Sakura De Francesco

Lost a star for every time skip. Honestly it broke the immersion, especially with the constant recasting of the main characters. Not to mention as well the stark difference of the casting of young and older Rhaenyra. Since when does a soft gentle nose turn into a bridge beak nose from the age of 15 to 25? The same actress could have been used throughout the season. In fact, I daresay her acting was far better than the chosen long term actress. The first season alone could have been broken down to 2 or 3 seasons. Every time things got interesting--time skip. I will mark the beginning and ending of spoilers: [SPOILERS AHEAD] If they wanted us to focus on the war over the crown, then they should have started the story when people started questioning the legitimacy of Rhaenyra's sons. Otherwise, if you want us to know their backstory, then allow us to actually get to know them. Allow us to watch them grow and change as they get more and more involved in the political game. When Alicent was led by her father to keep the King company, we couldn't tell if she wanted to or not. Was she hurting her hands over the guilt for how Rhaenyra could feel if she found out that she was seeing the King and had feelings for him? Was she hurting her hands because her father made her be a comfort to the King knowing her father's intention was for her to bed and marry the King? Did she not want to be used as a meat for comfort? Was she feeling used? Or did she have conflicting feelings about loving the King and yet loving Rhaenyra? What was the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra? Was it best friends? Like sisters? Like lovers? Everything is so unclear, it's frustrating. We could have seen Alicent's character evolution of innocent to seasoned politician like with Sansa Stark, and instead--time skip! [END OF SPOILERS] I'm glad that we at least got some continuity after the endless time skips and recasting, but it still made it feel like half that season was just a waste of time. You can just watch House of the Dragon from episode 6 and you wouldn't even realise you're starting halfway through the season. Please, please, PLEASE, do better!

Mi piacerebbe scrivere la recenza anche in italiano, ma ci metterei trecento anni, quindi, per chi non capisce, spero che Google Translate tradurrà in modo decente: This is a very relatable story in many ways. As a person with Mental Health issues and who is also Italian, this hit me hard. In Italy, it's still very taboo to talk about Mental Health. Just like Sara says in the series, they start telling you you're self-centered and you think everything is about you, which shames someone into sharing how they're feeling about their state of mind. This is one of the reasons why I decided to never move back to Italy, as I would not be able to handle that. The main character of the story clearly suffers from anxiety, which is why it was extra relatable for me. I became a Mental Health First Aider exactly for this reason. Too many people feel alone and feel shamed for feeling things, and it's amplified for anyone with an actual Mental Health issue. Mental Health is as normal as Physical Health. The only difference is that the injuries are not visible, and only the results of the injuries are. So it's easy for people to chalk it up to selfishness or self-centredness: "Just get over it", "everyone feels anxious/depressed sometimes, but they don't make it about themselves. They handle it." The lack of understanding that feeling anxious or depressed is a completely different ball game than HAVING depression or anxiety. The misconception that if you "truly" suffer from those things would would be taking medication and just because you don't, "then you don't have it" and you're just "being a drama queen". Italy has a culture revolving around this behaviour and it's a really hard place to live in for sensitive people. Even your friends who can have the best intentions, will say things that disregard your feelings and situation, simply because that is how they were raised and they don't think twice about it. And that makes you feel even more alone. It makes you feel guilty for not feeling better, despite your friends trying to be there for you in the way they think is appropriate, even though you feel worse after they try to do this. I feel this show addresses a lot of cultural issues with my country. Apart from the Mental Health aspect, which is obviously the star of the show, it also addresses the sexism rooted in our language and that is within socially acceptable behavioural standards. It even addresses the casual racism that happens without people realising, if they have been influenced enough by the regular way of doing things there. I really loved this series. It was short and very much to the point.

This was a masterpiece. Shakesperean tragedy in the modern times. The writing, the directing, the actors' executions of each scene, each soliloquy, even the silent stares, they were executed masterfully. I could write paragraphs and paragraphs of Shakespeare comparisons, references made to beliefs from so many different religions, but I would be simply stating the obvious. So much research was done for this show, it's blindingly evident. I fell in love with it. It is simply put, as I said at the beginning of this review--a masterpiece.