HBO tries to defend the poor lighting in ‘House of the Dragon’

The next time you do something questionable, why not just call it an “intentional creative decision”? If it’s good enough for HBO, it can be good enough for you. After episode seven of House of the Dragon infuriated many fans due to the awful lighting, HBO tried to explain what happened. 

“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!” the HBO Max Help Twitter account clarified ‘helpfully’.

The latest episode of the Game of Thrones prequel was directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who notoriously directed a GoT episode that left most viewers in the literal dark. With Sapochnik very publicly departing House of the Dragon already, maybe season two’s episodes will be better lit. Maybe.

Back then, Sapochnik attempted to brush off criticism of the GoT episode. “It made sense that this was the last hope humanity has, the last beacon of light, and from the perspective of where we needed the story to go — which was to reach a surreal, chaotic climax — we needed an environment that was friendly to that,” he told IndieWire. “So all the reasons for doing it were there, and nobody sat there and wondered if it was gonna be too dark.”

Creating a claustrophobic atmosphere with lighting is all well and good, but it doesn’t necessarily transfer over to the average viewers’ TV or laptop. Bring back eye-popping colours!

It might have been too dark for many to see, but episode seven of House of the Dragon still had plenty of action taking place under the darkness.

There were fake murders, incest, knife slashing, and tense friction between Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra. The Brag curated the best memes from across the internet about episode seven, which you can check out here.

For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.

Hi Stephen! 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

— MaxHelp (@maxhelp) October 3, 2022

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