The new season of House of the Dragon has left critics queasy and fans threatening to boycott, after one review described the prequel's third outing as “dazzlingly bombastic but disappointingly shallow”.
In a review for The Independent, the fantasy series was criticised for “distractingly bad casting and one truly wretched performance”, with the reviewer noting that it “continues to fail to live up to its forebear” Game of Thrones. The comparison to its acclaimed progenitor “once again looms large over a show that has never fully understood its own appeal”, the review added.
“Critics call House of the Dragon season three 'disappointingly shallow' as fans threaten to boycott and a review slams 'wretched performance'.”
The backlash comes as the Daily Mail reported that fans are vowing to boycott season three, with critics revealing the show made them “physically sick”.
Set during the Targaryen civil war known as the “Dance of Dragons”, the penultimate instalment finds Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) having seized the crown. “I must justify my father’s faith in me,” she muses. “Rule as he would have wished.” Her ruthless husband-uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) counsels her, while the opposing “greens” faction – led by the increasingly powerless Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and her sons – scrambles to respond. Her eldest son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), badly injured, has been secreted out of the capital by spymaster Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). “I am the king of nothing,” he notes during their escape, “with raven s*** for a throne.”
The season opens with a “dazzling skirmish” involving dragon riders and the fleet of Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), where the camera moves from land to air to water with grace and intensity. “If this be victory, I hope I never see another,” Corlys observes amid the apocalyptic ruins. Yet even with this technical virtuosity, the reviewer concluded that it is “hard to escape the feeling that the makers of House of the Dragon are squandering…” – the sentence trailing off, capturing the sense of promise unfulfilled.
Sky’s blockbuster series, now in its third season, faces growing discontent. The Daily Mail report of boycott threats and critical nausea adds to the sense that the prequel is struggling to win over audiences even as it ramps up dragon-on-dragon action.