I'm gonna have trouble watching to the end of S1 E1. Twenty minutes in, it's pure cardboard franchise reputation exploitation. Plot, acting, writing, design, photography, music... all third-rate. Not even an interesting face to be seen. Two minutes of the opening credits of Game of Thrones was more entertaining than what I've seen so far. Much more entertaining.

George RR Martin ran out of steam after the first three volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, and this clunker makes me fear the last of his moxie is gone.

Hoping against hope that House of the Dragon will miraculously rise above its mind-numbing first quarter hour, back I go...

Yay! Stuff starts to happen. At the end, every minute has about 15 seconds worth of action. I raise my rating to *** Lousy, but probably not an intentional insult to viewers.