House of the Dragon: Episode 1 Review

By Ben Wright (@iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)

This review contains spoilers.

Unlike most, I actually didn’t have much of an issue with the final season of Game of Thrones. So, I didn’t go into this first episode of House of the Dragon with any pre-judgment or carrying any chip on my shoulder. I did, however, have concerns about dragons! If any of you reading this ever read any of my Game of Thrones reviews, you’ll know that I disliked the dragon aspect and stories they were involved in – I was very much #TeamNightKing and #TeamEuron in that regard! But the casting alone compelled me to return to Westeros, so dragons are just a pill I will have to swallow!

With that said, the number of dragons in this first episode is minimal at best, and the episode is actually centred around the Small Council! Now, again, if you read my previous reviews, you will recall how much I loved this aspect of Game of Thrones – Littlefinger especially – so to have so much time spent on the ‘politics of the realm’ was fantastic! They do a great job in bringing the audience up to speed with the state of the realm and introducing all the different characters. There is the right amount of ‘hand holding’ at the beginning of the episode which eases audiences back into this world. I’d also go further and suggest that you could go into House of the Dragon without ever having watched Game of Thrones!

Production-wise, you can see where the money has been spent as the show looks incredible! The costume design especially is lightyears above anything we got in Game of Thrones. Ramin Djawadi’s score is stunning – as to be expected. His use of remixing established themes in Game of Thrones to the newly composed pieces for House of the Dragon ensured the music left a big impact on the episode. I am very excited to see how this music hits home during a battle scene!

In terms of the cast, which for me was the main selling point of the show, they really live up to the hype and so many performers quickly establish their characters in an imposing way on the main story. Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen) is sublime! He is ruthless but calculated. His actions are not stemmed from madness or chaos, but from a genuine desire to protect the realm and his house, just in his own, forceful, way. Getting his Gold Cloaks to cut off the hands of thieves and remove the genitals of rapists is an extreme punishment for sure, but it certainly acts as a deterrent to restore order from the lawlessness that has festered under the current king’s rule. Speaking of which… Paddy Considine (King Viserys I) is another one I was really excited to see in the world of Game of Thrones! Now, it doesn’t take a Grand Maester to work out that his role in the show is basically to die – sparking the chain of events that will lead to the main story – who will sit on the Iron Throne and start the downfall of House Targaryen. But for now, while we still have him, I am savouring his performance, and it’s just nice to see a well-balanced, if a tad naive, person sitting on the throne for once! I also want to throw a quick shout-out to Rhys Ifans (Ser Otto Hightower) who was really good too!

Now, this series is going to have a ten-year time jump, probably at the halfway point. So that is why the roles of Princess Rhaenyra and Lady Alicent Hightower have been spilt between two performers. Rhaenyra will be played by Milly Alcock and Emma D’Arcy and Alicent by Emily Carey and Olivia Cooke. For this first part, we focus on the younger character versions which are Alcock and Carey – both of whom do a fantastic job, Carey especially! If you want to be lazy, you could say that Rhaenyra is being packaged to the audience as a Daenerys and Arya mashup – given her heir to the throne status and the fact she doesn’t want to do what is expected of her, that she wants to walk her own path. But there is an added level of complexity to her, and this is also a very different time period, a time of peace, so there is that to consider as well. We also need to take on board the relationship between herself and Daemon. Now, at this point, it is just uncle and niece, but even without any prior book knowledge, there was more than enough implication in this first episode that their futures are intimately aligned.

In terms of Easter Eggs, we obviously get the titles at the start giving a brief explainer as well as a few of the book titles being name dropped into the dialogue. We see the Dragonpit, something that was referenced a few times in Game of Thrones. At this point in time, it is still in active use and is not a crumbled ruin. We get to briefly see familiar houses such as House Stark and House Baratheon. Viserys has the ‘Catspaw dagger’ – which Arya used to kill the Night King – on him at all times. There is one scene where Rhaenyra and Alicent are reading from a book that chronicles the accounts of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships, as they set sail to conquer Dorne. This is actually one of the other Game of Thrones spin-offs in development!

If this first episode sets the standard for the upcoming episodes, then we are in for a fantastic journey! I genuinely enjoyed The Heirs of the Dragon and it really threw me back to the early seasons of Game of Thrones, but also with the sense that it is very much its own thing as well! I loved the politics and how they built the drama and tension up as the episode progressed. I am very hopeful for what is still to come.

Overall, I think this was a very promising start for House of the Dragon! There are plenty of great performances, it looks fantastic, and they did a great job in establishing the story and characters, not only quickly, but in a satisfying way too!