10 Shows to Watch If You Love House of the Dragon

Credit: House of the Dragon, HBO

Bloody politics is a hallmark of the world of Game of Thrones: Where the original show played out a bloody succession crisis following the end of a dynasty and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes a ground-level look at Westerosi politics, House of the Dragon is all about jockeying for power within the ruling Targaryen family. If you’re looking for a streamalike show to get you through the wait between episodes, the 10 below, some fantastical and some historical, all concern the sort of complicated, cross-family power struggles that House of the Dragon traffics in (dragons and magic optional).

Merlin (2008–2012)

You want dragons? We’ve got a dragon. Maybe the special effects can’t nearly compete with those you get on an HBO budget, but this show goes one better in giving us a creature with the voice of the immortal John Hurt. On the lighter side, at least compared to anything going on in Westeros, Merlin follows a pair of ill-matched buddies, one with a larger destiny, adventuring through a medieval-type landscape. Colin Morgan plays the title warlock, who arrives in Camelot to find that magic has been outlawed — which doesn’t stop the dragon Kilgarrah from explaining to him that he needs to protect the king’s only son (Bradley James), a boy who will grow up to unite the land. (The kid’s name is Arthur, in case that weren’t obvious.)

Stream Merlin on Prime Video and Tubi.

The Tudors (2007–2010)

Just as House of the Dragon sees House Targaryen at the height of its power (and with a woman lined up to succeed), this high-end soap opera takes us back to one of England’s most luxuriant dynasties. The show may play fast and loose with history, but does remind us that the Tudors were far hornier than all those archbishops would have us believe. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a bit hotter and a lot more lovable than the actual sociopathic, serial-killing Henry, but many of the women give as well as they get (both politically and in bed), particularly Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn.

Stream The Tudors on Paramount+ and Prime Video.

His Dark Materials (2019–2022)

This dark fantasy, adapted from the classic novel series by Philip Pullman, is set in an alternate world in which human souls exist outside the body in the form of animal companions called daemons. Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) is an orphaned girl living at Jordan College, Oxford, who finds herself involved in a murder plot that draws her into the orbit of powerful forces threatening the fabric of her world — and others beyond it. Like House of the Dragon, the series blends grand world-building with intimate betrayals and the ruthless pursuit of power by those who believe their cause justifies any cost.

Stream His Dark Materials on Max.