House of the Dragon
This was another strong episode of House of the Dragon. And, BTW, Laenor being gay is not something invented by "woke" showrunners. He's that way in the book, too (or is heavily implied to be so). My only complaint is that the ending was somewhat heavy-handed. The book reaches a largely similar outcome, but does so with greater plausibility and finesse. SPOILER: Daemon killing his first wife is not actually spelled out in the book, but it's very consistent with the book account (which, of course, has a narrator who is a historian who can't know what truly happened). The episode also demonstrates how people can easily be enlightened on some issues, but not others. For example, Lord Corlyss is progressive about women having an equal right to rule with men, but cannot understand that being gay is something that lasts for life, and thus expects his son to grow out of it. Other characters have different combinations of insight and blind spots.
Rings of Power
The latest episode of "Rings of Power" was better than previous ones. But still has many weaknesses. The proto-hobbit and Elf/orc plots remain somewhat tedious, and the Numenor story moves in the same direction as the original in the Akallabeth, but is worse. Miriel is a more substantial figure in this version than she is in Tolkien's original, but for that very reason it seems lame that she doesn't figure out what Ar-Pharazon is plotting. I'm not writing this show off completely. It could continue to improve. But, for now, still failing to rise above mediocrity, albeit better than the cruddier episodes that came before.
