I enjoy and appreciate how different this show is from the original GOT series. Even if people want and beg for more GOT, the writers tend to know best and we really do not want more of the exact same. House of the Dragon is largely focused on the tensions of family bloodlines, especially strained due to firstborn births of daughters in a male dominated middle age world. As a result, the plot is thick with dialogue around what I will broadly label as "family drama." Doesn't sound like GOT? Family drama + Dragons, so maybe a little more GOT now.

The focus around family and births and children and romances that are and are not occurring turns this show into a bit of a highly produced soap opera at some points. The writing for this soap opera is great, and it has dragons and death so that's an added bonus, but as with most soap operas the drama can be dragged out just a bit too much.

One thing I would like to call out separately is the sheer number of birth scenes in this show. I have never seen so many screaming, bloody births in one series of television in my entire life. Definitely could have cut the number of on screen births in half.

Overall, I enjoyed the first season and look forward to the second. I hope the writers stay true to the storyline and keep creating unique content that lives in the GOT universe but does not mimic the original story too closely.