“House of the Dragon” attempts to horrify in its first episode with ghastly moments of violence, but it’s not upending any fantasy tropes in the process. A kind-hearted boy is pushed out a window by a handsome knight desperate to cover up his sex life the ostensible hero is thoughtlessly beheaded by a selfish child the good guys are slaughtered in the middle of a wedding. “Game of Thrones’” traumatic moments - especially in the first season - worked because they upended the expectations of fantasy viewers. The other serious error “House of the Dragon” makes is attempting to replicate the shock value of the original. Milly Alcock in "House of the Dragon." Courtesy HBO But still, someone should have tried to do … something. I guess we can blame “Game of Thrones” in part for this, given how established the Targaryens aesthetic became.
No one looks good in them, and they make everyone start to blend together. Those wigs are one of the few major misfires in what is otherwise a visual feast.
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(Indeed, characters are most easily identified by how badly the extraordinarily unflattering silver-platinum wigs wreak havoc on their skin tones.) That’s no small feat, considering the Targaryen family tree is really more of an incestuous infinity loop with tangled intertwining names - Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, Aemon, Aegon, Laena, Laenor. Even more impressive, over the six episodes provided for review, “House of the Dragon” manages to keep all the characters straight, along with their relationships to one another by boiling down convoluted machinations into an easy-to-follow palace intrigue drama about the impending line-of-succession crisis.
The series’ premiere deftly introduces nearly a dozen and a half characters (not counting the dragons). It helps that the showrunners this time are experienced Ryan Condal previously co-created the series “Colony” and Miguel Sapochnik was the most imaginative and effective director “Game of Thrones” ever had. “House of the Dragon” easily supersedes its predecessor when it comes to striking the balance between a season-long arc and satisfying episodes with actual beginnings, middles and endings.