It’s an epic story being told on an epic stage. The critics are having their say on George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King, the UK stage adaptation of the hit novels and series.

The sold-out show’s reviews embargo finally lifted after previews began a couple of weeks ago at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s home of Stratford Upon Avon. The ambitious production has drawn a number of strong notices. First look images courtesy of the RSC are below. This after multiple early shows were cancelled, much to fan ire.

Whatsonstage gave the star a glowing five-star review, calling it “a triumph; a soaring, surging spectacle and a latter-day history play, both serious and popular…It is a remarkable achievement, wonderfully directed by [Dominic] Cooke and superbly acted by every member of the 35-strong ensemble. The result is a brilliant exhibition of how theatre can create magic.”

The Guardian gave the show 4/5 stars, calling “an action-packed saga of dry ice and fire…this prequel to the TV series has one joust after another, spectacular stagecraft and plenty of modern resonance.”

Metro also gave the show 4/5 stars, writing: “As a stand-alone piece of theatre, The Mad King scrapes through. But as an extension of the Game of Thrones world, it scores well, shifting the narrative to the stage with suitably theatrical thrust.”

The Independent was also a fan, noting in its 4/5 star review, that the “stellar stage show has all the thrillingly staged battles, gory deaths and, yes, dragons that the most bloodthirsty fan could hope for… there’s also a surprising amount of heart – of the warm, still-beating kind – as it lingers on the faces of its fallen.”

The Daily Mail lauded the show but was one of many to acknowledge the challengingly long running time: “The first half of Cooke’s superbly staged, spectacular production has the feel of a dynamic Bayeux Tapestry: a stunning pageant of medieval stop-motion animation. But after the interval, the plot takes off. Sparks fly romantically and dramatically, which is just as well because, at three hours 45 minutes, it’s almost as long as Hamlet.”

The Telegraph had similar things to say in its largely positive review: “At almost four hours, it’s a long evening, sometimes too dense with detail, and it lacks the grit and gore (not to mention the nudity) of the TV series…Still, it capably serves newbies and devotees, and speaks in a timely fashion to our age of unruly leaders…It’s not up there, yet, with the Harry Potter or Stranger Things prequels but, on balance, the Game of Thrones franchise has yet another worthwhile and lucrative spin-off on its hands.”

The Times was one of the few dissenting voices, claiming that while the play “gives hardcore GoT fans a chance to go hunting for ‘Easter eggs’, it seldom comes close to matching the grim aura of the TV series…Duncan Macmillan’s script is sorely lacking in poetry. Events plod forward, one after the other, and although Michael Shaeffer is a thoroughly compelling presence as the cruel and chronically unstable monarch Aerys, other performances seem nuance-free. Too many lines are simply shouted. You expect better of the RSC.”

Game of Thrones creator Martin is said to have been heavily involved in the play, having a representative in rehearsals at all times, and he attended the opening night in Stratford on Saturday.

The Mad King is a stage prequel that, according to its official synopsis, is set in Harrenhal as a long winter begins to thaw. “At a lavish banquet on the eve of a jousting tournament,” the synopsis reads, “lovers meet and revelers speculate about who will contend. But in the shadows, amid growing unease at the bloodthirsty actions of the realm’s merciless Mad King, dissenters from his inner circle anxiously advance a treasonous plot. Far away, the drums of battle sound. Family bonds, ancient prophecies, and the sacred line of succession will be tested in a dangerous campaign for power. Who will survive? Who will rise?”

The play is inspired by the “Robert’s Rebellion” lore of Martin’s sprawling book series, in which the married Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, son of the Mad King Aerys, falls in love with, and runs off with, Lyanna Stark. This leads to a rebellion led by Robert Baratheon, who is engaged to Lyanna. Successfully deposing the Mad King, The Rebellion leads to the downfall of House Targaryen.

Before we get to the “review” part of this review we have to address the elephant in the room: “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” is a film made for young children, and any adult who says it’s not “good” will inevitably be accused of missing the point. To some, the question isn’t whether an adult critic likes it. The question is, “Who cares what an adult thinks about a movie made for kids in the first place?”

It sounds like a real gotcha, but it misses the point. “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” was made for children and yet, like almost all the art we show our kids, it was made by adults. If you disregard criticism about kids movies you’re not saying it doesn’t matter what adults think, you’re saying it only matters what some adults think, and the adults who make billions of dollars selling toys to your children should be allowed to influence your kids as much as they want — and never, ever be scrutinized or (god forbid) face a little criticism once in a while.

So while a film like “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” wasn’t made for refined artistic sensibilities, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taken seriously. Films for little kids teach lessons about life, relationships and what we value as a culture. Sometimes these lessons are respectable and sometimes they’re insidious. Either way, it behooves us to at least take stock of these messages and consider what they have to say.

The most obvious takeaways from “The Dino Movie” are that puppies are cute, dinosaurs are fun and we should never stop trying our best. But subliminally, the latest “Paw Patrol” is also built on more specific ideologies. If you accept this film at face value, you must also accept its primary theses, i.e. civil services should all be privatized, the wealthy are inherently altruistic, prisoner reform is impossible and only good people can change for the better.

Yes, there may be things to like about “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” but it’s hard to shake the idea that we’re watching the type of kids movie Omni Consumer Products would produce for the dystopian TV channels in Paul Verhoeven’s “RoboCop.”

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” tells the story of Ryder (Henry Bolan), an independently wealthy child with zero parental supervision. He trains puppies to perform dangerous search and rescue operations using high-tech equipment. There don’t seem to be older dogs in Ryder’s employ, at least as far as the movie is concerned, which suggests either Ryder is extremely generous with his early retirement packages or, more likely — since nobody ever mentions that any of the puppies are being paid — that there’s a high mortality rate for naive young dogs who leap into raging infernos and climb exploding volcanos.

At the beginning of “The Dino Movie,” Ryder and his team save a family from a maritime disaster, and then their boat runs aground on an uncharted isle. The Paw Patrol goes exploring, so Ryder provides brand-new — and presumably consumer-friendly — gear to his Dalmatian firefighter Marshall (Carter Young), his German Shepherd police officer Chase (Rain Janjua), his Cockapoo aviator Skye (Mckenna Grace), his English Bulldog construction worker Rubble (Lucien Duncan-Reid), his mixed-breed recycling expert Rocky (William Desrosiers) and his Labrador aquatic rescue expert Zuma (Nylan Parthipan).

They quickly discover they’re on an island full of dinosaurs, but not the scary kind. There are Tyrannosaurus Rexes but — as Rubble says at the end of the movie — all of the dinosaurs seem to be herbivores, even the ones with sharp, pointy teeth. They also don’t have any feathers, so if you think this kids movie might be educational in some way, think again. We’re here to have fun with dinosaurs, not to have fun learning about them.

The Paw Patrol also finds another dog on the island. Rex is a disabled Bernese Mountain Dog with a wheeled dog walker. He’s voiced by Hayden Chamberlain, and he spent several years making the island accessible and developing a healthy equilibrium with the local flora and fauna.

Say what you will about the rest of “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie,” but the filmmakers wrote a heroic disabled character into their story and cast an actual wheelchair user in the role. They never shy away from Rex’s disability and it’s not the character’s only defining trait. If we’re going to criticize this movie for its questionable messaging, we also have to acknowledge there are a lot of prominent, award-winning films about disability that don’t handle their representation as well as “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie.” You have to give credit where credit is due.

Alas, you can’t have a “Paw Patrol” movie without their archenemy Humdinger (Ron Pardo). He gets out of prison at the beginning of the film, determined to never make the same mistakes again. Nobody believes him, and they were right to be cynical because he returns to a life of crime as soon as he finds out the dinosaur island is full of diamonds. Criminals are just inherently bad people, apparently. So are the cats in this universe. They’re portrayed as inherently untrustworthy and/or incompetent. Even the otherwise heroic Paw Patrol resorts to casual bigotry whenever felines are involved, and their suspicions are always proven accurate, because that’s how things work here.

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” is a colorful enterprise, full of friendly imagery and somewhat engaging set pieces. (There’s a particularly nifty action sequence involving a ravine filled with lava, a rope tied between two rescue vehicles and two helpless scientists trapped in the middle.) And while the characterizations are thin, the dialogue is eye-rolling and the plot is simplistic, that’s where “it’s for kids” can be treated as an acceptable excuse. Movies for young kids aren’t only teaching them about the world, they’re also teaching kids how to watch movies. The rudimentary storytelling in “The Dino Movie” can be viewed as a primer for understanding how other, more challenging movies will work in the future. After all, the alphabet may be child’s play, but you can’t read James Joyce’s “Ulysses” without it.

The questionable ideologies of “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” may concern some parents. Others may find the film’s iffier themes completely acceptable. Either way, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is what’s loose in the atmosphere of our popular culture, and it’s probably worth remembering that most kids won’t care about any of that. At least, not until they become discerning adults and look back on “Paw Patrol” with the same critical eye we now reserve for the rah-rah militarism of “G.I. Joe” or the annoying naïveté of the “Care Bears.” But even then they’ll be able to say “The Dino Movie” was bright and spirited, and the filmmakers cared enough about kids with disabilities to treat them with respect and represent them in a responsible manner — while, admittedly, also trying to sell toys.

EXCLUSIVE: Israeli drama Fauda will return to Netflix on September 8, and we’ve got first-look images here.

Season 5 of the show, which comes from lead star Lior Raz and writer Avi Issacharoff, is set two years after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Haunted by the trauma of the events, Daron Kavillio (Raz) and the other fighters embark on a deadly race to stop a catastrophic attack on Israel, forcing them to confront the true cost of warn after war.

Melanie Laurent and Hakim Djaziri are joining the cast alongside Ram, with Yaakov Zada Daniel and Doron Ben-David returning. The show debuts on Netflix globally following its run on Israeli network Yes, which is the commissioning broadcaster.

Omri Givon is the director and writes alongside Omri Shenhar, Issacharoff, Raz, Sari Azoulay Turgeman, Yona Rozenkier and Nir Berger. Raz and Issacharoff scrapped their first scripts for Season 5 following the October 7 attack and reformulated with that shocking event at the center of the story.

Liat Benasuly is the producer, with Nitay Netzer the DoP, Rachel Ben Dahan the costume designer and Sari Azoulay Turgeman the editor.

Yes TV and L. Benasuly Productions are the co-producers with Yes Studios on international distribution. The eleven-episode season filmed across Israel and Hungary.

“This is a TV show, not reality. But we thought that there is still a story here to be told,” said Issacharoff, co-creator and exec producer. “We wanted to ask very tough questions to people all over the world, not only in Israel. Is the revenge worth it? Is continuing this very endless cycle of bloodshed worth it? Where is it taking you? I think these are the questions that are at the heart of this season.”

Fauda has often been lauded for portraying the incredibly complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a relatable way, while opening a window into the situation in the present-day Middle East. Netflix has acquired all seasons to date.

Below is a selection of pictures from the new season.