'House of the Dragon' new episode receives backlash for being too dark to see. HBO says 'intentional'

Many fans of the HBO fantasy show 'House of the Dragon' are complaining about a darker colour tone in the seventh and latest episode of the show, titled 'Driftmark'. While many believe it is an issue with the cinematography, it is actually to do with colour grading, which is done in post-production. So the dark tone, literally, was a deliberate creative choice on part of the director Miguel Sapochnik. Sapochnik, incidentally, faced similar criticism in the final season of 'Game of Thrones', the parent series of 'House of the Dragon'. In 'The Long Night', the eighth episode of 'GoT', the scenes of battle between the living and the dead led by whitewalkers were so dark that it was often hard to see what was going on.

In comparison, 'Driftmark' is clearer.

The criticism the episode is receiving, though, is similar. One fan tweeted, "HOUSE OF THE DRAGON continuing the classic Thrones tradition of making an episode so dark it's almost unwatchable."

One other wrote, "this episode of house of the dragon is so f***ing dark i cannot see anything and i’m sitting in complete darkness."

One shared a picture of a television, in which the visuals were pretty bright. "This was too dark for people? You need to check your tv settings, folks," they wrote.

"My TV is good enough that this scene doesn't look like a square of black on it. But this is one of the most important character interactions in the episode, so you'd think someone involved would have tried to make sure that the actors' faces were discernible," another wrote.

The criticism is given more credence when one considers that the darker scenes involved characters Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) andDaemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). And promotional images of the show also showed the two characters in the same setting, and the lighting showeda sunny, bright day (example below).

HBO responded to the criticism while responding to a tweet and made it clear that the dark visuals were intentional. @HBOMaxHelp replied to a tweet by somebody called Stephen. The tweet read, "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."

Co-created by Ryan J. Condal and George RR Martin, the originator of the books on which the series are based, the show takes place hundreds of years before the original story. While 'House of the Dragon' also features a struggle for the Iron Throne, this one is a conflict within the Targaryen house. And this one has lots of dragons since 200 years before Robert's Rebellion, dragons had not gone extinct, but only the Targaryens had them.

Paddy Considine (Viserys Targaryen),Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Milly Alcock (young Rhaenyra), Emily Carey (young Alicent), , Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), and Sonoya Mizuno (Mysaria) star in 'House of the Dragon'.

In India, 'House of the Dragon' streams on Disney+ Hotstar.