This review comes from someone who has read Fire & Blood and I will do some comparisons but will try to judge it as its own thing (no spoilers for future seasons). This review will be uppdated after every season.

Season 1:

Positivs: The show looks great with fantastic cgi, direction, cinematography and production design.

The performance are fantastic with my favorite being Viserys, old Rhanyra and young Alicent.

The score is fantastic although I wish for a new title theme.

Negatives: The pacing/time jumps: The show really struggles with so much story in so little time. It needed atleast 2 more episodes to flesh out the story.

Character aging: The show is very inconsistent with the characters ages. Alicent and Rhanyra switch actors and Viserys slowly desintegreats but Rhanys looks the same at the Harrenhall council and the end which is more than 20 years. Same for Deamon and Cole who both looks the same after 20 years. They didnt need to switch actors but some makeup would be nice.

Conclusion: HotD is a good succesor with a few problems which should be solved next season.