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Reviews
House of the Dragon: The Red Sowing (2024)
A referendum on the attention span and lack of narrative literacy of the common viewer - be ashamed of your attention span and blessed the show runners don't listen to you.
This episode was masterclass.
The opening with Daemon's riverland blunder satisfied with Oscar Tully absolutely owning his scene and giving Daemon a view of what he could have had, had he been patient with the dealing of diplomacy. 10/10 arc, ALBIET SLOW WHICH IS FINE.
The dragon den needs no explanation, epic.
Now, this show IS SLOW!! THATS NOT A BAD THING!!! GoT had 3 seasons with one battle and some great plot pieces, but people for get what the Game of Thrones world is excellent at - people talking in rooms.
I have critiques for the viewers but i will save those for the end. I have empathy for people that are critical of this show at times. It has its issues, that being the characters. We fell in love with Vicerys and Rhaenyra depicted by Milly Alcock and the joy that was Patty on screen. They dominated and made season 1 work, the dramatic shift in tone with Emma Darcy's portrayal has not seen fruit till this episode and i'll be the first to admit that. Emma is fabulous, but approaches this character with less fire that Milly did AND THATS FOR GOOD REASON!!! Milly was a reckless dragon princess, Rhaenyra is a mother that has seen tragedy after tragedy and betrayals all the fitting - Emma's complacency plays if you have ANY literature or character literacy... Matt Smith is the strongest performer in this show now, and to sideline him for a season is tough, but that is how the narrative of 'Fire and Blood' goes, so take it up with GRRM. Regardless, the show runners fulfilled Daemon's season arc BEAUTIFULLY.
Now, the viewers. I'm so unbelievably saddened that the viewers of this show can't suspend disbelief or have any type of narrative literacy to understand the idea of a 'filler episode'. Fans have used this as some entertainment dog whistle to signal that it is 'bad' to have filler episodes. FILLER EPISODES ARE NECESSARY TO THE PLOT. We have learned so much about the struggle Jace has with his Mother, the lives of small folk and rejected sons and daughters, and the relationships between Aegon and Aemond. It's such a crime against art to not have the patience of an adult while watching prestige tv. Filler episodes are the foundation of excellent TV; have ANY of you seen the sopranos, succession, breaking bad...i mean for the sake of all there is HAS ANYONE GIVING THIS SEASON ANYTHING BELOW AN 8 ACTUALLY WATCHED GAME OF THRONES S1-S6?!?!
This season has been more of a referendum of the brain rot that our population has been victim to - not being able to sit down for 45 minutes and understand the characters of a show that will span 50 episodes. It blows my mind to see the depravity of the colloquial tv watcher.
I HATE defending show runners, they're usually self important dullards who couldn't careless about the source material, but these people actually care for once in a blue moon and they are being maligned by a fan base who wants gore, soft-porn and action non-stop. I'm proud this show has show runners that are patient, and deeply disturbed by the reality of the viewer base.
Saltburn (2023)
Been done before...
I think people like the shock value scenes, and i generally hated them - if you cant tell a story without shock value scenes, it's not good. The shock value scenes objectively make this movie 'interesting', but if you strip the movie of them, then the story has been told tens of times - in a better way - and it leaves only a visual spectacle, which is notably beautiful, but in comparison with the rest of the movie it just feels *so* stale.
I'm not against weird disturbing scenes...it's just that the story has been told already and the only difference was a castle, bad pacing (this movie needed to be 20 minutes shorter), worse story telling, and fetishized grotesque sex stuff.
The ending was also *SOO* lazy. Movies are all about show don't tell; there's even a line about that very principle (jack in the box) and then 20 minutes later, they just tell you everything.
Art/acting/direction: 9
screenplay/story: 2.5
overall: 5.5.
-they owe The Talented Mr. Ripley a writing credit...and an apology.
House of the Dragon: Second of His Name (2022)
Building character roles and meaningful action sequences well.
House of the Dragon has been MASTER CRAFT in building their world with gorgeous visuals, character depth and interesting story dynamics. This episode further proves it is the best thing on TV at the moment. An absurd premise like the 'crab-feeder' felt like a disney class villan, but in Sapochnik fashion *that* character didn't matter as it severed as sword fodder for our episode-long mute, anti-hero.
What I think is so brilliant about Salochinik, is that in two episodes he established a character that has so much on screen charisma that he didn't even have to say a word the entire episode (he might've had lines in the end I can't remember this is a knee jerk reaction). Yet as a viewer, I was still fully invested and drawn in by whatever he was doing.
Furthermore, the Rhaenyra story line is coming along really smoothly, and in my opinion, her story is a lot more palatable than the Dany story line. That's not to say GoT was not good and I'm not even a fan one my own comparison, but it's just insane that HotD is *THAT* good.
Sipochnik and his team really seem to have found their grove, this show is a few more episodes away from establishing itself as a rising star; in the likes of Succession and Euphoria.
Succession: What It Takes (2021)
The Roy Show
The Roy family falls into king making. This was one of my favorite episodes ever-possibly because it falls into confirmation bias for me personally: the rich and powerful choose our leaders, not the people.
This was a beautiful episode fraught with conflict, showing the crushed veneer that is idealists (Shiv), the coke fueled king making rambles (Roman and the new Stooge), the entitlement of the affluent (Connor), the clawing desperation for autonomy of a Lion's cub (Kendall), the fragility of maimed men (Tom), reeking opportunism (Greg), and the brooding resiliency of Titans (Logan).
This series is here to show you that no political stance, no idealistic approach and certainly no single man is a bulwark...besides the owners of our information; Logan is our American God and we made him and enabled him. Armstrong isn't going to make you like it or forget it. He's embarrassed of you, all of those around him and himself for letting these Priests in the nursery.
If you don't understand that you are a mockery as well as the rest of our plight, then you are part of the problem.
This was brilliant writing that made a filler episode a marvel while still managing and pushing the plot forward. I never give 10's (and it's not like my opinion even matters), but this is first 10 in TV since DARK's series closer and Succession's Season 2 finale.
10/10 Stars.