House of the Dragon (TV Program)

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    The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV

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    A few years ago, “Atlanta” and “PEN15” were teaching TV new tricks.In “Atlanta,” Donald Glover sketched a funhouse-mirror image of Black experience in America (and outside it), telling stories set in and around the hip-hop business with an unsettling, comic-surreal language. In “PEN15,” Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle created a minutely observed, universal-yet-specific picture of adolescent awkwardness.In February, Glover and Erskine returned in the action thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” on Amazon Prime Video. It’s … fine? A takeoff on the 2005 film, it updates the story of a married duo of spies by imagining the espionage business as gig work. The stars have chemistry and charisma; the series avails itself of an impressive cast of guest stars and delectable Italian shooting locations. It’s breezy and goes down easy. I watched several episodes on a recent long-haul flight and they helped the hours pass.But I would never have wasted an episode of “Atlanta” or “PEN15” on in-flight entertainment. The work was too good, the nuances too fine, to lose a line of dialogue to engine noise.I do not mean to single out Glover and Erskine here. They are not alone — far from it. Keri Russell, a ruthless and complicated Russian spy in “The Americans,” is now in “The Diplomat,” a forgettably fun dramedy. Natasha Lyonne, of the provocative “Orange Is the New Black” and the psychotropic “Russian Doll,” now plays a retro-revamped Columbo figure in “Poker Face.” Idris Elba, once the macroeconomics-student gangster Stringer Bell in “The Wire,” more recently starred in “Hijack,” a by-the-numbers airplane thriller.I’ve watched all of these shows. They’re not bad. They’re simply … mid. Which is what makes them, frustratingly, as emblematic of the current moment in TV as their stars’ previous shows were of the ambitions of the past.What we have now is a profusion of well-cast, sleekly produced competence. We have tasteful remakes of familiar titles. We have the evidence of healthy budgets spent on impressive locations. We have good-enough new shows that resemble great old ones.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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      Why Did It Take HBO So Long to Make Shows About Women?

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      An early top executive at the network believed that “the man of the house” paid for cable TV subscriptions. That mind-set affected HBO’s programming for decades.On “House of the Dragon,” Emma D’Arcy plays a would-be queen who is weighing what to do in the face of betrayal. On “Euphoria,” Zendaya plays a high school student who starts using drugs shortly after leaving rehab. On “The White Lotus,” which returns for its second season on Sunday night, Jennifer Coolidge plays a dazed heiress trying to escape her troubles in the comforts of a Sicilian luxury hotel.These characters are the new faces of HBO, the Emmy-magnet cable network that, until recently, specialized in making programs about men for men. In fits and starts over the last two decades, the network has at last begun to move away from the leering lotharios of its early years and the tortured male antiheroes of its middle period to present shows built around complicated women who drive the action.In the 1980s, when HBO was just starting to make original programming, its top executives made a point of appealing to male viewers. It was a strategy that affected the network’s creative output for years to come.Jennifer Coolidge, center, in a scene from Season 2 of “The White Lotus.” Fabio Lovino/HBOEmma D’Arcy, right, with Olivia Cooke in HBO’s latest ratings hit, “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBO“I’ve figured out through research, and in my own mind, that the man of the house decided whether to have HBO or not,” said Michael Fuchs, the channel’s top executive when it started to concentrate on original programming, in a 2010 interview with the Television Academy.“I made sure that there were things for men,” he continued. “If commercial television had a female slant, HBO had a male slant.”The network bet big on stand-up comedy specials featuring mostly male comics in the years when it was defining the look and feel of premium cable. Without the restrictions of broadcast TV, George Carlin, Chris Rock and Robin Williams were free to do their routines unfettered.In the 1980s, the network cemented its identity as one that appealed to men when it signed the heavyweight champion Mike Tyson to an exclusive deal. At the same time, HBO started airing the documentary series “Eros America,” which was soon renamed “Real Sex.” It kicked off a run of sex-focused documentary shows, which would include “G String Divas,” “Cathouse” and “Sex Bytes.”HBO’s early forays into scripted programming followed a similar tack. John Landis, an executive producer of “Dream On,” a comedy about a male book editor that made its debut in 1990, used the show’s gratuitous nudity as a selling point. “We have breasts in the script just for the sake of seeing breasts,” he said in a 1992 interview. “Excuse me, but what’s so bad about that?”Susie Fitzgerald, an HBO programming executive from 1984 to 1995, said “Dream On” appealed to her bosses because it was cheap to make and “it featured nudity — female nudity, of course.” She recalled HBO’s research executives preaching that men “controlled the remote.” That line of thinking became a factor in programming decisions, she added.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.Playing Kingmaker: Fabien Frankel plays Ser Criston Cole, who got to place the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head. He is still not sure how he landed the role.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who portray the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. The actor Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” Matt Smith, who portrays him, said.Ms. Fitzgerald, who helped oversee HBO comedy specials starring Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne Barr and Whoopi Goldberg, was part of the team behind the network’s first series to win widespread acclaim, “The Larry Sanders Show,” about an insecure talk-show host and cocreated by and starring Garry Shandling. Around the time of its debut, Ms. Fitzgerald said she floated the idea that a woman should be the lead of an HBO comedy series. She faced resistance when she brought it up, she said.The beginning of the shift toward productions centered on women did not come about until 1996, with the premiere of “If These Walls Could Talk,” a movie chronicling abortion in three different decades. It was produced by Demi Moore, who also had a leading role in the film.HBO didn’t give the green light to “If These Walls Could Talk” in the hope that it would attract large numbers of viewers and subscribers. The network’s main interest was in doing business with Ms. Moore, who was then at the height of her fame.“If These Walls Could Talk” did have something in common with HBO’s other productions, though: It had a strong point of view — fiercely in favor of abortion — and it was not a fit for broadcast TV or basic cable, which made money by keeping skittish advertisers happy.When the ratings came in, the executives were floored: “If These Walls Could Talk” had attracted the largest audience ever for an HBO production, contradicting its “man-of-the-house” programming strategy.Shortly afterward, HBO bought the option for “Sex and the City,” a book by Candace Bushnell on the lives of single women in Manhattan. The series ran from 1998 to 2004, becoming a cultural touchstone and winning 7 Emmys (out of 54 nominations). It also spawned two feature films, a popular sequel series, “And Just Like That,” for HBO’s streaming service, HBO Max, and countless memes.Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in the long-running HBO series “Sex and the City.”HBO, via Everett CollectionBut just as “Sex and the City” was in the middle of its run, HBO went back to the old playbook, adding “The Mind of the Married Man” to its prime-time schedule. The half-hour series was centered on a married Chicago newspaperman, his married pals and their sex lives. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, the critic Ken Tucker called the show a “rancid little barf-com” and found fault with its “moronic sexism.” And soon after 10 million viewers tuned in for the “Sex and the City” finale, HBO returned to a bro-y sensibility with “Entourage,” about young men on the loose in Hollywood.When Casey Bloys, the current head of programming at HBO, joined the network in 2004, its audience was still largely male, thanks to a cluster of shows — “Oz,” “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” — that chronicled the exploits of male antiheroes and outlaws.“There was definitely a core male 25- to 54-year-old audience,” Mr. Bloys said.Some HBO series appealed to women — Alan Ball’s “True Blood” and Michael Patrick King’s and Lisa Kudrow’s “The Comeback” — but old habits were hard to shake.In 2010, Mr. Bloys and his colleagues in the programming department were impressed by a proposal from a 23-year-old writer and filmmaker, Lena Dunham, for a series about young women in New York. Other executives were against it, partly because of the age of Ms. Dunham’s central characters, who were more than a decade younger than the “Sex and the City” foursome.“The prevailing wisdom of the time was that men basically subscribed,” Mr. Bloys said. “So in conversations around ‘Girls,’ they said we had never done a show with that young a lead and a female lead that young. The idea was young adults were not deciding to subscribe to HBO because they weren’t the head of the household.”After Mr. Bloys and his associates prevailed, “Girls” became a critical hit and fodder for thousands of think pieces. “Veep,” starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a U.S. vice president, was right around the corner.Even so, shows about men remained HBO’s stock in trade, along with certain tropes that had devolved into cliché. In a 2011 essay, “HBO, you’re busted,” Mary McNamara, a critic for The Los Angeles Times, blasted the network for its overreliance on scenes set in strip clubs and brothels.Must every HBO drama, Ms. McNamara lamented, feature shadowy men conducting business against a backdrop of unclad women? She cited “The Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones,” “Rome,” “Deadwood” and “Boardwalk Empire” as the biggest offenders, noting that “HBO has a higher population of prostitutes per capita than Amsterdam or Charlie Sheen’s Christmas card list.”The cast of “The Mind of the Married Man,” a critical flop.Anthony Friedkin/HBOJames Gandolfini as the HBO antihero Tony Soprano.Anthony Neste/Getty ImagesBy the time Mr. Bloys took over the programming department in 2016, 57 percent of viewers of HBO’s Sunday prime-time lineup were male, according to Nielsen. As Mr. Bloys settled into his new role, the network began a reboot of the cultural shift it had attempted two decades earlier with “If These Walls Could Talk” and “Sex and the City.”“My philosophy as a programmer was, if you’ve got a male core, that’s great,” Mr. Bloys said. “You do want to make sure you’re tending to that core audience, but you also have to broaden out from that. You can do both.”As the #MeToo movement ousted men in positions of power in the media industry, the signature HBO protagonist began to change. There were still shows centered on tortured male antiheroes — “Succession,” for one — but more and more, a new character came to the fore: the tough but flawed heroine who is looking to right past wrongs.“Big Little Lies,” starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, chronicled a group of women in Monterey, Calif., who band together after one of their husbands, an abuser, is murdered. In “Sharp Objects,” Amy Adams played a self-harming newspaper reporter who investigates the murders of two girls in her Missouri hometown. In “Mare of Easttown,” Kate Winslet immersed herself in the role of a damaged police detective working to solve the murder of a teenage mother in blue-collar Pennsylvania. “I May Destroy You,” a coproduction with the BBC, starred Michaela Coel as a struggling writer who attempts to shed light on her own past rape.Michaela Coel was the star, writer and producer of “I May Destroy You.”HBO, via Associated PressMs. Coel was the creative force behind “I May Destroy You.” Another female writer-producer, Marti Noxon, was the creator of “Sharp Objects,” a limited series based on the novel by Gillian Flynn. But several other HBO shows with female protagonists were led by men: David E. Kelley was the showrunner of “Big Little Lies”; Brad Inglesby created “Mare of Easttown”; and Saverio Costanzo was the creator of HBO’s adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend,” a show adapted from the Neapolitan novels series by Elena Ferrante.HBO reapplied the lesson it had learned from “Girls” when it signed off on “Euphoria,” a series about the drug-fueled escapades of teenagers created by Sam Levinson, with Zendaya in a starring role. Earlier this year, that show became the most-watched HBO program since the network’s biggest hit, “Game of Thrones.”The results of the shift have been evident in the makeup of the audience for HBO, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in November, and the streaming platform that shares its name. According to Nielsen, those watching the cable channel had a 50-50 male-female split in 2021, and 52 percent of HBO Max’s viewers in September were women.“I think that any brand — this is not specific to television — has to evolve,” Mr. Bloys said. “You can’t just kind of become comfortable and think, ‘Well, we know how to do one thing and let’s keep doing it.’” More

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      ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 1, Episode 9 Recap: A Convenient Mistake

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      This week’s episode focused on the immediate aftermath of the king’s death and on the misunderstanding that helped shape the consequences.Season 1, Episode 9: ‘The Green Council’Before we get started this week, let us have a moment of silence for Lord Beesbury.The ancient master of coin and his meandering financial reports had mostly been a source of light humor on the Small Council until Sunday, when he stood in defiance as one of the few people in the Red Keep with any sense of honor or loyalty. Then Ser Criston killed him for it.Adding insult to injury, the council left his corpse lying on the table while they plotted. But all in all, Lord Beesbury (Bill Paterson) was one of the lucky ones. His early exit meant that he didn’t have to stick around for an episode that, while it had its good points, was mostly a mess.As expected, the hour focused on the immediate aftermath of Viserys’s death, specifically the scramble undertaken by Otto and Alicent to install Aegon as king in defiance of Viserys’s stated wish that Rhaenyra succeed him. The episode title, “The Green Council,” signaled that we would be getting the Hightower show this week, and that was more or less how it turned out. (The season finale is called “The Black Queen,” suggesting that we’ll get the other side next Sunday.)The title also referred specifically to the non-Beesbury faction of the Small Council that, unbeknown to Queen Alicent, us or anyone else, has been working with Otto on a succession scheme for some time. The conspirators kicked these “long-laid plans,” as Tyland Lannister described them, into motion before the king’s body was even covered up.The plot, which amounted to a kind of palace coup, received serendipitous assistance in the form of Alicent’s bogus claim about the king’s deathbed reversal. (More on that in a minute.) It all led to a mad dash to implement Operation Usurp and Awe, which included securing the treasury, locking Rhaenys in her room, compelling bent knees from former Rhaenyra supporters (and seizing dissenters), searching out Aegon from his presumed whereabouts within the dicier precincts of King’s Landing and then, finally, crowning him in front of everybody to make it official. (I suppose Lord Beesbury’s death counts as the first casualty in the coming conflict to be known as the Dance of the Dragons.)However, a more fitting episode title would have been “Wait, What?” Because that’s what I kept muttering over and over in response to all the confusing details and jarring detours along the way.As in, wait, what? The White Worm found and “tucked away” Aegon beneath the altar in the sept, of all places? And she was motivated to do so partly because she wants to end the underground urchin fight club? Which we found out about only 40 seconds ago? And are Aegon’s bastards participating in it? Or just languishing outside the octagon?Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.Playing Kingmaker: Fabien Frankel plays Ser Criston Cole, who got to place the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head. He is still not sure how he landed the role.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who portray the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. The actor Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” Matt Smith, who portrays him, said.And wait, what? Larys does the bidding of the queen because she indulges his foot fetish? And the coronation is in the Dragonpit? And the Cargyll twins, those conflicted Kingsguard brothers who found Aegon before losing him to Criston and Aemond, are actually named Arryk and Erryk? (I guess that explains why I never knew which one was which. And why I still don’t.)I ID’d the Cargylls by consulting various online resources after I watched the episode screener. That was also how I confirmed that the Dragonpit was where Aegon was crowned, after cross-referencing its imposing exterior with HBO’s King’s Landing map. Were we supposed to understand that was the Dragonpit from the jump? Or was that part of the surprise of Rhaenys crashing up through the floor on her dragon? And why have a coronation in a Dragonpit anyway? Was that the only venue available on such short notice?I guess Rhaenys’s smile amid the scrum in the streets, as the plebes were herded toward the ceremony, happened because she, at least, realized where they were being herded, which would allow her to reunite with her precious Meleys. You might recall from earlier in the episode that Alicent did not want her to do that, because it would influence Rhaenyra’s willingness to negotiate for peace rather than declare war. (At least Rhaenys’s big entrance gave the great Eve Best something to do beyond tête-à-têtes in gloomy chambers.)Which is the good one and which is the bad one? Luke, left, and Elliott Tittensor in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBOThe upshot of all of the above was that I found myself constantly trying to sort out what I was seeing, at the expense of enjoying the story, or even following it at times. You shouldn’t have to do online research or remember details from the novel or watch after-show segments in order to understand an episode of television. I doubt I was the only confused viewer out there, but in case I was, feel free to let me know all the obvious cues I missed. (For the record, episode screeners don’t have a subtitles option, but those shouldn’t be required to understand the story either.)And all of this is before we even get to the thing that happened that was also the thing that I was most afraid would happen.Last week, I held out hope that Viserys’s addled prophecy sharing with Alicent would not amount to a big misunderstanding, à la Criston’s admission to the queen that he had slept with Rhaenyra. But no such luck.My main objection — besides the fact that, again, they already used this gimmick just a few weeks ago — is that the crazy misunderstanding is one of the lowest forms of sitcom writing, the kind of transparent plot contrivance you might forgive within a half-hour of yuk-yuks but don’t expect to see on a Sunday night on HBO.Then there is the abundance of Aegons in this story, which is slightly ridiculous on its own and consequently feels even more so when it is the source of a “Who’s on first?” deathbed routine. George R.R. Martin has explained that he patterned all his saga’s name-repeating after real-life royal dynasties — consider how many times England has had a King George or Charles.But such parallels are more legible within the context of a novel than when coming out of the mouths of characters in a TV show. (See also: Arryk and Erryk, the latter of which my spell-checker keeps changing to “Erik,” which is what they both sound like.) It is within the producers’ power to change the occasional name from the book.The most meaningful question posed by Alicent’s misunderstanding, from a character standpoint: Did she actually believe that after backing Rhaenyra for decades, Viserys changed his mind at the last minute? Or did she hear what she wanted to hear? Or just lie?For what it’s worth, in an interview with The New York Times, Olivia Cooke said she thought Alicent’s mishearing of Viserys happened in good faith and was not the product of the queen’s having created her own preferred reality. (“I genuinely think she thinks he’s talking about Aegon, her son,” Cooke said.) Conversely, when I clung to hope last week that they wouldn’t take this silly path, I think I knew they probably would but was projecting my own desire that they not. So perhaps I’m taking it harder than most people will — it definitely contributed to my general annoyance with this disjointed episode.Ultimately, because Otto’s scheme was already in place, the Greens’ power grab didn’t hinge on Alicent’s misunderstanding. But it certainly helped to sell the plan, and also, perhaps, to convince Alicent to go along with it. (I think she probably would have anyway, despite the support she expressed for Rhaenyra last week.) I guess we’ll see if Rhaenyra ever gets a chance to clear things up for her.As I said in the beginning, there were some nice moments this week. The dynamic between Aemond and Criston felt lived-in and affectionate, a reminder that, with the general lack of interest Viserys had in his second batch of children — Paddy Considine discussed this last week in an interview with The Times — Criston the sword-trainer likely functioned as a kind of mentor figure.I also enjoyed the promise of a growing rivalry between Alicent and Otto, based partly on their differing sympathies for Rhaenyra. It could complicate the Hightowers’ attempt to consolidate and hold onto their power.But overall … not my favorite episode. Here’s hoping next week’s season finale brings more enjoying and less Googling.Look out behind you. Bill Paterson, right, in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBOA few thoughts while we renew our license to killApparently Ser Criston can just murder anyone without consequences, including the longstanding lord of a noble house? I guess we’ll see next week or next season if killing Lord Beesbury comes back on him.In “Fire & Blood,” the Martin novel, Larys is also known as Larys Clubfoot. While the character has limped throughout the show, I believe this is the first time it has been explicit about both his twisted foot and his twisted foot obsession. (Update: As several readers have pointed out, the show briefly highlighted Larys’s disability during the royal hunt, in Episode 3.) His and Alicent’s arrangement was clearly well-established. You might recall that after Larys had his father burned up to make room for Otto’s return as Hand, he told Alicent, “I feel certain you will reward me when the time is right.” I guess this is what he was talking about?And here Otto thought he had the upper hand when what he really needed was a nice pair of feet. Mysaria, the White Worm, has been a reliable source of intel for him — even he was shocked that she knew the king was dead. (I assume Alicent’s handmaiden, part of the Red Keep spy network Larys mentioned, notified her when she lit those candles in the window.) But it looks as if Mysaria will need to find a new wormhole, if she survived the fire. (She probably did.)“You look so much like your mother in certain lights,” Otto told Alicent, dusting off his old manipulation standby. Her rolled-eyes response suggests that it doesn’t work anymore.Aegon was briefly one of the clearest thinkers in the episode. The king could have made me heir anytime in the past 20 years, he told his mother, but he didn’t because he didn’t like me, so why would he now? But then the magical dagger somehow convinced him it was all real, and by the end Aegon — whom nobody likes, for good reason — was basking in the crowd’s adulation.I guess either Arryk (Luke Tittensor) or Erryk (Elliott Tittensor), whichever one we saw letting his brother fight Ser Cristen and then walking away, did so because he somehow sold out to Alicent? (This was probably what Otto was referring to later with his line about Alicent’s reward of “a pouch of silver.”) Presumably it was the other brother who then freed Rhaenys before losing her in the streets of King’s Landing.With one puff, Rhaenys and Meleys could have ended the Dance of Dragons before it began. Rhaenys’s restraint called back to Alicent’s comments about the women’s inclinations toward peace, even as Meleys foreshadowed the pain the realm is about to endure, by wiping out a few dozen civilians with its arrival.What did you think? Will Rhaenys join Rhaenyra’s cause? Am I making too much of the Dragonpit? Which other sitcom cliché would you like to see “House of the Dragon” incorporate? A Very Special Comments Section awaits your input. More

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      ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Fabien Frankel on Playing Kingmaker

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      The man who placed the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head is still not quite sure how he got there.This interview includes spoilers for the first nine episodes of “House of the Dragon.”To this day, Fabien Frankel doesn’t really know how he wound up on “House of the Dragon.”“I got an email from my agent that said ‘Untitled HBO Television Series,’” he said. He was asked to audition for a character named “Clint.”Wearing all black, the startlingly photogenic English actor, who plays the lethal Kingsguard knight Ser Criston Cole, settled back into a couch at HBO’s New York headquarters last week to continue the story. “I did the audition, and heard nothing back other than that they were looking for a slightly more Jason Momoa type for the part. That certainly wasn’t me, and I really didn’t think about it again.”Six months later, by which point the word was out that a “Game of Thrones” prequel was in the works, he was offered the part. “What I still don’t know, and I’m fascinated to know, is whether they couldn’t find their Jason Momoa type, or if they decided to change their casting brief. If the opportunity arises to ask them, I will.”Judging from how things have been going in Westeros, Frankel has time to spare. In the show’s most recent episode, his Ser Criston struck the first blow in the internecine conflict for control of Westeros — known as the Dance of the Dragons in George R.R. Martin’s source novel, “Fire & Blood” — and placed the crown on the head of the new king, the creepy Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). In the book, this earns Cole the sobriquet of “Kingmaker.” To hear Frankel tell it, though, the acclaim has not yet hit home.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.“House of the Dragon” is an enormous hit. How has your life changed?My life in London is more or less the same. I’m probably getting slightly more calls from my agents, and a weekly call from my brother and friends to talk about the episodes. But my day-to-day life is not very different at all.London’s a good city at keeping you grounded because people tend to be quite private and un-invasive. You hear all these stories of, “I couldn’t walk down the street,” but I don’t have any of that. I can count on two hands the amount of times people on the street have taken notice.I’m a bit surprised to hear that. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but you’ve become kind of a sex symbol among the fandom.I haven’t. I mean, I suppose it was inevitable for whoever was going to have a romance with Rhaenyra [the princess who seduces Cole, played by Milly Alcock and, later, Emma D’Arcy], but I can tell you now that no one in my close circle is swooning.Cole with Milly Alcock, as the younger version of Rhaenyra. The character shaped Cristen Cole’s trajectory in the show.Ollie Upton/HBOLet’s talk about Ser Criston’s journey from one side of the conflict to the other. When he first becomes romantically involved with Rhaenyra, he seems a little idealistic, a little naïve.I never felt that he was naïve. I felt that he was taken out of a life he understood into a life he didn’t.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.Playing Kingmaker: Fabien Frankel plays Ser Criston Cole, who got to place the crown on the new King of Westeros’s head. He is still not sure how he landed the role.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who portray the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. The actor Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” Matt Smith, who portrays him, said.He’s a soldier. In the army, you don’t just become a sergeant or a captain; you work to become a sergeant or a captain. In King’s Landing, it’s hereditary names, titles, people who haven’t earned the right to be anywhere. You take this character, who has nothing in common with that entire world, and put him in the central circle. It takes him a beat to figure things out.Then, obviously, there is a darkness within him that a certain moment triggers, and he becomes what he is.Why does he react so fanatically when Rhaenyra rejects his marriage proposal and counters with a sort of indecent proposal of her own?There’s nothing extraordinary about it: He’s asked a girl to run away with him, and he’s been told no. That’s the basis. It doesn’t matter who she is — they’re two kids, and they’re young, and he has very strong feelings for her. And she said, “No, but I’ll keep you on the side, do what I need to do,” which is disrespectful unto itself.My justification, and this is probably somewhat controversial, was that Rhaenyra could have let him go at the end of that conversation, or at some point before her wedding. Instead, she made him sit through the whole thing. And he flips. It becomes very evident that he has a temper that we had not yet seen. That temper, for reasons he feels are profound, makes him flip.Frankel didn’t know what he was auditioning for when he first read for “House of the Dragon.” Peter Fisher for The New York TimesI like how you put it earlier, that there’s a darkness within him. It’s much closer to the surface now than it used to be.Yes. The sourness and bitterness of this world has washed off on him. You are your surroundings; you are the people you’re surrounded by. Ser Criston happens to be surrounded by an incredibly ambitious group of very Machiavellian human beings whose sole ambition is power. Eventually, you go: “Well, that’s the life I live. That’s what I am now. I’m in too deep.”And you become the Kingmaker. You draw first blood in the conflict between the so-called “Greens” and “Blacks,” bashing in the head of poor Lord Beesbury (Bill Paterson). Was that an accident, or did Cole kill him on purpose?I don’t want to say. If it comes from me, then it’s decided, and I’d rather “House of the Dragon” fans, who are so astute, watch it and decide for themselves.Then he puts the crown on King Aegon II’s head in full view of the public. He’s famous now. Is that a role he embraces?I think he sees it as his duty, by proxy of being Alicent’s sworn protector, to protect these boys. He’s been very close to a father figure to them. Criston Cole taught these kids to fight, taught these kids respect. There’s that bit where Aemond [Aegon’s younger brother, played by Ewan Mitchell] is talking, and Criston didn’t like how he was speaking, and he says something like — I don’t remember ——“Every woman is an image of the Mother, to be spoken of with reverence.”Yes. So I think that’s his duty now. He doesn’t want to be a big star or very famous. It’s not in his nature. That’s just what happened.That’s a very funny line given what we’ve seen and heard from Criston.I’m glad you found it funny because I remember thinking it was hilarious. There was a conversation between Sara [Hess, the episode’s writer]; Clare [Kilner], our director; and myself when we were in Spain shooting that scene about how it should be delivered. I said it can only be funny. I mean, he’s not exactly proved that every woman is an image of the Mother.Frankel said his life hasn’t changed much since “House of the Dragon” began airing. “My day-to-day life is not very different at all,” he said.Peter Fisher for The New York TimesThat sequence really built up the relationship between Criston and Aegon’s kid brother, Aemond One-Eye. There’s a mutual respect there, even among such shifty characters.Criston sees Aemond in himself, and himself in Aemond. Ewan and I talked a lot about that. He and I would spend a lot of time together, walking around Spain together, discussing this relationship. There’s a real closeness between them.They’re also the two coolest characters on the Green side, to be honest.Oh, mate, I’m loving you saying that. I’m very Team Green, and proud of it. That’s kind of how I’m programmed to think now. I’m glad to hear there’s some love for the Greens out there. I think we are a force to be reckoned with. It’s a good solid crew. I’d back us in a street fight.Perhaps it’s too late at this point to ask, but does some part of Ser Criston still love Rhaenyra?[Smiles ruefully.] First love is first love. I think everyone will always love the person that they fell in love with for the first time. From the first time you hear a beautiful piece of music, you’ll always love it, even if you’ve heard it a hundred times, because you remember that first time you heard it. So yeah, he will always love Rhaenyra. More

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      ‘House of the Dragon’: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke on Forgiveness and Favorite Drinks

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      In a joint interview, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.This interview includes spoilers for the first eight episodes of “House of the Dragon.”By the time Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke debuted, in the sixth episode, in HBO’s fantasy smash “House of the Dragon,” you had seen them before. Well, their characters, anyway.D’Arcy and Cooke play Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower, childhood friends driven apart by a power struggle over who will inherit the Iron Throne from King Viserys (Paddy Considine), Rhaenyra’s father and Alicent’s husband.But because of the story’s unusual structure — the show covers decades in its first season, during which Rhaenyra and Alicent grow up and have children of their own — their roles were played by the younger performers Milly Alcock and Emily Carey in the first five episodes. As the time for the cast switch-over drew closer, D’Arcy grew more and more nervous.“I found that bit the most pressurized point of the whole job so far,” D’Arcy said during a conference call from London earlier this week. “The audience only gets to meet you in a state of grief, having just lost the person they spent five hours with. The closer we got to inflicting that on people, the more stressed I felt.”Cooke looks at it a bit differently. “Those were the halcyon days,” she said. “We weren’t confronted with millions and millions of people watching our performances week after week. Usually, you do a film, it comes out, it goes away.”“No one watches it!” D’Arcy chimed in, prompting raucous laughter from both actors — a common occurrence in the conversation.“No one watches it” is certainly not a problem faced by “Dragon,” a “Game of Thrones” prequel that has thus far has lived up to the blockbuster success of its predecessor. The complicated relationship between D’Arcy’s and Cooke’s characters is the primary engine of the story, and that centrality, along with a series of charming promotional videos and appearances, has made the actors among the show’s most popular performers. Even D’Arcy’s favorite drink order — “a Negroni Sbagliato with prosecco in it” — now has its own online fan base.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.The Princess and the Queen: Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, who play the grown-up versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, talked about the forces that drive their characters apart — and pull them together.A Man’s Decline: By the eighth episode of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king. Paddy Considine discussed the character’s transformation and its meaning.The New Littlefinger?: Larys Strong, a shadowy character, burns bright as a major player in the show. Here’s his back story.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen, portrayed by Matt Smith, is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” the actor said.Seeing how well the two actors get along, it is easy to forget that they play bitter enemies. At the end of the show’s most recent episode, there was a hint that the cold war between their characters might finally thaw. But given the dying king’s garbled prophecy and the patriarchal system that seems determined to divide Rhaenyra and Alicent, their renewed peace appears to be in peril.These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Rhaenyra and Alicent have been estranged for the duration of your time on the show, but there’s a moment near the end of this week’s episode when their former closeness seems to have been rekindled.OLIVIA COOKE Even in fury, there is still a desire to be as close to one another as possible. They’ve not seen each other for such a long time, since Alicent attacked Rhaenyra [during Episode 7]. Alicent has been alone in that castle with all these men, and she’s probably been festering and thinking about that for a very, very long time.EMMA D’ARCY We had an amazing conversation, in advance of shooting the episode, about it being sort of set in a hospice [for the dying King Viserys]. Proximity to death can alter your chain of priorities; it offers a canvas for forgiveness where there wasn’t one previously. Going in, we really wanted to make sure that that moment at the end felt honest, that we could buy that these two people get there. It’s not an “all is forgiven” moment, but it’s a gesture to forgiveness.COOKE They’re really seeing each other for the first time since they were children — probably since the first time Rhaenyra found out that Alicent was marrying her dad. It’s unification in grief, and recognizing each other’s inner child in this loss.It feels like a small moment of freedom for two characters who’ve been forced into their roles by the men in their lives.COOKE These characters are being watched all the time. They’re always operating under the constraints of this straitjacket and learning how to maneuver within it. In this episode, it’s about taking chances and jumping on an opportunity Alicent may never get again — desperation for a friend and ally.D’ARCY It’s no coincidence that the male figures with power within this court have created conditions where Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship becomes untenable. It’s no coincidence that patriarchal structures look to divide and conquer strong female relationships. They would be the ultimate allies because there’s no one else who can truly understand what it is to be the oppressed party. Patriarchal structural oppression operates in such a multiplicitous and slimy way. That understanding can’t be conjured in someone who doesn’t live through it.In a scene earlier this season, Alicent physically attacked Rhaenyra. “Even in fury, there is still a desire to be as close to one another as possible,” Cooke said.HBOMilly and Emily have discussed the possible presence of a sublimated romantic or sexual spark between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Does that motivate the characters, even as adults?COOKE I don’t know if Alicent knows what it feels like to feel those things now. There’s layers and layers of repression; sexuality and lust are probably a prehistoric, sedimentary layer by now. From Alicent’s point of view, I don’t think she’s that self-aware, in terms of what she’s feeling, to know what’s propelling her to reach out to Rhaenyra again.D’ARCY That sort of erotic energy is very present in their early relationship. I think Rhaenyra is primarily motivated by a deep desire to be known and seen. The hurt and pain is so dominant that I don’t know if there’s a space, at this point, for a conscious interaction with sexual lust, but she definitely yearns for the old physical intimacy that they shared. It’s different from what she shares with her current husband and her children. A different form of contact.Olivia, I’ve seen a lot of debate over the end of this episode, when Viserys mistakes Alicent for Rhaenyra and tells her about his ancestor Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy of a messianic “Prince That Was Promised.” She mistakenly believes Viserys is referring to their son, Aegon. Does she fully believe it, or is she hearing what she wants to hear?COOKE We spoke a lot about this. There was a massive amount of relief when Alicent told Rhaenyra, “You will make a great queen.” She’s so over the fighting and having this ball of bitterness and anxiety in her stomach: Just let it go, Rhaenyra is the heir, this is fine.When Viserys says that, I genuinely think she thinks he’s talking about Aegon, her son. And I think she’s furious. She’s like, “After all that?” But Viserys is on his deathbed; that’s what he requested, and so she must follow it through. Whether that’s unconscious wishful thinking, I don’t know, but that’s how I played it.Emma, this is shifting gears pretty dramatically, but there’s a video clip of you telling Olivia that your favorite drink is “a Negroni Sbagliato with prosecco in it” that went viral on TikTok and Twitter and inspired a number of articles. Is this something you’re aware of?D’ARCY I thought it’d be quite funny to be drinking one right now, but I’m not. [Laughs.] I keep thinking I should tell my mum that I’ve become a meme in the hope that she’ll be happy for me, but I’d have to explain what a meme is, and I’ve decided it’s too much effort.I feel so embarrassed. Because in those interviews, when we’ve been at it for six hours, I’m honestly only trying to make Olivia laugh.COOKE [Laughs.] Is that right?D’ARCY No, I’m obviously doing Campari’s next campaign.COOKE I’d be like, “Ten million pounds, please!”Speaking not as your characters but as yourselves: Whom would you side with? Alicent or Rhaenyra?COOKE It’s funny: The whole point of this story is that these two women have been split apart and people have been forced to take sides. Now the whole internet is doing the exact same thing, even though “House of the Dragon” is supposed to be a cautionary tale. I’d like to think that I wouldn’t pit either of them against each other. [Pause.] But yeah, probably Rhaenyra. [Both laugh.]D’ARCY I don’t know the answer to that. I’m married to my uncle. Who’s to say? More

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      ‘House of the Dragon’: Paddy Considine Won’t Watch Sunday’s Episode

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      “I’m sure somebody will show me a photograph,” he said, about his character’s big moment on Sunday night. The actor discussed the inspiration and meaning for King Viserys’s decline.This interview includes spoilers for Sunday’s episode of “House of the Dragon.”The Iron Throne can be a cruel and uncomfortable seat. In the world of George R.R. Martin’s books, it is thought to have a mind of its own, rejecting those unfit to rule with well-placed nicks.In “Game of Thrones,” this seat made from the blades of vanquished rivals was intimidating to behold, but it was not much of a threat to life or limb. “House of the Dragon” hews closer to Martin’s vision and adds a new twist — the cuts that Viserys (Paddy Considine) suffers not only refuse to heal, but infect him with a particularly nasty strain of leprosy. His reign eats him alive.“I always viewed the throne as a cursed property,” Considine said on Monday morning. “It’s made of the swords that people died on, and it has this strange power about it.”By Sunday night’s episode, the eighth of the season, Viserys no longer looks like a proud Targaryen king — he more closely resembles the Phantom of the Opera (with that metal mask obscuring half his face) or the Crypt Keeper (with those gaping holes beneath it). (The startling effect was created with a blend of prosthetic makeup, visual effects and a body double.) Viserys lives a half-life under the influence of the pain-dulling (and mind-clouding) Westerosi morphine called milk of the poppy. Until, that is, he skips the meds for one last visit to the royal court, to defend the rights of his daughter and named heir, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), and to attend a family supper, where he urges the relatives to set aside their grievances.Considine gives a grave and poignant performance as Viserys. Because of the show’s out-of-order shooting schedule, the actor’s earliest scenes required him to depict some of the later stages of Viserys’s deterioration first — a physical transformation that was a closely guarded secret on set. (Security guards followed him around with view-blocking umbrellas.)With his onscreen visage revealed to all but himself, Considine discussed the show’s latest revelations in a phone conversation from London on Monday. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.The New Littlefinger?: Larys Strong, a shadowy character, burns bright as a major player in the show. Here’s his back story.The Sea Snake: Lord Corlys Velaryon, one of the most powerful people in the Seven Kingdoms, is a fearless sailor. Steve Toussaint, the actor who plays him, does better on land.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen, portrayed by Matt Smith, is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” the actor said.A Violent Birth Scene: Was the gory C-section in the show’s premiere the representation of a grim historical reality, an urgent political statement or a worn cultural cliché?Have you seen your death episode yet?No, I haven’t, and I’m not sure if I ever will. I haven’t seen anything beyond Episode 2, really. Some people don’t like to watch themselves, and I’m one of those people. It’s debilitating. I tend to just stay away. I’m sure somebody will show me a photograph.At what point did you figure out what the king’s stages of deterioration would look like?Very early on, you’re still forming the character, and I knew it was going to come to an end with some kind of transformation, so you’re always looking for references for that. I happened to be watching a documentary about one of my favorite artists, Richard Hambleton [a Canadian conceptual artist who died in 2017], and watching his physical decline through cancer, addiction and scoliosis. I said to Miguel Sapochnik [an executive producer, and a showrunner for the first season], “This would be a good idea for where Viserys ends up.” So I had somewhere in my head that I could map where I was going to get to.Considine in “House of the Dragon” on Sunday. The king made a final appearance on the throne.Ollie Upton/HBOThe extremity — Viserys looking so emaciated, how it’s so cancerous, this thing, that it eats into his face — that decision was made more than halfway into the shoot. So it went probably more extreme than I had originally imagined it would go.I watched my dad die of cancer, and it was a very rapid demise. So it certainly made sense to me, and I think it was pretty shocking and effective. It becomes a physical manifestation of all the infighting and skulduggery, really. The mystery is why so many people crave the Iron Throne. It’s not something Viserys craved; he just had a sense of duty. He knows the weight of being king, the weight of the responsibility, and the toll it can take.From the minute of his wife’s funeral, I think Viserys starts to die. It’s a slow death. Nowhere in the story does Viserys ask the maesters to cure him, to stop this thing from eating him alive. I think he accepts it as part of the guilt of the decision he makes to put his wife through a terrible, horrible procedure. It’s like people who surrender to illness. When they offer suggestions to cure him, he doesn’t bother with it. He lets it consume him. He surrenders. That was my thing for him, anyway.In some ways, he let the leeches into his life — the maesters, the Hightowers. After this last moment in the throne room, do you wonder if Viserys made a mistake not giving the position of hand of the king to his brother Daemon instead?Absolutely not! [Laughs.] Daemon was a liability. It never would have worked. Viserys knew Daemon couldn’t sit in Small Council meetings for 12 hours straight. He doesn’t have the temperament. Even at the end, there aren’t words in that relationship. Daemon helps him up there, and he puts the crown on his head, and that said everything that he’s never said, without uttering a word. But that guy could never have been able to be Viserys’s hand.Shouldn’t he at least have told Daemon or others about the prophecy?No way, not at that time. That’s something that we struggled with. There was a scene that was deleted after Aemma (Sian Brooke) died, where Viserys meets with Daemon and he tries to hint at this idea of prophecies and what the gods mean to him. He was trying to get some idea where Daemon’s at with his beliefs, but the tone of the scene was never quite right. There’s no way that Daemon would even connect to that — he’d laugh Viserys out of the room. He’s not into dreamers or things like that.On his deathbed, Viserys mistakes Alicent (Olivia Cooke) for Rhaenyra, and reaffirms the prophecy to her. When she leaves, he seems to think he’s speaking to someone else.The only suggestion [in the script] is that he doesn’t quite know who he’s talking to. I always had an idea in my head, whether it was useful to the story or not, that the last thing Viserys sees before he dies is the person who comes to collect him from this mortal life. When he dies, he sees Aemma, and he says, “My love.”I just kind of improvised that line, and reached out a little bit, because this to me is a tragic love story, in many ways. But I kept that private; I never actually disclosed that in the end. I just thought, “If they use it, they use it,” and I hear it’s made the cut, so I’m really grateful, because it ends that story quite beautifully. The narrative I had in my mind was that he never really gets over Aemma, that he’s devastated for the rest of his life.Considine behind the scenes of “House of the Dragon” with Milly Alcock, who played the younger version of Rhaenyra, and Miguel Sapochnik, a showrunner.Ollie Upton/HBODo you think Viserys’s feelings about Aemma affected how he treated his progeny with Alicent? Because he’s barely involved with them.He gives up on them. He’s so protective of Rhaenyra, and he’s no fool — he knows that her [first three sons] are not Laenor Velaryon’s children. He’s just at a certain point in his life, with his new family, that he doesn’t take much of an interest in his other children. And the kids even sussed that out, you know, the actors playing the kids. They said they thought I hated them! I was like, “Where have you had that from? I don’t hate you.” They meant Viserys, not Paddy.I certainly didn’t hate them, but I just had no time for them. That happens in families, doesn’t it? He’s there, but not there. Rhaenyra, she’s the link to Aemma, and as far as he’s concerned, she’s his only child.Alicent appears to misinterpret Viserys’s deathbed talk of prophecy, taking his reference to Aegon I to refer to their son Aegon II (now played by Tom Glynn-Carney), which could lead her to reassert his claim to the throne. What did you think of that moment, and what that prophesy amounts to, 200 years down the line?The fact that Alicent misinterprets it is horrific. What comes next would horrify Viserys. I mean, we have this knowledge of where this goes and the fact that [the prophecy] did come true. But the fact that it’s misunderstood is an absolute disaster. Viserys would be turning in his grave.In behind-the-scenes footage on HBO Max, you were dancing in the throne room, twirling your dragon cane. You said you were “serving Targaryen realness.”I love “Drag Race.” There was something about dressing up in these flamboyant costumes that brought out my inner drag, having that lovely blonde hair. I never got to dress in anything like that before, and it might never happen again. So you’ve got to enjoy it, haven’t you?If a later season of “House of the Dragon” were to do flashbacks to this period, would you consider coming back to play Viserys?I love him so much. I think he’s my favorite character I’ve ever played. But I would struggle with that. His story has been told. He made his impact. He was the peaceful king that everybody thought was a bore, and he brought some love and compassion to the show. I don’t know what more you could do with that. So I think this is the end. More

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      ‘House of the Dragon,’ Season 1, Episode 6 Recap: A Scandal Spills Over

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      This week’s episode kicks off the next phase of the story as a long-simmering status quo finally becomes untenable.Season 1, Episode 6: ‘The Princess and the Queen’This week on “House of the Dragon,” we were reminded that a lot can happen in 10 years.For one thing, Alicent and Rhaenyra now seem like completely different people. The young queen, a callow peacemaker as a girl, has grown angry and aggrieved. Meanwhile, the princess’ former rebellious streak has hardened into a kind of royal court realpolitik, even as she keeps having Harwin Strong’s children.Daemon, the former rogue prince, settled down and even managed to have a couple of kids of his own with Laena. Laenor, the former sensitive young warrior, is now a dissipated playboy looking to get unsettled any way he can. Elsewhere in the Red Keep, the next generation of Targaryen men are gallivanting about, looking just as ill-suited for leadership as their predecessors.At the same time, there is plenty that hasn’t changed. Ser Criston is still hanging around. (What does a Kingsguard have to do to get fired anyway?) The Stepstones are a mess again. Somehow Viserys, last seen hitting the deck at Rhaenyra’s terrible wedding, is still alive. (Those leeches have been working overtime.)As we picked up the action a decade after said wedding, we found an unhappy family enduring in a kind of uneasy equipoise. How did we get here?Well, you might recall that Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) had a couple of interactions with young Rhaenyra, encountering her during her night on the town with Daemon and later hauling her out of the wedding brawl. Apparently somewhere along the way sparks flew and then kept flying, at least three more times.The additional heirs exacerbated Alicent’s intense resentment of Rhaenyra’s position — born partly of Alicent’s legitimate fear about her family’s future safety — leading her to lash out at everyone and make alliances with dubious characters. She’s almost convinced herself that she is motivated by a hope that “honor and decency will prevail,” even though she’s teamed with the dishonorable likes of Ser Criston and Larys Strong to make it happen.The simmering status quo finally becomes untenable when the royal cousins square off during their combat training, in the process becoming pawns within the larger drama. Because when a sparring exercise results in their trainer, Ser Criston, goading Harwin into giving him the beating he’s long deserved, the incident throws a harsh spotlight on the ongoing scandal.“People have eyes, boy!” Lyonel Strong later shouted at his brazenly virile son. Soon the Strongs and Rhaenyra were on their way out of town, leaving Alicent to plot how to get her ousted father, Otto, back in to even the playing field.The events kicked off the next phase of the story, as the rivals for the Iron Throne gather their supporters and retreat to their corners while everyone waits for Viserys — now looking like the Crypt Keeper as he wanders from chair to chair, ignoring the growing discord around him — to die.Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel), bonded in resentment.Ollie Upton/HBOAlicent and Rhaenyra literally are different people, of course, now played by Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy. Other additions included Nanna Blondell (briefly) as Laena, John Macmillan as Laenor and Ty Tennant as Aegon, an enjoyably feckless twit who’s about as ambitious as a ham sandwich.Alicent: “As things stand, Rhaenyra will ascend the throne and Jacaerys will be her heir!”Aegon: “So?”This week also saw the emergence of other prominent players, most notably Harwin (also briefly) and Larys. Heinous Act of the Week honors go to Larys, who freed a few condemned men in exchange for 1.) them torching his family home, along with his father and brother, and 2.) their tongues.Larys seems to be filling the shifty manipulator role occupied by Littlefinger and Varys in “Game of Thrones” — his name is even a portmanteau of theirs — though so far he lacks their depth, subtlety and slippery charisma. The murder of his father cleared the way for Otto to return as Hand — things seem to be heading that way, at least — even as it revealed to Alicent the quality of the company she’s keeping these days. The elimination of Lyonel and Harwin also make Larys the lord of House Strong, a real victory.It isn’t clear what effect Harwin’s death will have on the issue of his royal issue — is it better or worse for Rhaenyra, from an optics standpoint, now that he’s out of the picture? Could part of Larys’s plan be to create suspicion that the princess or her supporters had him killed to keep him quiet? With Rhaenyra and friends on their way to Dragonstone, she won’t be around to defend herself.Maybe we’ll learn more about this next week. We’ll also see how Daemon adapts to being a widower twice over — at least he didn’t kill his latest wife himself.Laena was a tragic figure, another illustration of the constraints that even women of privilege face in this story. We met her at 12, being offered up as a political child bride. She died in anguish as a young woman, another victim of the birthing bed.“I’ve reached the limits of my art,” the obstetrician told Daemon. The fact that he then just let his patient stagger off to commit Dracaryside suggests that those limits are quite profound. I do realize that Laena assessed the situation and sought the dragonrider’s death she foreshadowed earlier, but the mechanics of the scene, with an exhausted, doubled-over Laena somehow outpacing Daemon to the beach, were odd.What’s next for the suddenly re-eligible bachelor prince? I don’t see him committing to life as a stay-at-home single dad — it wouldn’t seem to suit him any more than being a pet dragon for Prince Reggio (Dean Nolan) in Pentos would have, as Laena perceived. (Reminder: Pentos is one of the Free Cities in Essos.)The turbulent Stepstones, the site of Daemon’s only real glory, could be tempting. Or maybe he’ll head back to Dragonstone, too. Many things change over the course of a decade, but I’m guessing his and Rhaenyra’s twisted mutual attraction isn’t one of them.A tragedy in the making: Matt Smith and Nanna Blondell in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBOA few thoughts while we wince“The childbed is our battlefield,” the late Queen Aemma noted in the premiere, and “Dragon” remains determined to show as well as tell us this fact. Miguel Sapochnik, the outgoing showrunner who directed this episode, was known on “Thrones” primarily for big combat episodes, and he’s been the go-to director for these battles, too. (When the episode opened on Rhaenyra’s exertions, I knew it was one of his without looking at the credits.) These grueling birth scenes are significant narratively and for what they reveal about the harrowing precariousness and lack of autonomy a woman endures in this time and place. But all the unsparing close-ups and vivid detail can start to feel like the show is fetishizing women’s agony. I greatly admire Sapochnik’s talent, but I also wondered how a female director might have presented some of these sequences.I was sorry to see Laena go so soon — as portrayed by Blondell, she radiated intelligence and nerve. At least Laena got to bond with Vhagar, the enormous ancient dragon she seemed fascinated by, as a girl, in her awkward chat with Viserys a few weeks ago.I love a good entitled doofus character, and Ty Tennant made a strong debut as the adolescent Aegon. Fun fact: He is the son of Georgia Tennant, a veteran actor and producer, and David Tennant, the electric Scottish star of “Doctor Who,” “Broadchurch” and “Jessica Jones,” among others.Harrenhal, the House Strong castle, has a long, colorful history in the lore. It was also the site of one of my favorite random “Thrones” subplots, when Tywin Lannister was based there during the War of the Five Kings and Arya was undercover as his cupbearer. I’ve said it before but so far in “Dragon,” I miss those kinds of delightful side trips.“The Triarchy” is to this show what “Meereen” was to “Thrones,” in that every time someone mentions it, my eyes glaze over. On the bright side, you can’t bring up a giant Tyroshi general “who dyes his beard purple and wears woman’s frocks” and not show him at some point, right? So that’s something to look forward to.What do you think? Does Larys fill the Littlefinger-sized hole in your heart? Did Rhaenyra make a mistake by leaving King’s Landing? And what’s with all the Red Keep rats? I assume they have some greater significance but am at a loss. Any theories? More

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      ‘House of the Dragon,’ Season 1, Episode 5 Recap: Wedding Crashers

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      The repercussions of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s illicit adventures continue to reverberate throughout the realm.Season 1, Episode 5: ‘We Light the Way’It’s not a real Westeros wedding until somebody starts screaming.Actually the wedding of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Ser Laenor Velaryon hadn’t even begun when the wailing started, as the Rehearsal Dinner from Seven Hells erupted into paramour-on-paramour violence. By the time it was over, Joffrey (Solly McLeod), Laenor’s portentously named sparring partner, lay dead on the ballroom floor with a face like a collapsed Jell-O mold, and Ser Criston was ready to fall on his blade.They were the latest victims of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s big night out on the Street of Silk, the repercussions of which continue to reverberate throughout the realm. Last week, the fallout enveloped Otto, fired for revealing the transgressions to the king; Rhaenyra, finally cornered into a forced marriage; and Daemon, banished yet again (only to return yet again).This week the toll was more lethal. Ser Joffrey was joined in death by the bronze bride, Lady Rhea (Rachel Redford), after Daemon decided killing his wife was preferable to settling down with her. (Contrary to what we’ve heard, she was quite comely, but Targaryens prefer blondes. And relatives.) Those losses, in turn, upended the lives of Laenor, the grieving groom, and Rhea’s cousin, Ser Gerold Royce.Meanwhile, the slithery Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), who might as well have been wearing a sign around his neck that said “Sinister Schemer,” was igniting the embers of Alicent’s suspicion in the royal garden. I heard the princess was delivered some definitely-not-morning-after tea the other day, he told her, I hope she’s OK.The revelation and Ser Criston’s ensuing admission sent Alicent in search of a Hightower Green wedding-crashing dress, which she debuted with a resolute elegance that seems sure to make her father proud. Her strut through the ballroom, in the middle of the king’s speech, doubled as a statement of allegiance in the Iron Throne derby at the heart of this story. Spoiler alert: it’s not to the side that was hosting the wedding.Return to Westeros in ‘House of the Dragon’HBO’s long-awaited “Game of Thrones” prequel series is here.A Fantasy Face-Off: A few episodes into “House of the Dragon” and Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” here’s an early comparison between the two prequel series.The Sea Snake: Lord Corlys Velaryon, one of the most powerful people in the Seven Kingdoms, is a fearless sailor. Steve Toussaint, the actor who plays him, does better on land.A Rogue Prince: Daemon Targaryen, portrayed by Matt Smith, is an agent of chaos. But “he’s got a strange moral compass of his own,” the actor said.A Violent Birth Scene: Was the gory C-section in the show’s premiere the representation of a grim historical reality, an urgent political statement or a worn cultural cliché?All of which is to say: The scandal that began in that pleasure house is well on its way to enveloping everyone in the realm.One thing I’ve always enjoyed about George R.R. Martin’s storytelling is the way its momentous, world-changing events erupt from recognizable human impulses and flaws — jealousy, lust, insecurity, the desire to protect your family or conceal your shameful secrets. The sordid but genuine love between Cersei and Jaime Lannister animated “Game of Thrones”; the Red Wedding was revenge for a broken engagement; Daenerys’s sense of deep grievance drove her to traverse the globe and commit mass murder. (OK, her impulses and flaws were less recognizable than others …)Similarly, the current throne battle was set up by Viserys’s stubborn, perhaps misguided loyalty to his daughter, borne of his grief over his wife. Now the fallout from Daemon’s lust and desire to strike back at his brother, paired with Rhaenyra’s selfish recklessness and dishonesty, has seemingly deepened the primary rift to an irreparable degree.A vision in green: Emily Carey in “House of the Dragon.”Ollie Upton/HBODid you buy it? Alicent’s stridency seemed extreme in someone who has so far been circumspect and accommodating, particularly since it seemed motivated by the fact that Rhaenyra misled her — hardly a capital offense, but perhaps it represented the final break between the former friends. Otto also terrified her on his way out of town, with his warnings about the near future and the safety of her children, should Rhaenyra remain heir. Apparently all of the above, combined with the stark reality of Viserys’s ongoing circling of the royal drain, compelled her to conspicuously stand tall, as her uncle put it.Less convincing was the collapse of Ser Criston, who went from stalwart defender to violent basket case within a week or so. (The timeline was a little fuzzy this episode.)I guess we’re supposed to believe that Criston had been pushed past his limit: His dalliance with Rhaenyra, in breaking his Kingsguard chastity oath, shattered his self-image, and the princess compounded matters by rejecting his marriage plan and dismissing his dreams of Essos as little more than “a bushel of oranges.” The queen already knows all about his soiled cloak, thanks to his sitcom-level misunderstanding of her query about the Silk Street night. Perhaps learning that the snide Joffrey knew too, that this secret would hang over him forever, was more than Criston could bear. The only solution, apparently, was to beat the man to death on the dance floor.The speed and scale of Criston’s decline strained credulity. Maybe he was just that desperate to keep the secret hidden, though the mania of his attack suggested a kind of psychic break. Maybe another motivating factor will be revealed in the future. But from a narrative standpoint, the bludgeoning foreshadowed future bloodshed as it illustrated the unintended consequences of the royals’ actions and heedlessness.Based on Daemon’s advice, Rhaenyra thought she’d be able to have her wedding cake and boy-toy too. (She promised Laenor something similar.) What she got instead was a marriage ceremony that was terrible even by Westeros standards, with rotting food on the tables, a passed-out dad and rats licking up the blood of her new husband’s freshly murdered lover. And said boy-toy has now been claimed by her rival, who presumably plans to turn him into a different kind of plaything.So … congratulations?Viserys: monarch and medical mystery.Ollie Upton/HBOA few thoughts while we ask our doctor about …What do we think Viserys actually has, anyway? Any guesses? I tried entering “nose bleeds, fatigue, fainting, shortness of breath, nausea, open lesions and fingers falling off” into WebMD but no dice. Whatever he’s suffering from, thank goodness the Grand Maester was around to reject the maester intern’s herbal poultice in favor of another leeching. (For what it’s worth, Paddy Considine has said the king has “a form of leprosy.”)Now I feel bad about joking about Lady Rhea’s invisibility last week — no doubt she preferred it to what befell her on Sunday. While Daemon’s bloody campaign against King’s Landing criminals was cruel in its extremes, his apparent murder of his wife revealed a capacity for calculated evil.Rhea’s mocking question about whether Daemon was ready to finally consummate their marriage raised a couple of additional questions: One, does that mean his, uh, performance issues are a longstanding condition? I attributed his abandonment of Rhaenyra last week to a “crisis of conscience,” but in the aftershow segment, the “Dragon” creative team blamed impotence. We also saw his frustrations in the brothel in the premiere. Two, if Daemon never consummated the marriage, is he still entitled to Runestone and whatever else comprises the bronze bride’s estate?Somebody should probably warn Laena Velaryon (Savannah Steyn), last seen flirting with Daemon on the dance floor. She’s grown up, somewhat, and when wheezy old Viserys showed up at her house, she had to be thinking she dodged a bullet by not marrying him back when she was 12. She should dodge this one, too. (But probably won’t.)I assume the awful, rat-infested state of the ballroom during Rhaenyra and Lenore’s nuptials symbolized the bloody wreckage that will continue to result from this pairing, as predicted by Rhaenys. (“We are placing our son in danger,” she told the Sea Snake.) But come on, a castle full of servants couldn’t tidy up a little for the princess’ sad pop-up wedding?In case it wasn’t clear, Larys Strong is the son of Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes), the new Hand of the King, and brother to Harwin (Ryan Corr), the strapping fellow who carried Rhaenyra away from the wedding melee. Given Larys’s apparent Hightower loyalties and his father’s obligations to Viserys, things in House Strong could get complicated.“So you want me to be your whore,” Ser Criston said, incredulously if succinctly boiling down Rhaenyra’s post-wedding plans. Taking things out of their usual context invites you to consider them anew. Criston’s shock and shame reminds us about all the times we’ve unthinkingly watched women be used in similar fashion on “Game of Thrones” and a hundred other shows.Finally, Sunday’s episode was the last one for Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, who will be replaced next week by Emma D’Arcy, as Rhaenyra, and Olivia Cooke, as Alicent. Consider the job these young women were given: To anchor, alongside far more seasoned actors, the high-stakes follow-up to the biggest hit HBO has ever had, in front of a global audience of many millions. They handled it with an impressive amount of talent and grace. I’m excited to see what they do next.What do you think? Do Rhaenyra and Laenor have any future at all? Is Alicent officially off on her own Hightower power trip? How many fingers would you have to lose before alerting Westeros’s Centers for Disease Control? Fire away with whatever remaining digits you have in the comments. More

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      6 TV Recap Podcasts for Better Binge Viewing

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      These shows will help you go deeper on your favorite small-screen series, whether cult classics or current staples.TV recap shows are among the oldest of podcast genres, and they’ve become even more plentiful during a Golden Age of television.As podcasts have exploded in popularity, actors from numerous series have started their own recap shows, in which they share behind-the-scenes anecdotes and nostalgic reflections. The quality of those star-led offerings can vary wildly, however, and the most rewarding episode-by-episode discussions are often hosted by die-hard fans who know a series inside out.Here are six of the best episodic recap podcasts — of both those types — to help you go deeper on your favorite small-screen shows, whether cult classics or current staples.‘Buffering the Vampire Slayer’There’s no shortage of podcasts about “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the beloved series that followed Sarah Michelle Gellar as a teenage girl tasked with facing down the forces of evil. But this savvy, creative show, hosted by Jenny Owen Youngs, a musician, and Kristin Russo, an L.G.B.T.Q. activist, is special — not least because each installment ends with an original song inspired by the episode. Both Owen Youngs and Russo are queer women, and they approach “Buffering the Vampire Slayer” with an eye for marginalized viewpoints and systemic injustice. That often makes for frank discussions about the aspects of the series that haven’t aged well — particularly given recent accusations of misogyny against its creator, Joss Whedon — but that never takes away from the hosts’ clear love for “Buffy” as a flawed but powerful feminist text.Starter episode: “Welcome to the Hellmouth”‘The West Wing Weekly’An early example of a recap podcast co-hosted by one of the show’s stars, “The West Wing Weekly” avoids the pitfalls that can come with that setup. But Joshua Malina’s tenure on the NBC drama was an unusual one: His inscrutable character, Will Bailey, joined at a tricky moment midway through the series, shortly before the contentious departure of its creator, Aaron Sorkin. As the actor still wryly notes in his Twitter bio, he’s considered by some fans to be among the elements that “ruined The West Wing.” Malina, with that self-deprecating tone, and his co-host, the “West Wing” superfan Hrishikesh Hirway (known to many podcast fans as the creator of “Song Exploder”), make for a winning combination. Guests since the show’s debut in 2016 have included Sorkin, nearly all of the main cast members, and political figures who were fans of the show, like Pete Buttigieg and Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. “The West Wing” has became a popular comfort watch for viewers seeking to escape into a more noble version of Washington, D.C., and the hosts’ rapport is a soothing side order, striking a tone that’s irreverent yet heartfelt.Starter episode: “Special Interim Session (With Aaron Sorkin)”‘Too Long; Didn’t Watch’Have you ever watched the pilot of a show, followed immediately by the finale? The answer is probably no, because it’s an ill-advised (not to mention ridiculous) way to actually experience a show. But it does make for an entertaining podcast. Putting a comedic spin on the traditional recap format, Alan Sepinwall, the chief TV critic for Rolling Stone, invites a different actor onto the show each week for a crash course in a classic series they’ve never seen. Much of the fun comes from the deliberate dissonance between guest and subject — Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” shows up to deconstruct “Gossip Girl,” and the comedic actress Eliza Coupe (“Happy Endings,” “Scrubs”) gets to grapple with “Breaking Bad” — as well as the guests’ bemused attempts to figure out the arc of a show having seen only the beginning and end.Starter episode: “Jon Hamm Watches Gossip Girl”‘A Cast of Kings’HBO’s fantasy behemoth “Game of Thrones” is tailor-made for intensive recapping, thanks to the dense mythology of its fictional world, its twist-filled storytelling, and its endless controversies. So unsurprisingly, there’s a dizzying array of “Thrones” recap shows to choose from — even one meant to send you to sleep — but this is one of the most consistent and sharp. Hosted by David Chen, a veteran podcaster, and Joanna Robinson, a cultural critic who is one of the internet’s most well-known “Thrones” commentators, “A Cast of Kings” provides detailed insight into every episode, and doesn’t shy away from critiquing the show’s blind spots when it comes to gender, race and sexual violence. It’s also spoiler-free, making it an ideal companion for those who are belatedly catching up on the show. And for those who’ve made it through all eight seasons of “Game of Thrones,” the podcast recently returned to cover the new prequel series, “House of the Dragon,” with the entertainment writer Kim Renfro replacing Robinson.Starter episode: “A Cast of Kings — Series Retrospective”‘Breaking Good’Bald Move was one of the earliest players in the fan-hosted TV podcast game, and has been producing recap shows for buzzy dramas and genre shows like “Justified” and “The Walking Dead” since 2010. The company’s “Breaking Bad” series might be the best showcase for the affable dynamic between the co-hosts Jim Jones and A. Ron Hubbard, who deliver analytical run-throughs of each episode that hold up just as well today. Although the podcast began during the fourth season of “Breaking Bad,” Jones and Hubbard have since gone back to recap the earlier seasons. With palpable enthusiasm, the duo delve into the psychologically nuanced story of Walter White, the chemistry teacher turned meth king, unpacking the deeper meanings of the show’s characters, visuals and even some of the misogynistic elements of its fandom.Starter episode: “Pilot”‘Gilmore Guys’The cozy dramedy “Gilmore Girls,” which followed the quirky lives of a fast-talking mother and daughter in small-town Connecticut from 2000 to 2007, found legions of new fans once Netflix began streaming episodes seven years after the finale. “Gilmore Guys,” hosted by Kevin T. Porter and Demi Adejuyigbe, took off that same day in October 2014. Porter grew up watching the show, while Adejuyigbe comes to each episode fresh, which makes for a more layered conversation than might have been had between two devotees. Over more than 200 episodes, Porter and Adejuyigbe have built up a following almost as dedicated as the one for the series itself, thanks in part to the reliably hilarious and insightful riffs from guests like the comedian Jason Mantzoukas and the writer Sarah Heyward.Starter episode: “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They? (with Jason Mantzoukas)” More