One of the most anticipated shows of the year is as good as we’d hoped, writes Catherine McGregor.

The Lowdown:

Remember how big Game of Thrones was? How every episode was an enormous, stop everything, phone-off global phenomenon? It was only a little over two years ago that the series finale aired, but those event-TV years already feel like another era. Now House of the Dragon is here to pose the question: can lightning strike twice?

To say this Game of Thrones prequel has a lot to prove would be an understatement. The creative team – which includes regular GoT director Miguel Sapochnik, but not original showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff – needs to deliver a show that not only lives up to its predecessor’s highs, of which there were many, but also helps wash away the sour taste left by its disappointing final season.

The new show, based on author George RR Martin’s novel Fire and Blood, is set two centuries before the events depicted in the original series. As is immediately obvious from the cast’s platinum blond wigs, its focus is the royal house Targaryen – ancestors of Daenerys – and a disputed line of succession that will eventually lead to a bloody civil war.

The good

The endless double-crossing and manoeuvring were some of the greatest pleasures of Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon looks set to continue in that tradition. That’s not to say the show lacks wow moments – the dragons in particular look incredible, and with a rumoured $15 – $20 million per episode budget so they should. But it’s plain from the very first scene, when a young Viserys (Paddy Considine) is made royal heir over cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best), that family dynamics and political alliances will be the driving force of all that is to come.

That scene also sets up another key theme of House of the Dragon: the question of whether a woman has the right to rule Westeros. It became an obsession of the players in Game of Thrones, culminating in two queens locked in battle for the Iron Throne, but the issue of women rulers was something of a slow burn across the seasons. Here it’s at the fore from the very start, with princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) positioned in conflict with her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) for ultimate control of the kingdom.

Daemon, oh Daemon. Pre-publicity for the show had sold the character as a cheeky rogue in the vein of GoT’s Euron Greyjoy. In fact, he’s more of a Joffrey type: a sadistic, instantly hateable psychopath with a pervy interest in his teenage niece. As Smith proved so well as Prince Phillip in The Crown, he has a rare talent for playing loathsome royals. I sincerely look forward to Daemon dying a slow and painful death at some point in the not-too-distant future (not a spoiler, I’ve just learned what to expect from Game of Thrones).

While Smith is a standout, the entire cast is exactly what you want from a GoT show: a mix of new faces – the Australian Alcock as a young Rhaenyra is remarkably good – and British screen legends. When we first visited the king’s small council and were met with the great Paddy Considine at the head of the table and Rhys Ifans and Bill Paterson at his side, I breathed a sigh of relief. We’re in good hands here.

The not-so-good

I suppose it wouldn’t be a Game of Thrones show without an orgy at a brothel, but that didn’t stop me from rolling my eyes when one inevitably broke out. In the early years the amount of nudity on GoT was genuinely shocking. But a decade on, and many sexposition scenes later, it all feels a bit rote.

On the bright side, the sight of a couple stuck doggy-style in the background as Daemon speechifies about his inheritance counted as a rare moment of comic relief in episode one. It’s still early days, but it seems likely that House of the Dragon will lack the warmth and humour – think Tyrion and Jaime Lannister swapping one-liners, or the teasing between the Stark kids – that often characterised the original, at least in its early days. All signs point to House of the Dragon dwelling in the darkness right from the start, with little space for fun. I hope I’m wrong.

The verdict

This one was worth the wait. House of the Dragon is a hugely promising successor to the beloved original. Will we still be talking about it eight seasons from now? I wouldn’t bet against it.