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House of the Dragon - Game of Thrones prequel

JohnC

By JohnC,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Eighthours

Eighthours

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That trailer was much better than anything we've yet seen for Rings of Power, because it explained the premise, character motivations, and teased us some potential twists and turns. It made me much more interested in the show. I have a good feeling about HOTD now.

 

I wonder if GOT Season 8 forever killed the franchise as a mega juggernaut, or whether it can be resurrected to something near its prevous level if HOTD is decent? Will S8's reception unfairly affect the trajectory of subsequent entries? We've seen this before, where a shit entry in a series can earn maximum ratings/money because it follows something great that was building in popularity and had a great name to it, and therefore anticipation carries the shite entry through commercially even though it was a bit crap. In short, it's critic proof at a certain level of hype. But the consequences then land for the next one. The lingering taint of the bad entry's shiteness sullies the next thing commercially, even though it may be much better. 

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Gotters

Gotters

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As somebody who used to be really into GoT (listened to the podcasts, watched behind the scenes stuff, talked about it a lot at work etc) I'm incredibly cautious towards this, to the degree even a strong start won't remove that skepticism.

 

It certainly looks and sounds the part in the trailers, but I'm so burned (haha) by what happened previously that all that budget and on screen quality counts for very little if the story is pish.

 

I know it's not a prequel in the style of Better Call Saul, so they don't have to precisely dovetail neatly up to the start of GoT, but my suspicion is this is going to lean into spectacle and visuals and not plot intricacy.

 

It's a tough one for the show as this is going to be the epitome for many of 'fool me once shame on you, fool me twice .......'

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Boothjan

Boothjan

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I strongly believe that the fact that this has a proper GRRM story to follow will massively help it.  Moreso, it's a pretty basic story to work on, with so much room for extra plot, twists, characters etc - GoT massively suffered from a huge, grandiose setting which was nigh on impossible to tie up satisfactorily, and definitely not consistently when 75% of it was taken from the books, with the rest essentially guess work of what could happen next.  (I still don't think it was *that* bad at the end, though admittedly should have been much much better - I still find it watchable).

 

I don't think HotD will have that problem - I don't see any reason why it can't be as good as some of the highlights from the first 6 seasons of GoT were.

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Eighthours

Eighthours

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34 minutes ago, Boothjan said:

I strongly believe that the fact that this has a proper GRRM story to follow will massively help it.  Moreso, it's a pretty basic story to work on, with so much room for extra plot, twists, characters etc - GoT massively suffered from a huge, grandiose setting which was nigh on impossible to tie up satisfactorily, and definitely not consistently when 75% of it was taken from the books, with the rest essentially guess work of what could happen next.  (I still don't think it was *that* bad at the end, though admittedly should have been much much better - I still find it watchable).

 

I don't think HotD will have that problem - I don't see any reason why it can't be as good as some of the highlights from the first 6 seasons of GoT were.

 

I haven't read the source material, but is this show something that could potentially have the same issue as later seasons of GOT (although dialled down because of GRRM's involvement), in that dialogue is going to have to be invented rather than taken from GRRM's words? As isn't Fire and Blood a history lesson rather than a straight narrative like the other books, and HOTD is just extrapolating from a part of it?

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Boothjan

Boothjan

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5 minutes ago, Eighthours said:

 

I haven't read the source material, but is this show something that could potentially have the same issue as later seasons of GOT (although dialled down because of GRRM's involvement), in that dialogue is going to have to be invented rather than taken from GRRM's words? As isn't Fire and Blood a history lesson rather than a straight narrative like the other books, and HOTD is just extrapolating from a part of it?

 

YMMV but I don't really think dialogue was a huge issue in GoT to be honest, but yes that's pretty much it in terms of the style of the book.  

 

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I'm definitely in the 'optimistic' camp.

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Flanders

Flanders

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So for three years now I’ve had this oddity hanging over me in that I never actually finished Game of Thrones. Absolutely loved it, thought some of the later seasons were unfairly treated in many respects and liked the first half of the last season well enough. 
 

But I simply just never mind watched the last episode. I found The Bells to be such an upsetting and unpleasant hour of television - it basically uses the imagery of genocide as a spectacle to try and speed run the viewer through show-breakingly rushed plot and character development. I kind of didn’t care to see what happened after that, and found out all the main beats of the finale through osmosis over the years. 
 

I realised recently that there are a lot of shows I’ve genuinely loved but never finished for one reason or another and am actively trying to remedy that. Today was Thrones’ turn so I watched the last episode and it…wasn’t that bad?

 

I think the main reason behind my positive response was that the main plot damage was already done by that point, and it was nice to have a reminder of what a stunningly beautiful show Thrones was, and what a terrific cast it assembled.
 

My overriding feeling was that it is the most tremendous shame that the end being rushed completely deflated the whole thing. I honestly think the outline of the story told in the last season is perfectly fine, but it was two seasons

worth of plot crammed into six episodes and everything falls apart as a result. So many of the beats that seem laughable would have worked like gangbusters if they’d had room to breathe.

 

I’m definitely a lot more optimistic for House of Dragons now, if only because it doesn’t need to rush and it will have a creative team who aren’t visibly exhausted by the whole endeavour.

 

 

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Harsin

Harsin

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I always find that Alan Sepinwall is a decent critic whose tastes tend to align with mine. He's pretty lukewarm on it.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/house-of-the-dragon-review-1398441/

 

I'll be interested in how this does. Apparently this has a ludicrously big marketing spend. Anecdotal evidence is worthless, but in terms of TV talk beyond forums like this one I don't think I've heard one person mention this in the office despite loads of people I work with being super into GoT at the time.

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Kingpin

Kingpin

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Same - I enjoyed it, bit of a greatest GoT hits in that episode - succession, conniving pricks, sex and violence, dragons etc. 

 

Was horrified by at least one scene in particular, appreciated the lavish budget and the cast (especially Matt Smith who could be very entertaining in this). 
 

I have not read the books this is based on (Fire & Blood?). Just loosely aware of the general GoT lore from the original series and books so hoping we’re in for a similar ride. 

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JohnC

JohnC

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2 minutes ago, Ry said:

!ait...its out? I thought it aired tonight. 

It first airs at 2am. Tonight is a repeat for people who still insist at sitting down to watch a show at a certain scheduled time instead of recording or using catch-up. 

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Ry

Ry

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31 minutes ago, JohnC said:

It first airs at 2am. Tonight is a repeat for people who still insist at sitting down to watch a show at a certain scheduled time instead of recording or using catch-up. 

 

Or for people who didnt know it was on at 2 in the morning. 😅

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footle

footle

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7 hours ago, pledge said:

Is this one of the first HBO shows that is in 4k? I saw a DV copy is out but my player will only do the standard HDR one. That seems to have some scenes very dark.


the sky version is uhd/hdr, but very very very dark. The habit of the cinematographer of choosing “let’s mimic candlelight” at every possible juncture makes it quite difficult to watch on an OLED.

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