The House of the Dragon is finally here! Sean and I have written our own reviews (here and here), but now comes the great synthesis of what we think about episode 1. We’re doing the deep dive: characters, actors, production, violence, storytelling, prophecy, real-world issues - you’ll get it all!

When Bran was thrown out the window by Jaime Lannister, this marked the first real signal that something was different about this series. Today, Sean and I explore as to why this is and what makes this scene special. Plus, we can use the word "defenestration”, which doesn’t get enough usage in common parlance.

The Disney+ Miniseries “Obi-Wan Kenobi” starring Ewan McGregor just concluded its six-episode run. We are talking about why it was a show that exists but doesn’t really rise beyond that. Where does the strange lack of suspense, meaning and emotion stem from? All this, and more, in the current BLAH episode.

We are returing to our new series on our favorite moments in A Song of Ice and Fire. After Sean’s pick of the Tower of Joy last time, this time Stefan chooses The Knight of the Laughing Tree, the most influential and important story in the story that’s told in ASOIAF. What does it tell us about Bran, about the history, about the meta and about so many other things? Who is the Knight of the Laughing Tree? Ok, just kidding, it’s Lyanna. But the other questions are really interesting!

After we followed Bismarck’s delicate attempt at maintaining European balance in the favor of German foreign policy interests, we now watch it all crash down as Kaiser Wilhelm II takes the reigns and infuses some panage into the whole thing. Listen to us discuss why France, Britain and Russia are drawing together - and whether or not it could’ve been avoided.

Sean and I start a new series, analyzing our favorite moments of the series. This week is about the Tower of Joy.

Bismarck famously refused to engage in colonialism, only to do an about-face in the 1880s to create the third-largest colonial empire of the world. It didn’t do much good. A drain financially, utterly indefensible and diplomatically a heavy burden, it weakened Germany, rather than strengthening it. Nor did it bring any good to the colonized; rather the opposite. The first German genocide was perpetrated on Namibian soil, and it would not be the last. Listen to us discussing this dark topic of history.

Bismarck felt, in the colloquial French of the times, the "cauchemar des coalitions", the nightmare of coalitions. He wanted to keep the peace, but a peace on his terms. Was this ever possible, or was Bismarck's artful foreign policy in the end only kicking the can down the road, leading to the inevitable breakdown? Listen to find out!

Amazon produced a gigantic fantasy series in the hopes of upstaging Game of Thrones - or at least its own "Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power". Did they succeed?

I'm talking about the phenomenon of "The Expanse" with Tim Westmeyr.