House of the Dragon Review.
Well, when you wake up and go to your favorite Island after a long night at sea and the local tavern has acquired a early copy of the New Show and you have a fresh cup of coffee, you might as well watch and see.
So First off we have a Narrative to tell you what we are going to see. The narrative is also very clear in the fact it is trying to separate itself from the original Game of Thrones.
Now I will say I liked Harrenhal, looked very much the description from the books. The narration was ok, nothing special, like I said making a point to separate this show from GOT. You know 172 years before.
Next we get to see a Dragon, If this show does anything right it is actually the look of the Historical Dragons of the Books. Syrax was Beautifully done and Princess Rhaenyra looked like a Targaryen. Beyond than she did not impress me as the Princess from the books.
Her Father, Viserys I Targaryen was very forgettable to me. They took the book Viserys and made him more a buffoon than anything else. Though he was not a Powerful man in description and in fact did not like conflicts and like to make people happy, the portrayal in the show has him really a lesser man.
The rest of the High Council was again very forgettable. Even Otto was just Meh.
As to Alicent Hightower, again a Meh performance and reminded me more of Missandei, than who Alicent should be. BTW Littlefinger jetpack has come in to play already as she is already making Bedroom advances to Viserys. Yes, it happens but damn talk about speeding things up. Could we have taken at least 2 maybe 3 episodes for it to happen.
Ok, the Bright Point Prince Daemon Targaryen, Now this was as close to the Books as you can get so far, and seeing Dark Sister was a treat. I find no fault in this adaptation of Daemon (so far).
The tournament, was ok I did like it and the way they actually made it seem like a true jousting and weapons fight. But again Daemon makes the scene.
Keeping this spoiler free, the scene with Viserys and Rhaenyra in front of the Skull of Balerion was not bad at all, but reminded me of “The Presidents book of Secrets.” Hate to say it but again very Meh.
There were also a few scenes that reminded me of the Pot Changing scene from G.O.T. at the Citadel. And I had the same reaction; WHY?
All in all. I have to rate this Episode a 5.5, there is just no way I can give it a higher rating. Had it not been for the Tournament and the Cinematography being excellent, I would have given this an even lower rating of a 3. Out of 10.
I must also address what will surely be on everyone’s lips (the race swap) Yes it happened. Why I can only imagine HBO like Amazon has some stupid racial and diversity policy in place. Because this was in NO way the best actor for the job. At least IMO, but there you have it, this is what happens when there is no reason for it other than probably some stupid policy. Worse there are plenty of races in This world and they can be used instead of doing it to a legacy character.
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