Who Won 'House of the Dragon' and Is 'Ted Lasso' Copying Itself?

Hey, everyone, it's Taking it Down, the TV podcast from the Alabama Take website.

Today on the podcast, we're going to be discussing the final episode of this season of House of the Dragon as well as the second episode of the Apple TV show, Ted Lasso.

We have a little bit of TV conversation to begin, and in order to do that, let me welcome in Adam and Donovan, our co hosts, Alabama Take Projection.

Okay.

Welcome to Adam and Donovan, the esteemed co host of Taking It Down.

Gentlemen, with some time on my hands and a free trial to a podcast engagement site, I looked up some of our stats this week.

Would you like to know my discoveries?

Say more.

So for a week in June this year, 2026, we were the second TV podcast in Saudi Arabia.

Well, they've got that cultural fund, right, that they've been, aren't we, propped up by Saudi oil money.

Well, I was thinking that maybe Trump visited them again for more gifts and still wanted his fave podcast in his ears.

They racked up the numbers there.

Hey, buddy.

As of Thursday, we were the 22nd podcast for TV and shows in Jamaica.

Huh?

I know Donovan's big in Jamaica, so it does seem to track.

I mean, I like Jamaican food.

Most people from Jamaica come to me rather than the other way around.

But if I got an invite, I'd probably be happy to see their island home.

Me too.

This is probably a tr.

I mean, these are supposedly accurate, but this one feels right.

We're the 146th most popular podcast for television in Canada.

That feels like our lane.

Yeah, I'll take that.

Yeah, that seems about right.

Yeah.

For us, recording on Sunday afternoon, we still haven't watched the debut.

The debut of the HBO series Lanterns debuts tonight for us sitting here on Sunday, based off the DC Comics title Green Lantern.

And its various iterations seem to be played here as detectives, which I believe is pretty accurate to how they are in the comics.

Yeah, The Space Cops.

Space.

There's Space Police.

It and.

And like anything else in a 86 year old franchise, it varies depending on who you're asking.

Right.

Like how much that's going to be emphasized.

Yeah.

Who wrote it?

There's Space Police.

Okay.

Here on hbo.

It's like a true detective light vibe going on.

I don't want to get too hopeful for this one because Lord knows we've all been burned by superheroes.

But I think the last time Damon Lindelof tried his hand at superheroes, it was that excellent season of Watchme.

You got it.

And then I am a big fan of One of the other, I think, I don't remember if he's like co creator or writer, but one of the other guys they pulled in there, Tom King, who's written a bunch of classic stories, this guy, interesting as all hell.

He was literally in the CIA in Iraq.

And his first, one of his first graphic novels is like, not obviously he can't talk about what he did, but is about.

Literally about Iraq.

So interesting guy, but on top of that, good writer who has a knack for taking, you know, like old.

Not old, but like, you know, these characters have been around for quite some time and making you feel like there's a little bit of a fresh shine to their story.

So I've been very high on a lot of his stuff.

His, his graphic novel about the Iraq occupation is called the Sheriff of Baghdad and it's pretty interesting.

Okay, this sounds sus as hell, Donovan.

Yeah, well, I mean, Green Lantern has always been kind of a psyop, right?

I don't know.

I never was into the Green Lantern stuff, like the DC stuff or comics I would buy when I ran out of all the other comics that month and I was like, I just gotta have something.

What a ringing endorsement for dc.

I would put Batman a little into the mix of regular readership.

Blake Blaine has maxed out his Archie comic collection.

I guess it's time to turn to D.C. for some real.

I meant I met Marvel.

No, I never read Archie.

I couldn't even tell you what Archie was about until that show.

You couldn't have said what Archie was about until Riverdale came out.

And even then I wasn't sure.

Huh.

I just assumed that you got like.

Like I've never.

I don't think I've ever sat down and read an Archie comic, but I feel like, absorbed.

I don't think a human has.

It's definitely.

Yeah, it's definitely like an early 4 Robots by Robots project.

Oh, I thought it was a bunch of teenage kids wanking, having been exposed.

To like some of like old Archie comics stuff.

You do sometimes wonder, like, who is this for?

Because like, it's not horny enough for its target demographic yet.

It's too horny for anybody else.

So.

So we got lanterns debuting.

It stars Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler and he's from Mini T shows.

And you're right, Damon Lindelof.

Big hand in this.

One of the co creators writers, he did excellent work with the Leftovers.

Did great work with Watchmen, as you mentioned.

It's like he learned from Lost.

It's like he Learned from Lost how not to make a show that I would enjoy.

He's like the opposite of Ryan Murphy.

Rather than continuing doing Ryan Murphy things he learned, and now he does Damon Lindelof things that I respect and like.

Yeah, I just want to do a temperature check on this one.

Adam, I'm sure you've seen the trailer.

What?

Does it look intriguing?

You're telling me about it for the first time, Blaine.

Is that a joke?

No.

Oh.

I would have assumed with, you know, the HBO shows, when you hit play, you've seen a ladder, a lanterns, ad.

I'm still pretty busy, like, attempting to not disassociate from life when I fire.

That portion up, you know, so you skip it.

Yeah.

Or I'm just kind of not there.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, it.

It doesn't really look like a superhero show other than when they do superhero things, which, I mean, I'm intrigued.

Yeah.

Any connection to, particularly of the things that y' all just said, the Watchmen season, which I think looking back on, I can't even remember what year that was.

That was post Covid, right?

Or was it right, I believe before what.

Let's just call it the last seven to eight years of HBO shows that maybe didn't become recurring.

Whatever I think of the ones that we really enjoyed, Watchmen, to me, stands head and shoulders above the rest.

So I. Yeah, I'll put some odds on this.

We're never going to have another Watchmen.

And the reason we're never going to have another Watchmen is because Alan Moore put a curse on the people working on Watchmen, including Damon Lindelof.

So he better watch his back because Alan Moore is a magician.

Let's hope it's not with lanterns that's disturbed because of it.

But Watchmen was 2019.

Oh, that's disappointing.

Sticking to HBO, we've reached the end of this, the third and penultimate season of House of the Dragon with episode titled the Treasons at Tumbleton.

Well, as a season of television, how'd you judge it?

Thumbs up for me.

I enjoyed it pretty much every week.

I know it's a big show.

It does things that I think it's not necessarily productive to talk about anymore.

Things that Game of Thrones shows do, just things that make it a little creaky.

You know, stuff like too many storylines, too much of it.

Just at this point where it's just kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know.

With all that being said, it's not a perfect show by any means, but I'm like, yeah, I Wanted to see what was going to happen.

And I think that it actually managed to touch on, you know, beyond just, like, fantasy and dragon stuff, some things that might matter for us to think about in the real world as well.

That's a fun watch.

I give it a thumbs up, but I don't know how much it's going to stay with me in the way that other things from this universe have.

It's definitely a page turner.

I want to know what's going to happen.

But much beyond that.

Donovan is right.

And we've talked about here a few times the way that they're talking about or describing, particularly, like, the horrors of war or the trappings of power, all these kind of things.

They do that well.

But you know how many times.

I mean, it's affecting every time the nuclear bomb goes off.

Right?

But, like, at first it's like, whoa, I've never seen anything like that.

And then once you've seen a few fastballs, you're like, well, I guess this is just what they do.

It's just another Tuesday in Westeros.

Yeah.

Did it have enough of an emotional punch or resonance?

What worked for me, I was actually really explicitly thinking about this episode in terms of what Adam was talking about with the last episode about Rhaenyra's, you know, like, her, like, being, like, literally, like, physically cut off from people.

And so honestly, for me, like, Rhaenyra, the kind of focusing the camera on Rhaenyra with her, you know, hopes, doubts, fears, insecurities, her losses, her.

Her strength, her rages, that.

That kind of worked for me, and it kind of made the end of this episode, like, what she's doing in this episode make a lot of sense for me.

Same thing.

And I think there were things that also did work for me.

I'm possibly foolishly, like, interested in Aegon's arc and what's going to happen in Aemond.

I'm still, like.

It still works for me as, like, two.

Two.

Two friends, two houses that were ripped apart.

But I feel like Rhaenyra being the focus worked pretty.

Pretty well for me.

I think I agree with that, that anybody who has emotional resonance, or if there is somebody who does, it's Rhaenyra.

I mean, there's elements of that with everybody.

But her thing of, like, be careful what you aspire to, be careful what you wish for.

I don't know how much that, like, really has mass appeal, you know, like, how many people have that problem in particular.

But it is well told in the.

Story, and it Works for me too, with other characters.

I'll just for an example, take like, she's set off against Daemon.

Like, Daemon does not have the problems that Rhaenyra has.

And that to me provides a compel like the two of them together.

That's a compelling story, especially this season.

As Damon's like, no, I'm all in on you.

But, like, what does that mean for her?

And is that even helpful or healthy for her?

What about as a finale, just a singular piece of television?

How did you think about it?

Was it good?

Great, Bad?

I'd say good.

There were some things at the end where I'm like, I don't.

I'm going to have to wait until next season.

I would say overall, very good.

Not sure if it tipped into great, but I felt like satisfying payoffs were had.

Yeah, I would agree with.

With good in that of those choices we can get into.

Anything beyond that is going to be specifics for me.

I think so.

A lot that worked.

And it's not that anything aside from the one clunker of an episode that I complained about on here this season, it all works.

You know, it's just like.

It's that.

That thing that you can't even put your finger on while you're watching it, but say like a few days later, you're like, I haven't thought about this show since it ended on my screen.

You know what I mean?

Versus, like, yeah, what.

What great television is able to do and stay with you.

I mean, you know, there's great visual sequences and all these things.

It just doesn't quite have the same resonance.

You asked about resonance and it's like.

Well, that almost implies like the resonating.

Resonating.

It doesn't do that.

It doesn't.

Stay with me.

Yeah, okay.

We'll talk about the details of our ideas in the spoiler section.

One more thing, though, for us in non spoilers, Ted Lasso aired its second episode of the invigorated new season, almost a reboot titled Curiouser and Curiouser.

I don't know.

Little treat for the fans.

Curiouser and Curiouser.

That is from Alice in Wonderland.

Not many people know that.

I bet Adam Morrow did.

And I didn't know the name of the the episode.

To be honest, I didn't know the name of it either until said it.

It's okay.

Thoughts on Ted and this episode of television?

They're building on their strengths and on their weaknesses.

Hmm.

Interesting statement there.

That is so.

When we were in college, Donovan figured out that it Would drive our.

There were three of us living together.

It would drive the third roommate.

Absolutely.

Who shall remain nameless here.

Absolutely insane.

Watching football games, Donovan would say things like, you gotta watch the play action here.

Which is never not true.

Really.

Or like, you have to establish the run.

You gotta establish the run.

So saying something like.

So some real platitudes that anyone could.

Say that's they're just always true.

Yeah.

And his.

They're playing on their strengths and weaknesses here.

It's like, what?

This is just more of the same from Donovan.

I've been hearing this for almost 20 years.

That's not analysis.

What are you talking about?

I always try and say something like.

Like that that's so, like, stupidly obvious, but in a way that an announcer would say it.

And then if an announcer actually does say it after I say it, I feel really good.

You take a shot.

I'm like, I could do this game.

I think I could do that job.

I wouldn't even have to be that checked in.

I do somehow think that you actually did say something about Ted Lasso this time, which is frustrating.

That's my review.

I thought it was pretty good.

I didn't.

Are we going to get into any details on the other side?

Oh, for sure.

Okay.

I don't know if we're going to dig deeper than that.

I mean, they're kind of.

We know it's not a spoiler to say that he's with the women's team this year.

So.

Out of three dudes from Alabama getting into the nuances of the feminist reality of the sports world, I don't know that we're, like, the best suited people to do that, but it seemed like a.

You know, there was.

I was curious how they were going to do that, and apparently they just dove right in.

Yes, they did.

Okay.

So it only took me three seasons, but I finally have pinned down the reason why I'm so wishy washy with Ted Lasso and other Bill Lawrence shows.

I think it's the jokes are mostly milk toast.

They don't have a punch or a bite to them.

A lot of times that's a good thing, and then a lot of times it's not a good thing.

Yeah.

I will say I think that I'm not sure if, like, I agree with, like, all of them are, but I do think, Blaine, that you've hit on something where it's like, when it's getting most frustrating.

That's definitely an element of it.

It's a hard balancing act to do Right.

Like, it's almost like.

Like, especially some of the later seasons of ted.

Lasso didn't necessarily have a target in the same way the first season did.

I'm building this plane as I'm landing it, so I'm not quite sure what I mean by that.

But, you know, it's.

It's.

It's not necessarily a bad thing that it's not lashing out at anyone.

But at the same time, that bite can be, you know, an element of that.

That bite, taking that away, you're taking away an impossible element of great comedy.

I think that's what I feel.

I think we'll take our break here, though, so we can dissect some of this.

If you've seen these episodes, House of the dragons finale 10 episode second.

We will talk about those in spoilers.

Flying back into the House of the Dragon, its finale for the third season titled the Treasons at Tumbleton.

I have some defenses of this show, mainly from what I hear from critics.

Critics and others tend to say that there weren't enough storylines moving forward, to which I'll say I think it's really obvious that Ryan Condal, I think his name is the showrunner.

He and his team had to push some plot forward with some characters and could only anchor others, or else the overarching narrative is going to get way ahead of itself.

And I get it so much because as a teacher, one thing you don't want is one class way ahead of the other cohorts.

It's just a nightmare with planning.

You can kind of see that, like, okay, so Eamon does have to stay at Harren hall for an extra episode.

It's fine with me because here's what they're doing.

I think when they anchor a storyline somewhere, they give them enough interesting things going on there that it satisfies me.

I think I'd agree with you there, Blaine.

The flip side of that being like, you know, if you're not giving me enough, I feel like it's, you know, I'm not gonna be satisfied.

They did enough to keep me sad.

Like, would I have loved to see Aemon jumping around and doing Eamon thing in the finale?

Sure.

But I liked what we got, and I'm assuming that like, like, like you said, Blaine, it's checking in on our characters, reminding us where they are without letting them all get ahead of each other because it's setting up p. Whatever's happening next season.

I also think there was a pretty massive payoff.

It felt like the old days for Me when there were a lot of things happening at once in this episode, in a good way, sometimes shows, movies, whatever.

It's like I only care about two of the three things that you're trying to tell me about.

But that was not the case here.

I thought that from the time, say that Rhaenyra starts making her way towards the sept through that there was so much tension and so much.

I don't know and I don't know if you can have that without all of your classes being at approximately the same place in the coursework.

I thought the opening to this episode with the Maester having to wake Rhaona to tell her Aegon's resurrection has happened, I thought that was great because sometimes as viewers we need to see that, oh, shit, some news travels incredibly fast in this world, while other things aren't as important and may not get to Brianna or Daemon or whomever, you know, the next morning.

I thought that there were a few good moments where they.

They've played with.

We've talked about like, Damon's ability to fast travel, essentially.

He's got a fast dragon.

Yeah.

But the way that they played with like, oh, not everybody has every piece of information in this episode.

You know, Rhaenyra being woken up like that.

Daemon being on the battlefield and being behind, like, he's still relying on like the page or whatever, running the news to him.

He's like, go find out what's going on.

And you're having to make these real time decisions about life and death on crappy information.

I don't know.

I thought it was good.

It was like, oh, they don't have cell phones.

You know, it's kind of fun having Rhaena do that.

It also gives her a good Emma d', Arcy, a couple of good moments there to shine as an actor.

So I think.

And it builds a little on her character, maybe a little, not a ton.

But I just thought it worked really well as an opening scene.

Oh, I liked it.

And I thought, I think it did build on what we were given with her and informs, you know, choices that she makes later in the show.

Right.

Or in, in the episode.

I think it does a very good job of informing that, like, we need to remember what her state of mind is like because this is the thing she fears most.

It's like watching the screws being loosened a little.

Exactly, exactly.

Metaphorically, the balancing out this show's done is why I rank it fairly high and maybe it's why it's taken a couple of seasons.

You have these characters on either side that you care about living at least a couple.

I think most of us do.

And if not that, the bare minimum.

No one wants to see the dragons hurt.

And I think that's fairly the consensus.

So it's done some good balancing of showing us pretty much everybody, everywhere, what they're doing.

Not just what they're doing, but what builds upon who they are, what makes you like them, dislike them, or go from disliking to liking, as is the case with Aegon.

I thought that this one.

I'm gonna piggyback on what you said, Blaine, because it is sort of about balancing.

I thought that this episode did something with its balance that I really like too.

I mean, obviously there's a lot of great spectacle.

This episode was very well shot.

I don't think I've.

I have not had a last season of Game of Thrones moment where I'm like, I can't tell what the hell is going on.

This whole season has been great, so kudos to that.

But I really liked how in the midst of all of that, there is like any.

It's not even that many scenes, but Helaena and Rhaenyra interacting.

And the way that Rhaenyra can't.

It just felt like it was saying a lot about those two as people, but also we're reminded that they're sisters, right?

Like they have the same father, but also like they don't.

Like they don't fundamentally don't understand each other as people.

Or maybe it's just Rhaenyra who fundamentally doesn't understand Helaena.

And I thought that paid off very well for me by the end of the show.

But also as sort of an emotional core running through the show, that's like, what will she do?

Her being confronted with the line living is not just not being dead or whatever that was, I thought, oh, that's pretty good.

It was very good.

And I even like stuff they did.

Like with Helena describing the insects.

She's trying to share the things that are important to her with Rhaenyra.

And Rhaenyra's mind at this point is, you know, she's locked in its power.

It's almost reminded me of not done as well.

But, you know, there's a bit in the Lord of the Rings where the Ents are talking about how they can't understand Saruman anymore.

And they're really like.

Like his mind has changed.

Like the way his, you know, like, he doesn't think about living things anymore.

He's thinking about power and dominion.

Right.

Which is a much simpler way of viewing the world that doesn't gel well with.

Precisely.

Yeah.

Especially something like, you know, Helena is sharing about these beautiful things.

It's like, well, what good is beauty?

Like, beauty is like the least utilitarian thing there is.

Right.

You can't use it, not really.

If it's going to be just.

If it's just beautiful for beautiful sake.

And Rhaenyra needs to use every weapon she has right now.

This show does a very good job.

We've talked about this before of, like, in this universe before.

It just seemed like people were seeking power and, like, not really questioning why.

And I feel like this show is doing, like, you saying beauty for beauty's sake.

Like, we haven't seen a ton of that in this world.

We have like, heroes who may be.

Oh, they surprised.

They can compose poetry or they whatever.

But like, generally, like, even if they're trying to tell us that they have a more expansive worldview, it's like they just enjoy wine and sex.

You know what I mean?

There's not a lot of funny term used after that, but it's not really fleshed out that they are enjoying more than just the acquisition of power, money, these sorts of things.

Even intelligence is really seen as a means to an end for most of this.

So having someone that is completely out of step with that stand alongside somebody who is completely fallen into the trap of nothing but power, that.

That was a good scene.

Yeah, they do a good job on multiple levels on having Rayana practically want to scream.

I don't got the bandwidth for bugs.

I've got people who need fed, who aren't paid.

I've got this sep, these fuckers at the SEP who won't queen me.

You know the problem with Raniera this season?

The game is just moving too fast.

Like, she's like a rookie quarterback in there and it's just the DVs are flying around and she can't keep up.

This is what happens when someone absconds with your treasury.

Like, but like, to Adam's actual point is like, everything has fallen apart.

You know, it's the cl, right?

Like she's.

She's reoccupying her seat, but she has to build it from the ground up.

Who's Helena in this metaphor then?

Is she the quarterback's coach?

She is not participating in the game.

Yeah, she's not even.

She's not even on the sidelines.

The showrunners and directors do great here.

I appreciated so much the editing as it not only bounced back and forth.

Gave it.

Giving you really short bits and pieces this time around from these crucial scenes at least left you hanging on.

Or left me hanging on for sure.

But then they did something I thought really smart.

Which television shows do this?

But they implemented it here to perfection.

The voiceovers were.

Would usually get old quickly, but it's very different.

They use these l cut moments where the voice begins in one scene and then it ends as you're watching the next build up.

Man.

I thought that amped tension.

It was grade A work from everyone.

Yeah.

I did find myself tensing up in so many of these scenes, like quite physically.

I thought that the scene where as the tension is mounting and Rhaenyra emerges as this warrior queen.

Which was great costuming, I thought.

I hadn't really seen her look like.

I mean, I know that Boudicca wouldn't be in like chainmail or whatever, but it is like a very old school.

When I say old school, I mean like medieval kind of.

This is a powerful person.

But when they're.

Anyway taking her to the sept, it almost felt like.

Like a Christopher Nolan Batman scene was about to break out.

It really did.

Yeah.

Like if not a chase scene or high scene, like something is gonna go wrong here.

I loved it.

And her delivering that speech.

Oh, I. I get that.

She.

It's like one.

One more time we have to sit through this speech.

But these people haven't heard it.

And you.

You could cut away from that if you didn't want to have it.

Her to run through the idea and the dream again.

But I think watching people hear it is a good reaction because you could see some of them are thinking, what the fuck.

You know.

They're thinking she's nuts.

She's nuts.

Yeah.

She.

She.

She's.

She's lost it and she's.

She's killed the high septum in front of the people.

Not more or less.

And now she's.

She's saying things that are insane at.

A time where she can't really flex her power.

Yeah.

She's walking a tightrope.

Yeah.

Like you.

You shouldn't have to tell people that you're strong.

Exactly.

If you're.

If you.

And.

And too.

Right.

Like she ends in old Valyrian, man.

Does the average person on the street know what that is?

She probably just sounds like she's going nuts.

Speaking in tongues, man.

It's.

Yeah.

Her fragility has brought her to that.

To this point.

And she's like.

I literally.

She's like she's grasping at straws.

But I also thought it was good, like, flip side of this.

I thought it was good because it builds on how she sees herself or how she wants to see herself, where she is chosen.

So she's like, okay, I'm chosen to.

To.

To be the prince who was promised to be part of this.

This prophecy, to be with the gods, need me to be.

Like, of course I'm going to share this to you.

And it's going to work out like it's an act of, like, desperation.

But it also made sense to me from where she has been.

Oh, that's part of it.

It makes perfect sense for her to say it.

Like, I was thinking in the moment, okay, this could work.

And then you start seeing the reaction shots and you're like, no, it's not gonna work.

No, it's just pure flailing.

You know, we said earlier this season that in a way, her.

And, you know, Daemon is like a believer.

She's a true believer in this.

This whole thing.

And I have seen reviews where they say they think that all of that is clunky, even in the original run of the show.

They're like, I don't care about this prophecy, you know, And I strongly disagree with that.

Cause I think it's one of the more interesting elements of the whole universe that there is an existential threat out there that.

Blah, blah, blah, that's been talked about even just here.

But her completely caving in to, like, the.

One of the conclusions of that that we've already talked about in weeks past is like, you go insane because you think that supernatural powers have given you your power, which is not a place of responsible leadership.

Do you really have everybody's best interest in mind if you're ultimately like this paternalistic, maternalistic figure who's.

She's just completely lost it.

And to go, too, from setting it up where she's telling your kid, like, I have to tell you this family secret, you know, and you're even wondering in that scene, like, should she be saying this here?

You know, like, could the.

Could the guards overhear this?

Is this, like, something that shouldn't?

And then she just goes up on.

The stage and tells everybody, well, please note that she.

She's talking to her kid and she says, I can tell you this family secret, but let me go kill this priest first.

And then.

Then we'll get back to this story.

It's gonna thrill you.

The speed at which she went from like, private conversation to poorly making her case in front of the People was you want to cheer for.

Is she set up to be the hero, antihero, whatever.

And it's just gotten sloppy.

Yeah.

I've been pulling for her, but she is dangling off the cliff in this scene.

I'm not sure how much we were ever meant to be pulling for her.

I think that's a good point.

Sympathetic.

Yes.

I don't think she is supposed to be unsympathetic, and I don't think we're not supposed to empathize with her.

But I do think that it's given us enough.

Like, you know, sometimes we're like, okay, well, Rhaenyra is the best of two bad choices.

Okay, well, sure.

But I think the show has done enough and enough stuff played out in this episode that it's like, just like.

Remember, like, whoever wins, there's still like an absolute monarch on the throne.

Right.

Like.

Well, what I mean by we're supposed to pull for her in some ways is that, like, the arc of the story, we are conditioned to think this person that we met that is the daughter of the king and has this.

Like, she should be.

You know what I mean?

They're playing with our expectations of for sure.

Obviously, we have been meant to question that all along.

No.

And I do think they've done that pretty well and have done it.

I like when a. I like when shows or movies do something where it's like, you know, like, we're questioning Rhaenyra at the same time, Rhaenyra is questioning.

Questioning herself.

Like, I like when it has, like the.

Okay.

Like the audience is feeling the feelings of the.

You know, of the character.

I think that's.

That's fairly well done.

The other side of the coin is Aegon, and Thomas Glencarny's just up the levels of his performance more and more this season.

I'm here for it.

His delivery of I'm alive, that was great.

It's one for the ages.

You know, he's already said that.

People are yelling that at him on the street.

I love it.

I didn't.

I hadn't heard that.

It was very funny.

It's such a good line.

I mean, he killed it.

He killed the second.

Second actor who kills it, I thought in this episode is, of course, it's Matt Smith.

He can certainly play up a guy who just really wants to kick some ass and talk some.

He's.

He's still making up for not getting to be king.

I think after his brother's death.

I think there's a little of that lingering in his performance where he's like, I should have gotten that king role, you know?

Yeah, he's the leader of men.

He's the one who inspires them.

He leads them into battle.

What does Viserys do exactly?

And the thing is, he backs it up every time.

Again, this is our long standing debate of, like, are we actually supposed to like this character as much as we do or is it just Matt Smith?

And if you had told me when he was playing Doctor who that this would be.

He would play a badass knight.

I'm not.

Kudos to Matt Smith.

I didn't really see this in his arsenal when he was a younger man.

But to fire up the insane northerners and then be.

He's got a dragon and he still just like rides through on a horse into the.

And then just immediately gets right in the shit.

He's gotta go house by house.

And he's just like, okay, yeah, he's fine with it however you want it to get done.

He's stoked, refusing any sort of pact with Sir Gwayne.

Didn't want that.

I want to fight.

So that was what I liked about this episode with Daemon, is I felt like it almost got us to the end of like, okay, this is all, who's Daemon?

This is who Daemon is like badass warrior, conqueror, you know, leader of men, inspire of men.

And is it enough everything still starts to tumble out of control while he's, you know, doing literally his human best?

Yeah.

And he is the kind of like, if he had made that deal with Gwayne, who.

What could have been averted.

It's not a great deal and it's certainly not.

It's not living Rhaenyra's dream.

It's not living his dream of a renewed Valyria.

But if somebody else had been in those shoes, could catastrophe have been averted?

Especially tough because I think we as the audience have seen Gawain as one of the more sensible people.

Yes.

In some ways feels like a stand in for, like, modern sensibilities.

He's kind of practical and seems generally kind, but also, you know, he gets mocked by his cousin and then immediately saves his life, what, one or two episodes ago can be a badass as well.

So to see Daemon just grab him by the throat while kind of awesome was still like, oh, man, this is.

Yeah, you guys should talk it out, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

A lot of this season ended up being about doubting women in power, which has been a theme since season one, really.

And then this one added compensating for feeling like an imposter or failure.

And that's what Raynera does.

She has to compensate in the only way she thinks she has.

And I thought that Emma Darcy's Rana shuts the windows on Helena's suicide, but it's.

I've seen it.

You could read that as shutting it on Goodwill.

Shutting it on the beauty of the world.

Like Donovan talked about.

Oh, it was a cold as hell scene and she played it very well.

We've seen that window before too, by the way.

Yes, we have.

It's not the first person to dive out.

Or.

She may be the first person, but she's not gonna be the last.

You know, we're supposed to understand that murdering that Septon would be like if Trump went and murdered the Pope.

Crazy.

Let's go into some minor characters.

I was so happy to see Messaria get the boot at the beginning of the episode.

It's as if Rainier.

I came to her senses.

But in truth, we know that it's Rainier.

I'm not worrying about that kind of stuff anymore.

It's.

Nah, she just listened to our last episode.

She doesn't have the bandwidth for.

For making out anymore.

It's just rule, baby, rule.

None of this shit's working.

I got to get rid of everything.

Cleaning house.

You know, I think as a viewer, surely we're supposed to be able to see that Messaria is in it for herself the whole time.

That it's a.

Actually a smart move.

Although she's probably just cleaning house in general.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Not that I'm disagreeing with you, but I do think there's an element of Messaria as she's the sort of.

She's the doubt that Damon isn't at this point and she's got to get rid of.

Doubt.

Mm.

That's well put.

I'm not saying she's wrong to do so.

I'm not saying that Mysaria might have somewhat less than pure motives.

She almost feels like a leftover from a lower stakes time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not saying that she might not emerge to be up to some life and death kind of stuff, but, you know, there's some high stakes happening all around her and she's still like, who is she being honest with is kind of the.

Which.

Obviously information is power above just about anything else aside from literal dragonfire in this universe.

But she.

It felt like a footnote to me.

Yes.

I have another on my list that I felt like it was a footnote.

Let me go ahead and bring it up when it comes to Helena, I felt like the show didn't know what to do with her much.

She didn't feel as important as she is in the books, I'm assuming, or as we're supposed to feel.

I was never sold on that.

So I'm not saying it's a perfect show.

That's one of the things I thought they could have just made me somehow feel or understand better.

Her death didn't feel quite the knockout punch.

Her presence in the show, to me, paid off in the last few episodes.

Same like the holding the mirror up to Rhaenyra.

The Donovan really let us off on that.

Seems worthwhile for that character.

If nothing else,.

House of the Dragon does a really good job.

Much like its predecessor, where you get these emotional high five moments when these detestable get theirs.

But then at the same time, in the middle of your high five, you know, shit, this is a horrible decision.

Someone I like is going to pay for it or someone, a main character is going to pay for it.

And that.

That's the way I felt with that High Septon got the blade.

I was like, yeah, this guy, he.

I mean, they're in there with swords.

Just play along for a minute.

But then he gets it.

He's got integrity.

Blaine, what do you.

What do you have against the Pope?

Blaine?

I never seen anything with Pope.

We're talking high septum.

Don't put words in my mouth.

I thought it was a fantastic episode.

I did scratch my head at the plot for Sir Hugh.

He was another footnote kind of thing.

Felt like he was supposed to do more than just find his wife and try to convince her again.

Like, didn't we just see that?

I'm guessing that was him at the end, flying on one of the three dragons.

Ulf would have to be the other.

And I'm assuming it's Damon on the third.

Was I wrong?

And with that scene.

It's a quick scene.

It's a very quick scene.

I was a bit unsure as well.

Guess we'll find out next season.

I'm sure we could consult the nerds of the Internet and they would tell us exactly which dragons were involved.

Any thoughts on Ulf?

I'm starting to think that Ormond may not be the strategic mastermind that he had thought he was.

I thought it was pretty funny that both Damon and Ormund were looking for Ulf.

I mean, you've pissed off the wrong guys at that point.

Yes.

Felt a fitting moment for who he is anyway.

He's.

He's been off drunk and passed out.

That.

That's about right.

I mean that was a very hungover.

I would say ride just like.

Ugh.

I hate everyone.

We haven't commented on Ormond much.

He got his thanks to Roddy the.

What's his name?

Roddy the.

He's a really cool name.

Roddy the the North.

The north, the Northman's leader.

He was a cool guy and he.

He welcomed death with open arms.

Arm by the end.

Oh, thank you.

Pretty good boy.

Let's.

Let's have a look at this Latest from Apple TV's Ted Lasso, which is its second episode of this renewed season.

You could call it.

I thought it was one of the lesser episodes of Ted Lasso as a whole.

I know we're only two episodes into a season, but I was afraid that this might be the case.

There's no real subversions.

The jokes I didn't think were very funny and it was all a predictable episode.

And I thought that the predictability really hurt.

Mainly the humor.

But just as an episode in total.

Your problem with it is that it was predictable.

Yeah.

That I knew exactly where it was going by.

Let's take one aspect, the assistant coach who's an asshole.

But then she's got a heart of gold and it's going to take Ted to get it out of her a little bit as well as hire her at the end.

I thought that that was a.

That was a good 35, 40 minutes of just knowing I know she's going to get hired.

I know she's not going anywhere.

I think.

I don't know.

I felt that could be wrapped in a 15 minute.

I thought that there were two elements that they didn't subvert.

That storyline that we all knew was coming from, you know, you could see that from outer space.

Ted Lasso's the goodness of his heart will win this cold person over.

One, I think her being like extremely competent and unapologetic about it at her job was.

That is good.

A little different than, you know, he's helped.

Beard was in a bad spot.

Nate was kind of this bumbling wonderkid and whatever Roy had to be softened.

All this stuff like this is a different version of that, I think.

And two, the way that we alluded in the intro to dealing with like some pretty big societal themes here, right?

Like women in sports.

What.

What should that look like?

And for him to win her over, you know, when the team goes into the locker room and they have like this actual space, they can call their Own.

And she starts, like, getting misty eyed, like, oh, this is a new way for Ted to win somebody over.

That I thought was a nice touch.

And again, we are just dudes from Alabama who probably shouldn't go out on too much of a limb to say that.

You know, things like, I found that moving, but I don't know how somebody who was dealing with that reality every day would find it.

But yeah, that storyline was good.

It's the.

The bigger things I think were either predictable or not as worth my time.

I'll give you another one.

Another bad sign here is the will they or won't they between Keely and Roy?

We've seen that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Strengths and weaknesses.

Yeah.

I was just worried that this season would be Ted Lasso, but with women.

Well, that was what I was hoping for.

I'll say this.

Can I ask why that was a concern?

Yeah, sure.

Just that it would just be the state.

Like rinse and repeat with the old.

Yeah.

Paint by numbers.

He's going to have to encounter someone he's got to win over.

Like a Roy Kent.

He's gonna have to.

Yeah, same thing.

But there are promising things, and I'm gonna.

I'm kind of holding off on the positive until.

Until I get the negative out of the way.

I'm so uninterested in the entire Coach Beard saga in this episode.

It.

It made zero sense, really.

If you unpacked it at all.

And I know it's a comedy.

We're not supposed to unpack it that much.

But he just didn't want to be seen talking to Ted until.

Until he could officially be his assistant coach.

It just seems like a silly reasoning to have him look funny and avoid the inevitable big setup for a little payoff.

Oh, it made me laugh when he's, like, sneaking over him in the bar because presumably he doesn't want the press to get on him.

Right?

That's right, though.

Yeah.

As dumb as it was, him making the office Supply Ted, that did make me laugh.

Beard.

Beard is one of.

I'm not.

He's not always the funniest guy.

Like, people who are supposed to be quirky or whatever can be kind of like, yeah, I roll my eyes sometimes with that kind of stuff in these comedies.

But that was a funny moment.

His best moment was when he lowered the blinds quickly.

The jump scare.

Yeah, that was.

That was as good as it got for his.

I thought the two twins who are constantly fighting, bickering, I don't find that funny.

But that may just be me.

Because I see that all day long and watching it in a show can be.

Can get really annoying for me quickly.

They're center backs.

They're going to be a liability on corner kicks.

Not a lot of height.

There you go, people.

It's my Adams on this show.

Gotta watch for the play action here.

That's it.

I think maybe a move to defensive midfield will be good for him.

I'll move into some positives.

I thought Boots was really interesting.

Can't wait to see more of her.

That when you said it's always the same joke, her interaction with Ted, I thought that immediately flashed to my mind of like, that was a little different.

That was a good joke and it had a little oomph to it.

Yeah.

Another smart thing I thought this episode did was to make the subtext into text.

You guys mentioned this in the non spoilers where Rebecca just has to reckon with the idea of feminism and is she a feminist?

And she takes it to her mom even.

And her mom says, I hope I didn't raise you like that.

It was good.

Yeah, it was funny.

Having her read and quote bell hooks is pretty good when it comes to the jokes.

Did they almost steal the C word joke from Arrested Development?

100%, Yes.

Was that an homage or a.

Let's say it was a loving homage.

Okay.

He'll make you a firm offer.

Maybe I thought too much, but may the bartender offering Ted a Guinness for breakfast, you know, wouldn't she have known he wasn't a drinking man?

About this point of their relationship felt like a weak attempt to have her say the joke about yapping dogs and cocaine users.

Well, Guinness isn't.

That's not beer to.

That's not alcohol to the English.

It really can.

Yeah.

That's like water bread.

They're like.

It got us through drinking beer got us through the black plague.

And I don't see any reason to stop it just because I'm an alcoholic.

So anyway, some of these things I just felt made the episode itself run a little long is.

It was a long episode.

47 Minutes or something.

I don't think that it excels in the fort.

I think that the original tighter runtime.

I think we actually ran into this problem with the rest of development once it got bought by Netflix and they had Those longer Season 4 episodes was not as tight.

Yeah.

A contributing factor to it not being very good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

One of a few reasons that's true.

You know, it is.

It was very much like I made the joke, but, like, they're strong.

Where they're strong.

Like if you, if you were.

And like, I think that, I mean that more than even just in the jokes, but like, I can see that, like, okay, if you were a viewer who in the first three episodes or first three seasons who, like, you know what it made like, you.

One of the things you liked about it was that Ted acknowledged and respected and listened to everybody.

Like, well, there's some of that in this episode, if you like that Roy can't swears.

Well, there's some of that in this episode, you know, if you like, you know, like the football culture jokes.

Yeah, there's a little bit of that in this episode too.

But then, you know, playing to, playing to all your strengths sometimes means falling to your weaknesses.

Tell us more.

Well, I mean, I think we.

Blaine kind of laid it all out right.

Whereas, like, if you're, if you're repeating, not that I think they're doing exactly the same thing, but if you're repeating, if you're giving people what they love, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're growing or changing, which may or may not.

May or may not be a bad thing.

I think we're just looking at the hero's journey once again.

Ted's already in his different world, so that that phase is complete.

And the next step it was here was meeting his allies and his mentors, especially with the assistant coach.

And since we knew where it was going, I just felt like it could have been a tighter episode.

I think if it would have been a tighter episode, a 25 minute episode, I would have liked it.

I liked our introduction to him getting the team together with the assistants.

And, you know, we have to spend a little bit of time with the players too.

They have to become characters.

And I thought I did see Jason Sudeikis apparently personally called everyone who wasn't going to be in this season who had been, that would be because he didn't want him to find out, like, Ted Lasso's back, why didn't I get a call?

You know?

So when he went around and looked at all the players lockers in the men's locker room, I was like, oh, that's a nice touch.

Yeah.

But I guess that first season, obviously Ted is going through some stuff as he attempts to get the best out of everybody else.

We still have the wild card of his family moving over, which I was.

Kind of surprised they didn't go ahead and implement that in this episode.

I guess he had to get work life set up first.

Yeah.

Realistically, it made sure you you definitely would take a while.

I wouldn't have been surprised if they said they're going to be over in the next month and they arrive mid season but Right.

So yes, you know not my favorite episode.

I thought it was one of the the weaker of the probably the whole four seasons or at least last three but you know when I saw the runtime I did think oh we're going to get to meet some of these athletes and we really didn't accept our boots.

The rest of them just kind of got a.

They were on screen.

Yeah, they were on screen.

Anyway, I think that's it for us.

Remember that?

I don't know what are we remembering this week?

I don't have one.

Remember that Orman wasn't quite as good as he thought he was.

Remember if you think you're as good as every better than everyone else you could get something shoved up your butt.

Have a great week everyone.