HBO’s latest epic series, House of the Dragon, was placed in an unenviable position — win back the trust and passion of a fanbase that had been burned by those final episodes of Game of Thrones.
The reception to the final season was (and still is) so poor that it seemed that any news from the GoT universe was no longer met with anger and angst, but with apathy. Coming out of San Diego Comic Con, the discourse on House of the Dragon was easily overshadowed by all the MCU announcements. This month the arrival of The Sandman, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the impending Lord of the Rings prequel series seemed to have more buzz than HotD. Hell, if it had not been for All Elite Wrestling promoting the premiere last week, this reviewer would’ve missed the premiere.
So, the series had a lot of work to do to quell the apathy of the audience while simultaneously reigniting fans’ passion for the Game of Thrones Universe. It’s no secret that HBO/Warner Bros Discovery have deemed it one of their content tent poles moving forward so if Dragon tanked, the plans for the next few years of HBO content would be down the tubes.
Outside of all of this, from a creative standpoint House of the Dragon needed its premiere to establish hundreds of years of history, introduce a cavalcade of new characters, build ties to the GoT series, reintroduce the tone and tenor of the GoT universe, and deliver a big action set piece — all within the first episode.
Luckily, for everyone at HBO, Warner Bros Discovery and those working on this series, House of the Dragon overcame its unenviable position and became the most watched premiere in HBO history — bringing in 10 million viewers. So the risk in investing in more GoT content definitely (for now) paid off.
Yet, popularity doesn’t always equal quality.
As a premiere, “The Heirs of the Dragon” does an excellent job reintroducing us to the world of the GoT universe. The premiere easily slid us back into the world of Westeros. The sights, the sounds — they’re all there and they feel totally natural and lived in. The episode truly does make you feel that you’ve walked into the history books of King’s Landing and all these legendary figures, many of whom were referenced in passing in GoT are there in all their glory (or lack thereof).
The premiere does, however, struggle at times. “The Heirs of the Dragons” moves at a glacial pace mostly due to the amount of exposition and world-building that needs to happen. The sheer amount of exposition and references to family names made famous in GoT, will have you stopping the series trying to remember just who that person is and how important they are. It’s a distracting piece of the show that occurs too often.
Some of the bad habits from GoT seep into the premiere as well — the worst being sexposition. Yes, the famed “exposition during sex scenes” motif returns and it is certainly not welcome as it feels completely crowbarred in and remains a lazy storytelling device.
One of the good things that’s carried over from GoT is fantastic casting, which of course leads to stellar performances. Paddy Considine (The Outsider) is absolutely electric as the wildly conflicted King Viserys I Targaryen. This is such a complicated character and Considine is able to nail the nuance of it with aplomb. Rhys Ifans (Knotting Hill), known more for his comedic chops, does wonders as the stoic Ser Otto Hightower. Ifans does a wondrous job masking the inner sorrow and rage that’s bubbling inside the Hand of the King.
Yet, there are concerns within the cast. The biggest question mark of the cast is Matt Smith (Last Night in Soho) as Prince Daemon Targaryen. Smith has done a lot since his Doctor Who days and he’s perfectly fine in the episode, seeing the “boyfriend Doctor” in those sexposition scenes or hacking off limbs will indeed take some time getting used to.
The other question is Emma D’Arcy’s role as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. The question has nothing to do with her performance as D’Arcy is fantastic in the role as she steals the show every time she’s on screen. The question is what will the showrunners allow Rhaenyra to be her own character, or will she be relegated to becoming Daenerys Targaryen 2.0.
The biggest question that will hang over the series will be its treatment of female characters. Game of Thrones was often unflinchingly brutal towards the women in the series, and the divisive portrayal of Dany in the final season was a huge factor in why people turned on the series. Here, we see misogyny in full and excruciating effect, and we do see the consequences of that play out in both broad and intimate terms throughout the premiere. However, this is all told through a male perspective on the production side of things. We’ll see if this perspective negatively impacts the female characters in the series.
The premiere of House of the Dragon is a solid re-entry into the Game of Thrones universe. The production value, world-building and most of the performances here are the stuff we loved about the old series. Yet, there are still inherent issues with an overcrowded cast, a dense series narrative, some questionable characters and those issues that plagued the previous series. If you were burnt by Game of Thrones three years ago, the House of the Dragon premiere should assuage most of your worries and heal some of those wounds, but it is also not the home run of an episode that the previous series was known to kick a season off with either.
House of the Dragon airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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