Falls fantasy behemoths House of the Dragon and Rings of Power could learn something from Adult Swim’s Primal.
That might be a plot reaction.Dragon’s got dragons on dragons, andRings of Powerislow on rings.
But theThronesspin-off is also distinct from its predecessor: bigger, nastier, way less funny.
Matt Grace/Prime Video; Ollie Upton/HBO
The Middle-earth prequel apesPeter Jackson’sJ.
Ringsended its first season on Friday.Dragon’s season finale arrives this Sunday.
They’ve been here and been huge simultaneously, with obvious contrasts.
Adult Swim’s ‘Primal’.Adult Swim
The Amazon series isTed Lasso-vian in its dedication to ensemble niceness.
People briefly don’t get along before they get along.
“I’m good!”
declaresthe Stranger(Daniel Weyman).
One show is much better, but a clear choice isn’t a great choice.
Tolkien elevator music versus nu-metalGeorge R. R. Martin: Is this the best TV fantasy can do?
Not by a long shot.Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primalwrapped its spectacular second season as these leviathans launched.
An ultraviolent cartoon isn’t for everyone.
But even the family-friendlyRingsamputated limbs.
And anyone else bored of the live-action shows' fixation on councils and committees?
“This court will reconvene at first light to make a decision!”
declares Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson).
“Ahhh, petitions!”
moans old King Viserys (Paddy Considine).
Meanwhile,Primaldid a riverboat battle, a skyborne greatbird duel, and an emotional dino-birth in one episode.
The HBO prequel steadily improved this year, though.
A midseason time jump transformed turgid Targaryen melodrama into raucous generational soap opera.
Children proliferated, so you might’t blame Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) for confusing Aegons.
(This family laysandslays together.)
How I love Helaena (Phia Saban) and her wonderful knack for saying the right wrong thing!
Marriage, she explains, “isn’t so bad.
Mostly, he just ignores you.
Except sometimes, when he’s drunk.”
Saban delivers that misery haiku with majestic spliff-rolled indifference.
This princess would be Andy Cohen’s favorite reunion interview.
Sometimes you cannot see what is happening.
And Alicent’s relationship with Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) didn’t quite land.
Martin’s bookFire and Bloodpainted them as antagonists in a continental war.
Or were the male showrunners defensively over-explaining female moral ambiguity?
Cooke is giving fullManchurianLansbury as a doting grandmomster.
D’Arcy wears battered nobility well.
That dance with dragons was just right, but the show can suffer from its more explosive instincts.
Instead, it double-climaxes with the arrival of Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her firebeast Meleys.
Rhaenys points her steed right at the new monarch and his entire traitorous Targaryen branch.
She gives everyone what Paddington would call a hard stare… and flies away.
And I think the series underplays the horror-comedy of Targaryen intermarriage.
I don’t want tokink-shame cousins were closer in the olden days!
Start thinkingThe Hills Have Eyes.
Any further explanation of this twist I waswaitingfor you in the ocean!
will only make it worse.
Too bad, because there was a fascinating revision buried in a quagmire of how-Gandalf-learned-to-love-halflings prequel goofiness.
Turns out he’s a fallen elf and an underclass activist who proclaims that orcs are people, too.
“Each one has a name,” he insists, “A heart.”
Too bad the show didn’t really name any orcs, or treat them better than talking zombies.
Still, next to Adar’s striving, Galadriel looks monstrous.
“I vow to eradicate every last one of you,” she promises him.
Clark gave that line psychotic gusto, clearly happy to not just be riding another damned slow-motion horse.
For real, though, was Galadriel supposed to be a genocidal madwomananda Sauron-enabling sap?
Both these series went through their own sociological spin-cycles.Dragonsuffered accusations about its focus on female trauma.
It receivedsimilar casting complaintsasRingsfrommiserable racists who are the worst.
The shows' ratings success ensures an industry dedicated to spin-offs, moreLords playing expensiveGames.
If so, well, I’m good.
