‘Home of the Dragon’ Is a Nice Present. Too Unhealthy It is Too Darkish to See

Having fun with HBO Max’s Home of the Dragon? Me too. At the very least, what I can see of the Sport of Thrones prequel. Seven episodes in, it is truthful to say the present is abnormally darkish, and I do not imply gloomy and pessimistic, although it’s these issues. I imply bodily darkish. As in, I cranked up the brightness on my laptop computer and I nonetheless want the captions to determine who’s zooming who. And making an attempt to observe it on a daily tv set is even harder.

Episode 7, which aired Sunday evening, was particularly darkish. Spoilers forward. 

Laena Verlaryon’s funeral scene was exterior and principally OK. However something going down contained in the fortress, or after dusk? It was like I used to be making an attempt to see my hand by means of a chunk of black development paper. There have been shapes? And typically the Targaryen blond hair was seen? However when Otto cuffed a drunk Aegon, and when Daemon and Rhaenyra had been strolling on the seaside, and particularly when Aemond was making an attempt to coax Vhagar the dragon to let him trip it? Yeah, it was like staring right into a cup of black espresso squinting to see outlines.

It is a complicated present. I’ve learn Hearth & Blood, the 736-page guide it is based mostly on, so I just about know what is going on on. However for a extra informal viewer, it is obtained to really feel such as you want a flowchart to maintain up. Each different character’s title is AE-something, or RH-something, they’re all associated and/or married to one another, and everybody’s obtained some type of declare to the Iron Throne. I really like the present, however that is why I simply need to have the ability to see it.

 I am not alone. One Twitter person implored HBO to lighten issues up on Sunday, tweeting, “Can I get slightly gentle on this episode?”

Different folks complained on to the HBO Max Assist Twitter account, however the official responses could not have been very satisfying.

“We recognize you reaching out a few evening scene in Home of the Dragon: Episode 7 showing darkish in your display screen,” the response learn. “The dimmed lighting of this scene was an intentional artistic determination.” (THIS scene? There wasn’t only one, HBO!)

So, OK, don’t try to regulate your set — the filmmakers need it this darkish. However there is a rising tide on social media protesting the “artistic determination.”

One viewer wrote, “I get that the showrunners need to convey, ‘sneaky shit occurs at evening’ However ppllleeeeeaaaaasssseeeeee add slightly extra colour, cuz that is me,” including the meme photograph from the present Group displaying actor Ken Jeong squinting at a tiny piece of paper.

Joked one other, “The lighting funds for this episode: $12.”

And one other Twitter person is making an attempt to get the hashtags #HBOFixTheLighting and #HBOWeWantLight trending.

One person shared two photos of Daemon and Rhaenyra strolling on the seaside — one by which they’re clearly seen and straightforward to see, and one other that may have been filmed by means of chocolate pudding.

A cinematographer weighed in to say we should not be blaming the lighting.

“This is not a lighting problem; it is a colour grading problem,” Oren Soffer wrote. “The second nonetheless was shot in broad daylight — loads of gentle. It was graded to look this darkish, although, which is the issue. Begging folks to at the least attempt to perceive the issues they’re (rightfully) complaining about.”

Lighting or colour grading, it looks as if showrunners would need their costly, rigorously filmed scenes to be seen. 

Home of the Dragon has a darkish plot — with homicide, torture and all types of bloody vengeance. Does it additionally must be visually darkish?