“Shortly after Dragon’s August premiere, Amazon launched The Rings of Power, a prequel to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings tale, and the costliest television series of all time. Throughout the year, too, Disney deployed multiple Star Wars shows—the slickest and best among them being the spy thriller Andor. Viewers were generally spoiled for explosive, CGI-laden action mixed with slow-burn, episodic storytelling. But the difference between spectacle and spark, self-seriousness and serious entertainment, has never been more glaring”
“Our present era of franchise-driven TV requires the industrialization of spectacle, but all the money in the galaxy can’t ensure crackling dialogue and convincing acting”