I loathed the terrible, rushed last episodes of the final season of GoTh; they and Martin the Sloth turned me against the franchise. I also am beyond sick of race-swapping and female-good/male-bad themes and the whole woke cult appropriation and ravaging of the works of their betters. But I read that Martin maybe, maybe could redeem his work with HotD. So I watched Episode 1.

First, the race-swapping here is limited and plausible: someone dark skinned from some country in Essos has married into the inbred albino ruling clan. There might even be an interesting love and/or political story here. Second, the rather unattractive tomboy princess Rhaenyra is probably in deliberate contrast to the goddess Daenerys, and she doesn't seem any more strong-willed than most other rich/powerful girls. Rhaenyra's situation certainly has precedent: Matilda in the Anarchy in England and Normandy; and the power struggles of the two Marys, Elizabeth, and the forgotten Jane--and the men who wanted to use them. Thus I am glad that the two factors that would have ruined this series for me are not here.

However, Episode 1 has problems. It seems less like GoTh and more like dozens of fantasy-world B films of the 80's and 90's. A lot of things (like the laughably bad wigs or plastic armor or uninspired architecture or even the iffy CGI dragons) seem a little cheap. Most of the characters--so far--are not especially well-cast or (worse) interesting. And where are the Heroes? I don't see Rhaenyra rising to the level of Arya, and hope that she isn't supposed to be a subversion of The Male Hero. If Daemon is going to be The Villain, he needs one or more heroic rivals.

I am going to be cautiously optimistic that the lack of woke continues and that future episodes will overcome this rather weak start. 6 stars (with a potential for 8)