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Fantasy television in the fall of 2022 looks like an A/B test.
Theres still violence and evil, but its magical landscape is peopled with do-gooders.
Middle-earth believes in redemption.
Westeros believes in a Sisyphean embrace of struggle until death.
Youcanwatch both, of course, but its hard to shake theflick-of-a-light-switch sensationin moving from one to the other.
But underneath all that Luigi-Waluigi folderol, its striking how alike the two projects are.
Both are born of the same franchising drive: Extend, expand, capitalize on, and continue.
(Difficult but not impossible.
We live in the age ofCruellabut alsoBetter Call Saul.)
Its not just that theyre both prequels, though.
C. 500 Sauron begins to stir again in Middle-earth, reads one.
750 Eregion founded by the Noldor, notes another.
There is no time to dawdle on character development or the immediate consequences of major events.
Everything important has to be crammed into one funeral scene or one argument between enemies.
The show feels constrained but also stretched too thin.
Im tempted to throw inWestworld, but I can hear Roman fromParty Downchiding me about hard sci-fi.
Nevertheless, on TV, this is where a lot of the big bets and big money are happening!
(Whoever made the decision about its opening credits theme apparentlycame to the same conclusion.)
Its Targaryens have nominally better blonde wigs.
Both series are presented as shining new jewels in the streaming pantheon, and they are!
Dont get me wrong I am fond of chicken salad.
Still,House of the DragonandThe Rings of Powerresemble smooth replicas rather than exciting new reworkings.
Fantasy and genre fiction with more exciting perspectivesdoes exist.
Its taken decades, but the first TV adaptation of Octavia Butlers work is coming later this fall.
Thereve been plans for years to adapt N.K.
Their prequel-ness is a storytelling limitation, but worse, its an upper boundary on their imagination.
Fantasies should be forward-looking dreams of different worlds.
TVs current options only know how to look backward.
