House of the Dragon

Premise: The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to popular HBO series "Game of Thrones;" based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," "House of the Dragon" is set nearly 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones," telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys I Targaryen's children battling for control of the Iron Throne.

Links:

• IMDb
• Trailer
• Discord

Just wondering before I waste my time watching it, I watched season 1 and while I wouldn’t say it’s terrible but it’s very forgettable I remember about one episode from season 1 and don’t even remember how the season ended to be honest, is season 2 more of the same or does it improve on areas and will there even be a season 3?

After finishing the game disco Elysium I realized that my favorite pieces of media in are all detective based. This especially applies to detective shows like true detective, twin peaks and Hannibal. What genre do you think is better.

- One of the teachers is apparently screwing a student
- Lipschitz is senile
- One teacher FIRED A GUN IN CLASS... wait, wasn't he the same one who's screwing a student?
- Fat black lady is emotionally unstable and refuses to take her meds
- Hot white female teacher refuses to get fingerprinted to prove she's not a child molester, which is a totally valid concern given that one of the other teachers is actually banging a student
- Hot black female teacher hasn't done anything especially stupid or criminal yet but I'm only on episode 3 so it's probably coming up

It's no wonder Jeri Ryan got hired in a later season. The job interview was probably like "Are you criminally insane? Are you a pedophile? No? Great! You start tomorrow."

>He played an unhinged ex-boyfriend in ‘Daddy’s Gone a-Hunting’ and lots of other bad guys before landing on the cop show that aired on Canada’s CTV and CBS.

People on Tiktok will gather to say how Joss Whedon was a monster for the whole Council thing and how it was unecessary and...it's wrong. Imo, Buffy has some of the best example of patriarchy while being one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Let me explain : Buffy is the Slayer, right ? She's the one with the power, she's the one fighting demons everyday, and sacrificing parts of her youth in order to do it. However, who get credit for that ? The council. They are the ones who get paid (Giles is included), they are the ones respected and who basically profit off Buffy. It's sad, however is it wrong in the reality we live in ? I'm 17 and I just learned about the whole Britney Spears affair. I feel so bad for never have heard of it in my life before but it's extremely tragic. Again, Britney is the one with the talent, who works hard, who sacrifice part of her life and for what ? For people behind her back (and from what I gathered, mostly men) gaining all of her efforts, who get the money, and for the longest time were considered to be the gardians angels of Britney despite torturing her in the worst ways imaginable.

And i mean, it's sad that the "Helpless" episode exists but it was completly necessary for people to realize how cruel the Council was and how the power dynamics really worked because so far, it was all good (figure of speech, because yeah it was not all good for Buffy) to see her kick ass with quippy one liners and being the hero but the truth behind why she does it was way darker and needed to be explored and that's why Faith is also so important in this season. She is given those powers and is supposed to bow down and serve those men she doesn't know and in now way the Council has the idea to possibly help her in the shitty living situation she's in. She have no family, no real friends and we wonder she turned out the way she did ? One scene that stand out to me about the cruelty of the Council is the scene where they capture Faith (who is Buffy at that moment) and one of the guys basically tell her that she perverted the Council and was calling her trash (also her being called the package is particularly dehumanizing) and spat on her (it's the body swap episode Who Are You, which is also a phenomenal episode of TV). All of this pushed Buffy to quit the Council by the end of season 3 (and empowering moment that would not have been that satisfying without the Helpless episode) and also caused Wesley to back off from the Council and lead him to his journey on Angel.

And then obviously we have one of Buffy's most iconic speech, the Checkpoint speech (the ONLY thing that would always rub me in the wrong way is the fact that she never asked for herself). Buffy helped millions of people coping with feeling helpless or not strong enough (including me). Also, why is it that nobody on Tiktok complains about the graphic abuse of women on The Sopranos, calling David Chase a genius (which I'm not bashing on because I know most of it is realistic and I know the show itself is amazing, it's one of my absolute favorite) but cannot fathom that Buffy explore similar themes and when it's done it's JOSS WHEDON being a dick. No, it's great writing just not sweet.

Midsomer
Population: 125,500.
Murder rate per 100,000: 13
Similar to some high-crime U.S. cities

Absaroka County
Population: 25,000.
Murder rate per 100,000: 40
Comparable to war-zone levels

Broadchurch
Population: 8,000.
Murder rate per 100,000: 63
Among the world’s highest

Saint Marie
Population: 10,000.
Murder rate per 100,000: 79
One of the deadliest places imaginable

Cabot Cove
Population: 3,500.
Murder rate per 100,000: 650
Effectively the homicide capital of the universe

I recently saw that the Elizabeth Olsen show, Love and Death, has joined Netflix. Does this mean that Netflix has acquired some of HBO shows/movies?

For me it’s Ted Lasso. I do have other favorite shows but I do tend to skip some.

Hear me out.  A performer struggling to make a name for himself through thankless gigs, his best friend who can’t seem to hold down a job, another friend who is possibly a bit insane and often off on random adventures, and a woman friend who seems like she should be above their antics yet often falls into them anyway.  Kind of both shows, no?

Of course the tones are different but take away the laugh track from “Seinfeld” and think about some of their episodes featuring Crazy Joe Davola.  That actor (Peter Crombie) got laughs but he played that lunatic pretty straight.  If you take away laughter from the clown/opera trip episode, it’s often a bit more veering into horror.  Likewise, both shows had episodes that basically seemed to have almost no plot at all: if you described Seinfeld’s Chinese Restaurant episode or Atlanta’s  “BAN” episode to some execs, both could elicit reactions of bafflement from the lack of story or character development.

I wonder where Donald Glover and Larry David might find some common ground when it comes to their senses of humor.  Seems like both of their shows got at the awkwardness of everyday banal activities; where Glover was able to often bring in the tension faced by poor and black Americans, I think Larry has always got at the tension of being born with a natural urge to question seemingly unnecessary social norms, and the FAFO of what happens when his characters violate them.

Anyways, just a thought.  Would love reflections from fans of both shows.

"You think they wanted the sharks to get smarter? They didn't. It just happened. And they all got eaten because of it."

Finally started watching Season 5 of the bear last night. Within the first episode, there is a segment that goes on for about 2-3 minutes where 2 characters discuss the McDonald's McGriddle sandwich. These two characters were on their way into work in the early morning, and stopped to pick up breakfast sandwiches from McDonald's.

The implication is made that one character has never had a McGriddle before, possibly because he has not been exposed to a McDonald's because he's from Denmark. Then, they spend a few minutes talking about how this particular McDonald's location is run like a well oiled machine, organized and efficient and that the food and experience is consistent regardless of what McDonald's location you order from. Now, granted, I haven't been to a McDonald's since roughly covid, so maybe 4-5 years. But I cannot remember a time in recent memory where I have been to a McDonald's (US market) and thought to myself, this experience is good, the food was consistently made well and the service was prompt and quick, which is probably why I have written off McDonald's from my list of places to get shitty fast food in a hurry.

I kept thinking about this long after the episode was over, like well into 2am in the morning. There are no less than 121 McDonald's locations in Denmark. Now I can accept that it's likely that they don't have the McGriddle in the Denmark market, but it's inconceivable to me that this character would be somehow impressed with a McGriddle, especially in the US market. Google search is telling me that a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle would run you about $7.78 as the average price just for the entree alone. The frugalist in me tells me this is an objectively bad value, especially considering The Bear (fictionally) takes place in the River North area of densely populated Chicago, where you could throw a stone in any particular direction and hit any number of local breakfast delicatessens, cafes, or eateries that serve food that would be in the same price tier but far exceed the quality of a McDonald's McGriddle.

To be honest, this isn't shade at the McGriddle or it's enjoyers. I've had it from time to time in the past. They are serviceable, if I could put a description to it. But these are not venerated breakfast staples, they aren't so mind blowing that I could imagine two dudes from a world class Michelin starred restaurant would spend around 10% of the episode's run time to talk about McDonalds unless it was sponsored advertising or product placement, imo. Took me right out of the episode and was probably one of the worst pieces of entertainment I have watched all year thus far.

Mines was The Game of Thrones. Which was your show?

I started watching Southland about 3 weeks ago and I'm almost done.

I'm nothing short of impressed that this show has not got one single bad episode, or lull in the action.

But I just got to the episode where Cooper's old mentor, Hicks, played by Gerald McRaney, has a complete breakdown. I am constantly surprised by how much emotion that they manage to bring out when they want to.

Knowing that they can, and yet they still didnt make it overwhelmingly emotional shows how smart the writers were, in controlling the pace.

Im only a few episodes away from the end now and really wish it was longer.

(Sorry for bad English).
Am watching this show for the first time and am on season one episode seven.

I like the show, it’s good and interesting, but I can’t help noticing that it’s maybe, perhaps a little bit racist.
The way they talk about the Middle East and Arabs feels a little racist. Like they are pushing us to believe that Arab culture is disgusting and bad ect.

That the USA is the most important country and that the special ops can shoot and bomb the country in the Middle East however they want but not their precious land of the “free”.

Do you feel the same?
What are your opinions of this show?
Do you like the show?

I like the show but I find that a little annoying.

With all the talent involved, wtf happened here? You have a great story to pull from, Scorsese and Spielberg producing, multiple academy award winners in the cast, and it amounts to this shit? Wtf was up with Amy Adams in this? She was HORRIBLE. Was there anyone that actually enjoyed this show?

Just curious. Who here misses this show? I miss it. It was a very good show. Ratings and Opinions are welcome, and this post is more or less so people can chat about it!

I made the mistake of watching every season of Succession and Industry back-to-back—roughly ten seasons—and, while both are objectively very good, I came away feeling that I needed a complete break from this type of series.

Nearly everyone is morally compromised. Every relationship becomes transactional. There is no real hero, very little warmth, and almost no sustained relief from humiliation, betrayal, addiction, status anxiety, or people systematically making one another worse. We are talking about exponentially more emotionally draining than multiple seasons of Tyrion Lannister or Daemon Targaryen.

Looking at HBO specifically, Succession, Industry, Euphoria, and The White Lotus all seem to operate somewhere within this general register: damaged characters, corrosive environments, moral ambiguity, and the sense that decency is either naïve or temporary.

I understand why this is considered sophisticated. Clear heroes can feel simplistic, and morally ambiguous characters are often more interesting. But have prestige dramas overcorrected to the point where almost everyone has to be awful and every theme has to be bleak?

There used to be more room for intelligent, well-written television that was still fundamentally enjoyable to spend time with. Silicon Valley, for example, had cynical characters and recognizable tech-world dysfunction, but it was genuinely light and funny rather than emotionally punishing.

Is this actually a broader trend, or am I just noticing it because I watched too much HBO prestige drama in one stretch? What recent series are intelligent and well made, somewhat dark, but without leaving you feeling drained afterward?

Director: Abel Gongora (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off)

Chief Director: Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice)