House of the Dragon (2022)

Season 1

Created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal

Cast: Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best

I was pretty lukewarm with my expectations prior to watching this show. Once I hit the second episode and heard the same theme song and saw the intro, I was completely sold and ready to experience something with Game of Thrones level of quality. I am going to be honest. After watching that season finale, I think I might end up loving this show even more than its predecessor if it continues to be this incredible. To start, the sheer quality of the production behind this show brings me so much joy to watch. The visuals blew me away, with one particular shot of Rhaenyra and Laenor walking on the beach and another shot of crabs crawling over corpses standing out in my mind as some of the best cinematography I have ever seen. In addition, the action sequences, especially the end of the finale, had me so giddy because they looked beautiful. The way the dragons move and fly is so well done. The last episode gave me chills and then had my mouth gaping. Furthermore, from an acting standpoint, there is not a single weak performance in this show. Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell, Paddy Considine, and Milly Alcock were the standouts for me. The first two brought the most menacing and terrifying characters to life, one being portrayed as the “wild card” in each half of the season. This show is inspiring me to go back and rewatch Game of Thrones. This is now number 1 on my favorite currently running shows. The only gripe I had was that I struggled with the time jumps and keeping track of a lot of the characters when they would change actors. Like I had the inner ring of characters down. That was easy. But keeping track of whose children are whose and which knights or lords are which was really difficult when I would see them once and then they change the actor for the next episode. Despite this, I am thoroughly impressed with the shows ability to have a perfectly paced storyline that covers so many years in so short a time span. All the while, giving every character so much depth and personality. That was the best part of the show. The intricate weaving of relationships between different characters, providing a nuanced spaghetti bowl of intertwining players in the pursuit of the Iron Throne. I highly recommend this show. Even if you haven’t seen Game of Thrones and don’t feel like watching all eight seasons before watching this, I think you could get away with just reading a quick summary on the world and the houses. That is better than not experiencing this show at all.

9/10

Favorite Characters:

Daemon Targaryen