I didn’t read the book so I have nothing to compare the HBO series with. I watched it with an open mind — hoping that it would at least be entertaining. Season 1 was promising enough. Nothing much happened in Season 2. But eight episodes of Daemon Targaryen slowly going insane in Harrenhal made me roll my eyes too many times.

It was a favor to my daughter, Alex (who read the book), that I watched Season 3 — to keep her company because her father kept falling asleep in front of the TV. We just finished the season finale, she asked me if we would still watch Season 4, and I said yes because I want to see Aemond Targaryen die. Besides, I am curious how the rest of the story will play out. Alex told me that, after Season 1, the series has deviated too much from the book. Author George R.R. Martin isn’t happy about it and part of me wants to see if showrunner Ryan Condal will eventually hang himself with the rewrites.

Sure, the costumes and sets were as grand as what we enjoyed in Game of Thrones. But those were the only things that the creators and producers were willing to spend on.

Dialogues were bad. Really bad. Not enough budget left to pay good scriptwriters?

And then, there’s this illogical refusal to make the characters look their age. Olivia Cooke (who, to start with, seemed out of place in the series) as the grown-up Alicent Hightower look the same age as her adult children. What? She gave birth to them when she was a toddler?

There’s Ser Criston Cole played by Fabien Frankel. Yes, Frankel is good-looking. And I understand that he is an impressive ornament in the show. But, my goodness, is Ser Criston Cole some kind of immortal that he looked the same from Season 1 to Season 3 in a story that spanned at least a decade and a half? Why not get an older actor for the role when Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy took over as the adult Alicent and Rhaenyra?

It wasn’t easy plodding through Seasons 2 and 3 especially since there were actors who played characters I wished had died earlier just so I didn’t have to bear them any longer. It’s not the characters that I take issue with — it’s the actors.

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