Beheadings; castrations; gratuitous sex; dynastic plotting... a stately pace leavened by sudden bursts of action and narrative jumps; a dollop of incest… there’s nothing to disappoint or surprise Game of Thrones fans in this lavish HBO prequel. Based on a slim companion novel to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice cycle, along with other texts he wrote on the history of his violent realm, it starts 172 years before the birth of GoT’s heroine-turned-psychokiller Daenerys Targaryen, when her ancestor Viserys (Paddy Considine) ruled the seven kingdoms of Westeros.
Though it also functions as a standalone epic for new viewers, there are comforting touchstones for obsessives; the spiky Iron Throne, albeit in a slightly different form; a veritable squadron of dragons; cod-medieval dialogue and offbeat names like Alicent, Daemon and Harrold; and a cast list that mixes veteran, mostly British character actors with attractive male, female and non-binary newcomers.
