"House of the Dragon" cost me a lot of money, so I'm a good job not a betting man. 

In the wake of the disastrous final episode of "Game of Thrones," it was an episode so bad that it made the whole series worse for a lot of viewers (really including you), and I really thought the franchise was dead. After the flagship series ended with such a whining, I thought the spinoff was doomed to fail and the audience avoided it in disgust following the finale of the throne.

"House of the Dragon" Season 1 has already made its perspective look pretty silly, and a new rating for the premiere of its sophomore season has been released. The above discussion, the love of "Game of Thrones" is alive, and the epic fantasy series remains a juggernaut. 

Variety reports that "House of Dragons" Season 2 episode 1 (titled "Son for Son") brought in 7.8 million viewers across HBO and its sister streaming service Max. That's less than 1,000 million people who watched their debut season premiere, but very healthy given that a season-by-season drop is expected on almost every TV show

These ratings were enough to secure Max's biggest streaming date, but not during the period when the platform was known as HBO Max. It should be noted that metric is a bit less reliable because it is not considered. Nevertheless, it clearly shows that the Throne Empire reigns supreme and the audience loves the "House of the Dragon". 

The biggest compliment I can give to "House of Dragons" is that it reminds me of the glory days of its predecessor series "Game of Thrones." 

"Thrones" was eventually completely off-the-rails, but I hope "House of The Dragon" can maintain its high level of quality. There are good reasons to be optimistic. The story it's adapted for is perfectly told, but the showrunners in "Thrones" outnumbered the source material and eventually had to go off the book with bad results. 

"House of The Dragon" offers the same fascinating mix of character drama, big sights and unpredictable twists that made the original "Thrones" series a big hit, with a seriously powerful performance with leads Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke as the show's driving force. Not to mention all the great support turns, including Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans and Steve Toussaint. 

This spin-off series reminded me, and seemingly others, of what I initially loved about "Game of Thrones." I was skeptical before my debut, but I blew my expectations out of the water. 

This is not the only spin-off we get. HBO confirmed that "Knights of the Seven Kingdoms" is currently in full production, and George R.R.Adaptation of Martin's novel "Hedge Night". Additional reports indicate that the previously discarded "1 million ships" series is now back, and that the previously confirmed John Snow series may be on ice according to Kit Harrington, but it could also be down the line. 

It is clear that the world of "Game of Thrones" will expand significantly in the coming years. "House of Dragons" would be far from the only spin-off we'll see. Based on what appears to be the Pace project going into development, Thrones could soon challenge "The Walking Dead" for the maximum number of spin-offs. 

Before "House of the Dragon", I would have approached these series with a high degree of irony and estimated that they are DOA, but in this case I could admit when I am wrong, I was wide enough of a mark. The "Game of Thrones" franchise is on course for redemption, and next year is set to wipe out the flavors left over from that poor last season.