times, as a mysterious stranger arrives on an island right before a major storm and causes havoc. If I were Stephen King, I merely would not write a miniseries that followed up a promising three hours with a bed-shitting conclusion lasting another hour. It swaps some real tension and suspense for a really silly morality tale ending, which makes for a confusing story. Celm Feore plays the bad guy with menace and dispassion, and Jeffrey DeMunn is there to add some acting weight, but the rest of them are all fairly lightweight. Tim Daly as the lead, town constable and complete sap, has a slightly better time of it, but also a somewhat nonsensical role to play.
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He did a lot of miniseries. Not sure any of them lived up to his name.
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
It took me a while to work out what I liked about JJBA, but the fact it regularly has completely hysterical fight scenes, that are nevertheless taken 100% seriously in games of incredibly unlikely oneupsmanship, means I think it’s fucking hilarious. “What’s that? Your special power is creating dynamite from thin air? It just so happens MY special power is eating dynamite!”
Andor.
I didn’t hate it.
Industry, on HBO.
I’ve no idea what the fuck I’m watching - something to do with banking and money making fuckery - but I also don’t care because everyone is hot and gets naked a LOT and I am but a simple, simple man.
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Chainsaw Man.
I get the feeling this is going to be the high point of the series, as our protagonist, Denji, missing an eye, a testicle, and a kidney, and still deep in debt to the yakuza thanks to his father, takes up devil killing via his pet devil chainsaw, Pochita. The luck fairies are out of town this week though, and he gets fucked up, absorbing Pochita to survive, and becoming Chainsaw Man. Miraculously, his eye (and presumably other parts) are regenerated as he begins his new life, and so does the distinct character design, falling back on being another Generic Anime Boy. Oh well.