"House Of the Dragon."

What went right, wrong, can or can't be fixed, and whether that long wait for S2 is worth it.

Before talking about the successes and failures on the creative side of HBO’s “House Of the Dragon,” let’s be clear about a couple of huge wins for the show:

It was immensely popular (both here and internationally).

It held its audience. And they were loyal.

You’d be hard-pressed to find another series that succeeds so well in what we might now call something of a relic (but a super important one): Fans made it it appointment television. They were there on the night it dropped. And they talked about it a lot.

That’s impressive in the age of (Ultra) Peak TV. I would add that another achievement is that while something like Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power” might argue that HBO is benefitting from a “Game of Thrones” television spin-off which might give it an advantage (a fair point), what’s more accurate is that what “House Of the Dragon” actually had was the burden of comparison. It was never, ever, going to be as good as “Game Of Thrones,” no matter how much you or people you know didn’t like that last season.

(I’ll write about “Rings Of Power” separately).

As a critic who loved “Game Of Thrones,” flaws and all, I can tell you that I went into watching “House Of the Dragon” with that burden in mind, knowing I was already in some ways set against the show in a “prove it” mentality. Some of that was evident in my take after six episodes:

"House Of the Dragon."

This is why as we jump ahead to the end of this first season you have to give the show perhaps even more credit — it overcame the burden of comparison and most of its own missteps to, in the end, be a compelling watch and, far more important, earn that right to be must watch when it returns. Those are the spoils of knocking iron on fire for 10 episodes and coming out the better for it.

The time jump mentioned in the first post above was essential to the growth of the series (you can read why above but the short version is that the younger cast had a number of restrictive elements to them) while the second major one — six years this time — seemed more clunky (wait, the Sea Snake has been off at war for how long?) but also effectively quickened the pace. With “House Of the Dragon” moving at a faster clip, chewing not only through more story but also better story, we finally got to a more decisive, action-packed set-up that was more familiar to the best parts of “Game Of Thrones.”

Ah, but it was easy to forget something in those early episodes — this is a dense story. And like the bigger “Game Of Thrones,” once you invest in hours of palace intrigue and character development, the emotional pay-off seems more earned.

OK, let’s get to the pros and cons of the full season and what to look for going forward, and I’ll let you take the lead in the comments.