HBO’s House of the Dragon is setting one milestone after another with each episode. The eighth episode of the fantasy drama series just came out, and fans are understandably excited. The showrunners just created history with an all-female writer, director, and cinematographer for the episode, and it turned out to be one of the very from the series. Which to be fair, is high praise, given every episode has been nothing less than stellar so far.
The eighth episode titled “The Lord of the Tides” was written by Ellen Shim, and directed by Geeta Vasant Patel, while Catherine Goldschmidt served as the cinematographer. The episode currently has an IMDb rating of 9.6/10 and is being praised by fans for being one of the best to come out of the production.
How House of the Dragon Empowers its Women Behind the Scenes
House of the Dragon has been trying to come out of the shadows of Game of Thrones, in the sense that they are being very particular about the safety and comfort of their female cast members. Unlike Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon show runners hired intimacy coordinators to make sure the s*x scenes in the series do not put any kind of pressure on its actors. The coordinators made sure that the actors felt safe and secure while performing such intimate scenes, especially when it came to the likes of young actors such as Emily Carey (who plays young Alicent Hightower), and Milly Alcock (who plays the young Rhaenyra Targaryen).
The showrunners hired female crew members – from writers to cinematographers to directors, so that the show could get a female perspective. Showrunner Ryan Condal was initially hesitant to include explicit scenes in the show but says that working with female crew members, as well as having intimacy coordinators has helped ease his apprehensions a lot.
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Talking about the scene between Paddy Considine’s King Viserys and Emily Carey’s Alicent Hightower, Condal spoke about how he wanted to make sure the actors, especially Carey felt comfortable with what they were doing. He also spoke about his writing partner, Sara Hess, being a major voice in shaping the show.
“Viserys married a much younger woman, essentially the childhood friend of his daughter. We felt it was important to see the outcome of that. We had female directors on the show; one of them directed that particular scene. Sara Hess is my writing partner on the show. There were lots of female voices involved in the decision-making there, and it was actually the women who were really pushing for it: ‘No, we have to see it, because we have to make the audience feel the actual results of this kind of political scheming and what that actually means — but do it in a way that protects the actors and is, again, not titillating.'”
Fans Want the All-Female Crew Back for More
Fans of the series have been very appreciative of what having an all-female crew meant for the actors, as well as the series. Given the outcome of the episode, with it being one of the very best, fans can’t help but want the team back for more. With the quality of work being top-notch, it’s no wonder fans can’t help but gush about this. And we are sure, the actors, especially the female cast members also felt much safer in the environment that was created to film such intimate scenes.
Take a look at some of the fan reactions since the episode came out:
The first season of House of the Dragon is almost at its end, with two more episodes to air. With every episode turning out to be better than the last, we cannot wait to see what the last two will bring.
House of the Dragon is available to stream, with weekly episodes airing every Sunday, on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: Twitter
