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Game of Thrones was without a doubt overly popular amongst fans globally. The punching violence, steam and complex storylines all created a riveting period and fantasy drama, which attracted many people to watch this show even towards the end, when things got reaaaaaaally bad towards the end. So it comes as no surprise that the initial episode of House of The Dragon accessed 2.71 million views within the first 4 hours of its release.
Let’s get to the more interesting part now– Just how good is House of The Dragon? Well, in order to dive into the show’s reception, it is important to first give you some context. Much like GoT, House of The Dragon is situated in George RR Martin’s mythical world where dragons, krakens and direwolves all live in harmony with their human counterparts. Here, the scene is set 200 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones and features the events leading up to the downfall of the House of Targaryen leading to the eventual war of succession dubbed the dance of dragons.
The show has been in the works since 2019, producing and casting soon after. Much like the cast of the show’s predecessor, House of The Dragon features an ensemble cast who have previously worked on other classic shows such as Dr Who and Peaky Blinders. And just like GoT, most of the acting on House of Dragon has people who gel with their roles well and the character development is both believable and remarkable as an acting performance. In particular, Matt Smith’s story from Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh in Netflix’s hit series The Crown, to “rogue prince” Daemon Targaryen in House of Dragon has been outstanding and is definitely at par with other Emmy award nominees such as Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey.
HBO’s per-episode expenditure on House of the Dragon was reportedly even greater than that of the final season of Game of Thrones, which lays claim to the fact that this series is the next money-quenching project of HBO. Despite this, the dragons in this newer series manage to look less computer generated and more like real dragons. Moreover, the set structure too, comes across as much less grand in feeling and looks than the original series, leading fans to believe that House of The Dragon would be more focused on building the plot and storyline.
Really, what The House of Dragon is, is a more tasteful version of GoT on its last legs. This is evident not only through the focus and build-up of the plot but also through the more tasteful use of violence and nudity that manages to take more uncomfortable, shock-value scenes out of the series.