Rings of Power (Amazon Prime), House of Dragon (HBO/Hotstar) - Season 1 - Review

It is understandable for our times that we only want to tell stories of the past. The hide and seek that the future is playing with us, is quite frustrating to say the least and we can all agree that the future is becoming increasingly unreliable. Is COVID gone or not? Is the Ukraine war ever going to end? Will Xi consider retiring? Is Rishi Sunak Indian? Is Musk going to buy Twitter? (Okay we know the answer to that one… or do we? well, we may never know!)

And that’s why we are all happy time travelling, way back to spend time with something as sure as history, because we know it happened. And what better than history of our favourite fiction, because that we know for sure, happened and no amount of right wing propaganda can make you believe otherwise.

And just for that, as a fan, it’s enjoyable and recommended to watch these two prequels occurring over hundreds of years before the main stories we have loved and binge read and watched. Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.

Past is a beautiful indulgence for those paralyzed by the future.

But there is one small problem. This history that is supposed to inform these prequels was never really written as such by their original creators (Tolkien and Martin). It is the new writers piecing puzzles of history based on different shreds of writing linked to these mythical worlds created by these genius creators.

To be fair that IS after all, a classic historian’s job. Except this is fiction, dear friends. And to write the history for a fictional master piece, it needs to match the same genius imagination of the original writers.

Alas, it does not.

For House of Dragons, we shouldn’t be surprised. We all saw the last season when George R R Martin had stopped writing. And Rings of Power, fails similarly with no Tolkien to fall back upon.

And so, in the Amazon multi-million dollar production, we see similar sights and sounds of the fallen Men, the noble Elves, the proud Dwarfs, the nomadic version of the Hobbits (called Harfoots), and of course the evil Orcs army and land being built in preparation of the as always winter-is-coming Sauron. Oooh. Never seen that before.

And in the HBO production, we see the dragons, the Targaryen, the Valyrians, the politics, the blood, the sleaze, the violence, the deceit, the gross-ness and the as always who-will-sit-on-the-the-most-uncomfortable-chair-in-the-world game. Sound familiar?

Though, sometimes just seeing more of the same can be deeply enjoyable (aka Friends Reunion, see my review http://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2021/06/friends-reunion-streaming-on-zee-5.html ) because we’ve been missing it. But both these don’t cut it for that too. And one big reason for it is the casting. Both these prequels have actors playing legendary characters that make no impact and are almost borderline annoying. Morfydd Clark, as Galadriel is an overly angry young woman, Robert Aramayo as Elrond comes across as a meek pushover, Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, is a wishy washy build up of what ends up being a critical character at the end, Markella Kavenagh as the Frodo replacement generates no empathy, Daniel Weyman as Gandalf metoo has no inner strength, Cynthia Robinson as Queen Regent Miriel is unconvincing, Joseph Mawle as Adar the Orc army creator generates no fear. Similarly, Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targarean, the central character is not able to pull off the poignant life she lives, Matt Smith as Daemon has no presence as the impulsive angry prince, Olivia Cooke as Queen Alicent has only a single pained expression for the myriad of emotions she goes through.

That’s why, the actors that do stand out amidst a sea of mediocre performances are Owain Arthur as Dwarf Prince Durin, and Sophia Nomvete as Disa his wife. Paddy Considine as King Viserys (one feels all his emotions throughout the season till his last breath) and Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys (who emotes through her face with fewest dialogues).

Perhaps the challenge is while the writing is of the past, the writers that are writing it belong to the present and so are the audience they are writing for. And in trying to tell an old story for a new audience, they are able to do justice to neither.

May be the new writers should go back-to-the-future and not try to rewrite history. And use history only as a guidance of what was to define what can be. After all, the future is where we need all the imagination we can get. Otherwise we are all scr***d. And if Tom Cruise can do it (http://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2022/07/top-gun-maverick-2022-film-review.html ), so can many new writers and film makers.

We don’t have much expectations from Season 2 of both these, but we will still wait eagerly for them, because hope currently IS our primary future strategy in the world.