My Review of: "House of the Dragon: Season 1"

House of the Dragon: Season 1 has just finished up in 2022. It was for me one of the hotly anticipated TV shows for 2022. I know a lot of people had their reservations considering the final season of the original Game of Thrones series. Fortunately for me I'm an ignorant person and will just hype myself for anything that looks pretty cool.

The series starts off a few hundred years before the events of the Game of Thrones series. It centers on the Targaryen family who sit on the iron throne. In this case we have King Viserys. What's really odd about Viserys is that he's actually a peaceful king. There's no real big complications in the seven kingdoms and there's actually peace between nations.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen since this franchise is known for being wild, unpredictable and over the top. Still he remained stoic throughout the season. This doesn't come without challenges though. He's got a little brat of a brother named Daemon.

Of course Daemon wants to become heir to the throne however he is still loyal to his brother. The two don't get along throughout the season but you can tell that their bond is inseparable. The first few episodes are strictly about succession. The king is about to have his first male son with his love Aemma.

Unfortunately Aemma has birth complications leading to both her and his first born to die at childbirth. That leaves himself and his daughter Rhaenyra. Since Rhaenyra is female she isn't expected to take up the throne after Viserys passes away. This brings up a huge rift between the king and daughter.

To fix everything Viserys decides to declare Rhaenyra his rightful heir no matter if he has kids with another woman. Everyone is shocked at this and Rhaenyra isn't quite buying it. She questions the longevity of this decision when Viserys takes Rhaenyra's best friend Alicent as his next queen and bares a few children with her.

These first few episodes fly by pretty fast as each episode will jump a few years from one another. In the meantime, there is a lot of backdoor dealings between each of the main characters that will reveal themselves to become pertinent to the overall story later on. Everything has a purpose in this show and you don't see them until much later on in the season.

By the midpoint of the season the show is firing at all cylinders. We know all the main characters and all of their quirks and intricacies that make them great. We've come to love each of the and despise some of them equally. I couldn't believe they sucked me in just as hard as they did with the original series. It really feels like I'm in that old world again and it's great. Though the pacing of this first season is pretty fast.

With only 10 episodes of one hour episodes there is a surprising amount jammed in there. The season ends on a huge cliffhanger that will leave you wanting more. I only suspect that the second season will be amazing because they don't have to do anymore explanations of the characters motivations. We all understand them from the first season. Just as the first series rolled out.

Overall, I had a hell of a great time with this season. It brought back the same feeling that I used to have when I saw Game of Throne series for the first time. The amount of intrigue and questions that I have going in have me salivating for more. That's why I have to give this season an 8.5 out of 10. I really thought that they could have given us at least one more episode before they ended it like they did. Argh it's so frustrating to have to wait for the next season!