House Of The Dragon (HBO, spoilers)

Huntn

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Premier date 21Aug22. 172 years (if I got the number right) before the Mad King’s death.

Season 1:Episode 1, so far so good. The rise of King Viseries Targaryen, the bad brother, a daughter who kind of wishes she was a son, some brutal Knightly arena combat, the expected debauchery and nudity, (seperate) a shocking, but common event, and new possibilities open up for Rhaenyra Targaryen.

So far so good! :D

In a different forum, there was mention that there were no dragons during this time in Westeros in whatever cannon exists. I am ignorant… :unsure:

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Eric

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Yep, for anyone who forgot how gruesome and brutal Game of Thrones was, this will be a good reminder. It touched on all of the things that made the original show so great at the same time, we are in for a wild ride I think.
 

Eric

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Yeah - the brothel scene was somewhat pointless. I get that they want to live up to the original series, but the gratuitous nudity could be tasteful and contributing to the storyline. :D
Gratuitous to the point of ridiculousness a couple of times, but we were spared too many swinging dongs which was a nice change of pace.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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Yep, for anyone who forgot how gruesome and brutal Game of Thrones was,

The birth scenes. Wow, just wow. I think that topped any battle scene violence. And I might add, timely. Although I don't think that was intentional, most likely written and fillmed before the R v W decision.
 

shadow puppet

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Really enjoyed it and looking forward to episode 2. You just have to get past the bad wigs, lol.

I am bummed that young Rhaenyra gets re-cast with an older actress as I very much like the current actress. Not a fan of all the gore but I never have been.

Really missed seeing an über cool opening credits title scene intro. GOT's was always something I looked forward to each week. Apparently the co-creators wanted to save it for episode 2 so it's coming:

That said, the series will have its own opening moving forward -- but fans will have to wait to see what exactly that will be, and if there will be any similarities to the one that earned creative director Angus Wall, art director Robert Feng, animator Kirk Shintani and designer Hameed Shaukat a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design.

I did like hearing notes of the original GOT theme music throughout.

The birth scene was incredibly intense. Especially intercut with the gore of the jousting tournament. The worst part was when Aemma realized what was going to happen but I don't think she would have survived the birth regardless.

Pilot episodes set the stage and this one hit the ground running. Was it perfect? No, but for me, episode one is already intriguing enough to keep me watching. This is my favorite genre and I have greatly missed it so hoping it continues to capture my interest and attention.
 

Eric

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Really enjoyed it and looking forward to episode 2. You just have to get past the bad wigs, lol.

I am bummed that young Rhaenyra gets re-cast with an older actress as I very much like the current actress. Not a fan of all the gore but I never have been.

Really missed seeing an über cool opening credits title scene intro. GOT's was always something I looked forward to each week. Apparently the co-creators wanted to save it for episode 2 so it's coming:

That said, the series will have its own opening moving forward -- but fans will have to wait to see what exactly that will be, and if there will be any similarities to the one that earned creative director Angus Wall, art director Robert Feng, animator Kirk Shintani and designer Hameed Shaukat a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design.

I did like hearing notes of the original GOT theme music throughout.

The birth scene was incredibly intense. Especially intercut with the gore of the jousting tournament. The worst part was when Aemma realized what was going to happen but I don't think she would have survived the birth regardless.

Pilot episodes set the stage and this one hit the ground running. Was it perfect? No, but for me, episode one is already intriguing enough to keep me watching. This is my favorite genre and I have greatly missed it so hoping it continues to capture my interest and attention.
This was exactly what I said to my wife, under the circumstances it seemed very unlikely either would have survived it. Yes, this scene was really intense and they clearly spent a lot of time on the production of it, gruesome as it was.
 

Edd

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I liked the first ep. Thinking back, the first couple of GOT episodes were a lot of table setting/character introduction so I wasn’t blown away but intrigued. I didn’t read the books so all new to me.

That first season improved steadily and, with episode 9 (you know what happened), the series blew my mind with the narrative ballsiness. Couldn’t stop watching after that.

I can’t remember if season 2 of Boardwalk Empire had happened by that point but that was a similar move.

TV writers use the phrase “kill your darlings”. Must be so hard creatively.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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They are Scandinavians? In the realm of fantasy, this is completely plausible! :)

What I find astonishing is they’ve somehow managed to cast people who technically could have a hair color close to that and yet have it look completely unnatural. Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande pull it off better and they’re tan as fuck.
 

DT

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Cross quoting myself (from the general TV thread ...) :D

HOTD was OK, I'd probably give that first episode a C+ (__maybe__ a B--- :D)

Admittedly, I still have some "bad blood" with GOT, and some of that carried over to this, they even mentioned a sore spot of mine (the WW ... :rolleyes:). The characters aren't, at least initially as compelling as GOT, but HOTD is more focused, which could wind up being a slog if the show is: siblings in [bad] blonde wigs laying down the exposition and f***ing each other all season. I wonder about the staying power over multiple seasons, I kind of wish they would've just committed to a mini-series, developed a specific story, maybe told it in two seasons of about 6 EPs each and had a nice, planned arc.

The show looks beautiful, clearly they spent some money on it, Matt Smith is pretty fun (but they've got to flesh him out, he's almost a cartoon at this point), dragons are amazing, and I don't even mind the prequel-ness too much, since it's so far back from where GOT started, there's not a direct overlap, so there's enough space to create some mystery, it needs a Tyrion to add a little levity, hopefully some big moments like a Battle Of The Bastards, or something driven by fun character intrigue like The Lion And The Rose (but first hey have to establish the characters much better).

Decent enough to watch the next episode, they've got a good enough start and plenty of budget, interested to see where it goes.

I think there are potentially some interesting things to explore about the House of Targaryen / War of succession, that why I'm probably at least in for the season.

So we rewatched EP01, and I liked it a little more, EP02 was - per a few review sites - a little "talky", but setup a few interesting plot points, the dragon standoff was fun, Rhaenyra and Daemon continue to be a fun pairing, the Crab Feeder thing was deliciously disgusting.

But wow, while we know the GOT universe involves marriages to very young girls, hahaha, yikes, EP02 was an 11 on the creepy scale :oops:

My original assessment stands: I think they'll need to open up the world a bit more, we need a little more levity, and I'm not sure how many seasons this can stay reasonably compelling.
 
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