House of the Dragon

Despite the high anticipation surrounding the series, it's unfortunate that the only captivating element is the presence of dragons. The actors lack charisma, failing to bring their characters to life in a way that engages the audience. This deficiency in performance makes it nearly impossible to form any emotional connections with the characters. The narrative, which could have been enriched by strong, memorable personalities, instead falls flat, leaving viewers disinterested and detached. The dragons, while visually impressive, aren't enough to carry the entire show and redeem its shortcomings.

I loved Game of Thrones but wasn't really sure what to expect when I first heard about this but the trailers looked pretty good so I gave it a chance. Then after reading the critics reviews and listening to all hype that was surrounding the show I was expecting this to be the next great series. It's not. I should have known since the reviews are so mixed but people were hyping it up for months and again the trailers were pretty good. I'm a few episodes into season 2 right now and it's going to be a struggle to finish the rest of the season. It definitely hasn't been nearly as good as I thought it would be and judging by the mixed reviews I'm guessing the rest of the season will be much of the same.

House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones. The television series was created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal for HBO. It's the second series in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. It is based on parts of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood.

The series begins about 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and 172 years before the birth of the Daenerys Targaryen caricature featured in Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragons portrays the events leading to the decline of House Targaryen, and the devastating war of succession known as the "Dance of the Dragons".

As I stated in my review of The Game of Thrones, I was not that interested in watching Game of Thrones for several years. And, after watching a bit of one episode, Game of Thrones did not look very interesting to me. But, once I decided to find out what all the hoopla and massive fan base was all about, I decided give it a try. I not only purchased the complete series of Game of Thrones on DVDs, but I also purchased House of the Dragon Season 1, and then Season 2, when it came out, all on DVDs as well.

And, yes, also as I previously stated, I subscribe to several streaming services, and could watch most of the TV series I want much more easily by streaming them. But, I'm a collector, and I love collecting, and I'm collecting TV series DVDs. Don't hate me.

Anyway, before watching Game of Thrones, I checked online regarding whether I should watch House of the Dragon first before watching Game of Thrones, since House of the Dragon is a Prequel. I read several opinions that stated that it was best to watch Game of Thrones first, because I would better understand the story in House of the Dragon given it is the same of the fantasy world creation in which both series exist.

Therefore, I watched Game of Thrones first, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and then watched the first two seasons of House of the Dragon and enjoyed that story as well.

After watching both series however, I gotta disagree with those opinions I read on the Internet about which series to watch first. I think watching House of the Dragon first would have better prepared me for watching Game of Thrones. I was easily able to grasp the story, characters, and what was going on in House of the Dragon fairly easily.

Season 1 of House of the Dragon, was more what I would have called a game of thrones than anything else. The intrigue, suspense and political rivalries of the characters in the different kingdoms, and they're quest for power and riches was interesting yet complex. I felt it was similar to watching the intrigue, suspense and political rivalries of the Borgia TV series', or even the political chess game of the Trump administration.

The story in Season 1 of House of the Dragon was mostly about the Targaryen King trying to keep his rule all the while trying to maintain the peace. It was entertaining in a way, but, after episode after episode, it sometimes proved a little boring. That was at least until the last few episodes where... Bammm upside your head and your side blinded by what happens in the story, leaving your mouth haning open. And, of course, the season ends in a cliff hanger, prompting me to immediately begin to watch Season 2.

Season 2 of House of the Dragon is more similar to the Game of Thrones series in that there is still that suspense and political intrigue, but there also seems to be non-stop action, adventure, war and bloodshed. And, of course... Dragons!!!

The writing is equally as good as Game of Thrones, except for the slower pace and some of the more anguishing relationship based episodes in Season 1, which like I said, proved to be kind of boring. But, what was never boring was Season 2, which I spent many hours binge watching. The acting, production, direction, cinematography and special effects were all also excellent and equal to that of Game of Thrones.

My review seems to be, in some ways, the opposite of many other reviewers who seemed to love Season 1, but hated Season 2. But, I guess everyone's got a right to their opinion, right.

However, now I'm faced with the problem I hate. And that is that when I begin watching a series before all the seasons have been released, I'm left having to wait, sometimes years, before I can get back to the story to see what happens.

So, I now have to wait until sometime in 2026 to watch the release of House of the Dragon Season 3!

Good first season. Some of the events feel skimmed through because of the time skip, some of the consequences to what happens during the course of the show take place off air because of the abruptly timed time skip. One of the main examples for this would be Viserys' reaction to the illicit relationship between his daughter and Daemon on multiple occasions when she was a child or Lord Corlys' long term response to Viserys' rejection of his proposal. And the relationship between Rhanerya and Daemon itself seemed under developed, the only possible reason Rhanerya had to wed him was it would strengthen her claim to the throne, other than their whole relationship was built on cryptic conversation that takes place in the Valryian language. Other than that the show is too immersive and it's hard to take sides as both of them have done many wrongs and are good in certain instances, it was nice to see all that slow burn drama that took place to unfold.

House of the dragons is one of the greatest made television series even with just two seasons aired. Based on the book of Ice and Fire,Set 172 years before the birth of Daenerys targaryen,this show portrayed the internal conflicts and civil war in the Targaryen reign. In an astonishing Fantasy world,a series of many events led one by another handled brilliantly with no hustle and no compromise in the Screenplay for audience's expectations. Every single actor who played in this have given a life to it,they're perfect and the developments of few lead characters felt turnaround and interesting. The Dragon's part in this whole felt relevant and Captivating. Can't wait for the surprises that is yet to unfolded in the upcoming seasons believing that they would maintain the standard they set till now.