GoT: House of the Dragon

[Jim_Campbell]

NO SPOILERS.

(However, per previous TV threads, spoilers should be expected if you're not up to date with the current episode.)

Not at all sure about that. It's terribly fucking po-faced — it wouldn't have killed them to put a joke in it. The dialogue creaks with faux-Tolkien riffs and the whole thing plays like LotR with added tits and gore.

Also not helped by the fact that, by the end of Ep1 of GoT, you at least liked Ned and Tyrion, whereas the overwhelming impression of this is: what a shower of cunts.

I'll give it another couple of episodes, but it seems to lack the... earthy side-view of the fantasy genre that gave the original its energy.

(Plus: definite mistake losing the map at the start. Incorporating the all-important 'fantasy books have a map at the front' into the GoT title sequence was genius.)

[Richard]

All true, but in the other hand first episodes are almost always difficult. Hoping it gets better next week.

[Jim_Campbell]

All true, but in the other hand first episodes are almost always difficult. Hoping it gets better next week.

Oh, definitely. The very first episode of GoT was really hard work compared to the easily-digestible nature of most modern TV — it had at least half-a-dozen significant locations, and about two dozen named, speaking characters, plus a significant amount of world/history building to cram in as well.

But, like I say, I at least had some sense of where the moral centre of the story lay, and the writers had the good sense to pivot the episode on a humorous character moment ("You got old"/"You got fat") which served to relieve the seriousness of the episode up to the point (whilst simultaneously telling us a lot about the relationship of two key characters).

I wasn't at all sure about GoT after that first episode, either, so I'm not going to give up on this just yet.

[Dark Jimbo]

The Dance of the Dragons is pretty grim stuff that ends with most characters dead, so... not a lot of levity. I would have expected a lot of the humour to come from Mushroom, the dwarf jester, but it seems that he's been cut from the series.

[Jim_Campbell]

The Dance of the Dragons is pretty grim stuff that ends with most characters dead, so... not a lot of levity.

Ah. Unfortunately, what I liked about GoT was its ability to balance the grimmer stuff against some really good character writing, particularly a few excellent double-acts (Tyrion and Bronn, Tyrion and Varys, Arya and The Hound) to inject some much-needed humour and occasionally take a pop at the pomposity of the series and the genre in general. ("Lots of people name their swords." "Lots of [spoiler]REDACTED[/spoiler]."

I'm not sure I'm up for week after week of unrelenting grimdark, TBH.

[Richmond Clements]

I thought it was good fun, but I can see where you're coming from. I remember laughing a couple of times, but I couldn't actually tell you now what they were - apart from Smith dropping a delightful C bomb.
Talking of which, Matt Smith is just astonishing.

[sheridan]

I thought it was good fun, but I can see where you're coming from. I remember laughing a couple of times, but I couldn't actually tell you now what they were - apart from Smith dropping a delightful C bomb.
Talking of which, Matt Smith is just astonishing.

Matt Smith has certainly been hitting the gym.  Don't know how they manage it all, what with (sub-)editing the galaxy's greatest comic 'n' all.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I thought it was good fun, but I can see where you're coming from. I remember laughing a couple of times, but I couldn't actually tell you now what they were - apart from Smith dropping a delightful C bomb.
Talking of which, Matt Smith is just astonishing.

Matt Smith has certainly been hitting the gym.  Don't know how they manage it all, what with (sub-)editing the galaxy's greatest comic 'n' all.

Betelguesan Tech

[The Legendary Shark]

...Matt Smith is just astonishing.

I got the same perception shift watching Smith in this as I did watching Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. Guy's got chops.

[Funt Solo]

SPOILER-ISH

Tis in the news: House of the Dragon: Should graphic birth scenes have a trigger warning?

It is an insanely harrowing scene of collective [spoiler]murder - "Don't worry, dear - I'm just having you sacrificed on the pyre of my ambitions. Try to relax."[/spoiler]

[Richard]

It's a Game of Thrones spin-off, not Bob the Builder. Nobody said it would all be easy viewing.

[Funt Solo]

Perhaps missing some of the subtleties, there.

[Richard]

To paraphrase Tyrion, "if you want subtleties, you've come to the wrong place."

[The Legendary Shark]

"Trigger warnings"? Seriously? Are we really this fragile?

[Funt Solo]

I'm a bit surprised by the macho, knee-jerk responses. No empathy? Did either of you big, strong men take the trouble to read the linked article?