‘House of the Dragon’ Is a Dull ‘Game of Thrones’ Do-Over
Superfluousness, thy name is House of the Dragon, a hybrid of HBO’s two most recent mega-hits—Game of Thrones and Succession—that serves as a prequel to the former that no one really asked for, and even fewer will feel is necessary.
Based on George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood, the cable giant’s highly anticipated follow-up, set two centuries before the events of its prior fantasy epic, turns out to be a remix of everything that defined that beloved triumph, from various houses and court players scheming to solidify their power and position, to humdrum bouts of ultraviolence and gratuitous nudity, to routine and joyless royal incest. Supplying a familiar brand of conniving, carnage and tangled drama, Martin and Ryan J. Condal’s show is a big-budget affair that’s been designed to please the franchise faithful. What’s missing, unfortunately, is anything remotely novel, causing it to flirt perilously with pointlessness.
As with its predecessor, House of the Dragon (Aug. 21) should come with a glossary, so chockablock is it with names of people, places, beasts, and conflicts. For all its complications, however, it’s a decidedly conventional affair whose first five episodes function as prologue for its forthcoming saga. The early focus is on platinum blonde paterfamilias King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), who assumes the throne instead of his cousin Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) and, in the ninth year of his reign—a good 172 years before the Mad King will perish and Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen will be born—is desperate for a male heir. He’s convinced that his pregnant wife’s latest child will be the boy he seeks, which is just fine by his daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), whose time is mainly spent in the company of her best friend Lady Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), the daughter of Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the trusted Hand of the King. When things don’t go as planned for Viserys, King’s Landing is thrown into disarray, and a brewing war for the Iron Throne—waged not on battlefields but in council chambers, bedrooms, and shadowy corridors—comes into clear view.