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Is ‘Season One of ‘House of the Dragon’ As Good As ‘Game of Thrones’?

Author Laila Abuelhawa

With seven episodes of House of the Dragon out, it’s about time we compared it to its predecessor: Game of Thrones. After a disappointing end to the much-loved Westeros saga, House of the Dragon was given the task of restoring GOT’s lost success. To find out whether the prequel surrounding House Targaryan is living up to the expectations, the team at PlayOJO gathered the ratings of every single episode of Game of Thrones and compared it to House of the Dragon using data from IMDb, Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. The data was then ranked in order of episode rating and season rating to find out the average score season one of House of the Dragon would need to achieve to reach the same level of success as Game of Thrones.

The current average rating of House of the Dragon is 8.6 on IMDb. Season 4 of Game of Thrones was the most successful season with an average rating of 9.1, but Thrones‘ last episode was the worst rated in the entire series with an average rating of just 2.6/10 on Metacritic.

As it stands, House of the Dragon is scoring similar results to the first season of Game of Thrones, with its latest episode “Driftmark” scoring 9.5 stars on IMDb. In fact, 3 out of 7 episodes have even scored higher than the original series, the other three just falling 0.2 stars short. When taking into consideration all 8 Game of Thrones season ratings across IMDb, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes, HotD will need to score 8.3 stars for its first season to be considered successful. After 7 episodes, it currently stands at 8.6 stars, which is right on track for the series.

The best-rated episode of GoT is season 3 episode 9’s “The Rains of Castamere,” topping the list with an episode rating of 9.8. A review on IMDb reads: “This is TV history.” Coming in tied for second are episodes “The Lion and the Rose” (season 4, episode 2) and “The Watchers on the Wall” (season 4 episode 9), each with a 9.7 rating. Five out of the six episodes of season eight made it to the bottom of the list and although the episodes “Winterfell” (6.9) and “The Long Night” (6.8) scored average ratings.

Overall, Game of Thrones had a good run despite its disappointing ending. Now, it’s time to see if House of the Dragon will hold its own as season one wraps up in the coming weeks. Season two of the series has been confirmed by Variety less than a week after its premiere episode.

See a preview of episode 8 below:

New episodes of House of the Dragon air on HBO and HBO Max every Sunday night at 9pm ET.

'House of the Dragon' Was Nearly Too Dark To Follow Last Night

No, something wasn’t wrong with your TV last night (October 2) during the latest House of the Dragon episode. Viewers were left struggling to make out the events of episode seven, taking to social media to complain about how visually dark the show was — very much like a notorious episode of the show’s predecessor, Game of Thrones.

Hours before the episode aired, writer Joanna Robinson advised fans on Twitter: “I liked this week’s episode of #HouseOfTheDragon but sure yeah watch it with all the drapes closed and maybe, yeah, consider The Neil Settings.” Robinson linked to a video instructing viewers on how to adjust their television sets for shows with dark lighting but noted it isn’t “optimal for EVERY set.”

“My notes are filled with ‘WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY CANT I SEE IT?’” Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall replied.

Sepinwall shared a tweet that showed viewers of the episode reaching out to @HBOMaxHelp on how to fix the dark episode, to which they replied the dimmed lighting was “an intentional creative decision.”

Meanwhile, others compared the episode to Game of Thrones’ famously dark battle sequence in “The Long Night” (season eight, episode three). “I see HBO learned absolutely nothing after complaints of ‘The Long Night’ being too dark,” one person wrote. “If I were watching #HouseOfTheDragon on a crappier TV I’d be pissed.”

Meanwhile, the episode as a whole was an improvement from last week’s when we were introduced to the new actors in the ten-year time jump. The children have taken a more substantial presence in episode 7, with drama unfolding as the late Lady Laena’s dragon was taken by one of Alicent’s sons. A fight ensues when Laena’s children find out who it was that stole their mothers dragon and one of the children loses their eye in the process as a knife is brought out. Another tragic death took place later in “Driftmark” — though it is of someone who we did not expect.

See what fans thought of the latest episode below:

Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.

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