Why House of The Dragon Has Disappointed as a TV Show
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Editor
Here are a couple of disclosures I need to make before I make my “get off my lawn” rant regarding the Max show “House of The Dragon”:
1) The 1st four seasons of Game of Thrones are in my top 10 favorite seasons of all time for Dramas
2) I have never read any of the George R.R. Martin books, and I have no intention of doing so.
My favorite aspect of Game of Thrones was how appealing it is to people who are not normally fans of the fantasy/medieval genre of Television or movies.
This was because, Game of Thrones wasn’t a fantasy genre show, at least not the initial seasons. It was a politics show. As Tywin Lannister makes plain in the third season, the king was nowhere near the most powerful man in Westeros, and much of the show was about individuals jockeying for power through means other than violence (though violence was certainly on the table).
Game of Thrones, particularly seasons 2-4, were, I dare say it, special. The political aspect of it was what made it engrossing, but what made it a pantheon-level show was three things:
1) The plethora of rich characters in the show
2) The casting of those rich characters
3) The mystery and the careful reveal throughout the show, as far as what these characters wanted and what they were up to.
Many of the main characters in Game of Thrones had outsized personalities that made it fun for the audience to watch banter with each other. Remember, most seasons two through four were just scenes of characters verbally jousting with each other, and it was almost always captivating. Even the Starks, the most straightforward characters of the show, were distinct and not like any other characters we have seen in other fantasy shows.
It became a different show in the fifth season, but it stayed compelling because it was marching towards the ending promised in the first episode. While the first few seasons were like watching a 4D chess game unfold, the latter seasons were like watching an entertaining game of checkers, with epic battles being the double and triple jumps in this analogy.
The show ended in a very polarizing fashion, and I’m on the side of the disappointed fans. Still, it remained a distinct, one-of-a-kind show that I was hoping the spin-offs would learn from in at least trying to be distinct, even if it was an impossible ask for them to be as special as Game of Thrones.
Well, we’re in the midst of the 2nd season of the first spin-off, House of The Dragon, and while I’m not canceling my Max subscription yet, I’m ready to plant a flag and declare it is never entering the Pantheon of Great TV Shows, and frankly will probably not enter the Hall of Very Good TV Shows either.
Is House of The Dragon good? Compared to the drivel currently on all the streaming platforms, yes. It is expertly made and finely acted.
Is it memorable in the slightest? Outside of a couple of key moments from a couple of episodes?
Hell no.
And that’s why it is disappointing.
I noted at the top that I had never read the books and didn’t intend to. I evaluate this show purely as a fan of good dramatic television. For book readers, this show might be awesome, I don’t know. But for any television show to be great, or even legendary, it must appeal to fans of all shapes, preferences, and ages, and this show won’t come close to reaching mass audiences like its predecessor.
Why? Let’s look at it for the reasons I declared Game of Thrones special:
1) Rich Characters
While Game of Thrones had at least a dozen compellingly rich characters you were vested in (rooting for or against), House of The Dragon has maybe one: Daemon Targaryen. He’s the only character whose passion and cunning is 3-dimensional. Still, unlike many Game of Thrones characters, his predilections are predictable, and his choices are unsurprising.
Other than Daemon, there’s some potential with Aemond and perhaps Aegon Targaryen; they are the only characters with distinct personalities and looks you can root for or against. But they have done little that has been truly surprising; even the big plot twist at the battle of Rook’s Rest was only mildly surprising given what happened in the prior two episodes. Most importantly, they are still mainly one-dimensional personalities. There has been minimal (if any) gray area revealed in their ethical codes, which makes them less interesting, albeit still entertaining in a more subdued way than their Game of Thrones comps.
I haven’t touched on the two main characters so far: Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen. Let’s save them for the next section:
2) The Casting/Performances
While Game of Thrones had impeccable casting for all its main characters, especially the Lannisters, they missed the mark with Alicent and Rhaenyra for two reasons, with the first being their age.
Not to get woke on you all, but it is preposterous to have Olivia Cooke (30 years old) and Emma D’Arcy (32 years old) play mothers and (in Cooke’s case) grandmothers, especially when the actors and actresses playing their kids are in their late 20s!
Can you imagine if Cersei Lannister was cast as a 30-year-old in Game of Thrones? It would have been preposterous then, and it remains equally nonsensical now.
The second reason the casting missed the mark is that while they are both good actresses, they do not have enough screen presence to justify leading roles and are not playing Alicent and Rhaenyra with enough charisma to make us wonder why everyone is looking to them to lead their families and warring factions. And before you accuse me of sexism, I say the same thing about Otto Hightower (played by Rhys Ifans) and almost every other male character on the show.
(Side note: Otto Hightower is the most perplexing character on the show. This show’s Tywin Lannister is so soft-spoken that you need captions to ensure you get everything he’s saying. Is he supposed to be imposing at all? Has anything he said on the show been brilliant enough to justify his position as the Hand for so long? I believe Ifans to be performing the character as he is being directed, but I don’t understand why the character is being directed this way).
But back to the leads: I need more charisma from these two characters and less whining about how powerless they are even though they are responsible for their faction’s position. Yes, Cooke and D’Arcy are good actresses who play their roles like they are on stage, speaking very formal dialogue (go ahead and compare the dialogue between House of The Dragon and Game of Thrones if you think I’m crazy). They get an A+ for their technical brilliance. That works for Masterpiece Theatre, but it does not work for compelling, edge-of-your-seat drama.
Another requirement for edge-of-your-seat drama? Reason #3:
3) Is there any intrigue about what these characters want or what they are doing?
Now, you can make good, compelling television or movies when the good vs evil sides are very cleanly laid out for you (for example, Lord of The Rings or Lincoln).
But for a show whose marketing asks the audience to choose a side and spends an entire season laying out why both shows feel they are the hero of their story, we don’t have any hero’s quest to rally behind. We are left watching two factions play checkers against each other, spelling out every move they make and seeing every move unfold as predicted (with the battle of Rook’s Rest being a very (and I mean very) slight exception).
Am I exaggerating a bit? Sure. Is it an exaggeration to compare it to the plot developments of Game of Thrones?
No, it is not.
To keep this from going over 1,500 words, I’ll end this with Larys Strong, whom I haven’t discussed yet, and someone you may argue is distinct and a potential wrench in the checkers game. A friend asked me if Larys is the character I’m fully getting behind with House of The Dragon, considering how much I loved Littlefinger, arguably Larys’s comp, from Game of Thrones.
I answered, “Sure, Larys Strong is different, but he is nowhere near as fun to imitate as Littlefinger”.
To put it another way, House of the Dragon is good, but it (so far) is nowhere near as memorable as Game of Thrones, and to go one step further, it isn’t even memorable on its own terms.
For that reason, it is truly disappointing.