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Published Sep 29, 2026, 5:12 PM EDT
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
Just like Game of Thrones before it, House of the Dragon got off to an incredible start, then gradually went downhill as the years went by. But, where Game of Thrones was one of the best shows on television for a solid six seasons before the quality took a nosedive (and that was only because they ran out of books to adapt), House of the Dragon stumbled in just its second season. The third was no better, and now that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has arrived as the franchise’s greatest installment to date, there’s not much hype for the fourth.
History risks repeating itself as House of the Dragon is heading into its fourth and final season with all the same problems that plagued Game of Thrones season 8. The Targaryen-centric spinoff’s next season is set to conclude its muddled adaptation of the second half of the first volume of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, but the writers haven’t left themselves enough runway to successfully land the plane.
There was so little movement in season 2, and not much more in season 3, that season 4 has way too much to wrap up in just eight episodes, so it could end up feeling rushed and unearned, just like Game of Thrones’ final season. The biggest flaws in House of the Dragon’s subsequent seasons can be traced back to season 1’s best quality. Season 1 raced through a ton of major plot points and had time jumps in between most episodes, covering years and years of ground and skipping past huge storylines that could’ve been adapted into entire episodes or even seasons, and it was refreshingly fast-paced and to-the-point.
Then, the show was a huge hit and HBO wanted to milk it for more seasons, but season 1 had already skipped past all the story material worth fleshing out. So, House of the Dragon has just been spinning the wheels for two seasons, and now, there’s not enough time to wrap everything up.
The Battle Of The Gullet Has Created A Domino EffectThe rapid pacing of House of the Dragon’s first season had a knock-on effect into the second and third. The spinoff raced through all the juicy drama in season 1, then slowed to a halt in season 2. But that wasn’t the last disaster that befell House of the Dragon; the Battle of the Gullet created a domino effect, too.
House of the Dragon’s season 3 premiere was a rollicking return for the series. The blockbuster spectacle of a naval conflict between dragons and battleships, and the emotional heft of the loss of life, made House of the Dragon feel like the best of Game of Thrones. But then, in the immediate aftermath, it went right back to its usual wheel-spinning. The Battle of the Gullet should’ve been the season 2 finale, not the season 3 premiere. Without it, the season 2 finale felt anticlimactic, and with it, season 3 felt front-loaded.
If the Battle of the Gullet had taken place in the season 2 finale, then season 3 could’ve started off in the spoils of that victory, and it would’ve been able to get through a lot more plot than it ultimately did. But the battle got pushed back to the beginning of season 3, so then everything else got pushed back. Now, ahead of the final season, it feels like there’s way too much story left on the table for just one more season to do the ending justice.
The biggest problem with Game of Thrones’ final season is that it felt rushed. It wasn’t just that Daenerys became a mass murderer; it was that the show didn’t bother to properly set it up, and just had her turn evil on a dime. House of the Dragon might not have left itself enough time for those buildups, and could end up feeling just as half-baked and underwhelming.
House of the DragonRelease Date August 21, 2022
Network HBO
Prince Daemon Targaryen
Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole