10 TV Shows You Were Ready To Hate

Few TV shows have betrayed fans quite so spectacularly as Game Of Thrones. Following the almost maliciously bad eighth season, it seemed that the reputation of both the series and its showrunners had been ruined for good. Nothing could bring Game Of Thrones back from the dead, no matter how many Red Priestesses you chuck at it.

HBO disagreed.

A prequel based on author George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood received a straight-to-series order in October 2019 despite the overwhelmingly negative public and critical response to the end of its parent series. Fans were filled with either dread, or the smallest inklings of hope, while industry insiders wondered if this was a gamble that would pay off.

While expectations of the show had become more positive by the time of its premiere thanks to the casting of lead actors Matt Smith and Paddy Considine, and entrusting of the material to ‘Battle of the Bastards’ director Miguel Sapochnik as showrunner, it still arrived with a sense of foreboding. Game Of Thrones had burned its audience too badly, and getting it to trust again would be an almighty task. But in a move that all of us are now eternally grateful for, House Of The Dragon actually turned out to be good. As in, seriously bloody excellent.

Record numbers tuned in for the first episode, and thanks to a spot of ingenious viral marketing born of some inspired cast interviews, even more are now turning up to see what all the fuss is about. Damn it, HOTD, you pulled it off. In the immortal words of Olivia Cooke: oh, stunning!