Nick1Ø66

Impressive. Most impressive.
 
While my feelings about the show itself are well known, I can't help but respect the passion, talent and commitment Bear has put into this project. He was an obvious choice for the score, and even though he wouldn't have been my first choice (among the prospects they could have realistically hoped to get), it's hard to think of many other composers who could put out such a solid body of work under such demanding constraints. You could argue simply the scope of what he's doing is historic in terms of TV scores.

Yep, that's a great question.  How and why and when was he brought on board, how long did he spend writing it, what was he given as criteria, etc.  I'd love to know!
 
We don't know even know when it was recorded, only where (Vienna)

The only thing I can think of that comes close is LOST by Giacchino, though that of course had no choir, invented languages, or particularly exotic instruments.  Plus all the themes are for individual characters, or broader things like love and death - no themes representing entire cultures or anything.  LOST does have have more themes though (even in just the first season), although he didn't come up with concert arrangements with full A,B,C sections and bridges

Impressive. Most impressive.
 
While my feelings about the show itself are well known, I can't help but respect the passion, talent and commitment Bear has put into this project. He was an obvious choice for the score, and even though he wouldn't have been my first choice (among the prospects they could have realistically hoped to get), it's hard to think of many other composers who could put out such a solid body of work under such demanding constraints. You could argue simply the scope of what he's doing is historic in terms of TV scores.

Impressive. Most impressive.
 
While my feelings about the show itself are well known, I can't help but respect the passion, talent and commitment Bear has put into this project. He was an obvious choice for the score, and even though he wouldn't have been my first choice (among the prospects they could have realistically hoped to get), it's hard to think of many other composers who could put out such a solid body of work under such demanding constraints. You could argue simply the scope of what he's doing is historic in terms of TV scores.

November of 2001? Now the naysayers are going to be extra pissed that they didn't use the time travel to get the Shore from then to score the show!

You should check out Bear's blogs on the score, they are all great
 
https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-appendices-part-1/
https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-appendices-part-2/
https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-appendices-part-3/
https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-appendices-part-4/
 
Basically the timeline is:
 
-Bear gets the call in late 2020 to see if he's interested in scoring the show, he virtually attends meetings with the showrunners in the ensuing months
-In the summer of 2021 they official hire him; He gets sent rough cuts of the first 2 episodes, and the scripts for all 8
-He spends six weeks exclusively writing the themes he would need for the show
-He then scores 15 minutes worth of various scenes from the first 2 episodes using some of the themes
-He plays demos for the showrunners and producers and they approve of everything
-He now spends 9 months (July 2021 -> April 2022) writing the scores to all 8 episodes; By November of 2021, they are starting to record the scores in Europe for the earlier episodes while he continues to write the later episodes at home in LA
-He hears a mockup of Shore's theme for the first time in early 2022, as he is writing the score for episode 6
-In April 2022 he finishes writing the score for episode 8, then flies to London to conduct it, the only episode he was able to conduct
 
So while I suppose it is technically possible he could reference Shore's main title in episode 8, it doesn't seem likely since he didn't even hear it until episode 6, and architected the entire season's score many, many months before he ever heard it.  It definitely isn't referenced in any way within the first 7 episodes.

I do like the Main Theme (as I like Bear's work), but to be blunt, as much as I enjoy it, I don't think Shore's theme is in any way crucial to the show, and it doesn't add anything except music to an (uninteresting) opening titles sequence most people frankly skip.  Especially since, as far as I know, Bear isn't building on it with his own score.
 
Bringing Shore on board was always a gimmick to lend credibility to the show, but given that they're not doing anything with it, I think it was probably a mistake to do so. Again, it's a lovely piece of music, and it's nice to have a little coda to Shore's Middle-Earth work, but I think Bear should have been given the opportunity to make the project totally his.

I do like the Main Theme (as I like Bear's work), but to be blunt, as much as I enjoy it, I don't think Shore's theme is in any way crucial to the show, and it doesn't add anything except music to an (uninteresting) opening titles sequence most people frankly skip.  Especially since, as far as I know, Bear isn't building on it with his own score.
 
Bringing Shore on board was always a gimmick to lend credibility to the show, but given that they're not doing anything with it, I think it was probably a mistake to do so. Again, it's a lovely piece of music, and it's nice to have a little coda to Shore's Middle-Earth work, but I think Bear should have been given the opportunity to make the project totally his.

I skip past the main theme when I watch each episode. It's mainly because I don't find the visuals interesting at all and the whole thing is very slow. Losing hearing Shore's main title every week... I can live with it.

Yeah. The thing is, The Lord of the Rings is much more adaptable for the screen. There are more opportunities for action, the characters are more archetypes and less complex, and the story is much more straight forward. A big thing that kept LOTR from being adapted so long was that the technology really didn't exist to put the tale on screen in a convincing way. 
 
Dune is another matter, it's such a complex book, with so much inner dialogue among the characters, and fewer key action sequences to build around. As I said, given this I think Villeneuve made about the best Dune film we could reasonably expect.

Quite. If you do a lie in a film, its not usually gone into in such detail: its a "true" or "untrue" situation: Either Girion's arrow did hit Smaug, or it didn't, for instance.
 
Also, you don't introduce something that ups the stakes only to then reveal it was a lie and lower the stakes back down. That would be like Frodo arriving to Rivendell and Elrond going "good news, everyone! Turns out this isn't Sauron's Ring after all! Funny, ainnit?"

It does, as it happens.

The EU is no different at all. When an EU story recaptures the magic of the OT, people love it, they can’t get enough. When it falls too far from the tree, people say it’s weird, it doesn’t feel like Star Wars.

You hit the nail on the head! I get the same feeling with some shows these days which makes HOTD so refreshing!
 
They struck gold with Ryan Condal who really knows GRRMs books. I mean he even made all the Westeros books by GRRM  mandatory reading for the writing staff and even the dialogue is close to the source material. They are confident in telling the story as it should be told and it feels natural. I get the feeling of box crossing with many productions these days where certain things don’t feel natural and that really isn’t the case here which is very refreshing.
 
Also the fact that HBO decided not to make a full season of the Long Night show despite having spent 30 million on the pilot speaks volumes about their commitment to quality. I’m very very optimistic about the other successor shows at HBO!

House of the Dragon feels less algorithmically driven to me than genre shows on Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. I swear some of the shows on those streamers feel like they're designed based entirely on focus groups & audience data, and conjured up in writer's rooms where groupthink is the dominant virtue.
 
House of the Dragon, the best show on TV, feels purposeful and confident in its characters and story. Whoever is making the decisions on that show clearly has a vision of where they want it to go, and it shows. This is what good television is supposed to look like.

House of the Dragon feels less algorithmically driven to me than genre shows on Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. I swear some of the shows on those streamers feel like they're designed based entirely on focus groups & audience data, and conjured up in writer's rooms where groupthink is the dominant virtue.
 
House of the Dragon, the best show on TV, feels purposeful and confident in its characters and story. Whoever is making the decisions on that show clearly has a vision of where they want it to go, and it shows. This is what good television is supposed to look like.

It is a good movie. Maybe even nearly a great movie. Perhaps even the best Dune movie there could be, given the considerable challenges in adapting that particular source material.
 
But, I don't know, there's something...missing. It's almost one of those films whose ambition exceeds, or overshadows, its greatness, if that makes sense. It almost falls into The Northman territory as far as that goes, another movie that should be great but isn't quite as great as it should be.
 
I think I end up admiring films like Dune and The Northman (and to a certain extent, Ad Astra) because they are at least attempting to do something different, and ambitious, even if their reach exceeds their grasp. I guess I give them credit for breaking the mold from the current environment of endless sequels, franchises and superhero movies. I want more genre films that are ambitious, even if they don't always nail the landing.
 
But it just may be a thing with Villenueve, Arrival didn't particularly connect with me either. His films end up feeling like less than the sum of their (admittedly impressive) parts and somewhat...cold. There's a sense of detachment I feel from his films. 
 
And Nolan obviously figures into this conversation as well, but I digress.

House of the Dragon feels less algorithmically driven to me than genre shows on Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. I swear some of the shows on those streamers feel like they're designed based entirely on focus groups & audience data, and conjured up in writer's rooms where groupthink is the dominant virtue.
 
House of the Dragon, the best show on TV, feels purposeful and confident in its characters and story. Whoever is making the decisions on that show clearly has a vision of where they want it to go, and it shows. This is what good television is supposed to look like.

Yeah I trust that HBO is smart enough to do this and also to continue focusing on quality rather than quantity like Disney have been doing lately because IMO having GOT shows airing all year long would be a very bad idea! I trust HBO completely though after HOTD so I’m actually not worried.
 
GRRM was very interested in doing different types of successor shows that show the different kinds of stories and parts of Westeros and I completely agree. If these 3 are green lit, we could have some awesome years ahead with different Westeros stories each year!

It is a good movie. Maybe even nearly a great movie. Perhaps even the best Dune movie there could be, given the considerable challenges in adapting that particular source material.
 
But, I don't know, there's something...missing. It's almost one of those films whose ambition exceeds, or overshadows, its greatness, if that makes sense. It almost falls into The Northman territory as far as that goes, another movie that should be great but isn't quite as great as it should be.
 
I think I end up admiring films like Dune and The Northman (and to a certain extent, Ad Astra) because they are at least attempting to do something different, and ambitious, even if their reach exceeds their grasp. I guess I give them credit for breaking the mold from the current environment of endless sequels, franchises and superhero movies. I want more genre films that are ambitious, even if they don't always nail the landing.
 
But it just may be a thing with Villenueve, Arrival didn't particularly connect with me either. His films end up feeling like less than the sum of their (admittedly impressive) parts and somewhat...cold. There's a sense of detachment I feel from his films. 
 
And Nolan obviously figures into this conversation as well, but I digress.

I enjoyed Villenueve's Dune and continue to enjoy it.
 
Its maybe a little slow here, a little unexciting there (I think most the action scenes are meh), but on the whole its as sure-handed and as expansive a motion picture as they come.
 
Not patheon-of-the-all-time-greats stuff...but its good!

I don't know if anyone cares what I think, but this isn't productive. Go ahead and criticise his arguments or manners, but he's entitled to his own opinions.

While true, Star Wars media should never have unmemorable music. 
 
Every Williams score has a few earworms.
 
Rogue One has a great villain march. 
 
The Mandalorian has very unique music. 
 
But Andor's is meh.