Must Watch reviews House of the Dragon

Wednesday 24 August 2022, 8:13

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review House of the Dragon.

The HBO series, which is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen, with actors including Matt Smith, Milly Alcock and Steve Toussaint.

Hayley says: "It’s another show about who gets to sit in the big chair"

This is a must watch because I have a pre-existing condition in that I’ve watched all of Game of Thrones so I am compelled to watch it. I must watch it. I don’t really have a choice in this.

But is it any good? At this point I don’t want to make any massive judgements because there is so much exposition going on that it’s kind of hard to tell: there’s a new rivalry for the throne set up, new characters to introduce. It’s another show about who gets to sit in the big chair. But I will say that I don’t love it immediately. I thought that there was no tension to it, and even the most tense scenes of the first few episodes are predictable. I thought that the scenery was out-acting most of the actors except for Rhys Ifans, who is great in this. He’s doing that thing of treating a silly fantasy show as if it's Shakespeare, which I really love. But for the most part I thought everyone else was quite wooden, or worse. And we are stuck in the place where Daenerys Targaryen is from so everyone is blonde and everyone has got an absolutely dreadful wig including Paddy Considine.

I will keep watching this every week because of my condition, obviously. But I went back to have a look at the early episodes of Game of Thrones and by this point in the first series there was already so much more tension and intrigue and plot. We were so invested in Ned Stark and his family. It is stunning how much stuff they cram into those first two episodes - things that you think may have taken a whole series to tell. So far this isn’t living up to that. There was obviously a lot of exposition in Game of Thrones too, because all fantasy things are like that. But it felt like there was also a lot more life.

Scott says: "The show feels different to Game of Thrones, by looking at the factions and fighting within one family rather than across many others"

Hmmmmm... I'm not sure that Hayley is a fan of the show, if I'm being honest. You only said one good thing about it!

I like the fact that this show is less sprawling than the original. There are far fewer characters. The show also feels different to Game of Thrones, by looking at the factions and fighting within one family rather than across many others. It doesn't feel like you have to be on Wikipedia the whole time trying to work out where you are with all of the characters.

Matt Smith is brilliant in this, it's like he’s playing an anti-Doctor Who, you really enjoy how he is liking to play a really bad guy for once.

Yet, without turning into Mary Whitehouse, there is so much unnecessary gore! If they cut half of it out, it wouldn’t make any difference. I just don't get it. Without revealing spoilers, I wouldn’t recommend watching that first episode if you were pregnant.

I know that the fantasy world can naturally feature violence, but I just found it completely weird that the violence is so much at the heart of this show. It just feels so needless.