Adjust to Amazon’s input Adapted from JRR Tolkien The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power This summer is like getting on a yacht, or stepping into the Four Seasons. This one looks expensive. you can only hear people talking when Galadriel is passing through a certain corner of Middle-earth. Magic drips from every castle wall and humble underground hut. And rightly so; Amazon has spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the program and plan to spend more.
Also expensive looking? by HBO Game of Thrones prequel The House of the Dragon. It It doesn’t cost much at all like Ringbut—largely thanks to progress in CHOLD– looks good as hell. It had to be, because this year, two of the biggest fantasy series of all time, the brainchild of Tolkien and George RR Martin, went head-to-head, and one of them seemed destined to be destined available will be at the top.
Except, no one did.
It’s not that they weren’t loved by critics—Dragon House maybe a little more Ring of Power—or they are not being tracked. (Amazon has been a bit Discreet about numbersbut Ring there seems to be no bombing; dragon yes the biggest finale of any HBO series since Game of Thrones.) Instead, they have no real impact. Fantasy movies and series have been juggernauts for decades, but it took a while for them to reach mainstream. Now, everyone has a favorite fantasy. But now the culture has permeated it to the point that no series can even begin to attract public attention. It’s all just a bunch of long hair, swords and magic.
Maybe this is not the right way. Like Ben Lindbergh wrote in one piece For Ringer earlier this year, comparing these shows with each other was a bit silly. They are not in”a match to the death,” as Martin pointed out. Ring much fancier, full of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc dragon It doesn’t have those, but it has far more bloody births and incests. Ring can almost be a family program; dragon no—unless you hate your child. However, viewers do not yes to choose one or the other, even though the discourse encourages the viewer to do so. It is acceptable that late 2022 is the golden age of fantasy, and that’s it.
But that’s not really the problem. The point is not that there are no winners at the top; this is not highlanders. Those are the two biggest fantasy series that have gone head-to-head, and the conversation about the two has lasted as long as a change of policy at Twitter. When the final of Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the king, which hit theaters in December 2003, people didn’t stop talking about it until 2005 (approx.). The Game of Thrones the finale was horrible, but at least people had been talking about how horrible it was for months. Less than two months since Dragon House the last part of the season aired and it was forgotten.
Perhaps, though, this is a sign of the times. Every other major fantasy release arrives in another world. Some before Facebook became Meta, others before Twitter was born. A good TV show can survive discussion for several weeks, but rarely longer. (You, Strange things season 4 is This year.) It’s unbelievable if a series gets so attention that people can’t stop talking about it for weeks, months, or even years. But maybe It’s a just a fantasy.
