I got to episode 6 and decided life was way too short to watch something this mind numbingly stupid, so I read reviews and recaps for episodes 7-10 and called it a day.

Since I haven't read the source book (Fire and Blood) I can only surmise that HBO didn't stray too far from it, but whether it was their interpretation that was lacking or it was GRR who wrote such shallow characters (save for Ser Otto) I'll probably have to take a peek at the book itself.

Bottomline is the director told a rushed story, where almost all important interactions and confrontations were either abruptly transitioned to or they made sure it happened off screen; like when Daemon stole the dragon egg. We only ever saw these characters talk and talk and then talk some more. Daemon and Corlys went to war with the crab eaters but the audience only saw it in abstract. Apart from Daemon in the first half and Aemond in the second, no other character convincingly rose above the shallow foundation laid out by the show's creators and screen writers.

In GoT the production team had enough time to establish secure footing and foundation for the different families in the seven kingdom. Here all we see are petulant characters who don't seem all that comfortable with each other despite what the director tried to convey. It was a classic case of telling and not showing. All the characters ever did was talk us to death.

I know there will be civil war in season two. Whether it will be another season of tell and not show where we get the news of important activities only after they've happened off screen, then only time will tell.