TV Review: House of the Dragon

I’ll admit I went into House of the Dragon expecting very little. After the disaster that was the final series of Game of Thrones this show was low down on my radar and I was surprised that HBO would take a risk on George R.R. Martin’s works again following the backlash. However, I am pleased to say that this first episode of House of the Dragon was entertaining and a pretty good watch.

Been Burned Before

The opening credits of the show make it clear that it has little to do with Game of Thrones, as in it clearly states it’s set over 170 years prior to those events and it’s a good thing too. Many people still feel betrayed by the finale of that show so making as much distance as they could from the get go was a smart move. Of course it’s set in the same land of Westeros and contains some familiar names but all of the characters in House of the Dragon are new to the audience.

So far there’s not been any really unlikable characters although Matt Smith nails it as the King’s brother who is a smarmy and from one scene is clearly a bit of a nutter when it comes to inflicting violence. (Although his reasons for doing so do kind of make sense.) The dialouge was well done, the plot flowed easily and despite being introduced to a wealth of new characters it is easy to keep track of them.

As with Game of Thrones being a fantasy version of England’s War of the Roses, House of the Dragon gives me the vibe that it’s setting up for a fantasy take on the Anarchy which was a civil war in England and Normandy between 1138 and 1153, which resulted in a widespread breakdown in law and order. I say this because the plot is setting us up for a clash between the King’s brother and his chosen heir, his daughter. In the Anarchy the conflict was between Stephen de Blois and the King’s daughter, Matilda, except of course with fire breathing dragons.

Worth a watch?

I enjoyed this first episode but there were a few niggling things that annoyed me. I am a massive history buff so the scenes where the knights at the tourney resort to outright murdering each other was a bit daft. At such events it would a contest for money, honour and all that jazz not an excuse to butcher each other, but hey ho it’s television and I guess it is a fantasy so I can’t hold that against it too much. The other issue I had was that some of the CGI effects looked pretty poor. I’m betting the budget for this show isn’t as high as perhaps it needs to be following the Game of Thrones debacle.

Overall then this episode establishes the lore and plot well and sets us up for an intriguing and no doubt bloody clash between the King’s brother and daughter in the future. As with Game of Thrones there are numerous side characters all plotting and scheming in their own right and I want to see how each of them will come into play.

Overall rating - 7/10