House of the Dragon review: Game of Thrones saga continues with more fire and blood

Note: This review of the first six episodes of House of the Dragon contains no major spoilers.

King’s Landing lay in charred and ashy ruins at the end of Game of Thrones — much like the show’s legacy itself. Fans had invested in the HBO fantasy series for nearly a decade. Only the investment didn’t provide the high returns they had grown accustomed to. Quality tends to wane across the seasons of any TV show, epic-scaled TV phenomena included. But Game of Thrones had taken an unprecedented freefall and landed with a thud, leaving a bitter taste.

With each IP extension HBO announced, excitement has been tempered with doubt for good reason. House of the Dragon, the first of these IP extensions, arrived this Monday, operating almost as if it had been asked to joust with one hand tied behind its back. Set some two centuries before Daenerys Targaryen decided to burn it all, the new series takes us back to a time when her ancestors fought their own game of thrones, the result of which nearly wiped out their entire bloodline and their dragons with it. Seeing as the focus here is on the power struggles of the Targaryen family, expect lots of silver-blonde wigs, incestuous relationships and first names whose spellings the writer and editor must double-check.

If these markers don’t transport you back to Westeros, Ramin Djawadi’s textured strings are sure to put you under the spell again with their swirling intrigue. House of the Dragon covers well-trodden ground: scheming, backstabbing, jousting, and orgy-ing all come into play as pretenders vie for control over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The world of Westeros remains prime real estate. Game of Thrones only scratched the surface, and there’s enough premium to be mined yet. What unfurls in the first season (at least the six episodes made available to critics) will set the stage for a civil war George RR Martin referred to as the “Dance of the Dragons” in his 2018 novel Fire and Blood. Martin, who has been credited as co-creator alongside Ryan J Condal, no doubt has a story spanning multiple seasons in mind. But the most daunting challenge will be to not only subsume what made Game of Thrones so damn entertaining at its peak, but also justify the show’s existence on its own merits.

The key difference so far is how House of the Dragon plays like a more concentrated drama without sacrificing the sense of an epic unfolding. The story of Game of Thrones was spread across the continents of Westeros and Essos, and followed several “noble” families and their inner circles over a period of six-seven years. Where Game of Thrones was geographically expansive and chronologically economical, House of the Dragon is the opposite. The latter’s story is confined to the rule and succession of select Targaryens at King’s Landing for the most part, with the first season making time jumps to cover several decades in their lives. As a result, the show traverses some rich dramatic territory a little too quickly. But this rushed approach gives characterisations and complications a fast-forwarded ungainliness. As we go from one council meeting to another, you are left yearning for Tyrion to make some cutting remark while pouring another chalice of wine, the puppeteering of Varys and Littlefinger, or the delicious cunning of Cersei to break the tedium. Alas, there is no such character here. The writing too just doesn’t have the same bite to make all the politicking dazzle. The metaphors are too on-the-nose. Rats are used liberally to suggest a moral rot. “Childbirth is our battlefield,” a mother tells her daughter, moments before a shocking C-section is crosscut with a jousting tournament.

With Game of Thrones alum Miguel Sapochnick at the helm, House of the Dragon doesn’t take too long to hit its stride in the opening hour. The Targaryen dynasty has ruled Westeros unchallenged since Aegon the Conqueror united the realm. It is hard to pose a challenge when they have got the ultimate deterrent in dragons. The swords that make up the Iron Throne attest to their power, centuries into their rule. The beginning of their end sets in motion with the current incumbent King Viserys (Paddy Considine), who is a bit of a pushover. His body slowly rotting from the inside foreshadows the fate of the Targaryen dynasty itself. With no son, Viserys has two options when it comes to the question of naming a successor: his hot-headed younger brother Daemon (Matt Smith) or his spirited firstborn daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock).

Each has their supporters and opponents. But all the previous heirs have been exclusively men. Viserys too succeeded grandpa Jaehaerys, after cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best) was deemed too female to take over the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaenys must now suffer the patronizing moniker, “the Queen who never was.” So, Rhaenyra must battle against centuries-old patriarchal customs if she is to become the first queen of Westeros. And she sure is determined to do it. Her introduction as she rides a dragon into King’s Landing ever so cool and casual in a majestic aerial shot, like she is riding a gearless two-wheeler, announces her badassery.

At the heart of the story is the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), the daughter of Viserys’ Hand, Ser Otto (Rhys Ifans). When we meet the two as teens in the season premiere, they are the closest of friends, having grown up together in King’s Landing. Friendship starts to sour after Viserys marries Alicent after the death of his first wife and Rhaenyra’s mother Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke). Through Rhaenyra and Alicent, House of the Dragon probes what it means to be a woman in a misogynistic world like Westeros. If Rhaenyra resents Alicent, it’s because her best friend is now her step-mom. But Alicent isn’t marrying Viserys by choice. She is ordered by her own father to visit the widowed King’s chambers to offer him “comfort.” The reluctance and nerves reveal themselves through her fidgety fingers. The cracks in their friendship grow wider with each episode, and pave the way for the “Dance of the Dragons.” But both feel like pawns in a chess board being set up for something bigger yet to come, with not enough scenes to set up their conflicting motivations.

Friendship, family and just about every bond proves fragile when power is at stake. With Targaryens, power can either make them great or drive them mad. “Every child knows that the Targaryens have always danced too close to madness.” Ser Barristan Selmy tells Dany in A Storm of Swords. “Madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.”

The high-calibre cast by themselves distinguish House of the Dragon as a series of some merit. Considine makes for a more pitiable King Lear-type figure as Viserys who, prone to easy manipulation, grapples with the question of who among his Council members have his family’s best interests at heart. Given the sizeable time jump between the fifth and sixth episodes, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke take over from Alcock and Carey respectively. But the transition isn’t the smoothest. There is appreciable dissonance especially in Alicent’s emotional continuity. Smith as Daemon is not quite as vile as Joffrey, but is as volatile as Martin’s villains come. In one scene of blood-drenched brutality, we see Daemon enlist the Men of the Watch to round up and dismember all the criminals, from petty thieves to rapists, living in the crime-ridden dumpster fire that is King’s Landing. Sonoya Mizuno, who plays his foreigner mistress Mysaria, makes some baffling choices with thick accent work to prop up a thinly-sketched character. House of Dragons is considerably less white than Game of Thrones, thanks to the inclusion of the wealthy House Velaryon headed by Lord Corlys (Steve Toussaint). Of course, the show never reckons with how his race or his marriage to Rhaenys may have been perceived in the bigoted world of Westeros.

As you might expect, Game of Thrones mythology is threaded throughout the House of the Dragon. We meet another Lannister full of himself. Starks and Baratheons are mentioned. These references don’t overrun the series lest fan service becomes a crutch. If there is ever any doubt on how to pull off a great prequel, the showrunners need only look at the recently concluded Better Call Saul. In the end, the success of House of the Dragon will be judged not on how it uses well-known touchstones, but if it can tell a story that stands on its own divorced from its predecessor.

House of the Dragon premieres on Disney+ Hotstar on 22 August (in India), with new episodes to follow every Monday morning.

Prahlad Srihari is a film and music writer based in Bengaluru.

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