House of the Dragon has plenty of highlights, but also lowlights, and that was something about the show that fans literally could not stand — the show’s poor lighting.
During multiple episodes, fans struggled to see what was going on due to the poor lighting in a number of scenes. Following numerous online complaints, the team reiterated that this was not an issue, but instead a creative choice.
As we finish season one and head into the show’s second season, showrunner Ryan Condal has shared with The Hollywood Reporter if this “feature” will be changed in future episodes, and you may be pleased to hear his response.
“The visual continuity of the show is certainly something that we will look at. That stuff is always so tricky because we’re doing [post-production] on millions of dollars worth of high-end equipment, almost as if we’re making a movie. It looked great in post and I looked great on my television. But when you release a Star Wars film, you’re releasing it in theaters.
For TV, you’re releasing it onto a million different television screens and different setups and calibrations all over the planet. You’re also releasing it through different distributors who are going to distribute it in 4K or 1080p or 1080i or not that at all. So it’s hard to account for everybody’s everybody’s televisions and their calibrations and sometimes the file can get compressed. So the show can look very different than the thing that we saw and approved and released.
But look: It’s our job to take all that into account. These are one of the things that you learn in the making of a show – you take that knowledge into account when making season two and say, “How can we do better?” The feedback was certainly heard. I get it. And we want the show to be a great viewing experience for everybody.”
While no promises were made, it does seem that the team will look into this criticism going forward, which means we may get a clearer look at the drama that unfolds by night in Westeros.
If these scenes aren’t enough to deter you from a rewatch, the entire first season is available to stream on HBO Max right now.