The Kristian Harloff Show - House of the Dragon Episode 1 SPOILER Review | Recap & Breakdown (Game of Thrones)

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

House of the Dragon premiered on HBO Max. It is the story of the rise of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. King Viserys takes the throne and is saddled with the decision on who the heir to the throne will be. Matt Smith plays Prince Daemon Targaryen, Rhys Ifans plays Otto Hightower. This Game of Thrones prequel series taking place 200 years before the original events of the Game of Thrones series that debuted over 10 years ago. In this spoiler heavy review, Kristian Harloff gives his thoughts on the series and whether or not it delivered. #houseofthedragon #GOT #gameofthrones #HBOMAX #TV STORYBLOCKS: http://www.storyblocks.com/bigthing SUPPORT US ON PATREON: https://patreon.com/schmoedown Ask Kristian questions for next time! https://facebook.com/harloff Become a Patreon of the Schmoedown: http://patreon.com/schmoedown OTHER GREAT CONTENT: REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT368qY7sfE0nKE4c04CqGvu TV REVIEWS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT1LU-t2Z9AD5UJDiWW4pS_E STAR WARS SHOW https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT0XmfpbblkF9PY7uO2qhbN6 THE BIG THING PODCAST https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSJdE28YyUT3KAwbzDsv6mdR-gwUiydQg - CM Punk Interview: https://youtu.be/R8Js8uj6GfE FOLLOW KRISTIAN + FIND HIM ON CAMEO https://cameo.com/kristianharloff https://twitter.com/kristianharloff https://facebook.com/harloff https://instagram.com/kristianharloff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello everybody, Christian Harloff here from The Big Thing, from the Christian Harlov channel, from Sith Council. Guess what we're going to do? The Big Thing Patreon officially launches on September 1st. Now, here's what membership is going to get you. You're going to get exclusive episodes of The Big Thing, Sith Council, the rewatch series, plus weekly editions of SEM live, Brett and Kate's playdate, playdate, and much more. So you can sign up now at patreon.com slash schmodown and drop a comment and tell me what perks you want to see as we grow the community. So check out the Big Thing weekdays on Spotify, Apple, anywhere. Podcasts are found.

We appreciate it. We'll see you next time. What's going on, everybody? A little bit of a later start than I wanted to get at today, but it is what it is. I'll have my episode with Greg Alba out a little bit later for Big Thing. But if you're brand new to the channel, you're here to check out the spoiler review of Game Thrones, House of Dragon, episode one. Thank you so much.

Give me favor and help us get to 70,000. end of the year, as I mentioned, I'm going out of my own, man. Going to be out of my own September 1st. First time I was out. I've been out of my own once for like two months, but I've had a full-time job for the last like three years. That's gone. Going to be doing this and hopefully you guys can join me on the adventure. So anyway, that being said, let's get into this spoiler episode one of House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones. So I'm giving you, I've told this in my immediate reaction last night and there are tons of out there. There are tons of people who are talking about.

There are tons of people who read the book and stuff. That's not this show. You're not going to get the, I'm going to mess up names. I'm going to do that. I'm kind of the casual viewer. So if you're a casual viewer like myself and you tune into the show and you're like, I don't know what the hell's going on, but I like the original Gamer Throne series and I'm trying to catch up with stuff and I want another schmuck like me who watches this the way I do. Hopefully this is your channel.

If you're looking for like, well, that's not accurate. You messed up this name and that name and that name. Not the channel. Not the channel. I recommend Ken Napsock on his. his show he's going to get all the names right i'm i'm learning as we go so learn with me if you please um that being said i loved this episode i really did i loved this episode i thought it was a great star because i didn't know what to expect going into it you know i knew that i and and again up top um there are a lot of people who hated the last season the game of thrones i did not did i think it was as good

as the other ones no i thought that it was clearly rushed and i thought that they went off the there was no source material for it and they kind of went off in their own path and But how it concluded it concluded, and I think that they can probably make it up later with the John Snow series. Maybe, maybe not. That has nothing to do with this. This is 200 years before the original Game of Thrones, about 187 years before Daeneres is born. And it's all about the Targaryens, Tigarians. See?

Messed up, number one, the Targaryans. And so I didn't know if I was, because the Targaryens, for a while, they weren't like my, I was a stark. I like the Starks. Like a lot of people. I like the Starks. And I thought it was between the Starks and the Lannisters. And then the Targaryen started getting into it. And then the legacy of the Targaryen started become more and more of a thing as you learned in the show.

And then obviously the connection with Deneres and John Snow and the way that all that all that played out. And there was what I love about the amount of history that seems to be there. And the stuff that I always liked about old schools, like Star Wars when it started was the original trilogy was there was always like this lived in universe. and there was like you believed in all this history and the mention of the clone wars and all that and and game of thrones had that times a thousand with the amount of like these history books that were there and and and george rar martin knows it so well that all these events and things that had happened so when they were going to make this year it's like it didn't seem like a cash grab to me at all it seemed like oh this is a world that he knows very very well he knows these things that happened

in in his head and they're going to bring that now do i care enough about the um the targaryans and i absolutely did like 100% boy did I ever. I think that the way even when they started it out with the prologue which was really smart and they said it at the end of the episode and the little thing that they wanted to start with the episode to really get you into this was such an important event where there had to be a choosing of who was going to be the new heir and they didn't want the house to kind of be at war with each other over the or over the iron throne and you eventually get the and it's and I love that they said it was it was a time of peace. He was a peace king. And it's passed on to King Vassaris Targaryen, who's played by Patty

Considine. And it's ultimately because he's a man. And they didn't want to give it to a queen. So he goes on and he takes over and that's basically just to say, hey, that's who you're dealing with right now. And I love the idea because again, when you are introduced in Game of Thrones, the original series, it's chaos and everybody's trying to kill each other and one up each other and bang each other and do all this stuff. And it's chaos when you first introduced to that world. It's like there's not everybody's trying to take over the throne. And it's just, there's just bad people running amok. It was refreshing to see the start of this. I mean, clearly there's going to be another chess game here and that's what they're setting up. But I like that when we're starting,

we're starting with King Vassiris, who's a peaceful king as well, or he's trying to be. And and trying to hold that court the way that his predecessor did. And then it gets into the politics that we liked in Game of Thrones. And I also like the fact that it sounds to all there's the evil guy who's trying to take over. Because when they introduce Matt Smith, when Matt Smith comes in, I didn't know, again, from the trailers, I thought it was going to be Matt Smith's series. And it very well could be. But I thought he was going to be the one in charge and all that. And he was running shopping.

There's like a Jamie Lanister thing in there a bit, you know, in the way that he's, the, the, the, the, top night in town, but he's, I like his code. It's a crazy code. It's a violent code, but he's got a code. And, and even the fact that he's just not looking to betray people, he just believes to rule by strength. And, and that's what I liked about the episode, is that they basically take you through each person, say, this is who this person is, and this is what they're going to be about, and you learn stuff. And it's character development, very strong character development and story development within, um, within the first, you know, hour that you, that you get here. And as you see, when King Vassaris takes over, he's got his wife, he's trying to get that air,

and they keep having issues. And he's like, I've got to have a son. I got to have a son because I got to get the next air in here to make sure that it continues on. And the house stays peaceful and can't get it done. So the air is going to be Damon Targaryen because he's the one who's next in line, played by Matt Smith. but he's out there and he's he's got his crew and they come back in the way he's introduced is amazing he's like all right they put us in charge let's show the let's let's show the criminals what's going on here and I thought this was just a great way to say the violent

crazy stuff that you saw in the original series is still here but it was also the way that they introduced it was yeah but they're introducing it and not in the way that you saw where like just all this like really crazy stuff was happening to people like good people and bad and I'm sure that's again going to happen but up top it's like no that person that person um that person raped someone cut their dick off that person stole something cut your fucking hand off and you now your head's in a barrel it's like wow okay that's who that guy is that's who that guy is and as I said before he's got a code and you're like okay so that's not someone you're going to want to necessarily mess with but I also fast forwarding a little bit too he's not like this

indestructible force he lost the battle and I also love the idea that when he lost and he had to yield to the dude from Dorn, I was like, okay, what's he going to do? Is he going to, he's going to cut his leg off or something? Or he's going to stick him in the, when his back turned, he's going to get away with it. He didn't. He just yielded. He said, all right, I lost.

And that guy is probably going to be a bigger character down the road. And I love that. And I love that. And I like the juxtaposition in that whole scene. And they mention it later on. If you, if you watch the whole episode, they tell you how at one point, the queen is telling the daughter, who's ultimately, the lead of the show, Renera, that, hey, this is our battlefield.

And then you see the men's battlefield and it's in this back and forth where Sheltony loses her life, which was a tough scene to watch, no doubt. And I saw a lot of people tweeting about it and talking about how rough it was. But, you know, and I know the argument was made that this is, yes, it's a fantasy series. It is. But it's always taken from, like, as if it was real history and as if it was history that we're familiar with the Roman history, all of that stuff. And it's never, it's always been infused that way. It's, and so I don't think that it's a change that they show, it's a brutal. It's not

easy to watch. It's not for everybody. There's no doubt. But I understand 100% why it was in there because it is that fact that she set that up with this is our battlefield. This is what we do. And the fact that they don't really have and it's, and it is, and it is, it's a tough watch. The fact that she didn't have control over it. Um, they did say, you know, that she was going to die regardless and the position that the king was in, devastating. Because he's got to basically choose his wife's death to get his son and his son dies anyway.

It was brutal. He's going to lose both of them anyway. Brutal. That was a very hard scene to watch. But also because you set up the fact that King Vassaris is a good dude. He's not, it wasn't like this move like, okay, yeah, I got a second. Like you've seen stuff in Game of Thrones. Just like, yeah, okay, let the wife die.

hell in freaking uh henry the eighth man henry the aides would have let his wife die pretty quick and you know why it was a devastating moment and i actually thought it was a pretty great moment where um where is that i have it in here somewhere too um yeah this is the so this scene this back and forth when they're watching reiss hyphen's playing the hand of the king is doing a great job too because we don't he's he's got you know it looks like he's a very loyal man and then he's sending his daughter out to the king to to maybe try to get an air i don't know what was going on in that scene you guys can tell me in that particular one. But this whole scene of Matt Smith

where he ultimately yields. And then, oh, the queen was so good. She was so good. That's the scene, the battlefield scene I was talking about. But this was the scene to me that I thought really worked well. And it was Matt Smith, really being the one lending his,

it's the time, he really lets his guard down and shows kind of a softer side in this scene. Because throughout the entire time where the millie Alcock who does a great job the entire time as the young Princess Renera. And she's known that her dad,

her dad just kind of ignored her the whole time because he's never had a son. And she's just kind of overtaken with sadness. And it's Damon who steps up and says, look, your dad needs you right now. You got to step up. And she tells the dragon light the fire and does. So it's this family dynamic,

this weird kind of Kardashian thing going on through the Targaryens, but it is. And they're all kind of battling it out and they're having family drama. And again, you don't know what's going to happen and how it's going to play. Because I was pretty shocked that they had this whole scene where Reese Hyphen's saying, look,

your brother can't be the guy. He just can't. He's too violent. It's nuts. And the other people argue in for him. He's like, he can't. He's like, the other air is potentially your daughter. And like, no, no woman has ever sat in the throne.

You can't do that. And it's the king. who starts sticking up for Damon and he's listening and I'm like okay well he's listening he's got to hear that his brother stood up for him and then he's hammered and he says the thing about his about his dead nephew king for a day or whatever it was and that just set the king off man you're like no I I can't do that and I love that scene again he brings him in and he says to him did you say that he's like I did say it I'm I did and we grieve in our own way but like I should have been the hand not not not the other dude

It should have been me. And it's because you're weak, buddy. And they all know your weak. He's like, all, I'm a weak. Get the fuck out of here. How about that? Get lost. My daughter's going to run.

He's like, I'm your air. No, you're not. Get lost. Beat it. But it pained him. It wasn't that easy. And then we get to the very end of it where you have, this is, this is the ultimate. They set it up.

Like, this is the show, right? It's like, okay, this is your heir. This is going to be the queen because we know that the king has this disease. And I think he's going to kind of play the, I like the, I like the, the appearance by one of the Starks, by the way. That was awesome in the north. But anyway, you're putting the queen, this is going to be your queen eventually.

She's going to be running the shop. And it's going to be a battle because not everybody's going to deal with the fact that you got a woman on the throne. And so there's going to be the politics of the Game of Thrones that we know. And I love the score in this show. Oh, chef's kiss. So good. So good.

Because there was, I was wondering if they were going to be. going to play the original theme to start and he didn't but it's there if you listen to it it starts to play it it really gets heavier at the very end when when they announce that she's going to be the air and you hear the music kind of build up and i thought it's a great swell at the very end and they see a preview to the ultimate uh the whole the whole thing and how it plays out so i love episode one thought it was great very curious to hear what you guys think are you on board with this so far what were some of your favorite parts um there was some brutal shit going on

very Romanesque with the battle in the tournament. And it's just like everyone was like, oh yeah, yeah, some guy just got his face ripped off. And the rules. It wasn't, it didn't seem like a lot of people were shocked that that was going down. Even when, you know, Dorn had the, the guy from Dorn had the prince down.

It was like, yield, dude, I don't want to kill you in front all your people. Come on. Show a little. And he, um, and he didn't. And, um, all that was great. I thought it was, the politics behind it. I was really, really satisfied with episode one. And the dragons weren't, the dragons weren't too much.

The dragons were just enough. So, yeah, I really dug it. Very curious to hear what you guys thought. What did you think overall? Did you like the show? Did you expect to like the show? Did you read the book? And do you think that they,

from what I read in a few of the comments from my immediate reaction was that they stayed pretty true to the book? So what say you? Do you think so? Do you care? Do you not care? And I want to know your overall thoughts on what you think.

I thought Matt Smith was phenomenal, by the way. phenomenal. I thought everybody was phenomenal. The standouts to me, I think, were, again, Patty Kostodine as King Vassaris, Matt Smith, obviously, as Damon, Millie Alcock as Renera, and then Recyphens as Otto High Tower. Those are the ones that really stood out to me, but I can't wait to watch more and I want to know what you guys think. So again, these are the spoiler reviews. I hope you enjoyed it. By the way, if you're brand new to the channel and you have never tried story blocks before in your video person, on over to Storyblocks. They have really great plans. Unlimited plans helps out your video content. People who I've been watching my show, I've been trying it out. You can get a little bit of a, you can look at you go, if you go to storyblocks.com slash big thing. You can check out one of their plans over there. I would go and check that out. Let me know if you try it and you like it. Go ahead and check it out. It's again at storyblocks.com slash big thing. All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. This is the Christian Harloff channel. Help us get the 70,

thousand subscribers and we'll see you on the flip side a lot of stuff going on i'm going to go see that movie barbarian tonight i'll have immediate reaction out tonight we'll see on the flip side peace everybody yeah