After the horrible ep 3, I had to go start watching GOT again to wash my brain out. Starts at the Wall, one of the many non-human, mostly mysterious characters which made it so good, that HOTD doesn't have, not one. Winter, White Walkers, dragons (unseen for so long), the Wildlings. And the Houses, oh the Houses, each one a little series in itself with wonderful characters. And Sean Bean to open (great chemistry with King Robert). The producers gave the actors what they needed to craft amazing characters. Plus they were amazing actors. Each scene was rich and full of people. HOTD seems like one small soap opera scene to another. Lonely. And mostly terrible acting. The poor little princess rich girl thing has been done, and better. If I hear about "his heir" one more time... Just lazy writing and we get it, already!

In GOT, the women, the brown, and the downtrodden just took their power, no messing around. And the diverse characters were some of the best, because they had the richest stories. Not just handsome blond princes and princesses. While there were some cringey medieval moments, it was, after all... medieval. The Black lord of HOTD is one of the few good actors and compelling characters in the series so far. I guess people who complain about diversity can't hear how awful they sound. And who justify such bigoted complaints with "source material". If we stuck faithfully to "source material", we'd still be watching 1950s shows.

Anyway, I don't think there's any way to elevate HOTD, things are set, at least for the 1st season. Even the last miserable season of GOT was better. But people so want to relive GOT that they elevate this POS, but just remember that HOTD is to GOT as The Hobbit movies were to LOTR. A pale imitation. Speaking of LOTR, we have the exact same situation as HOTD going on as I write... With predictable results.