{"id":37760,"date":"2022-08-21T02:15:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37760"},"modified":"2022-09-09T20:13:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T00:13:03","slug":"streaming-sundays-house-of-the-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/21\/streaming-sundays-house-of-the-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"Streaming Sundays: House of the Dragon (2022-)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After three years and much anticipation, we are now going back to the land of Westeros long before <\/span>A<\/span><\/i> Song of Ice and Fire<\/span><\/i>\u2026and it was well worth the wait.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

House of the Dragon<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Fire and Blood<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The highly anticipated follow up to the beloved <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i> phenomenon has a tough legacy to live up to. Despite the divisive ending of <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/i>, the show is iconic and will forever be mentioned when discussing the best series ever made for television.<\/span><\/p>\n

All that being said, this show has the potential to be so much better. Episode one of <\/span>House of the Dragon<\/span><\/i> sets up the future war between the Targaryen family, by taking us back to the day Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) was named the heir to\u00a0 became the ruler of the seven realms, even though Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (Eve Best) had a more legitimate claim to the throne. puts us right in the center of the conflict, starting . King Viserys is anticipating the birth of his first born son. His daughter Rhaenrya (Milly Alcock) is his eldest child, but she is not even in the conversation when it comes to the succession of the throne. Knowing her place, Rhaenyra still dreams of becoming a warrior. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is King Viserys younger brother and poised to be the next legitimate heir over Rhaenyra because he is a male. He has bounced around different positions in the court,\u00a0 making waves and dividing the Council over his rash methods. Daemon is violent and ambitious, which Viserys fails to worry about much to the dismay of his Hand, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans).<\/span><\/p>\n

Much like it\u2019s predecessor, House of the Dragons does not shy away from the violence and brutality of this world. We get our first taste of violence when Daemon Targaryen rallies the \u201cgold cloaks\u201d of the City Watch. To \u201cpromote law and order\u201d, Daemon and his men round up all of the local criminals and start handing out their own brand of justice. Thieves get their hands hacked off, rapists get raped with weapons – dead bodies being dragged to the pyre. In this sequence, we get a taste of just what is to come from Daemon and how he plans to rule should he come to absolute power. A wildly brutal scene, but a necessary one.<\/span><\/p>\n

This would not be a proper <\/span>GOT<\/span><\/i> spin-off without an extravagant tournament that ends in bloody showdowns. To celebrate the anticipated birth of the future king, Viserys holds a tournament where we get a little taste of the war scenes to come. Unflinching savagery that unsettles the court, but they dare not look away. We see a young Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey) picking her thumbnail off. In the midst of that, we are brought to Aemma Targaryen’s (Sian Brooke) difficult labor which is a different kind of bloody, but just as nerve-wracking to witness. The King has a grave choice: the life of the mother, or the life of the child. He chooses the latter and the doctor proceeds to perform a nightmarish Cesarean section. This sequence paints a clear picture of what the values are at this time, which unfortunately is not too far off from the values of today’s world where men have the ultimate say on whether or not a woman can terminate a pregnancy. In his obsession to have a son, Viserys sacrifices the life of his wife, who ultimately passes away moments before the infant. At this moment, we know the world our characters once knew will never be the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

House of the Dragon\u2019s production is spectacular. To start, the cinematography is top notch and it is only heightened by the extravagant set pieces. The beautiful soft hues of natural light flowing into the castle in King\u2019s Landing are gorgeous. We see the opulence, peace and strength of the current regime with the contrast of metals and ornate cloth that decorate the halls. The costumes are beautifully done and the wigs adorned by silver-haired Targaryen\/<\/span>Velaryon<\/span> characters look ethereal in every scene. One of the best visuals of this episode is when we are introduced to Daemon. Our first glimpse of him is perched ominously on the Iron Throne surrounded by all of the rusty swords. Chilling and foreboding, it is a direct contrast to the lighting of the rest of the castle which feels more serene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is so much promise in this series that it would be a shame to miss out on what could be the next television phenomenon. The world is built, the cast is strong and the story is established but there is still room for the writers to delve into the characters without having to worry about satisfying the fandom. <\/span>Fire and Blood<\/span><\/i> was written like a fictional history book so character-wise, there is more room for the creators to build these characters from scratch – with the help of George R.R. Martin, of course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first episode of <\/span>House of the Dragon <\/span><\/i>is now streaming exclusively on HBOMax.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After three years and much anticipation, we are now going back to the land of Westeros long before A Song of Ice and Fire\u2026and it was well worth the wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2844,1],"tags":[3006,387,405,452,3007,3004,3005,3008],"class_list":["post-37760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-fire-and-blood","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-george-rr-martin","tag-hbo","tag-hbo-max","tag-house-of-the-dragon","tag-matt-smith","tag-paddy-considine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37892,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37760\/revisions\/37892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}