House of the Dragon

[Brekkie]

Just wondering what people here thought...

I loved Game of Thrones mostly - didn't even hate season 8, although was certainly ready for it to finish up.

This though feels very much like being served up a reheated version of what we've seen before - a story which may be set a couple of hundred years earlier with different characters but essentially is set in the same world with the same type of characters.

Still watchable enough though - but rather over indulgent. Spending £16m an episode on a series in these current times just feels vulgar and unneccessary and I think the show would benefit far more from being on a tighter budget with the script having to do the work rather than relying on CGI and stunts.

 

[rj90]

I hated season 8 of GoT and thought the ending was woeful. I felt it didn't do justice to what was probably one of the greatest shows of all time.

First episode was ok and sets the scene for an interesting series, but it feels too same same with GoT. I think it'll be pretty good, but not sure if it'll reach the heights of GoT. I'm going in with an open mind and just plan to enjoy it for what it is.

 

[up_all_night]

It was a bit underwhelming but I enjoyed it.

I think the core issue is that you feel like you kind of understand what it is going for from the get go. GOT's was great because it was ahead of the audience and surprising. It also had way more moving parts and characters. With HOD you already have a sense of where things will be going and how they'll probably play out. Plenty of room for surprises along the way, but the bigger arching plots seem pretty apparent. It feels like it will be more, "how will this play out" as opposed to, "what is going to happen."

Is it going to be a surprise in coming episodes when the princess's friend becomes a rival trying to get pregnant by the king to usurp the future crown for her family? Nope. I feel in GOT that's the kind of betrayal that'd be shocking. Not telegraphed.

Although it's one episode in, so who knows.

As for the budget, who cares. It's not as if that money was going to be spent on anything more worthwhile. For a show like this the per episode budget is meaningless. That's just the average cost for the entire season which is simply the equivalent of a big budget movie but 5 times the length.