Eliana Willis

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    How ‘House of the Dragon’ Turns Fiery Fantasy Into TV Reality

    For the “Game of Thrones” prequel series, the producers had to figure out how to make the title beasts believably bigger, badder and more prominent.At the risk of mixing medieval metaphors, dragons are a double-edged sword.For Ryan Condal, the co-creator and showrunner of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” the creatures are key to the show’s magic, literally and figuratively.“They are the one fantasy element that we’ve allowed ourselves,” he said. “In our world, in this period, the magic is these dragons.”But they are also death incarnate. “It’s all metaphor, all allegory for nuclear conflict,” Condal said. “You take the city with an army if you want it to be standing afterward. You can’t do anything surgical with a dragon.”The ongoing second season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel has included more of these beautiful, terrible beasts than any other in the franchise, including spectacular air battles in the fourth episode, “The Red Dragon and the Gold.” Sunday’s installment, “The Red Sowing,” in which aspiring dragon riders claim new mounts — or die trying — was more grounded, but it presented the most complicated challenge yet.In interviews last week, Condal, the visual effects supervisor Dadi Einarsson and some of the actors charged with piloting the creatures onscreen explained how they brought it all to life.The test caseWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Baldwin’s ‘Blues for Mister Charlie,’ 60 Years After It Hit Broadway

    On the centennial of James Baldwin’s birth, a look at this revolutionary work that was a playwriting milestone for him.One day, in the spring of 1964, among the glittering theater marquees of Times Square, James Baldwin was en route to rehearsal for his new Broadway production, “Blues for Mister Charlie” — and he’d had a lot on his mind: Four little girls had been killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., just months earlier; the white producers of his play had been after him to soften the script, suggesting it might be inappropriate for Broadway. By the time he reached the theater, he was furious.David Leeming, Baldwin’s friend and biographer, recently recalled that day’s “horrible rehearsal,” in which Baldwin stormed in and climbed a ladder. Towering over the cast and crew, he went on a tirade, Leeming, 87, said in an interview, “essentially accusing them of failing to see his vision.”Besides cutting a swear word or two from the script, Baldwin did not waver, though not without fear — fear of the form and fear that he might not adequately portray the monstrosity and humanity of white Southern hate. The critics eventually weighed in, writing of his failure on both fronts, and struggles at the box office ensured the playwright’s debut on Broadway would be brief.When James Baldwin died in 1987 at the age of 63, he left a voluminous oeuvre. Deemed a “prophet” and a “witness,” he has experienced a revival in the past decade that quickened in 2024 — with reading guides, film screenings and symposiums — for the centennial of his birth on Aug. 2.His legacy is often most embraced through his essays and fiction, though another form may have better suited his artistry: the play.“He loved the connection, the immediate connection between the audience and the artist that occurred in the theater,” Leeming said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: Soothing the Savage Beasts

    Not everyone gets to have a dragon. But maybe more people get to have dragons than everyone thought?Season 2, Episode 7: ‘The Red Sowing’Sometimes, in politics, a bold gamble in unprecedented times pays off. This is as true for the world of Westeros as it is for our own. The woman who wants to rule the realm staked it all on a long-odds play, and her odds came in.For several episodes, Queen Rhaenyra has been down one dragon. The formidable beast Meleys and her equally impressive rider, Princess Rhaenys, are dead. Prince Daemon’s war-hardened “Blood Wyrm,” Caraxes, is mired in his master’s endless quest to subdue the Riverlands. None of the mounts available to Team Black can possibly match Prince-Regent Aemond and his colossal creature, Vhagar, in battle, even when combined.On the advice of her counselor (with benefits?) Mysaria, Rhaenyra expands her search for potential dragon riders to the unrecognized descendants of her sprawling royal family — those born as commoners, outside of marriage. In a face-to-face meeting with the young shipwright Addam of Hull, revealed to be the new rider of the dragon Seasmoke, Rhaenyra has already learned that even those not of fully noble birth can ride a dragon. She doesn’t know that Addam is the son of Lord Corlys Velaryon, whose house has frequently intermarried with the Targaryens — and neither Addam nor Corlys tells her so — but since the young man’s mother was a commoner regardless, the point stands.When word of the search gets to King’s Landing through the usual back channels, Ulf and Hugh, two of the commoners we’ve been following all season, take the fateful trip to Dragonstone to test their mettle against monsters widely considered more god than animal. There, they learn the hard way that gambling is easier when you’re betting with someone else’s money.True, Rhaenyra talks about needing dragon riders to avoid bloodshed, not cause it. And she pushes back against her son Prince Jacaerys’s furious tirade against elevating lowborn part-Targaryen “mongrels” to the level of dragon rider. (In fairness to Jace, his shame about his own parentage, and his fear of becoming just another Targaryen-blooded bastard with a dragon and thus no more a claim to the throne than any other, play as much of a role as snobbery does here.)What Rhaenyra does not do is ask her potential dragon riders to proceed onto the barbecue grill — I’m sorry, the viewing platform — beneath Dragonstone to approach the mighty dragon Vermithor one at time. So what if the dragon keepers have gone on strike in protest of this “blasphemous” move? Surely the Black Queen is aware of best practices when it comes to large groups and hungry fire-breathing dinosaurs by this point in her life. I would call this a flaw in the writing, but the reckless disregard of even “good” Targaryens like Rhaenyra and Rhaenys for civilians caught in the crossfire of their boldness has been a through line of the series.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes’ and ‘House of the Dragon’

    HBO airs a new documentary. The “Game of Thrones” spinoff wraps up its second season.For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, July 29-August 4. Details and times are subject to change.Monday30 FOR 30: AMERICAN SON 7 p.m. on ESPN. In 1989, when Michael Chang was 17 years old, he won the French Open and became the youngest person to win a singles major. He was also the only Chinese American playing tennis at that level at the time. This documentary goes through Chang’s family history, his experience as a child of immigrants and his career in tennis.TuesdayJennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo in “30 Going on 30.”Barry Wetcher/Columbia Pictures13 GOING ON 30 (2004) 8 p.m. on Bravo. Now, being close to 30, I sometimes wish I were 13, but this movie is the opposite of that. It follows Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner), a 13-year-old girl who wishes she could advance time and be an adult with a boyfriend. Part of her wish comes true, and she wakes up the next morning as a 30 year old. Along the way, she runs into her childhood friend Matt Flamhaff (Mark Ruffalo), and, of course, sparks fly. “As acted by Ms. Garner, the older Jenna has a coltish gawkiness that is never quite sublimated,” Elvis Mitchel wrote in his review for The New York Times. “She plays Jenna as someone who is secretly peeking inside her own head and can’t contain her giddiness.”WednesdayREAL CSI: MIAMI 9 p.m. on CBS. The scripted version of the show, which existed in the very extensive “CSI” universe, ended in 2012. But this reboot brings back the concept as a documentary series that follows real-life detectives in Miami. In the first season finale, the series examines the murder of Jill Halliburton Su, who was discovered her stabbed to death in her bathtub.ThursdaySIMONE BILES AT THE OLYMPICS GAMES 12:15 p.m. on NBC. During the 2020 Olympics, the gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the finals because she had the “twisties,” a colloquial expression for when a gymnast feels lost in the air, making it difficult and dangerous to attempt a routine. But now, Biles is back and ready to perform in the women’s all-around finals, with events including vault, uneven bars and balance beam over the following days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat

    The Paris Games began with a new look and sparkled with Celine Dion. But the show suffered from bloat similar to TV’s other spectacles.About six hours before Celine Dion gutted out the final number of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the streaming service Peacock emailed a promo for its coverage with the headline, “We’ll all be crying by the end of this.” So maybe they knew more than they were letting on.The homestretch of the marathon four-hour broadcast, when the celebrating athletes and dance extravaganzas and speeches were out of the way, had some starkly lovely images and moving moments: the speedboat carrying former champions up the Seine in the dark (like a real-life echo of Leos Carax’s great water-skiing scene in “Les Amants du Pont-Neuf”). The grand scale and dramatic lighting of the Louvre as the torch was carried, like a firefly’s flame, through its courtyards. The torch coming to the hand of a 100-year-old French cyclist, steady in his wheelchair, and Dion defying her illness to belt out “Hymne à l’Amour” on the Eiffel Tower.Celine Dion’s performance of “Hymne à l’Amour” provided a triumphant finale.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBut it took endurance to get there — for the athletes, performers and spectators drenched by the summer rain, and for the viewers at home watching the ceremony as it was conceived by the French organizers and packaged by NBC and Peacock.The decision to abandon the event’s traditional format — the long, formal parade of athletes marching into a stadium — for a waterborne procession along the Seine intercut with performances had a twofold effect. It turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle, like a halftime show or awards show or holiday parade that exists to promote and perpetuate itself.Those spectacles can be fun, of course, and the traditional Olympics opening ceremony could feel dull and interminable. But it was not quite like anything else, and it played a key part in making the Games feel special.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Warner Bros. Discovery Sues N.B.A. Over TV Rights Deal

    The company is trying to make the league accept its match of Amazon’s bid to broadcast games starting with the 2025-26 season.Warner Bros. Discovery sued the National Basketball Association on Friday in an attempt to force the league to accept its offer to match Amazon’s bid to broadcast games.On Wednesday, the N.B.A. announced that it had reached media rights agreements with Disney, Comcast and Amazon. The deals are scheduled to take effect in the 2025-26 season and will collectively pay the N.B.A. about $77 billion over the next 11 years. That left Warner Bros. Discovery, a current rights holder, set to lose the league at the end of next season.“Given the N.B.A.’s unjustified rejection of our matching of a third-party offer, we have taken legal action to enforce our rights,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed in New York State Supreme Court. “We strongly believe this is not just our contractual right, but also in the best interest of fans who want to keep watching our industry-leading N.B.A. content.”Mike Bass, a spokesman for the league, said, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s claims are without merit, and our lawyers will address them.”Amazon entered the negotiations during Warner Bros. Discovery’s exclusive negotiating window at Warner Bros. Discovery’s request, according to two people familiar with the talks. During that period, Warner Bros. Discovery balked at the N.B.A.’s request for last-minute changes to the company’s package, and the exclusive window closed without a deal.Although conversations between the two sides continued, Warner Bros. Discovery, whose TNT network has broadcast N.B.A. games since the 1980s, found itself on the outside as the N.B.A. quickly moved on to other partners. The company’s executives insisted privately that they planned to exercise their matching rights under the current nine-year agreement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Scandal Hits U.K.’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing,’ the Original ‘Dancing With the Stars’

    The BBC said it would add chaperones to rehearsals after allegations of abusive behavior at a hugely popular dance show that inspired international versions.For almost two decades, viewers in Britain have watched celebrities jive, waltz and cha-cha-cha on “Strictly Come Dancing,” a BBC reality television show that inspired the international “Dancing With the Stars” franchise.The format, which has been licensed to 61 other territories including the U.S., pairs professional ballroom dancers with people who are famous in other fields, from athletics and acting to politics and journalism. The amateur dancers then train intensively with their professional partners and compete in weekly live performances.Introduced in 2004, the show quickly became one of the BBC’s most popular programs, widely loved as a glitzy, family-friendly watch on weekends.But in recent months it has grabbed headlines because of a growing scandal: allegations that two professional male dancers exhibited bullying or abusive behavior toward their female dance partners during rehearsals.One former contestant, the actor Amanda Abbington, has alleged in interviews with the British media that her dance partner, Giovanni Pernice, displayed “bullying” and “aggressive behavior” and was “abusive, cruel and mean.” She declined to give further details of the behavior in interviews, saying the ongoing nature of a BBC investigation into the allegations prevented her from doing so.Ms. Abbington, who appeared in the British series “Sherlock,” cited “personal reasons” last year for leaving the dance competition during filming, but said this week that she had flagged the behavior to producers before filing an official complaint with the BBC. She said she believed that there were 50 hours of rehearsal video that could bolster her case, though they have not been made public.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Saying Goodbye to the Messy, Murderous World of ‘Elite’

    A diverse cast of characters and a murder to solve each school year have helped make this teen drama one of Netflix’s longest-running original shows.Shooting the eighth and final season of Netflix’s teen crime drama “Elite” last November, crew members yelled “silencio” so often it could have been mistaken for a chant.Dozens of young actors, dressed in black tie, talked and laughed as they milled around a set on the outskirts of Madrid that depicted a nightclub. The Brazilian actor André Lamoglia seemed used to the chaos as he waited, perching on the bar in a black suit with white trim, to lead another of the show’s rowdy party scenes.After the cameras finally started rolling, and with the extras making much less noise, Lamoglia’s character, Iván, took a seemingly casual selfie with his half sister Chloe (Mirela Balic) that was actually part of a scheme to discover who murdered his friend.Unruly teenagers, expensive clothes and mysterious dead bodies are all typical for the Spanish-language show which, since its premiere in 2018, has become one of Netflix’s most popular original titles, and one of the longest-running. (The final season is being released Friday.)In its first season, “Elite” used a setup familiar from other successful teen shows, including “Gossip Girl” and “Beverly Hills, 90210”: inserting beautiful outsiders into an exclusive social setting. In this case, three scholarship students join Las Encinas, an expensive private high school. But at Las Encinas, every year (and season) there is also a murder for students and the police to investigate.This blending of soapy teen drama and tense murder mystery has helped the show run for eight seasons, and by its fourth, “Elite” was ranking in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 chart in more than 70 countries, according to data from the streamer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More