House of the Dragon

Dragons fill the skies and ships fill the seas, and every one of them aims to cause maximum destruction to the other side. That’s obviously very sad for the people involved; sorry that happened or whatever, but it’s bloody great as a viewer.

Alongside him [Corlys Velaryon], the Battle Of The Gullet, with all its impressive moving parts and tragic payoffs, makes good on the promise of House Of The Dragon. Its drama fuses family tensions and dragon warfare into a spectacle that never loses sight of the people caught in its chaos, and better still, a thrilling glimpse of the battles yet to come.

The new season feels cleaner and more tightly focused, despite juggling existing players while adding a few key new ones.

Even when things slow to a crawl as one side or another plots, schemes, argues and/or tries to make alliances, the production values are never less than excellent, what with all the cavernous interiors and the abundance of candles and ooh, they have such great maps.

There’s much to praise in this show’s telling a new story that still chimes familiar themes, a succession drama that’s of Westeros but not reheated. ... But the show can, at times, be more easily admired than watched. ... Scenes tend toward the short and pointedly written, giving us much data but only the general contours of characters.

Season two feels like a stopgap placeholder to build towards all-out warfare that will only erupt in season three, making for a poorer season meant for those with only the steeliest of patience.

It ultimately is more interested in fan service—offering up more dragons, more gore, more surprise murders, a more expensive historical re-enactment—than it is in developing scenes that ring true. ... It’s as hollow and brittle as the massive scale model of the kingdom that Viserys takes pride in building.

Single-handedly the best show which was realeased during the last few years. Huge budget is clearly visible here unlike The Rings of Power or The Acolyte where you think it´s just some expensive poor lore breaking fan fiction. Acting is phenomenal all around the cast and extras. CGIed dragons looks like they are almost real. Whole series stays very true to it´s well established lore and books.

I agree with some of the woke patrol , the diversity stuff is once again at times contrary to lore and story logic but not as annoying as in the witcher, let alone the joke that is lotr now This show on the other hand gives me , as GoT fan a very welcome prelude to those great first six seasons , a showing of lesser known houses and castles and above all, stellar , stellar dragon fights, kudos . D arcy and Smith also great , Rhys Ifans always is . Considine superb in s1.

One of the things that makes Game of Thrones work is the absence of the Targaryens: the struggle for power brings out the characters of both the individuals and their houses. Those characters, so finely and expertly drawn by GRR Martin, are what make GoT one of the greatest shows of all time, and why Martin has very few peers in his genre. Even in the books and on the show, Danaerys’s storyline, while still very good, is the weakest. Of all the sins of the infamous final season, the failure to convincingly portray her character’s arc is maybe the biggest.House of Dragons suffers from Targaryen Syndrome. There’s less distinction between the characters; to the extent they are portrayed, we’ve seen their type before. The relative lack of the presence of other houses hampers the show, while the preponderance of entitled silver-haired duds makes it hard to care about any one of them. Game of Thrones had a wealth of indelible characters whose stories fascinated us; even brief turns like Oberyn Martell were star-making and unforgettable. One of that show’s few flaws (all stemming from lack of original text and showrunners’ desire to wrap the show quickly) was including lame bad guy, Euron Greyjoy, without having the ability to develop his character (a psychopath on par with Ramsay Bolton in the book). House of Dragons hasn’t gone that far down, but it’s much more Euron than not. Daemon is arguably the most interesting character but even he seems like something not fully fleshed **** should be clear I blame the writing; like its predecessor’s final two seasons, HoD doesn’t have rich veins of Martin’s prose and character development l; its text source is more of a historical narrative. Most of the actors are very good and the show is beautifully crafted. It’s a good show, and I’ll be watching. But it carries on from the legacy **** show, making it fair game for comparison.

Struck out at Season 3, Episode 4—I’m officially done. I really tried to give this show every benefit of the doubt, but Season 3, Episode 4 was the absolute breaking point for me. I’m finally putting my foot down and walking away. Unlike the original Game of Thrones, where distinct characters and clear storylines instantly hooked you and built incredible week-to-week anticipation, House of the Dragon suffers from a severe lack of distinction. The characters blur together, making it an uphill battle just to follow who is who and care about where their stories are going. Furthermore, the visual layout of the factions adds significantly to the confusion. With a larger mix of prominent dark-skinned characters split and shuffled across opposing sides—combined with similar costuming and styling—it becomes genuinely difficult to visually track who belongs to which house or faction from scene to scene. What should be an engaging epic feels like a confusing, tedious chore to sit through. Life is too short to force yourself through a series that stops respecting your time. Count me out for the rest of the ride.

Unfortunately, they have again taken a very interesting plot, with every kind of element one would want in a TV show, and somehow managed to botch it with extremely poor adaptation writing and blatantly political messaging. Writing matters. Martin excels at it, the showrunners are terrible at it. The first season is better than the second season, after one showrunner was left to his own devices. The acting is good, the graphics are good, the story - as adapted - is very poorly done.