House of dragon hasn't been bad, but it hasn't gripped me either. Feels like diet GoT. They're trying to do what Hollywood does: figure out the recipe and cash in.
The problem here is the discontinuity in the timeline. Some actors age, some don't, some get replaced... All on top of a fairly emotionless story. After season one of the original, you have a developing cast that's interesting and a climax that makes you go 'WTF?'
At the end of HoD, I just let out a "meh." I may go back, assuming I have nothing better. I'm far more interested in season 2 of Severance or many other higher quality series out there.
Diet GoT hits the spot, it is absolutely right. I watched half the first season or and got bored because it repeated so many of the things in GoT. Maybe not the directors fault, I guess the books are just written that way.
It focuses a lot in character building and setting the scene for the terrible mess that’s apparently to come. Shit starts to hits the fan towards the end of the season… I’m very excited for season 2.
Especially since there’s less chance of all this character development being flushed down the toilet like in GoT, because the source material is actually finished
And also, basically every scene is set inside. Think of all the great scenes in GoT that are just 2-6 people walking and talking. They all feel distinct, because theres interesting visual context. Without that, unless you know way too much about the lore going in, you can barely tell people are in different locations because all the castles look similar. And half of the location names are different compared to GoT.