“Game of Thrones” fans are once again finding it difficult to see what’s on their TV screens.
Many viewers took to Twitter after Sunday’s episode of the prequel, “House of the Dragon,” to complain about dimly lit scenes in which it was hard to make out what was happening.
One person tweeted at HBO Max to “issue a written apology for literally a whole episode of black screen.”
The HBO Max Help account responded to this and other complaints, tweeting: “We appreciate you reaching out about a night scene in House of the Dragon: Episode 7 appearing dark on your screen. The dimmed lighting of this scene was an intentional creative decision.”
“Game of Thrones” was also hit with criticism of too-dark scenes, such as for the final-season episode “The Long Night.”
Fabian Wagner, the episode’s cinematographer, had blamed viewers not adjusting their TV settings.
“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly,” he told Wired after the episode aired in 2019. “A lot of people also unfortunately watch it on small iPads, which in no way can do justice to a show like that anyway.”
Both “The Long Night” and Sunday’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” titled “Driftmark,” were directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who was also co-showrunner on the prequel’s first season.
Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk pointed out that the scenes viewers were complaining about, including a walk on the beach between Rhaenyra and Daemon, were likely filmed during the day, based on the below early promotional image from HBO meaning the scenes were largely made to look like it was night in post-production.
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