I wanted to single out the use of closed captions/subtitles during the Berlin nightclub sequence. It seems like such a small detail but it helped further disorient us and place us squarely in an unfamiliar world.

ROFL right. Prioritizing the life of a potential male heir over that of a pregnant woman has nothing to do with sexual or gender-based violence. Let’s all fixate on the fact that I missed a very short line about repositioning as opposed to anything else.

Oh, hon. The realism of a king picking a male heir over his wife was not what my comment was about at all. Bless your heart.

Yeah, that scene was a very clear homage to the captive Krazy-8 storyline from season 1 of Breaking Bad.

You may have missed it, but “high fantasy infused with the gritty realism of actual medieval living conditions”—specifically in contrast to Lord of the Rings--is a big part of how both the show and the original books were marketed.

Seems like a missed opportunity. If you’re going to follow clunky dialogue like “The child bed is our battlefield” with an extremely literal visualization of that idea, you might as well go all the way.

So, despite beating the “far less gratuitous violence against female characters than the original GOT” drum hard in all of the pre-air interviews, House of the Dragon starts with a “genuinely loving” dude signing his wife’s death warrant in the hopes of securing a male heir. Love that for them.

God, that animation was beautiful.

He’s a great actor, but it’s not like he’s made consistently sound choices about which media vehicles to show up in.

WHY is this show happening?

I’m glad I’m not the only person who disliked the last season or so of Breaking Bad. (My favorite seasons were the first 2.5 or so, which puts me in direct conflict with most viewers according to the available data.)

Yeah, people are all down on Walt for pointing out that time machines are an unnecessary/ineffective vehicle for asking about regrets, but he might be onto something.

It honestly felt a little on the nose until the Time Machine reveal. That was a nice touch.

That last scene in the prison yard was a heartbreaker, but I didn’t actually tear up until the short clip of all the cast members saying goodbye.

Maybe it’s both? But the vertical lines definitely looked unnatural/like digital effects. That’s a big part of the reason they stood out.

I would not count “DC shows” as among the good things on HBO Max. But that content does not appear to be under threat anyway.

There was a really interesting Vulture interview with Wrenn Schmidt today where they asked her about Margo’s parallels to Martha and she was talking about the characters’ differing levels of choice and agency—as well as all of the FAM/ Americans crossover.

I’m pretty sure it’s digital aging as opposed to makeup. Commented on another episode—the weird vertical lines on her forehead in closeup were downright distracting.

The name Martha almost feels incomplete without the word “poor” before it. Or maybe that’s just what The Americans conditioned me to think.

So Margo is Martha but with much nicer digs. Hopefully she can say hi (privyet?) to Mischa and Nadezhda for all of us.