House of the Dragon

I could say I felt disappointed after the first season, but it wouldn't be true because I didn't expect anything great after GoT. Game of Thrones started losing its breath from the fifth season on. Since I am a realist, I didn't have high expectations. And the creators didn't prove me wrong. There were enough characters, but most of them were unremarkable, the actors and actresses were not pleasing to the eye or excelled in terms of acting (with honorable exceptions), the screenplay was often dull, and even though I know it's not true, I can't help feeling that there was more dying during childbirth than from a sharp or blunt blow. The first season left an unpleasant aftertaste (for me). / Lesson learned: Succession is a delicate matter, you're at risk of being stabbed in the kidney. (16/06/2023)

It's nothing special, even for a beginning of a series. Of course, I know that a pilot is more of an introduction (of the characters and setting), but the creators failed to draw me in. I will keep watching, but for now, I will only do so because I want to finish what I started. I was not offered anything more than undemanding and uninteresting dialogue, which doesn't hold a candle to Varys' Machiavellianism. The screenwriter occasionally added sex scenes and gratuitous violence to make the audience feel like they were watching an action spectacle. Oh, one more thing. When the first season was out, I read about the stunningly beautiful princess Rhaenyra everywhere. There will be two of them eventually, right? Right?!?! / Lesson learned: You won't get much juice from a squeezed-out lemon. 3*- (12/06/2023)

I don't think a quality episode of a fantasy series needs to be full of action, rivers of blood, and freely flying human body parts if the creators are able to put together dialogue on the level of Varys and Tyrion's conversations from GoT. Ryan J. Condal can't do that, though. So, the viewer is subjected to a lot of boring and somewhat unnecessary babble, which after half an hour of comparing who has a bigger one, really annoyed me. To top it all off, the dragons here only function as what the British called a "fleet in being." Nowadays, nuclear weapons are used in this way. However, compared to a nuclear arsenal, a dragon has the advantage that you can use its abilities for camping or cremation. What a pathetic episode. / Lesson learned: And the pedophiles howled in disappointment... (12/06/2023)

The third episode did not deviate significantly from the previous ones. And it could have. The creators seemed to have given up on their futile effort to write a dialogue that would be as interesting and full of intrigue as the verbal chess games in the Game of Thrones. They decided to go for uncompromising action instead. And that would have been fine if they hadn't buried their laudable intention under a ton of compromises, the most notable one being the annoying habit from the Game of Thrones - all action must take place either in the dark, fog, or smoke. Also, the screenwriters have no idea about warfare tactics, let alone strategy. For example: Defenders have soldiers on a tiny island with a big cave where they retreat in case of extreme danger (a dragon). Attackers have a fleet, soldiers, and a dragon. The dragon periodically grills the island, and the attacking fleet circles around the island, while defenders shoot at them from catapults (apparently fire-resistant because of the dragon?). How about this: A mass landing with aerial support, followed by gradual destruction or starvation of the cave-dwellers or blocking the entrances to the underground. This writing incompetence resulting in pure stupidity just to sell some special effects that the viewer may catch a glimpse of in the ubiquitous smoke annoyed me in GoT, and it annoys me here too. / Lesson learned: If you are attacked by a wild boar or a bear in the forest, don't panic and bravely spit in their eyes. You will die, but for a brief moment, you will be proud of yourself. (13/06/2023)

Well, I don't know, I'm still finding it hard to like this show. Nevertheless, I was partially pleasantly surprised because, for the first time, the dialogue finally seemed to have a different function than the usual meaningless white noise. But right after that, the creators remembered how they once saw the uncensored version of Caligula, and the usually hidden parts of human anatomy began to peek out from behind the curtains and light drapes. I'm not against erotica or pornography, but HBO's blatant fishing for undemanding viewers either bores or annoys me. And only an incompetent amateur can make the female body boring or annoying for me. / Lesson learned: There have always been snitches, the problem is that almost everyone has a smartphone nowadays. (13/06/2023)

The plot of the fifth episode did not bring anything groundbreaking, yet I had a feeling that it belonged to the better ones in the first season so far. Finally, I had the impression that there was at least a minimal amount of intrigue going on behind the scenes of wedding politics, and to my surprise, I got a dose of my favorite kind of humor that I definitely did not expect. / Lesson learned: What would a celebration be without a fight? (14/06/2023)

I gambled last time and raised the rating to three stars, and I fell flat on my face. The sixth episode was mind-numbingly boring. If I felt a thrill of excitement each time I saw a birth, I would undoubtedly have enjoyed the episode because the creators dedicated a decent portion of the running time to the delivery of new lives or at least attempts at it, but since I don't enjoy such scenes, I wasn't happy at all. At first, I wanted to complain about the ridiculously long time jumps, but I quickly changed my mind when I realized how much suffering the creators spared me. / Lesson learned: After all those births I've seen on screen, I can't understand why women willingly go through it. (14/06/2023)

What fluctuation. The seventh episode seems to be a kind of deviation from a phase that either makes me laugh or bores me. It often bores me mainly because the story reminds me too often of series dominated by South American and Turkish names in which you only get empty chatter and staring contests instead of action. A great source of amusement for me were moments that were meant to be serious, but I had a hard time buying it. I have already mentioned several times that I consider the appearance of the Velaryon family to be extremely unfortunate, but in the seventh episode, their funeral customs quickly overshadowed it. After several similar ceremonies, I assume they will either have a very shallow bay, or they are already building a new pier. And when I move away from the water and shift my attention to the element of air, I must admit that I would never have thought how vital the command "Aaaaaaaaah!" is to control a dragon. But jokes aside, the episode turned out fairly well. / Lesson learned: Prince Harry probably wouldn't like this episode about bastards. (15/06/2023)

Yeah, I've understood the formula already - every compliment is followed by a slap in the face. This was pure boredom again. Almost nothing worth mentioning happened, but there was no shortage of further aimless rambling. Although speed is definitely not one of my strong points, watching the king move around his residence was torture even for me, as someone who should empathize with him. The solution here was either a wheelchair or the fast-forward button. These unnecessarily long scenes got on my nerves, especially since the story jumped six years ahead right at the beginning of the episode. It could have been solved like this - the king enters the throne room - caption: thirty minutes later - the king is sitting on the throne. Actually, the whole season could be refreshed in this way; the pilot would be followed by the final episode with the caption: thirty years later. I don't think I would miss out on anything. / Lesson learned: The symptoms of syphilis in its third stage are genuinely unpleasant to look at. (15/06/2023)

Well, what do you know? If I'm not mistaken, the ninth episode was the only one so far that didn't bore me even for a second. Even the political games caught my interest this time. So far, so good, but then the traditional nonsense and oddities started piling up, with the unnecessary (because nonsensical) scene with Ms. White Worm being the proverbial cherry on top. I didn't quite get it unless it was just a mandatory tribute to the feminist movement. At the same time, I was surprised (well, it wasn't that much of a surprise) by the lack of creativity from the creators, who are surely planning to milk money out of the whole project for several more seasons. How many different colored worms can we expect? Will the brown, red, yellow, and black worms be taboo? It's so exciting to wait for answers to such fundamental questions; I'm trembling with anticipation. / Lesson learned: A person always has a choice. It's just that there's often a catch. (16/06/2023)

I'm not sure I understand people's excitement about the finale; there didn't seem to be a significant improvement in quality compared to the previous episode. Sure, there were plans and counter-plans, but they were there last time, too, and except for the change in aerial advantage, not much really happened. So yes, I gave this the maximum rating I could give in the first season, but if the creators wanted more stars from me, they would have to add something more. I'm a realist, so I realize they couldn't care less about my rating as long as the money keeps rolling in. Oh, and they could also leave out the complicated pregnancies and miscarriages. / Lesson learned: If you invest your money in gambling, you should count on losing it. (16/06/2023)