Let’s be honest

It's about 5% as good. HOTD has a much smaller cast with far fewer storylines, so it is just less intriguing. I feel like season 2 doesn't even need 8 episodes. This story could easily fit into 2 or 3 episodes.

Early in the season Daemon went to a rundown old castle and demanded the loyalty of its people. Since that time, he has literally done nothing. He has had a lot of screen time, but it's just pointless flashbacks and talking to some witch lady about nothing interesting. Get on with it already.

Agreed. It’s pretty good but not great.

The wardrobe, settings and CGI are all on equal footing. The story is blah as the characters are mostly not interesting and there is a lot of chatting between anything happening.

I’ll give it time.

Of course it's not what made GoT a great show was simply %80 of the characters were great and had an amazing arc. Until they ruined them in the last two seasons.

We still watch out of obligation. But it is in no way shape or form Game of Thrones. They can beat us over the head with the theme song all they want. Needs to be a tight 45 mins because the story isn't interesting enough to clock in at over an hour a week.

My hope/expectation is that while it won't be as good as Game of Thrones at its best, that it might be more even in quality throughout the seasons. Part of the problem is that despite his faults, GRRM is a good writer. The first 3 - 4 seasons of Game of Thrones were so good because the showrunners already had a script. Once they ran out of source material it became glaringly obvious that GRRM was a necessary component.