‘Larger and more toxic butterflies to come’: George R. R. Martin isn’t happy with ‘Dragon’ changes

It’s September and I’m back from vacation with a brand new edition of Popculturology. I learned last week that they’ve turned the Gannett building that I worked in during my newpaper days in Rochester into some apartments. I wonder how much my old shared office goes for …

My big news of the week is that I’ve launched Snackology, a free newsletter from Popculturology all about finding and trying new (and often gimmicky) foods. I kicked off Snackology with Taco Bell’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast Gelato.

SNACKOLOGY: Yes, I bought 4 Mountain Dew Baja Blast Gelato cups

Taco Bell launched the frozen dessert in honor of the iconic Mountain Dew flavor’s 20th anniversary.

PopculturologyBill Kuchman

If you’re not already receiving Snackology as part of your Popculturology subscription and want to add it, click the button below and let me know.

I’m on the hunt for the wave of Coke Zero/Oreo mashups that are supposed to hit stores next week (including a Slurpee flavor!), so be on the lookout for those ...

That Celebrimbor makes such nice jewelry

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returned to Prime Video last Thursday. We were still in the Outer Banks, so Caitlin and I had to wait until we got past the holiday weekend to jump into the new season.

With the season’s first episodes being released at once, it’s clear that if you enjoyed the first season of The Rings of Power, you’ll enjoy this one. And if the first season wasn’t for you, you’re probably not going to fall in love with the show now.

Caitlin and I fall in that first camp. We’ve watched the first season twice, most recently including it in a full Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/Rings of Power rewatch. And after finishing the third episode on Tuesday, we’re eagerly looking forward to the next episode. (We’ll have likely watched it after I put this edition of Popculturology to bed.)

That’s not to say Rings of Power is perfect. While I love Morfyyd Clark as Galadriel and watching Charlie Vickers worm his way into Celebrimbor’s psyche as Sauron, I just do not care about the Harfoots.

At all.

“I want to punt the Harfoots,” my brother Jake texted me after we had watched the new episodes.

That said, I will go to war to protect Berek. The horse whose name is just “Derek” with a “B.”

• Uh oh: The ratings for the new season of The Rings of Power ... well, they’re not great. Only 902,000 households watched the season premiere within four days of it premiering. Deadline notes that the number is “half the audience that the first episode of Season 1 drew in less time.” Yikes — and an even bigger yikes when you remember that Amazon spent a historically ungodly amount of money to secure rights from the Tolkien estate to make The Rings of Power a reality. (Deadline)

Bet on Biles?

Vulture’s Jesse David Fox has his money on Olympic legend Simone Biles hosting SNL’s season premiere.

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

George R. R. Martin rips into House of the Dragon ... then deletes post

Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin ripped into some of the choices made by showrunner Ryan Condal and the creative team behind House of the Dragon on Wednesday, noting that he “argued against” choices made in the show’s second season before warning that “there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, if HOUSE OF THE DRAGON goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4…”

Then Martin deleted the blog post.