Season 1, Episode 1: The Heirs of the Dragon / Written by Ryan Condal / Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik / HBO Max and Sky Atlantic (Now TV) / Stars: Paddy Considine. Emma D'Arcy, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint. Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Milly Alcock / Running Time: 1 Hour, 6 Minutes.
Watch the trailer for what's to come on House of The Dragon
Review by Rob Deb. Read more of Rob's reviews here.
The Pitch: The story of House Targaryen, set 200 years before the events in Game of Thrones. In Episode 1: Viserys hosts a tournament to celebrate the birth of his second child.
I was never enamoured with Game of Thrones. I enjoyed it, but I've never read the Books. And I've never returned since it ended with such a flat tone. However, this being a prequel it already seems to have continued that note from the off, leaving me feeling trepidation in regards to the future of this season. Prequels are funny things. I often feel the best are those which you can watch without any of the earlier shows. Sadly this immediately throws out the window and talks about Daenerys, giving exposition. And this is where the show veers for the worst. Game of Thrones threw you in and left you to survive the fall. Be it Blackfire or the Battle of the bastards. You choose a player and stick to them as best as you could while the plot furiously rolled around you.
the mere notion of a woman holding the throne has dark consequences
Here, we watch a young girl look at a future she doesn't want and sadly the show takes the benefit of putting its flag to the mast right off; That a woman would never sit on the iron throne. It's not a theme as the show immediately throws it into a polemical by immediately mentioning the one woman we know who went batshit crazy and shagged her cousin in the text at the start. While the shock of the mere notion of the throne being held by a woman has dark consequences, there is also an element that means its repetition feels like it's being followed by Tom Baker in Blackadder: ”You have a WOMAN'S LEAD, my lord, I wager that Lead Enver got its head chopped off while trying to send a Crow to Winterguard only to get bummed by a direwolf!” The threat of a female in power is often mentioned but never seen, and with so many strong female performers in the first episode, it can't help but smack of the rhetoric of men continuing their narrative of this ‘past’ regardless.
there’s something relatively tame about the show
We have the immediate conflict brought to the fore as a successor is chosen from two men: Viserys, his brother, Daemon and Princess Rhaenys is at this stage left a secret character. We hope this won't require half the game to unlock given she's one of the most politically influential women in the Kingdom. There is also something relatively tame in this show. We see hints at grooming and the young girl's sapphic partner (“Oh please, the blossoms are not the only petals”), but even the mass attack by Deamon and his Gold Cloaks is more a scene from Judge Dredd and has a weird 'nudge nudge' feel one would expect from the Spanish Inquisition.
the sense of duty and sacrifice takes a bloody turn
While the original series has its share of tabletop confrontations as members of the council cast charms and hope to roll Double 6’, there is a distaff quality in this production that leaves it lacking the immediacy or commitment of the earlier show. It's like a historical filter of a show scared to play with its sources and is weaker for it. Centring initially on the two brothers Paddy Considine and Matt Smith brings the archetypes of this telling to the fore. However, without a sense of nuance, the feeling is that things are rushed and facile. Viserys is conveyed as genteel to Deamon's typically Jamie-like arrogance, but the sense of duty and sacrifice takes a bloody turn showing he will prove to be bolder and stronger than the Valerian steel his brother Deamon wields.
nothing is skimped on, the set pieces are full of scenery and spectacle
As Viserys attempts to consolidate his position and Deamon from the off makes it clear he is scheming in some form. The almost panto quality of his lurking feels like the hooded claw in Penelope Pitstop, except rather than being defended by the anthill mob, Penelope gets thrown into a shark pit and chummed up for character motivation within the first half an hour. Our eyes seem to be with the daughter Princess Rhaenyra, at once loyal to her father Viserys while enamoured with Deamon. But her knowledge and centred demeanour still leave her little more than an observer with little agency from the off. On the plus side, nothing is skimped on, the set pieces are full of scenery and spectacle. The dragons, despite being commonplace in this time, still bring a sense of majesty to the small screen, the crowds of the royal tournament also showing this is a ‘high age’ within the realm.
Perhaps it is this that leads the show jarring. The grimdark, nebulous qualities of GoT have been replaced. This is, in some ways, The Phantom Menace. Compounded by the script being reliant on the Book which is treated more as a historical time than an actual narrative to adapt. I'm hopeful that this is more a sense of getting the exposition out of the way and episode 2 will see us move out of this inertia. But I do sense a lack of syndication in the air, and hope twists will soon follow.
New episodes of House of The Dragon air on Sky Atlantic (via Now TV or Sky) every Monday and on HBO Max every Sunday from 21st August.