Is 'House of the Dragon' the worthy successor to 'Game of Thrones'?

• The first episode of

  House of the Dragon , the

  Game of Thrones

  spin-off

  airs Sunday night through Monday at 3am on OCS, simultaneously with its US broadcast.

• House of the Dragon

  , a prequel based on George RRMartin's 2018 novel

  Fire & Blood

  , begins 172 years before Daenerys Targaryen was born.

• Does the spin-off live up to the original series?

  Our verdict.

Let's start at the end.

Despite its flaws and a final season that did not win unanimous support,

remains the benchmark for epic fantasy television.

Neither

on Netflix nor

on Amazon Prime Video has managed to fill the void left by the series created by David Benioff and DB Weiss from the saga of George RR Martin.

No wonder the latter and HBO give in to the siren songs of the franchise, at the risk of tarnishing its legacy.

With the arrival of the first episode of

in France this Monday at 3 a.m. on OCS, simultaneously with its American broadcast, early fans hope that this prequel will return to power and grandeur. from the first seasons of

.

saw the first six episodes out of the 10 that make up the first season of

, our undisclosed review.

House of the Dragon

, a prequel based on the 2018 novel

by George RRMartin, begins 172 years before the death of Aerys II Targaryen, nicknamed the Mad King, and the birth of e Daenerys Targaryen.

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A look worthy of "Game of Thrones"

The first episode propels viewers into the familiar universe of

: King's Landing, the Red Keep and its Iron Throne, Flea Bottom and its brothels... The sets are as neat as ever, the costumes splendid.

Only downside, here and there, a few hideous peroxide wigs.

In terms of production, we feel the touch of Miguel Sapochnik, co-showrunner, to whom we owe the epic

in the original series.

The photography is always impeccable.

also revives the perfect mastery of alternate editing of its predecessor, as with this sequence from the pilot which masterfully juxtaposes the collisions of a jousting tournament with a complicated childbirth.

When it comes to looks,

honors the memory of

, especially since the problematic aspects of the original series have been ironed out.

The scenes of nudity and violence are less numerous and staged in a more subtle way, with chiaroscuro lighting effects.

A story of power and succession

As in

, the question of power is at the heart of

.

The main plot revolves around Viserys I, white-haired Targaryen and benevolent monarch of the realm of the Seven Kingdoms, asked to name his successor.

The eldest of the king's children is a daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, replaced mid-season by Emma D'Arcy).

The problem?

The order of succession of House Targaryen is not fixed by strict primogeniture.

Although she seems qualified to succeed him, her gender is an obstacle.

The king's cousin, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) had been denied her birthright years before… So the issue of patriarchal sexism is also central to

.

Many other characters thus have inclinations to mount the Iron Throne after the death of Viserys I: his violent and debauched warrior uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith);

the children of her stepmother, Alicent (Emily Carey, later Olivia Cooke) and other secondary characters.

In short,

promises all sorts of family betrayals – preferably on top of a dragon, in the style of

, another HBO hit that inspired George RR Martin, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik to helm the show.

A movement unlike "Game of Thrones"

Like

,

is a chatty series, where a lot of genealogy is discussed around well-known houses like the Targaryens or the Lannisters, but also powerful new houses like the Velaryon and Hightower.

While

was about rival dynasties competing for control of the Seven Kingdoms,

's storylines are restricted to a single family.

The narrative richness of the series is, for the moment, considerably reduced.

House of the Dragon

seems to follow the opposite movement of Game of Thrones, the first episodes are a kind of closed door within Dragon Rouge and the more the episodes go by, the more the universe of the series unfolds, the exact opposite of the dynamics of its elder.

Even the familiar opening theme by Ramin Djawadi, a composer already at work in the original series, seems less deployed.

A little something less than "Game of Thrones"

Epic fight scenes, sumptuous weddings that end badly, a touch of incest…

takes up many of the ingredients of the recipe for

success .

The flavor of Game of Thrones is however not completely found.

The show suffers in particular from a cruel lack of humor and lightness.

No character currently has the wit traits of a Tyrion Lannister.

And if this spin-off is talkative, it lacks the scathing repartee of a Cersei Lannister and the treacherous tongue of a Little Finger.

Daemon Targaryen's underlying madness is still too contained to be hated like Ramsay Bolton or Joffrey Baratheon.

If the dragons fly majestically in the skies of Port-Réal,

only revives by allusion with the magic and the mysticism very present in the original series.

Will the Shakespearean feuds within the Targaryen family be enough to fully enthrall viewers?

It's too early to tell, anything is possible with this saga.

But the release context of

is not the same as that of

on Netflix gets better with each season and fantasy fans are eagerly awaiting another great epic,

on Amazon Prime Video.

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