Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO Max
SomeHouse of the Dragonfans felt a return to the highest levels ofGame of Thrones' popularity when the HBO Max application crashed for some as they tried to view the prequel’s premiere.
On Sunday, the websiteDownDetector.comreported some 3,690 HBO Max outages just after 9 p.m. ET, when “The Heirs of the Dragon” series premiere premiered on HBO and became available to stream on HBO Max.
Some HBO subscribers wrote on Twitter that they could not watch the new series — the first television content set in theGame of Thronesuniverse since the original series ended in 2019 — on Sunday and attributed the problem to the likely significant amount of viewers using HBO Max at once to view the episode, according toThe Hollywood Reporter.
However, a spokesperson for HBO said that most users who experienced problems Sunday appeared to be using Amazon devices to stream the show.
Courtesy HBO
Sunday was not the first timeGame of Thronescontent led to an HBO crash — in July 2017, the network’s website and the now-defunct HBO Now streaming service experienced problems for many viewers uponGame of Thrones' season seven premiere, according toThe Hollywood Reporter.
House of the Dragon’s issues loading on Amazon Fire devices come ahead of Amazon Video’s own Sept. 2 of premiereThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a fantasy prequel set well beforeThe Lord of the Ringsfranchise’s most popular story in its own right — and Amazon Video’s most expensive project ever.
As critics started unveiling their reviews onHouse of the Dragon, opinions ofthe fantasy epicare mostly positive, but not every element of the show is garnering praise.
THR’s Daniel Fienberg wrote,“HBO has ended up with a show that feels reverse-engineered to give devotedGame of Thronesfans a facsimile of what they liked about the original series, while casualGame of Thronesfans get … ummm … lots and lots of dragons. I mean, it’s right there in the title,House of the Dragon, which I can only assume supplanted the originalGame of Thrones: Oops, All Targaryens!”
TheLos Angeles Timesreviewwas more positive, and said, “While honoring the legacy and look of the original series, the spinoff wisely adopts subtle changes in tone and approach while introducing a fresh world of characters and storylines.”
Critic Lorraine Ali particularly enjoyed the first episode. “The exchange between mother and daughter, and the artful contrast of dueling knights and dutiful midwives, are powerful enough on their own to render the first episode a smashing success and show thatHouse of the Dragonhas a depth of understanding of its female characters thatGoTtook years to find.”
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House of the Dragonairs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
source: people.com
