While many laud the first five seasons of Game of Thrones, can House of the Dragon be held to the same lofty standard at the start of the second season? This show refines its predecessor and provides a sharp and focused narrative on feudal politics and a believable succession crisis within the Targaryen family. Monte and DoA discuss the first season of House of the Dragon and the start of the second, focusing on the intricately-wrought intrigue, the wonderful acting, and the depth of the world of Westeros.

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Amazon Prime has released the fourth season of The Boys, which was very quick to un-do almost everything that occurred in the previous season. While the stellar acting, particularly by Antony Starr as Homelander, remains, much of the plot revolves around copy/pasting modern politics into the show without the artfulness or cleverness of satire. While Monte and DoA still enjoy some of the plotlines, particularly around Vought and Neumann, the new story arcs seem lifted from soap operas, such as Frenchie's love affair and Ryan's plight with his father. The result is an uneven series forced to forget almost all the events of Soldier Boy and Temp V in the third season, which makes it an unsatisfying continuation.

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Star Wars is back with The Acolyte and the franchise may have finally hit rock bottom. The new show on Disney+ is a nonsensical mess that backfires in its thematic choices and leaves viewers bored and with virtually no characters or plotlines to care about. Monte and DoA break down this televised catastrophe and wonder how Disney managed to collect such a unique combination of terrible writers, actors, and producers to waste $180 million.

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga debuted to critical acclaim, but weak box office sales. Monte and DoA discuss George Miller's latest effort and whether it lives up to the Mad Max legacy. With compelling performances from Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa continues in the vein of Fury Road with epic chase sequences and further world-building around the Citadel of the film. The question remains: did anyone actually want this prequel or would it have been better to continue where Fury Road left off?

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Disney+ has revived the late '90's X-Men animated series with a sequel set in the same era, X-Men '97. Resurrected by pop-culture necromancer Beau Demayo, this series may appeal to millennials desperate for any form of nostaligia, but for the uninitiated it may be jammed with too many subplots and other distractions. While many reviewers are raving about this show, DoA and Monte found the core storypoints and faithfulness to the X-Men universe compelling, but lacked the same enthusiasm for the series as other critics.

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40 years after its release, Nerd Legion revisits David Lynch's version of Dune from 1984, which stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides. DoA and Monte discuss the differences between this first attempt to put Dune on film with the recent Denis Villeneuve epic, both appreciating and laughing at some of the decisions made in this interpretation. While perhaps the source material was too challenging for the technological limits of the era, Lynch's Dune still contains some impressive visuals, performance, and an intriguing exploration into the expansion of consciousness.

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We return to Shogun on Nerd Legion to give our final review and to discuss the second half of the series, which concludes Toranaga's ambitious character arc. The latter half of the show focuses on the deep political intrigue of feudal Japan and rounds out the character development of John Blackthorne and Mariko, leaving us with a consummate victory before the battle truly begins. This show will go down as an all-time triumph and we beg for it to end here since it's already a complete story. Please do not give us new seasons!

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Not simply content with making one terrible Rebel Moon movie, Zack Snyder delivers another via Netflix called Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. Almost nothing happens in this film as it decides to dedicate its running time to slow motion grain harvesting rather than world-building or character development, leading to some rushed and hilarious moments. Interspersed with occasionally interesting visuals, Rebel Moon ends up being a hybrid of the Seven Samurai and The Canterbury Tales if they were interpreted by an idiot. Watch for laughs only.

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Amazon Prime tapped Jonathan Nolan to create an adaptation of the video game property Fallout, which largely succeeds in providing and entertaining expansion of the games' world. Originally created by Bioware and followed-up with titles from Bethesda, Fallout portrays a post-apocalyptic Earth with macabre, dark humor and quirky characters, which the show gleefully portrays. The adaptation even managed to "feel" like a video game at times with side quests and bit characters while also channeling the comedy of some of its writers' former shows, such as Portlandia. Nerd Legion enjoyed Fallout and we're excited to see a continuation of the plot twist in season two!

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Made for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Sunghoo Park's Ninja Kamui breaks no new ground for anime or film/TV shows in general, instead preferring to lean on every trope imaginable. The show uses flashbacks to tell the story in the worst way possible, instead of sequencing the story chronologically, which would have given the story more emotional resonance. Beyond some cool fight sequences, Ninja Kamui offers nothing new and your time can be safely spent watching much better anime that's already been released.

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