Perhaps, the biggest compliment that can be given to the new Game of Thrones spin-off prequel House of the Dragon is that the much-maligned original series’ head writers David Benioff and Daniel Weiss have zero involvement this time around.
Popularly known among diehard fans as ‘D&D’, the duo racked up critical acclaim and international accolades for their effective and accessible adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice from 2011 onwards. However, critics pointed out the series’ declining quality once the storyline progressed past the existing source material—Martin’s books. And in 2019, D&D served up a final season that was notorious among the show’s fanbase for its rushed writing, lazy characterisation and sloppy production errors, a debacle summed up by a forgotten coffee cup in a shot. HBO had to sit and remove from re-runs of the show.
Three years later, D&D are a poisoned chalice as far as HBO is concerned, with Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik taking the showrunner reins for House of the Dragon. Adapted partly from Martin’s book Fire and Blood, the series is set nearly two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the history of House Targaryen, the family to which original series fan-favourite Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) belonged. It is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, but you have to wait a week before each episode.
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Wikipedia-ish start
Two episodes into House of the Dragon debut season, there are fortunately no signs of laziness on the production front, but writing and execution have left a great deal to be desired. The worst offender is the pilot episode, which feels like Condal and Sapochnik simply regurgitated a book report off information from Wikipedia entries.
The issues begin from the opening voiceover narration itself, which sounds like Lord of the Rings-lite, complete with a poor attempt at a Cate Blanchett impression. While this prologue only lasts a few minutes, the entirety of the 66-minute pilot episode is a badly told prologue.
Filled with unnecessary exposition that plagued the likes of The Hobbit a decade ago, the pilot’s problems go all the way down to the dour dialogue, where several British acting staples and big names spend more time spoon feeding you with the Targaryen plot than, you know, acting.
This is especially evident with otherwise talented star cast members Paddy Considine and Rhys Ifans, who play the King and the Hand of the King, but are let down by the script and appear wooden more often than not. Even moments of tragedy are rushed and unearned, sapping any semblances of depth or nuance that the original series was acclaimed for.
While it’s nice to see Graham McTavish of The Hobbit and Bill Paterson from Fleabag among the supporting cast, for now, they mostly just seem to exist to add Scottish accent representation among this largely English affair.
There may be a point being made here by Condal and Sapochnik about the traditions of Westeros requiring most of the male characters of a certain generation to be stoic rather than emotionally vulnerable, but it definitely didn’t make for compelling viewing in House of the Dragon thus far.
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Second episode saves it
It’s not all doom and gloom despite what the endlessly grey skies would have you believe. Fortunately, at least two of the cast members have been given interesting enough material to become the driving force of family drama and conflict in the series.
Matt Smith steals the show early on as the King’s volatile and trigger-happy younger brother, while Emma d’Arcy takes until the second episode to come into her own as Rhaenyra, the King’s daughter and heir to the Iron Throne.
As such, the second episode is a massive improvement from the pilot, with Condal and Sapochnik not afraid to finally slow things down a little and let the characters and storylines breathe and play out organically. Even the two twists at the episode’s end, while telegraphed, are a good pay-off to the foreshadowing of preceding scenes.
House of the Dragon may have started out in as unfavourably dull a manner as possible but going by the progression of the second episode, it clearly appears to be on an upward trajectory. Core fans will at least be more than satisfied with the happenings so far, the nostalgic theme music, and a healthy dose of callbacks to the original series.