Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Game of Thrones” made its reputation by conjuring the politics of an entire world. And for all the grandeur of its spinoff, “House of the Dragon,” its creators’ most surprising decision may be to start small.I mean that in a very particular sense.
The visuals, here, are certainly grander than those of “Game of Thrones” in its early going; anyone impressed by Daenerys Targaryen’s trio of dragons will have plenty to feast on here.
And when it comes to the ways in which “Game of Thrones” weaponized HBO’s willingness to broadcast the grotesque, “House of the Dragon” goes still further, with sequences of genuinely nauseating violence unlike any this critic can recall.
But where the action — the dragon flights, the carnage — on HBO’s former hit was in service of the intrigue among a group of clans, here we’re watching a feud consume a single family.
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