Priyanka Dey

House of the Dragon was crafted in the image of its celebrated parent show Game of Thrones, and for the most part, it struts and swerves like the latter. But does it soar as high? Well, yes......but not until towards the end of the season. The show begins on a promising note, introducing characters who might not have as much charisma as their GOT counterparts but leave quite an impression nonetheless. Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell and Milly Alcock, in particular, are absolutely outstanding in their roles as Daemon, Aemond and Rhaneyra Targaryen. The crackling chemistry between Smith and Alcock injects much needed vitality into the first half of the season, that at times visibly flounders under the weight of condensing twenty five years of simmering conflict between the different characters and different houses into just five episodes. In their desperate rush to get to the main action, the showrunners resort to frequent time jumps and often cheap contrivances to forcefully move the plot forward. It's a far cry from the character driven drama that made GOT famous, and makes for a rather awkward viewing experience. The discontinuity becomes particularly jarring in episode six when Olivia Cooke and Emma D'arcy take over as Alicent and Rhaneyra. Cooke's searing portrayal of the disgruntled queen Alicent is in such stark contrast to Emily Carey's restrained portrayal of the young queen that it takes more than a willing suspension of disbelief to accept that they are actually playing the same character. The show does find its way back in episode 7 as the time jumps become less striking and you get used to the new Alicent and Rhaneyra. It is however in episode 8 that the show reaches its pinnacle, scaling the same heights that GOT did at its prime. Paddy Considine's powerful performance as the decrepit and dying King Viserys adds a depth and poignancy to the show that had been largely missing till now. It will no doubt go down as one of the most moving episodes of the entire GOT franchise. So, is HOTD worth watching? Yes, it is. If you can sit through the initial contrivances and erratic time jumps, the show does reward you with some sensational acting and gripping drama. And, while the action sequences are at times marred by the heavy use of plot armour, they are nonetheless extremely well choreographed. The cinematography, though not on par with LOTR:Rings of drama, is nonetheless outstanding and the visual effects breathtaking. There are certain inconsistencies and questionable casting choices that will bother those who want their fantasy shows to maintain some semblance of realism (Criston Cole not ageing in twenty years would be a prime example), but nothing that cannot be redressed before the next season. And now that we are nearly done with the frustrating time jumps, this show, most likely, will only get better. I, for one, can't wait for the next season to come.

Watching LOTR: The Rings of Power is a lot like unwrapping layers and layers of an ornately decorated gift box only to find an old, scruffy tapestry inside, besmirched by complacent hands that were convinced they could make it better. The billion dollar show dazzles with a visual splendour that promises to turn every scene into a feast for your eyes; and yet, every episode invariably leaves you feeling starved. This is not due to any lack of action and suspense, for there are plenty of hair-raising fight scenes and moments of genuine suspense in this sprawling saga. Set during the second age of Middle Earth, the show ambitiously attempts to juggle multiple narrative strands, but not one of the storylines offers any sort of rush. The characters are so poorly written and the dialogue so blatantly nonsensical that you are left wondering if the writers have ever interacted with an actual human being. The contrived plot and melodramatic scenes, compounded by the erratic pacing and a belief-beggaringly long list of logical inconsistencies, leaves you feeling sorry for both Tolkien and the billion dollars that could have been spent elsewhere. By the time you stagger your way to the end of the first season, the glossy veneer of the admittedly novel visual effects has already worn off, revealing nothing more than a vapid husk within. LOTR: The Rings of Power has many things. But a soul it doesn't have. Much like the parent company that produced it.

Watching Eternals is like watching a dysfunctional family disembowel itself over reasons that are not only never made clear but also rendered utterly insignificant by the sheer dullness of the characters. MCU's newest heroes may be powerful, primordial beings but they act, for the most part, like petulant high school students. They are callow, capricious and utterly clueless—their petty squabbles and banal motivations distracting you from what's truly at stake. And by the time you get to the climactic battle, you no longer care who lives and who dies. You just want it to end. The death of the two Eternals registers little impact. The fate of the other heroes inspires even less interest. And that is precisely why, the second phase of MCU is bound to crash even before it can take off. For all its stunning visual effects and gorgeous cinematography, Eternals eventually comes off as lacking both style and substance. This is one movie I'd be glad to never have to watch again.

Have you ever watched a show and wondered how much better it would be had they only cast different actors? That was my prevailing sentiment while watching 'The Wheel of Time'. At the centre of this show are four of the most insipid individuals you have ever been asked to root for. Rand, Egwene, Mat and Perrin are good, kind people. But they have no charm; they have no charisma. They are so bland that you wouldn't even agree to have dinner with them let alone follow them on a quest to fight a villain that you barely understand. Which is problematic because fantasy fiction, perhaps more than any other genre, is heavily reliant on sketching characters that people are drawn to. Game of Thrones, for instance, wouldn't be the cultural phenomenon it is if it weren't for its fascinating characters. The Wheel of Time, while visually as stunning as Game of Thrones (the opening sequences of both shows are among the best I have seen), is eventually left undone by its disastrous casting. You just never come to care enough about the four heroes to be invested in their stories or bother about whether they live or die. It is ultimately left to Rosamund Pike to carry the weight of the entire show on her shoulders and she does a remarkable job. Pike is absolutely glorious in this show and I would gladly watch the second season just for her. The plot itself is, unfortunately, too derivative. It borrows so heavily from other successful fantasy shows of the past that it never comes to develop its own distinct character. The mythology is rich and complex but the show, in its rush to get to the finish line, never pauses long enough to let you immerse in it properly. At the end, we are left with but a vague understanding of what actually reduced a technologically sophisticated society into a primitive wasteland ravaged by hideous monsters. If you must watch this show, watch it for Rosamund Pike (who, I repeat, is absolutely glorious), the action sequences (the pregnant warrior in the penultimate episode deserves special mention), the scenic beauty (Czech Republic is now among the top ten countries I wish to visit), political intrigue (the internal conflicts among the Aes Sedai are far more interesting than the battle with the uninspired monsters) and political correctness (The Wheel of Time not only boasts of a culturally diverse cast but is also one of those rare shows that dares to challenge the primacy of men by putting women in the lead). If you do not care for any of these, you can very well skip it and watch something else instead.

Padmavat, for all its visual opulence, leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It peddles the binaries that feed into the popular prejudices of our nation: with a noble, upright, holier-than-thou Rajput ruler taking on the big, bad completely unhinged, psychopathic Muslim invader with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Ranveer Singh's over-the-top acting that evokes neither fear nor awe but simply disgust, Shahid Kapoor's painfully insipid performance that only adds to the silliness of his asinine character, the sappy dialogues that are just downright ridiculous, the sluggish pace of the movie and most importantly, the brazenly romanticized depiction of Jauhar leaves one nauseating with disgust. But if you must watch this movie, do it for the standout performance by Deepika and the technical wizardry that makes the film a visual delight.