Game of Thrones fans may have experienced déjà vu while watching the seventh episode of the HBO prequel series House of the Dragon, leading to outrage from many fans that several scenes were too dark to to see her. Thrones drew a similar backlash in its final season, particularly for the dimly lit fight episode The Long Night. Both this episode and Episode 7 of “House of the Dragon” were directed by Emmy-winner Miguel Sapochnik.
When many fans took to Twitter to express their frustration that “House of the Dragon” was too dark to see, one of HBO’s social media accounts went public and defended the dark moments in the episode as “an intentional creative decision”.
“We appreciate you reaching out about a night scene in ‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 7 that appears dark on your screen,” the HBO Max Help account replied to a fan, who wrote that the Network “must issue a written apology for literally any black screen episode.”
“The subdued lighting of this scene was a deliberate creative choice,” according to the HBO account.
Many fans claimed the episode was “unwatchable” because the screen was just too dark. The Ringer author and podcaster Joanna Robinson tried to warn the fans ahead of the episode airing to update her TV settings to make the screen a little brighter, adding, “Watch it with all the curtains closed.”
Sapochnik is no stranger to this kind of backlash given the outrage he faced at the dark scenes in The Long Night. Speaking to IndieWire at the time, he defended the creative decision, saying that the dimly lit cinematography was what the show’s atmosphere needed.
“It made sense that this was humanity’s last hope, the last beacon of light, and from the perspective of where the story was going to be — namely, reaching a surreal, chaotic climax — we needed a friendly environment for that,” Sapochnik said. “So all the reasons for that were there, and nobody was sitting there wondering if it was going to get too dark.”
“House of the Dragon” continues Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
Hello Stefan! We appreciate you reaching out about a night scene in House of the Dragon: Episode 7 that appears dark on your screen. The subdued lighting of this scene was a conscious creative choice. Thanks very much! ^LL
— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) October 3, 2022