TV Bonanza Part 2: The Rings of Power & House of the Dragon

Two powerhouse fantasies have been jostling for our attention these past few months and it's very clear to me who won. But let's dive right into my reviews and see if you feel the same way!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: As a lifelong LOTR fan, obviously I was going to eat this show up with a big ol' spoon. And of course, I was terrified they were going to ruin it and create some sort of bloated behemoth like the Hobbit movies that I eventually gave up on. But to my delight, the creators, J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, have delivered an engaging and vibrant world, that can stand perfectly well on its own two feet but has plenty of callbacks and asides for us die-hard nerds who have spent way too much time in Middle-earth.

This show tells the story of how the Rings of Power (including that all-powerful One Ring that would become the focus of this world so much later) came into being. But don't expect that to happen right away - there's a lot of table-setting to be done. There are many different storylines: there's a band of migrating Hobbits who run into a mysterious stranger whose identity will remain secret until Episode 8; there's the story of young Galadriel (played by the wonderful Morfyyd Clark) who is on a vengeful quest against Sauron and has to team up with Numenorean and Southland men (and women!) to go into battle with some dark forces; and we have young Elrond (played by the equally wonderful Robert Aramayo) who serves as an ambassador to the dwarves because of his long friendship with Durin IV (a charming Owain Arthur) and his wife, Disa (the even more charming Sophia Nomvete).

The casting of this show is far more diverse than anything we saw in the movies and there are plenty of leading female characters who have just as much to do (if not more) as the men. Shot in New Zealand, the scenery, costumes, and production design are just as awe-inspiring as ever, and the show manages to both fall into comforting rhythms we've come to expect from the original LOTR trilogy, and also feature some genuine surprises and narrative trickery that keep you on your toes. The first season finale was genuinely a roller coaster where you couldn't be sure what would happen until the very end and it certainly whetted my appetite for future seasons. This is a show that has taken what worked in the original, and then improved upon it to create something worthy of 2022 audiences. It is leaping from strength to strength and I can't wait for Season 2. 

Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Yeah, this show just took Game of Thrones and said, let's do more of the same! I slogged my way through the first season hoping for something fresh and appealing (to be clear, I did love GoT until the battle-heavy politics of the final seasons), but I merely got a lot of blood and gore, a lot of incest and nudity, and confusingly-named characters who I simply could not keep straight in my head and whose political machinations bored me to tears. Unlike Game of Thrones, which could move across different lands and introduced variety by virtue of geography, this show is merely concerned with in-fighting amongst the Targaryen clan, with Paddy Considine playing the ailing King Viserys I Targaryen who currently commands the Iron Throne (the show takes place 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones). He declares that his heir will be his daughter Rhaenyra (played initially by the younger Milly Alcock and then by the older Emma D'Arcy in the latter half of the season), which of course angers the traditionalists who think there can only be a male heir (why is it that the fantasy genre chooses to incorporate changes to our regular world like dragons and magic, but then insists on retaining the patriarchy?). Let the drama commence.

There's a lot going on in this show from week to week, none of which I was following particularly well. Again, the casting is slightly more diverse, with House Velaryon containing many Black people in blond wigs, and there are plenty of powerful women running around, but my God, must we constantly be subjected to bloody childbirth scenes? And of course there's plenty of rape and incest going around because in the GoT universe, sex is always used as a bargaining chip or a means of exerting power over other individuals. 

The main addition is that there are many more dragons. As the series begins, it's hard to understand why the Targaryens even bother as the dragons never seem to do anything. But towards the end of the season, that special effects budget starts to come through and there seems to be a promise that maybe we'll get more dragon entertainment in subsequent seasons. I don't know if that's enough to tempt me though. I'm kind of over this dark, grim, medieval world. And at one point, when Daemon Targaryen (a deliciously creepy Matt Smith) started listing a tally of dragons, much like a recitation of all the Greek ships in The Iliad, I felt my patience waning. This show is steeped in its lore, and given how dull and needlessly violent that lore is, I think it's time I stopped watching.