‘House of the Dragon' Season 3 reviews: Here's what critics are saying
Дата публикации: 23-06-2026 02:58:31
The third season of “House of the Dragon” came out breathing fire with the highly anticipated Battle of the Gullet, but how are critics receiving the show’s return after two years?
The June 21 premiere of the HBO hit featured a bloody, dragon-filled naval battle that seemed to be the antithesis of Season 2, which was dinged by critics and fans for its slow-moving pace.
The show stars Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy along with this season’s cast of newcomers depicting the latest saga in the ongoing civil war between the Black and Green factions of the Targaryen family. The “Game of Thrones” prequel is based on the George R.R. Martin book “Fire & Blood.”
While it still can be hard for viewers to keep together the sprawling cast of characters (Rhaenyra or Rhaena? Aemond or Aegon?), critics believe this season shows progress after two seasons that divided critics and fans.
Here’s how some major outlets have reviewed the newest season, which will be eight episodes.
Variety
Reviewer Alison Herman calls the Battle of the Gullet in the season premiere “spectacular,” but writes that “the more exciting development in Season 3 is much more intimate in scope than hordes of troops descending into chaos.”
She praised the performances of Cooke and D’Arcy in central scenes between Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower, but writes that “not all of the show’s connections are so well-realized.”
A character to watch in the new season is Alicent’s cousin, Ormund Hightower (James Norton), who serves as a “chaos agent,” according to Herman.
“Whether they provide surprise and distraction or anchoring ballast, it’s the people who make ‘House of the Dragon’ worth enduring the predetermined devastation,” Herman writes. “The dragons are just the CGI flying lizards on top.”
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The Hollywood Reporter
Daniel Fienberg writes that the first two seasons featured “too many similar-looking characters with similar-sounding names and similar versions of ‘complexity’ and, yes, too many darned dragons,” and writes that Season 3 “is, in many ways, the same.”
“The series is still too packed, too narratively rushed and, as much as I’m certain passionate fans will disagree, the surplus of dragons and special effects has become somewhat anticlimactic,” he wrote.
However, he also writes that the third and fourth episodes of Season 3 are his favorite episodes of the whole series thus far.
“Because they were funnier, smarter and a little more intimate in scale, albeit with episode lengths of between 56 and 64 minutes and, yes, lots of dragons,” he wrote.
Fienberg also notes that there are “big deaths” of prominent characters in the first couple of episodes.
He also had praise for the performances of some of the main castmembers.
“D’Arcy has never been better. Smith remains wonderfully hammy,” he wrote.
Fienberg also notes Norton’s performance as Ormund Hightower as one of the best of the cast newcomers.
He then summarized his overall opinion of the first four episodes.
“Anyway, this all boils down to me really liking the third episode, liking portions of the fourth and fearing that no matter how much I like the change of direction that occurs in much of those two episodes, ‘House of the Dragon’ has too much on its plate and too little time to do everything,” he wrote.
Emma D’Arcy attends the “House Of The Dragon” Series 3 World Premiere at Odeon West End on June 08, 2026 in London, England.
USA Today
Kelly Lawler labels the first two seasons of the show “woefully disappointing” with “too many blandly interchangeable characters,” but sees “glimmers of hope” in Season 3.
She writes that the “pace quickens” and features a few more lighter moments amid the gruesome violence.
“Is it enough to light the ‘Thrones’ flame? Certainly not,” she wrote. “But maybe it’s enough to eke something more interesting out of what was previously a sunk-cost-fallacy turned TV show.”
The first four episodes contain “tiny sparks of interest, from some witty dialogue to genuine plot momentum to intriguing new characters popping up,” according to Lawler.
Vulture
Critic Roxana Hadadi sees the new season in a favorable light, writing that the show has “fixed its momentum problem” after the sluggish Season 2.
“It’s bleak as hell, and it’s also the best ‘House of the Dragon’ has ever been, clear-eyed about the story it’s telling and no longer so enamored with the people grasping for power or the dragons they use for their bidding,” she wrote.
Hadadi agrees with The Hollywood Reporter review about the third episode.
“This season’s third episode should be recognized as the best hour of the series so far, a thorough, process-centric portrait of what’s required to lead the commonfolk and sit on the maybe-sentient Iron Throne, which is famed for its ability to accept or reject a ruler,” she wrote.
She also compared parts of this season to the legendary “Game of Thrones,” which ran from 2011 to 2019 on HBO.
“The questions raised about whether any of these characters really earned the power that’s been handed to them, and the realization that all of them, one way or another, will likely meet their end without the honor they thought they were due, propels ‘HOTD’ into somber storytelling heights that haven’t been seen in this franchise since midway through ‘GOT’s’ original run,” she wrote.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
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