Let's start at the end. "Game of Thrones" was the television drama of the decade right up until its eighth and final season, when the HBO series' conclusion disappointed fans on a global scale. Despite all of the show's dexterous villains, fierce emancipators, persevering women and supernatural surprises, it handed the crown to a boy who'd literally slept through much of the show's 73-episode run.
Thanks to that fizzling 2019 climax, prequel "House of the Dragon" premieres Sunday amid slightly lower expectations than it would have if "GoT" had nailed the landing. But with the arrival of the first episode, "The Heirs of the Dragon," the hope that a new series might recapture some of the power and grandeur of its predecessor no longer seems so fanciful.
Set 172 years before the death of the Mad King and the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, "House of the Dragon" immediately thrusts viewers into the familiar sights and sounds of the "Game of Thrones" universe: Flea Bottom and its brothels, dragons and their flames, the Red Keep and its Iron Throne. While honoring the legacy and look of the original series, the spinoff wisely adopts subtle changes in tone and approach while introducing a fresh world of characters and storylines.
