Ranking Every HBO Miniseries From Worst To Best
42. House Of Saddam
Yigor Naor’s performance as the titular tyrant is something to behold. Playing the former Iraqi dictator is a choice role for any actor, but one that comes with responsibility and the potential to lapse into caricature. Naor never does this, though, finding the humanity in Hussein while emphasising his malevolently wielded power.
His performance deserves a better show than House Of Saddam turned out to be. The 2011 drama had serious ambitions, to fully map out the rise of Hussain as politician, Machivelian game player, and eventual participant in two costly wars with the west. But its focus is somewhat scattershot - there are action sequences thrown in and a soapiness that pervades the production, as though the creative team felt that the story of such an important figure as Hussein wasn’t exciting enough on its own.
It’s certainly a good watch and it doesn’t treat the story lightly necessarily, but unlike a lot of HBO real life dramas, there’s not a great deal to learn from House Of Saddam. The intention was to create a genuine psychological profile of a terrifying enigma, and here it falls short.