TV
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON
Daemon (Matt Smith) inspects a dragon’s egg;
★★★
OUT NOW (SKY ATLANTIC/NOW) EPISODES VIEWED 6 OF 10
SHOWRUNNERS Ryan J. Condal, Miguel Sapochnik
CAST Paddy Considine, Emma D'Arcy, Milly Alcock, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emily Carey, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint
PLOT In Westeros, almost two centuries before the time of Daenerys, King Viserys I Targaryen (Considine) sits on the Iron Throne. When his brother Daemon (Smith) is disinherited, Viserys’ daughter, Rhaenyra (Alcock/D’Arcy), is made heir. But there are other claims to the throne — and war looms.
PREQUELS ARE HARD. (Just ask George Lucas.) To make one work, you have to escape the shadow of the original, find stakes and tension in a story to which everyone ultimately knows the ending, and — if you’re House Of The Dragon — follow up a show like Game Of Thrones, which was, almost simultaneously, the most-acclaimed and least-acclaimed television series of all time. HBO’s lavish fantasy adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books ended in 2019 on such a sour note among some quarters that it’s easy to forget it was, at its peak, as good as TV has ever been: teeming with richly sketched political intrigue, complex characters, historical allegory and big-budget fantasy spectacle.