House of the Dragon reactions: Critics divided over new fantasy epic

Are the characters ‘uniformly dull’ or is the show a ‘roaring success’?

The first reactions to House of the Dragon have arrived, ahead of theGame of Thrones spin-off’s long-awaited launch.

House of the Dragon is set two centuries before “the fall of the throne”, and features a cast including Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans.

In the UK, the show will premiere at 2am on Monday 22 August on Sky Atlantic. The episode will then be repeated at 9pm on Monday, and will be available to stream on NOW after its initial airing.

After a glimpse of the first few episodes of the fantasy epic, critics have had mixed responses to the series.

The Independent’s critic Nick Hilton gave House of the Dragon four stars, writing that the show is “bigger, bolder and bloodier than Game of Thrones”.

He added: “It’s immediately clear that, even in the just over 11 years since Thrones first aired, the scale of the world on display has increased. Where its predecessor opened with an introspective, family-focused look at life in the dour North, House of the Dragon swoops onto our screens with beating wings, urban panoramas and, quite literally, fire and blood.”

The Guardian’s critic Lucy Mangan was similarly positive. Giving the show four stars, she called it a “roaring success”, adding: “House of the Dragon looks set fair to become the game of political seven-dimensional chess that its predecessor was, designed to reward diehard fantasy fans in full measure without alienating the masses that will propel it to the top of the ratings.”

For the BBC, Stephen Kelly wrote that the prequel is “a rich, textured work, sharply written and handsomely directed”.

Matt Smith in ‘House of the Dragon’ (Sky)

The Telegraph’s Michael Deacon gave House of the Dragon four stars, writing that while the show is “well made”, “brilliantly shot” and “seethes with tension”, “the biggest lack is a character to match Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones’ midget Machiavelli”.

He continued: “Drawlingly witty, devilishly ingenious, perpetually getting himself into trouble and then somehow getting himself out of it: no one on House of the Dragon possesses his wicked charisma. In fact, there’s no one really funny in it at all.”

Rolling Stone’s critic Alan Sepinwall was less impressed, writing that House of the Dragon “supplies all the palace intrigue of its parent series, with none of the wit or energy”. He called the characters “almost uniformly dull” and accused the show of being “a calculated piece of brand extension for the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery”.

Writing in Empire, John Nugent gave the prequel three stars, arguing: “The writing so far lacks the sparkle of Thrones’ most profound moments: there is no equivalent to the witty drinking-and-knowing-things of Tyrion, no petty scheming of Littlefinger’s level, no revealing character moments as startling as Robert and Cersei finally having an honest conversation.”

While many of the details of House of the Dragon have been kept under wraps by the show’s creators, over the last few weeks more and more information has been made public.

Smith said he found himself questioning the number of sex scenes that were required while filming the HBO series.

Meanwhile, co-star Steve Toussaint has claimed that the series will present sex and violence in a different way to Game of Thrones.

In another interview, actor Eve Best revealed the strange audition process the cast went through for the high-profile series.