Video Games Tutorials and News - House Of The Dragon Review - No Spoilers
Intro
Hello and welcome to my non-spoiler review for the first six episodes of House of the Dragon, where I have a surprising number of interesting things to say about this show. I really like this show, in fact, and I'm excited to walk you through my experience again with no spoilers from watching the first six episodes.
I'm surprised at how much we actually have to talk about. I know this show has not been on a lot of your radars or some of you have already written it off, but I hope you'll stick around and listen to what I have to say. Because, as I said, there's some surprisingly cool stuff to discuss here, and as a big fan of history, even a fictional history like this show, I'm having a really good time alright.
Back in 2011
And also the history of television, and that's where we started our discussion way back in 2011, Can you believe it's been a decade? A little over a decade ago, Game of Thrones debuted on HBO, a very cleverly crafted soap opera full of action, VFX nudity, and shocking surprises. It was a slow burn.
For instance, "The Red Wedding," for instance, wasn't until the end of season three, but HBO, at that time, was able to do a slow burn because this was before Netflix even started doing original programming in 2013, with House of Cards. That's how long ago this was, although that just goes to show you how you know, relatively speaking in terms of how long TV has been around, how fast streaming has exploded and changed the game , enough that Game of Thrones could predate it and now find itself having to struggle with House of the Dragon to compete in this new age.
Today's streaming
I love it now. Of course, the streaming landscape is very different now; it's far more competitive and moving at a much faster pace. You know, you have a very limited window now to grab an audience's attention, and House of the Dragon, of course, is betting on being part of the Game of Thrones universe, albeit a prequel.
172, years before Daenerys Targaryen, that's how they start and you're like that's a ridiculously long time before daenerys targaryen I'm surprised at how many of the buildings and sets were dusted off. A lot of the sets are still around. Those buildings were built to last. I wish they had an opening like the map from Game of Thrones, but you know, hopefully, they'll eventually have something like that, but anyway, they're like, it's the same map.
I'm like, I don't care. I enjoyed seeing that map every week. Yeah, it was every week. We're back to the you know, this is another weekly release, but anyway. I mean. It's got problems in both directions. positive and negative. And again, as I said, I really like this show. I think it's excellent and I think it's strong enough to get a head start on the rings of power and or very similar shows that it has to compete with and I think it can compete with very well.
I was on the live stream today and I was talking about what this was like and or and some of you were like, "Well, it's not like andor." Yes, it's a space fantasy thing, but you know, it's like conversations about who's in power, should they be in power, a lot of politicking, a lot of world building, it's like basically three or three versions of the same show on at the same time, so I think House of the Dragon is really lucky that it's coming out first.
Commit to season 1
But and I'm glad it's also coming out first because : this show isn't going to hook you right away, and please know that today, you know, we're short-attention-span, very competitive field, but you know, it didn't always have to be that a show. Although the first Game of Thrones hooked you right out of the gate, all right, Here's my thoughts on it.
You just have to commit to watching the whole first season, then you can decide if you don't want to watch season two, because it took me three episodes to feel like Game of Thrones was back. I was like "Game of Thrones is back" and six episodes, so three episodes to have that feeling and then six episodes to be like "You know what, this is a darn good show in and of itself on its own and HBO knows that it takes six episodes because they gave six episodes to critics but also said please watch all six." They said make sure you watch six because that's really important to get the feel of the show, and they were right, so you got to at least stick through sex.
I think you'll be hooked after three. You might even be hooked earlier, but if you're not feeling it, you've got to at least get through sex before you decide to bail.
Lack of hook
episode One is big on atmosphere and grandeur. The whole show is top-notch, although I love watching screeners. So like in episode six, they literally just cut to black and there were like dragon sequins missing and I could hear it and I was like "ah man, it sounds really good," and then they had a really cool dramatic scene towards the end, but they also didn't have the VFX4, so the screen was just black, and I was excited to actually see it because when I saw the aftermath and realized what happened.
I was like "damn that's awesome." So anyway. I mean, it was really cool, all right, so I mean. I think it was because I couldn't see it, but you know, the VFX that I did see were excellent, really strong. But it's lacking the shocking elements of the very first episode of Game of Thrones. I'm surprised they didn't realize that when they were making the show.
I'm really focused on the slow burn of season one, and it's not as strong out of the gate as I would personally like for the show to succeed because I know how good it gets later on. As they say in the show itself, the seven kingdoms are not at war and, in fact, have known peace for quite some time, but what that means for the show is that there's not a lot of fighting. I mean, there's some fighting at the end of episode three when I was like, "Game of Thrones is back baby." That's because at the end of that episode had a sequence that was very reminiscent of later episodes of Game of Thrones with a really cool extended battle sequence and I was like, "That's pretty sweet and there are also plenty of dragons." Lots and lots of dragons, even baby dragons.
Dragons everywhere
The baby dragon actually made me think maybe it was like a toddler, teen, or tween dragon, but it was adorable and made me laugh because I was like, "That's adorable." There were dragon eggs all over the place, so I was like, "Those are pretty cool." I mean. I remember them from really early on in Game of Thrones, but it's nice to see them here too.
