Viewers of House of the Dragon were outraged over scenes that were too dark to see in Episode 7 of the show on Sunday. Many viewers took to Twitter to vent their outrage over the cinematography, calling it ‘unwatchable’ for how dimly let they were. Considering the fact the episode had many scenes that were vital to the show's overall story, the displeasure was understandable. What's more, with the show's extremely talented cast, the dark episode was perceived as a disservice to its stars.
Over time, social media has become a necessary tool in connecting fans with their favorite celebrities, brands, movies and shows; as such, it comes as no surprise that fans of the show to the most vocal of platforms, Twitter, to air their opinions of the latest episode. One Twitter user wrote “I’m gonna need @hbomax to issue a written apology for literally a whole episode of black screen of #HouseOfTheDragon.” This Tweet caught the attention of HBO Max, and the official account for HBOMaxHelp directly responded to this Tweet, saying:
“Hi Stephen! We appreciate you reaching out about a night scene in House of the Dragon: Episode 7 appearing dark on your screen. The dimmed lighting of this scene was an intentional creative decision. Thanks! ^LL”
Miguel Sapochnik, Emmy-winning director for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, is familiar with this kind of backlash. Fans of Game of Thrones will recall a similar experience in the final season of Game of Thrones, where a dimly-lit battle scene in the episode “The Long Night” received lots of backlash from outraged fans who reported they couldn’t see any action. In a podcast interview with IndieWire at the time, Sapochnik defended his creative choice for using dark scenes, saying “It made sense that this was the last hope humanity has, the last beacon of light, and from the perspective of where we needed the story to go-which was to reach a surreal, chaotic climax-we needed an environment that was friendly to that.” The claim is that the dark cinematography matches the dark and austere atmosphere of the situation, but many fans have not been receptive of this creative decision.
House of the Dragon is the prequel to Game of Thrones, and takes place nearly 200 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. It portrays the beginning of the end of House Targaryen, and includes the civil war called "Dance of the Dragons" and the events leading up to it. New episodes air weekly on Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.
Check out HBO Max's tweet as well as the preview for Episode 8 below: