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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
59
Mixed:
23
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Jun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
For fans of Westeros — its incestuous soap opera, lavish world-building, and theatrical tragedy — House of the Dragon Season 2 delivers everything you love and then some. It’s I, Claudius with movie monsters, medieval history sprinkled with magic. .... House of the Dragon Season 2 is spectacular to behold, even if what’s unfolding is absolutely terrible.
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Radio TimesJun 6, 2024
Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
While honoring the legacy and look of the original series, the spinoff wisely adopts subtle changes in tone and approach while introducing a fresh world of characters and storylines. ... The exchange between mother and daughter, and the artful contrast of dueling knights and dutiful midwives, are powerful enough on their own to render the first episode a smashing success and show that “House of the Dragon” has a depth of understanding of its female characters that “GoT” took years to find. But it doesn’t stop there. ... Engrossing.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
With quality direction and cinematography, strong writing that combines political intrigue, family melodramatics and some impressively nasty twists and turns, and powerful performances from a cast that includes a number of familiar and well-decorated and mostly British veterans along with some greatly talented relative newcomers, “House of the Dragon” has the gravitas and visceral gut-punch effectiveness of a series that could be with us for a very long time.
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SlashfilmJun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
I can't imagine that season 2 will win new "House of the Dragon" fans. .... But those who are invested in Westeros will find those same sublime pleasures front and center. If you like dragons and battles and shocking acts of brutality, you're in for a treat. And if you like quiet, whispered conversations in castle corridors, you're going to have a real good time. In short, "House of the Dragon" is a gift for "Game of Thrones" fans.
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CNETAug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Halfway through the second episode, instead of reminiscing about the Starks and the Lannisters, my focus became entirely fixed on the Targaryens. House of the Dragon may never be the next Game of Thrones but, from the six hours I've seen, it looks poised to at least step out of the giant shadow its predecessor casts.
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Jun 17, 2024
Season 2 Review:
It’s a pretty stellar season premiere, quite frankly, with more than enough rich narrative, scheming families, dragons, and sumptuous costumes to quench the thirst of any Game Of Thrones fan. .... Oh sure, there’s times when this episode feels like a crib sheet, hellbent on reminding us exactly who everyone is and what their motives are, but it’s been a hot minute since the HOTD season-one finale, quite frankly, and we could all use the help.
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The PlaylistAug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s refreshing to see a show with creators who have clearly considered things like framing, pacing, and detail. “House of the Dragon” can get more than a little talky. ... And yet it’s really this choice to go back to political dynamics that helps “House of the Dragon” escape the shadow of the end of “Game of Thrones.”
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The TimesSep 11, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Away from all the blond ambition, the tussle between Otto and the Richard III-alike Larys Strong (Matthew Needham’s thoroughgoing baddie with the walking stick) feels more promising, especially with Larys quietly killing suspected traitors and sneakily lobbying the king against his ageing rival. On another positive note, it looks magnificent.
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The GuardianJun 18, 2024
Season 2 Review:
This slow opener starts to build up the story with steady, elegant layers, allowing it to weave its melancholy magic. I still think it is strange that a show about dragons should be so bashful, but somehow, despite this stubborn tendency to talk everything through, House of the Dragon once more becomes unmissable and thrilling television. Eventually.
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Jun 17, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Showrunner Ryan Condal’s talky, character-driven approach has its downsides. There are still too many names and subplots. To let so much political and personal friction develop requires slowing the action to a pace that might frustrate anyone who’s mostly here to watch dragons brûlée people. (For those who might be wondering, the dragon riding still looks as goofy as ever.) But by de-emphasizing—and deglamorizing—combat, in favor of enriching central characters, closely tracking each side’s machinations, and questioning the very premise of a just war, the series harkens back to the early seasons of Game of Thrones.
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The IndependentJun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
While it takes a few episodes for House of the Dragon to crescendo into the sort of grand, violent spectacle that the series (and its predecessor) does better than pretty much anything else on TV, there are enough nuggets of incident in the opening couple of hours to satisfy viewers’ bloodlust.
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The TelegraphJun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
If the show lacks something, it is an old-fashioned hero. Everyone is cruel and conniving – half have the classic Targaryen blonde look, too, which adds to the confusion – and the script cries out for a morally pure character in the mould of Thrones’s Ned Stark or Jon Snow. But these are mere quibbles. Summer is coming, and for those eager for an alternative to sunburn, football and queues at the airport, House of the Dragon has all you could require for a roaring good time.
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ColliderJun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 still keeps book readers on their toes by altering and rewriting aspects, elaborating on controversial events, and delving deeper into the psyche of our leads. The season is full of unexpected twists, including surprising schemes, character pairings, and appearances. It's undeniable that House of the Dragon Season 2 flourishes in a way Game of Thrones never could.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It is less sprawling and dense, and there is no wit-spouting equivalent to fan favorite Tyrion Lannister. But the confident storytelling and the epic setting may be immersive enough to sway even those still bitter about the “Game of Thrones” finale. Is it as good as “Thrones”? It’s too early to say, but the first episodes are compelling in their own way — think “Succession” with sharp swords instead of sharp words.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
[The series makers] reliance on sadism, cruelty and occasional disemboweling suggests either an adolescent impulse to push the violence as far as it will go or an understanding that what bonds the "Game of Thrones" community is a shared stomach for edgy mayhem. ... Only the first six episodes were made available for review, but those chapters establish a very convincing world and its people.
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The IndependentAug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The highest compliment I can pay House of the Dragon is to observe how much it feels like Game of Thrones. ... The dynamics of court, and the characters within it, are well drawn. Smith, in particular, gives a satisfyingly ambivalent performance as a slightly creepy uncle with a tremendous bloodlust.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
That day may come for them, too, when the pressures of extending the show and inventing new twists and turns begins to weigh them down. For now, though, I’m happy to report that they know their dragon, they’ve harnessed its power, and in Season 1, they’re pouring on the fire.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
House of the Dragon is more Game of Thrones. And it turns out Game of Thrones still works. Watching British actors talking quietly about high-stakes politics in well-appointed rooms still has the power to thrill, even if it does feel a bit too safe and over-familiar.
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The TelegraphAug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s well made. It’s brilliantly shot. It seethes with tension. And I’m dying to know what happens next, particularly after the shocking end to episode six. It’s just that Game of Thrones – well, the first seven-eighths of Game of Thrones – set a dauntingly high bar.
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Jun 14, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Even when things slow to a crawl as one side or another plots, schemes, argues and/or tries to make alliances, the production values are never less than excellent, what with all the cavernous interiors and the abundance of candles and ooh, they have such great maps.
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Jun 13, 2024
Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
So the show wants the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent to take center stage. But the early episodes bungle their dynamic, with an unspecific friendship that's relegated to the sidelines. The drama heightens when clear battle lines get drawn. ... Dragon doesn't soar immediately, but no House was built in a day.
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Jun 19, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Most of the show’s characters continue to lack the kind of depth that made so many in the Thrones ensemble irresistible to watch, even when they did the nastiest things. The Targaryens have thin, uniform motivations in Season 2—that is, to survive and win. Little character development occurs, and potent emotional arcs are rare.
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LooperJun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
There are times where "House of the Dragon" feels like it's simply covering historical material rather than telling a story, but for the most part, we're able to buy into the plight of the characters, especially the ones that we've spent the most amount of time with. Between its political maneuvering, trademark set pieces, and engaging main characters, "House of the Dragon" continues to impress in its second season.
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Jun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
House of the Dragon is still beautifully made and performed in season 2’s opening pair of lengthy episodes, but these messy family dynamics can be frustrating rather than fascinating when there’s so much at stake and so little being done to actually address the problems or advance the cause of either side of this brewing war.
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Aug 24, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s mainstream fantasy, blessed with sumptuous costumes, compelling settings and those “Avatar”-like swooping dragons. Dragons, in fact, turn up just when the plot needs them most. When the house seems like it’s going to fall, they’re there to shore it up. ... It’s good; it still has time to be great.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The most thrilling or unsettling surprises of the original show were rooted in character, and so it is with the new series. It’s too bad “House of the Dragon” takes such a long time to define and shade the Targaryens and those in their orbit. But once it’s done, their viciousness gleams all the more against the darkness.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
There’s much to praise in this show’s telling a new story that still chimes familiar themes, a succession drama that’s of Westeros but not reheated. ... But the show can, at times, be more easily admired than watched. ... Scenes tend toward the short and pointedly written, giving us much data but only the general contours of characters.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Sometimes the series overreaches in its effort to be bloodier, sexier, more risqué. ... But it is, for the most part, just fine to be back in Martin’s robust and intriguing history, an intricate tangle of noble houses, doomed knights, scheming strivers, and hopeless dopes.
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Jun 14, 2024
Season 2 Review:
There’s a sense of diminishing returns here, especially after the nine previous seasons of dragon-based intrigue and bloody, sexy fantasy infighting. Granted, a showstopping dragon battle awaits us at the season’s halfway point, a lovely showcase for HBO’s castle-sized VFX budget that breaks up all the monologuing and politicking of the prior episodes. Let’s hope that’s a portent for the season’s latter half to pick up steam.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
HBO has followed the majesty of "Game of Thrones" with what might be called "games of throne" in "House of the Dragon," a series whose epic visual grandeur belies a smaller and less addictive power struggle, more narrowly focused on the Targaryen line. It's not bad, and there are dragons aplenty, but it doesn't produce the sort of characters that defined and elevated its predecessor to prestige-TV royalty.
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Jun 18, 2024
Season 2 Review:
I’m having mixed feelings. .... The show remains highly watchable, and it mostly supports its status as a Sunday night ritual, where battles rage, dragons swoop and soar, white hair blows, and the palace drama stays at a solid boil. .... But the absence of Paddy Considine as King Viserys leaves a large hole, as he was one of only a few acting heavyweights in the mix. .... Matt Smith, who added so much sly ambiguity to the first season, is largely MIA, as his Daemon goes off on a side trip to a decaying castle.
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Jun 14, 2024
Season 2 Review:
Those who happen to like how “House of the Dragon” challenges some of the more irritating aspects of “Game of Thrones” will probably enjoy this new season, which promises more of the same, along with twists and dragons aplenty. (“House of the Dragon” has been also renewed for a third season.) For those who prefer the latter for its vast network, menacing speeches and subterfuge, this world will probably continue to feel a little impoverished.
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Aug 23, 2022
Season 1 Review:
"House of the Dragon" takes about five episodes to warm up, which corresponds to the amount of time that we spend with the younger actors playing key roles before a time jump necessitates a casting change. ... Rhaenyra is not Daenerys. She doesn't have a hype squad cheering on her murderous inclinations – yet – or an unearned sense of destiny. She's learning the price of capability and lessons about what it means to be a Targaryen, and a woman, from noble sources and unseemly ones. That combination of influences makes her an enigmatic guide back to a land we haven't forgotten, yet aren't entirely sure we've missed very much.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Nothing about the first several episodes of House of the Dragon, premiering Aug. 21 on HBO, marks it as a potential masterpiece. There are structural flaws, elements that come across as excessively derivative, a yawning void where thematic resonance should be. But it’s solid enough. ... Dragon plays it safe.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s disconcerting to see House of the Dragon becoming less distinctive and more beholden to Game of Thrones as it goes along, when it ought to be the opposite. There’s a lot that’s impressive in the first six episodes, but it’s as safe as a show with incest, gore and horrifying depictions of childbirth could possibly be. It needs to find its own voice.
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Jun 14, 2024
Season 2 Review:
It’s neither interesting enough to pull us consistently into the flow nor weird enough to rattle our chains. The production is solid but static — it has the board-game feel that marks the franchise. The fetish for geography and architecture is there, but without the earlier show’s visual grandeur. And the audience’s emotions are still manipulated through melodramatic choreographies of events rather than genuine, organic surprise.
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Jun 6, 2024
Season 2 Review:
The good news, for people who were happy with what HotD offered last time around, is that this is the same show as before, even a bit better in some areas. But anyone hoping for a substantial growth curve will find it as denied to them as the Iron Throne is to Rhaenyra.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The series does have the epic production values fans have come to expect, and the show is at pains to show early and often how far dragon-rendering technology has advanced in the years since Daenerys fire-bombed King’s Landing. What it lacks is something much simpler: a heart. ... If all you want is more Game of Thrones, then House of the Dragon might well be the Show That Was Promised. But if you’re looking for a show that is to the current TV landscape what Game of Thrones was then, well, there’s a long winter ahead.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
None of the key players are particularly cunning or flailing; everyone is aggressively fine. Without standout characters that could lend the show some tonal variety — the wit of Tyrion Lannister or the bold earnestness of Brienne of Tarth — the series just sort of sits there, hitting the same beats again and again.
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Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
As an exploration of the social contract in a decadent monarchy and an allegory for a grab bag of modern ills, including patriarchal sexism and the corrosive effect of weapons of mass destruction, “House of the Dragon” is reasonably smart and well put together. ... That seriousness of purpose doesn’t translate into engaging drama, however. There’s a lot of sitting around tables and talking.
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Aug 18, 2022
Season 1 Review:
"House" often does work well as straight history. It's that fantasy part that's missing. Other than dragons, there's little magic or mystery in this corner of Westeros — or that epic sense of wonder that made "Thrones" so thrilling through the first seven seasons. At least those dragons are fun.
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Jun 17, 2024
Season 2 Review:
The best I could muster at the end of their sweaty, bloody passion play was, "Ouch." Again: the subpar writing deserves the blame for that, not the performers. .... We may find that the back half of this one finds ways to remedy the diluted storytelling leaving us cold. The fourth episode fuels that hope even as the action within drains whatever dregs of assurances are left for the realm.
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The Daily BeastAug 19, 2022
Aug 19, 2022
Season 1 Review:
House of the Dragon’s rote mimicry of its predecessor undermines character development and dampens any sparks generated by its ensemble, and literally, due to a lack of sustained time with the titular creatures. ... The problem is not just that the dragons here feel less physically tangible than they did before or that they lack definitive personalities. It’s that House of the Dragon takes them for granted, just as it does our attention.
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Aug 18, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It ultimately is more interested in fan service—offering up more dragons, more gore, more surprise murders, a more expensive historical re-enactment—than it is in developing scenes that ring true. ... It’s as hollow and brittle as the massive scale model of the kingdom that Viserys takes pride in building.
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